Tag Archives: Gifts

Charismatic Vocation – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity

1 Corinthians 12:1–11

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Paul began this letter to the Christians in Corinth by saying that God had given them all knowledge, speech, and every spiritual gift they needed. Paul said that Jesus would sustain them guiltless until He returns (1 Cor. 1:4-8). With this glowing opening, you would expect the Corinthian congregation to be getting along splendidly. But you would be wrong.

There were divided groups that claimed loyalties to different former pastors causing dissension in the congregation. The members were suing each other in civil, secular courts. They were neglecting the poor. A man was having an illicit relationship with his father’s wife and bragging about it. Some members were getting drunk at Communion. On top of all that, there were even disputes about who was more holy based on the spiritual gifts they had received. So, the context of these verses is Christians fighting with each other over spiritual gifts and who was better because of them. That’s what the text is addressing. Now, I’m not preaching on this text because there is fighting here at Christ the King over who is more spiritual or less spiritual.

The reason I’m preaching on this text today is to encourage you to use the gifts the Holy Spirit gives you in your everyday lives. There is a tendency for all of us – please note that I’m including myself here – to be timid when it comes to living out our faith. I think a lot of that timidness has to do with ignorance about spiritual gifts. Paul begins by saying that he does not want us to be ‘ignorant’ about spiritual gifts. I know our translation says ‘uninformed,’ but the word there isn’t so much about a lack of information, rather it is about a lack of understanding, so ‘ignorant’ is probably better. So today, we want to grow in our understanding of spiritual gifts: what they are, how they are received, and how God uses them.

First, what are the spiritual gifts? The New Testament uses six different words or phrases to talk about spiritual gifts. I’m not going to go through all of them, but the Greek term χάρισμα is the most common and Paul uses that word twice in this text (v. 4 & 9). Yes, it is where we get our word ‘charisma.’ Χάρισμα means ‘gift of grace’ or ‘gracious gift.’ 

Scripture has two different lists of these gifts of grace, one is here in 1 Cor. 12:7-11, 27-30, and the other list is Ro. 12:6-8. The interesting thing is that the two lists aren’t the same. And there are many other verses throughout the New Testament that talk about other χάρισμα even though they aren’t included in a list. Many theologians suggest, and I tend to agree, that the lists are different and other χάρισμα are mentioned elsewhere because these lists aren’t intended to be comprehensive. In other words, there are more spiritual gifts than the ones listed.

There are some things that Scripture calls χάρισμα that we wouldn’t expect to be called ‘spiritual gifts.’ Here’s some of the surprises: service (διακονία where we get our word ‘deacon’); teaching; encouragement; generous giving; leadership; being merciful; a word of wisdom, guidance, or knowledge; faith (not what we would call ‘saving faith’ but an abundant trust and confidence in God’s provision); discernment of spirits; being an apostle; helpful acts; even chastity within marriage and outside of marriage – all of these are spiritual gifts, they are all χάρισμα. A lot of them aren’t so spectacular, but Scripture still calls them χάρισμα.

Second, how are the spiritual gifts received? According to our text (v. 4-7), these gifts are given through the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t ever work alone. Instead, the entire Trinity is involved. These various gifts are given by the Spirit; the varieties of places to serve are given by the same Lord (i.e. Jesus Christ, the Son). And the varieties of activities are empowered by the same God (think God the Father). We don’t determine what gift or gifts we receive, it’s up to our Triune God. And God will provide whatever gift we need to fulfill our Christian duty to our neighbor.

One of the ways we are ignorant when it comes to spiritual gifts is that we tend to confuse spiritual gifts with natural talents. I think one of the reasons we confuse the two is that there have been spiritual gift tests and inventories for decades that focus more on where we think we have talents and interests. Natural talents are certainly gifts of God, but spiritual gifts are what God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gives you as you carry out the various callings God gives you in life.

Another problem that makes us ignorant of spiritual gifts is that we confuse the order of things. We think the talents we have should determine the callings we pursue. But repeatedly in Scripture and in your own life, it ends up being the opposite. You are called to do something, and the Holy Spirit equips you with the spiritual gifts you need to do it. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called.” It’s a little trite, and that phrase can be wrongly interpreted to mean that we don’t need to train or prepare ourselves – i.e. the phrase can be used as an excuse to be lazy. But with a proper understanding, it’s not a bad saying.

You Christian parents, even if you planned on when you would begin having children, you probably quickly realized that there were a lot of things you didn’t know and skills you didn’t have to be a good parent. But the Holy Spirit has given and will give you what you need when you need it. Most often, God doesn’t equip us with gifts in advance. Instead, He gives us exactly what we need exactly when we need it to minister to others as we serve in our vocations. Wherever God calls you, He will give you whatever you need to minister to that person in that situation (Mt. 10:19-20).

Finally, how does God use the spiritual gifts He gives us? Paul will go on after our text to use the analogy of our bodies (1 Cor. 12:12-26). Your body has many different parts that all need each other. Eyes need ears and toes and noses and hearts and livers and kidneys. No part of the body can say that is doesn’t need the others. In the same way, each Christian is part of the body of Christ and is dependent upon the other members. Just as all the parts of your physical body work together to do one common thing – keep you alive – all the parts of the Body of Christ work together to do one common thing – proclaim the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

I know I’ve used the term ‘vocation’ quite a bit in the past, but it is good to revisit it and be clear about what a vocation is in a theological and spiritual sense. When we talk about ‘vocation’ in the Scriptural sense, it means your office or your relationship to the person or people God has placed in your life at any given moment. Every moment of every day God puts you into a relationship with another person where you have different responsibilities. Those are your vocations.

As a silly example, if you find yourself in a moving car, you have one of two possible vocations. Either your vocation is to be a driver, which means your tasks are to drive safely, follow the traffic laws, don’t cause danger to others, and get to your destination safely, or, if you aren’t the driver, your vocation is to be a passenger and your responsibilities are to not make the driver’s vocation more difficult than it needs to be.

Here is the good news, God gives you all the gifts you need to fulfill your vocation every moment of every day. So, rather than filling out inventories and reading books to try to discover your spiritual gift, or your χάρισμα, simply ask yourself, “Who is my neighbor right now, and what is my vocation to that neighbor? How does God want me to serve this person/people?” and Scripture promises that everything will fall into place.

We should expect the Holy Spirit to give us what is needed in each situation we encounter. We should expect and pray that the Holy Spirit will give us what is needed based on whom and what God presents to us. Be attentive.

If you are talking with someone who is going through a lot of problems, the Holy Spirit is calling you to the vocation of being a supportive brother or sister in Christ. Then, pray for the spiritual gifts, the χάρισμα of encouragement, wisdom, knowledge, and compassion depending on the situation. If you are struggling in your marriage, pray for the χάρισμα of chastity, faith, and service. If you are playing with your kids, pray for the χάρισμα of joy and generous giving of your time and energy. If you are at work and have a difficult task, pray for the χάρισμα of service, leadership, or helpful acts. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Constantly let your vocation shape your prayers for the spiritual gifts you need in that moment, and watch God act. God loves to hear those prayers. He has promised to answer them. And God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will gift, equip, and empower you as He freely gives you the gifts you need to love and serve your neighbor. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Worst Economy – Sermon on Romans 6:19-23 for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity

Romans 6:19-23

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Romans 6:23 might be the most familiar verse in the whole book of Romans. Almost every evangelism class and tract you come across probably has this verse or, at least, a portion of it. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It’s a good verse to point to, but the danger of that verse being so familiar is that, when it is taken out of its context, it becomes little more than a slogan. It has a lot more force when we see it in its context.

When we understand this verse apart from its context – especially the phrase, “the wages of sin is death” – we most often take it to mean that when we do sinful work, the check we cash or the payment we get is death. In other words, we do sinful works and get paid with death. Now, I want to be clear. That interpretation is true, but it can lead to some serious and dangerous drawbacks. It can feed the false notion that some sins aren’t as bad as others. “Well, I only did this little sin, so I won’t get paid as much death as that other guy who did that big sin.”

The idea that sin is the work we do and the payment we get is death doesn’t actually fit the context. Consider your job. You have a boss. You have work and tasks. And a couple times each month your boss pays you for doing the work. When we think that sin is the work we do and death is the payment we get, we lose sight of who our boss is. 

What Paul is doing here puts the focus back on the boss. Sin is not just the works we do; instead, sin is the master, the employer, the boss we serve. And your boss pays with the currency of death. Talk about a bad economy. All humanity, all of us sinners, live in the worst economy where the employer is sin, and sin pays with the currency of death.

Sin is our master until Christ redeems us, buys us, and becomes our new master. Verse 22 of this text makes this clear. “Now… you,” you, Christian, “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.” That means that sin used to own you, and when sin owned you, the wages Master Sin paid were death. But now Jesus is your master.

Now, we might wonder, why would anyone work under such a master as sin? Why not unionize and chose a better master with better benefits? Well, it is because Master Sin is so deceptive, sneaky, and insidious. Master Sin seems harmless, but he is entirely treacherous. Master Sin makes demand after demand after demand, but all of these demands seem so pleasant. Master Sin makes working for him appear to be so appealing and satisfying, but it is all a façade.

When we are working for Master Sin, we feel free. It seems nice and natural. It doesn’t feel like work. Nobody sins out of duty. You don’t sin because you feel like you have to. Serving Master Sin means you just do what comes naturally. You gladly work for Master Sin because it feels good and seems to make life easier. For those outside of Christ, serving Master Sin feels like freedom. And it doesn’t seem like the wages we will be paid matter all that much. We might wrongly think we can simply make a quick change in our lives before payday rolls around and everything will be fine. Beware. That is not the picture that Scripture gives here. Sin is not simply the type of work you do. Sin is your employer, your boss, your master, your owner.

Every moment, Master Sin is sucking the life from you, but while he does that, Master Sin likes to inject good feelings and energy into you every time he takes more blood. Master Sin is sucking your life away while you are enjoying it. But eventually, Master Sin will leave you dead at his feet, sucked completely dry and eternally lifeless and condemned. Repent.

Christian, you ought to hate Master Sin and his slave wages. But remember, as you heard in our Epistle lesson last week, you have been Baptized. You don’t belong to Master Sin anymore. You are no longer his slave. “You must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Ro. 6: 11).

Christian, know Master Sin for who he is and hate him. You have been bought and freed by the death and resurrection of Christ. So now, every time Master Sin calls to you from across the plantation lines, you ought to loathe him, his wages, his chains, and his whip more and more. Plug your ears to him, and run back to your new Master, your true Master, Christ Jesus, your Savior.

You have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. Yes, the slave wages of Master Sin is death, but the free gift, the free gift, of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ro. 6:22-23). Consider Jesus, your new Master, and how He is toward you. What does He pay? He doesn’t. He doesn’t pay anything.

God doesn’t pay you. Only those who need you and your work pay you, and God doesn’t need anything you could ever give Him. God Himself says, “Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him?” (Job 41:11). God can’t pay you wages, but He can and does give you gifts. And the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus your Lord. With Christ as your master, you leave the worst economy and enter a radically new economy. Ephesians 2:6-7 says, “[God] raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” You think you like God’s grace now? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. None of us have. 

Throughout all eternity, God will show you the immeasurable riches of His grace in Christ Jesus. And these riches are incalculable. In this life, riches are always measurable. Even if you owned the whole world, your account would have a certain amount in it. Your net worth would always have a limit. But God’s gifts and riches are immeasurable because they are new every morning (Lam. 3:22). That is true now, and it is true through all eternity.

Think of that! For all eternity God will never have to show you a treasure of His grace and mercy a second time. Every one of them is new and one that you haven’t seen before. It will take an eternity of eternities for God to show you the riches of His love and kindness toward you. In our current economy in this country, it is easy to see the balance sinking lower and lower. But in God’s economy of gifts, He can show you the treasures of His mercy for trillions of trillions of years and all eternity is still before you, and nothing is diminished. There is just as much left as when you started. That is your life now in Christ Jesus, and that is your future.

So, when Master Sin comes knocking on your door whispering to you about his slave wages, send him away; tell him he can take his wages of death and shove them. And rejoice and hope in the gifts God has for you.

Your God desires to give you an infinity of riches and mercies delivered to you on account of the death and resurrection of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all of it is His free gift for you. And Jesus, your God and Savior, wants to continue to show you the treasures of His mercies now. He invites you now to His table to receive the gifts of His holy and precious Body and Blood given to you for the forgiveness of your sins. Come and receive. Amen.[1]

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] Reworked from 2020.

The Evil Eye – Sermon on Matthew 20:1-16 for Septuagesima Sunday

Listen here.

Matthew 20:1-16

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Follow the eyes of those who worked all twelve hours of the day. These laborers woke up before the sun rose. They crawled out of bed, rubbed their eyes, had breakfast, and made their way to the marketplace hoping to be hired so they could put food on the family table. As the morning light begins to illumine the city, they see the vineyard owner coming toward them. He calls them to work in his vineyard offering an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work – one denarius. Off they go into the vineyard. When they get there, they see their tasks and get busy. They dig, and they till, and they prune, and they water, and they pull weeds, and they harvest. Whatever needs to be done in the vineyard, they get at it.

Then, as the morning sun continues to rise, these twelve-hour workers see their friends who hadn’t been hired at first, but now they are arriving in the vineyard. They had been hired just before Price is Right comes on. At this point, the guys who got to the vineyard first had been working for three hours, so they know what tasks could use a few extra hands. They all get to working as productively and efficiently as possible. A few more hours go by, and at the sixth hour during their lunch break, they see more of their buddies arriving to work in the vineyard. So, again, they reorganize and reprioritize where each of them will be laboring, and it’s back off to work.

As the day goes on and the temperature rises, they grab some water, and see more of their pals coming to work in the vineyard. It’s the ninth hour – about three o’clock. Those twelve-hour workers see that the vineyard is getting pretty full, but they welcome their friends and get back to the grind.

Then, as the sun is setting and the temperature begins to dip, they see even more workers arriving. The day is basically over, so it’s strange that more workers are arriving. But whatever. The twelve-hour workers know that they’ll soon be getting their wages, their denarius. They look forward to returning to their homes and proudly show the fruits of their labor. They anticipate the hugs from their kids and kisses from their wives. They’re ready to sit down to a nice dinner, get cleaned up, and contentedly lie down in their beds after an honest, fulfilling day’s work. They are pleased with themselves because they have done what was needed to provide for their families.

Finally, the sun begins to set, and the evening light clings to the sky. The workers put all the tools away and line up to receive their wages. But the full-day workers see that they are going to have to wait for their pay. Their buddies who came just in time for cleanup are going to get paid first. But then, they see the oddest thing. The guys who basically arrived just in time to get paid are getting a full denarius. These twelve-hour workers see that shiny denarius, a full day’s wage, landing in the clean hands of the one-hour workers. Their eyes get wide. They are so busy giving each other high fives and imagining what they are going to do with their extra windfall that they don’t even notice that those hired at the ninth hour get a denarius, same with those who came in at the sixth and those at the third.

So, there they are, standing in front of the foreman. They hold out their hand expecting to see lots of shiny coins. But they feel the weight of a single, solitary denarius in their palms. They look at that currency and despise it. What had sounded good, right, and reasonable in the morning is now detestable, despicable, and revolting in their eyes. So, they angrily look toward the vineyard owner, and the same is true of him. In the morning, he had appeared as a fair and honest man who would provide work and pay for them and their families, but now he looks like an unfair, unjust, inequitable scoundrel. And they complain.

The vineyard owner patiently listens to their protests, but they haven’t been shorted. It’s no skin off their backs. They didn’t get any less. So, the vineyard owner looks square into the eyes of those sour-faced workers and asks, “Where’s the foul? Didn’t we agree for a denarius? All those coins belong to me, so why do you think you get to decide what I do with them? Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” And our translation says, “Do you begrudge my generosity?” But literally, the Greek there says, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

And there it is. The vineyard owner was good – good and generous. He provided jobs and income for the people of his community. In fact, he was better than good. He was gracious. He freely gave more than the vast majority of his workers deserved. The evil eyes only pop up in those who think they deserve more than they are given. And those eyes are evil because they look more at themselves and their work instead of at the mercy and generosity of the vineyard owner.

None of these workers decided on their own to work for the master. Every one of them was called and sent only by the initiative of the vineyard owner. No one went to knock at his door to ask for a job, and no one volunteered to work for him when he came into the marketplace. Each of them was called, and each of them was called at the precise time the owner called them. He went and retrieved them.

Here’s the point, Christian: You were called by God. Period. He came. He called you into His service. He gave you work to do. You didn’t seek to work for Him. God called you into His kingdom when it pleased Him. If it had pleased God to hire everyone at dawn and have them work an entire day, he would have.

If you think God owes you better than He has given, if you think you have earned what He gives for free, you too have an ugly, evil eye. In fact, you have lifted yourself above God and put yourself on His throne. But it won’t work, you aren’t above God. When Jesus comes again on the Last Day, the first will be last, and Jesus Himself declares what that means. The last are told to take what is theirs and leave the vineyard. If this parable rubs you the wrong way, that’s the sentence you need to look at.

The true gift in the parable is hidden in that sentence. It isn’t just about the denarii that the vineyard owner graciously doles out. A permanent place in the vineyard is at stake. For those who have the evil eye of pride, there is nowhere else to go and they are sent away empty-handed. If we are really honest, we cannot claim anything as our own. Everything we have is gift. By grace we are saved, not as a result of works. No one can boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

But that sentence of judgment – when the vineyard owner says, “Take what belongs to you and go” – is a gracious statement for you, believer. You just have to open your eyes to see the benevolence, generosity, and mercy of God.

To those who don’t invoke their rights or complain about the generosity of God, they remain in the vineyard. You don’t just get a day’s wage for little work. In His mercy, God gives you the whole vineyard! Your generous God doesn’t treat you as workers, but as sons. Dear saints, God doesn’t pay you wages. He gives you an inheritance. The vineyard is yours.

Rejoice. The kingdom of heaven is the opposite of the kingdoms of men. You don’t earn. You don’t pay. The goods are given for free. It would drive any man-made business into the ground, but God doesn’t care. God isn’t out to make a living. He is out to give away His kingdom.

In the kingdom of God, there is no room for pride or arrogance or boasting in what we do because there is no doing on our part. Everything has already been done by Christ. We simply benefit because of His full and complete work. We who were dead in our sins, enemies of God, and children of wrath are raised, pardoned, adopted, and transferred into God’s kingdom. As we heard in our call to worship, God saves a humble people, but the haughty eyes He brings down (Ps. 18:27).

And look! Jesus now invites you to come have a seat at His table and taste of the joys of His finished work for you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Thanks – Sermon on Luke 17:11-19 for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity

Listen here.

Luke 17:11-19

11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Last week, we heard the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37). Jesus is the One who gets down in the dirt and has mercy upon you. Today, we again hear about a good Samaritan who was one of the ten lepers healed by Jesus. Today’s good Samaritan receives mercy from Jesus, the Good Samaritan, and gets down in the dirt to give Christ thanks.

These ten lepers were socially distancing themselves, as the Law of God demanded (Lev. 13:45-46). The lepers are suffering, but they are also dangerous to others, so they were to be separate from the rest of society. Yet, they form a little community. We know that at least some (if not nine) of these lepers were Jewish, but at least one of them was a Samaritan. Normally, Jews have no dealings with Samaritans (Jn. 4:9) because Samaritans were considered unclean. But since all ten of these lepers were already unclean, they are united together in their suffering, similar to what happened in the months after 9/11, when our country was suffering. We bonded together as a nation. May God grant that type of unity again!

Anyway, these suffering lepers have gathered together and this little congregation lifts up its voice, “Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us.” When they cry out for mercy, what were they asking for? Did they want some food or money? Did they know that Jesus had cleansed lepers before and were crying out for healing? We don’t know, and it’s possible that the lepers didn’t even know themselves. Notice, they don’t call Jesus ‘Lord’ as many other people do when they call out to Jesus in faith. Instead, they call our Lord, ‘master.’

What is important is that they were asking the right one – Jesus – for the right thing – mercy. God in His mercy answers imperfect and imprecise prayers in exactly the right way. In fact, “Lord, have mercy,” is a great prayer that distills everything you need down to a single petition. Mercy is always what you need.

Now, we need to consider the attitude toward lepers back then. In Jesus’ day, the rabbis typically taught that leprosy was a manifestation of an inner uncleanness. In other words, the common thought was that leprosy didn’t just happen to people. Instead, leprosy was seen as a Divine judgment against the sins of those who had it, and people had the general attitude that lepers were simply getting what they deserved from God.

Unfortunately, we Christians often have a similar attitude toward those who are suffering: the poor, the homeless, etc. May God forgive us for the times that we are like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan, looking past those who need mercy and passing by on the other side of the road. So, please know, that while the normal attitude toward lepers in Jesus’ day was to think of it as God’s just judgment on those who had it, I’m not defending that attitude. But I think that fact is important to possibly understanding the actions of the nine who don’t return to Jesus.

Jesus hears their plea for mercy and says, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Because we know the whole story, we know that when Jesus said that they would be healed, the priests would look them over, and they would be admitted back into regular society. In that moment, the lepers didn’t know that. They already knew about the priests, and they knew that because of their leprosy, there was no place for them in the Temple because they are unclean.

So, some have speculated (and I think it is a likely explanation) that the lepers might have understood Jesus’ words in a negative and offensive way. So often in the Gospels, we read that even the disciples do not understand Jesus, and that may have been what is going on here. Even though Jesus didn’t mean it this way, the lepers might have understood Christ to be saying something like, “Why should I have mercy on you when you are unclean? Get out of here. Show yourselves to the priests. If they declare you to be clean, then I will help you.”

Again, it’s speculation. But if this is accurate, it would mean that they interpreted Jesus as saying, “No.” So they are disappointed and their refusal to rejoice even when they are healed might be reasonable in their minds because Jesus hasn’t done anything for them. However, this Samaritan sees things differently, and because he has faith, he returns to Jesus, praises Him with a loud voice, and gives thanks. According to Jesus, this good Samaritan wasn’t just healed from his leprosy; instead, Jesus says to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has (lit.) saved you.”

Now, there are a lot of things we can glean from this text. For one, we see the saving power of Jesus’ Word – even from a distance. Or, as we have in the past, we could consider how Jesus is the true, great High Priest who makes atonement for us. We could also focus on how Jesus claims to be God (even though so many people claim that He never did). With this good Samaritan at His own feet, Jesus says, “Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” But today, we are going set all of that aside, and instead focus on the Christian act of giving thanks.

Jesus sees the evidence of this good Samaritan’s faith in the fact he came back to give thanks. Christians give thanks. Christians are thankful people. We heard the fruits of the Spirit in our Epistle text (Gal. 5:16-24), and one of the fruits of faith is thanksgiving. I want to put before you four thoughts about thanksgiving.

The first thought is that thanksgiving comes first. Over and over in Paul’s letters, he begins by giving thanks. All of Paul’s letters except Galatians and Titus begin with thanksgiving. And this is amazing when you realize to whom Paul was writing. Paul wrote two letters to the Thessalonians who thought they had missed Jesus’ return and the Resurrection. They were tempted to think that Paul was a fraud apostle. But Paul begins both of his letters to the Thessalonians with thanksgiving.

The church in Corinth was even worse. There was a man who had gotten married to his mother-in-law and was bragging about it. Families were breaking apart and people were abandoning their spouses because they thought the Resurrection was coming soon. Some members of the church didn’t even believe in the Resurrection. They were not letting poor people come to the Lord’s Supper, and some were getting drunk during Communion. They were fighting about who to follow – Paul, Peter, Apollos, or Christ (1 Cor. 1:11-13). The church in Corinth was, by all accounts, a colossal disaster. We would think Paul would begin his letters to them by saying, “I’m ripping my hair out every time I think of you.” But no! Paul begins his letter, “I give thanks to my God always for you” (1 Cor. 1:4).

There is something to be said about starting with thanksgiving. When you start each day with thanking God for protecting you through the night from all harm and danger, you’re starting your day off right. It’s easy to start your day with worrying, panicking, fretting, and thinking of all the things you have to do, but doing that only wears you down and is offering the false worship of worry instead of the true worship of thanks. Thanksgiving starts us off on the right foot.

This leads to the second thought about thanksgiving. Thanksgiving requires a turning back. The good Samaritan had to turn back and return to Jesus to give thanks. While this is what literally, physically happened, there is also something very profound to contemplate here.

If we’re always focused on what is coming next, if we are always oriented toward what lies ahead, we cannot give thanks. There’s nothing in the future to be thankful for. There are reasons to be hopeful, but nothing to give thanks for. Remember that Jesus says that tomorrow is always full of worry but let tomorrow worry for itself (Mt. 6:34). As long as we think about tomorrow, we can only have worry – or, at best, worry mixed with hope. But we cannot have thanksgiving.

If we are going to give thanks, we must look backwards to what has been or to the present and to what is. So often, Scripture pictures thankfulness as the opposite to worry. Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” When we remember how God has forgiven us, provided for us, and protected us, we give thanks for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.

The third thought about thanksgiving is that thankfulness and faith go together because thankfulness looks to God as the Giver of all good things. And here, it might be good to make a distinction between thanksgiving and gratefulness. Gratefulness looks at the goodness of the gift while thanksgiving tends to look at the goodness of the giver or source of the gift. If you brought me a milk chocolate mocha with no whip and an extra shot of espresso, I would be grateful for the coffee in my hand and thankful to you because you gave it to me.

Don’t get me wrong, gratitude is important. We should be grateful and recognize the goodness of the gifts that we have – family, health, food, clothing, house, home, etc. But Christians should go past gratefulness and be thankful. I don’t doubt that the nine lepers were grateful that they were cleansed, but they didn’t return and give thanks to Jesus, their Cleanser.

By faith, we look past the gift and even past the individual who has given the gift and recognize that everything we have comes from God. As James 1:17 says, “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

The good Samaritan leper saw and was grateful for his healing, but he looked past that and gave praise to God at the feet of the Son of God. And we Christians, when we have a table full of food, we look past the person who earns the paycheck, past the grocers, truck drivers, and farmers (it is right to give them thanks too). But ultimately, we give thanks to God who has provided the good gift of food.

Which leads us to the fourth thought: Christians give thanks even in times of suffering. After, ‘mama’ and ‘papa,’ there are two words that parents work to teach their children – ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ It isn’t just Christians who teach this. Part of living in this world is to be polite and thankful for good things. But Christians can even give thanks in bad times because God remains good. Even when God hands us over to suffering, He does so out of His goodness. 

Natural, worldly thanks has to do with the goodness of the gift. But Christian thankfulness has to do with the goodness of the Giver – the goodness of God. As Christians we recognize that everything we have comes from God. In Philippians 4:11, Paul says, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” Or think of Job who had been protected and blessed by God. Even when God removes His protection, Job still rightly thanks God even in his suffering and says, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).

So, whether we are full or hungry, whether we have friends or are lonely, whether we have peace or are in the midst of chaos, in life and even in death, we give thanks to God because He has already graciously given us Jesus. Remember Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” In other words, God has already given you Jesus, and there is no good thing He will ever hold back from you.

Everything in this life comes from God the Father. In health and in pandemic, in good times and in bad, in order and in chaos, in joy and in sorrow, still we give thanks and bless God’s name. 

This good Samaritan leper had reason to give thanks for being healed, but there was even more reason to give thanks that Jesus had looked upon him in kindness and forgiven his sin. The same is true for you. God has given you His only begotten Son so that you can receive His eternal love and kindness.

May the Holy Spirit grant that we always be filled with this thankfulness. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Slave Wages & Gifts – Sermon on Romans 6:19-23 for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity

Listen here.

Romans 6:19-23

19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

The wages of sin is death. Scripture teaches that sin pays when you work for it, and the wages it pays is death. Probably, many of you have that passage memorized. After John 3:16, this is probably on the second tier of passages that most Christians have stored in their noggins, and most of the time we understand it in a certain way. Normally, the way we interpret this verse is that the payment we earn for committing a sin is death. And that is true. When I go out and do sin-type work, the payment I get for that is death.

But that interpretation can have some serious and even dangerous drawbacks. It can easily lead us to the wrong notion that certain sins are more serious and pay more than other, less significant sins. When people say that they are basically a good person, they make that claim because they figure their sins aren’t as bad as the sins of others. In the end, this kind of interpretation ends up with us making distinctions between this sin and that sin in an effort to self-justify ourselves. “I’m not as bad as that guy over there.”

Here, in this context, Paul is saying something more devastating than that the payment you get for doing the work of sin is death. Instead, Paul is saying that sin is not just the type of work you do, rather sin is your slave master whom you submit yourself to. The picture Paul is giving us is that your employer, your boss, your master is sin. And with Master Sin as your as your master, employer, boss, there is a particular currency that he uses to pay you and that is the currency of death.

So, let’s try this analogy: Let’s say you are looking for your first job, and you are going to be flipping burgers. It’s a respectable first job. You go to Burger King, and they will pay you $8.00/hour. During your interview at Dairy Queen, you learn that they will pay you $8.15/hour. Then you go check at McDonald’s, and they will pay you $8.50/hour. You go to Five Guys, and they will pay you $9.50/hour. (At this point, you can probably tell where I prefer to get burgers if I’m not making them myself.)

But let’s say you go to one more burger establishment, and it’s probably safest for me to make up an imaginary restaurant for this. Let’s say you go apply at Sin Burger. Sin Burger is a nice establishment. They have a clean restaurant and friendly employees. Your responsibilities are going to be the same as at any of the other locations, and the hours are just as flexible. At the end of the interview, the manager says, “If you work here, you will be killed. Your wages will be paid out with death.” The manager notices the shocked look on your face, and says, “Yes, here at Sin Burger, we don’t deal with dollars or pounds or rubles or pesos. Sin Burger only pays with the currency of death. It doesn’t matter the type of work you do – you could be a burger flipper, a fry fryer, the head of accounting, or the CEO – Sin Burger still pays only with death.”

So, would you take the job at Sin Burger? Of course not! And yet, that is what we all do. But why? Why do all humans work for a master who pays out with the currency of death?

It’s because Master Sin is so deceptive, so insidious. When sin is your master, it makes demand after demand after demand. But all of these demands seem so pleasant. Master Sin makes working for him appear to be so appealing, so satisfying. When we are obeying Master Sin, it feels free. It seems nice and natural. It doesn’t feel like work. And it doesn’t seem like the wages we will be paid with really matter all that much.

Nobody sins out of duty. You don’t sin because you feel like you have to. Serving Master Sin means you just do what comes naturally, and what is convenient. You do it because it feels good or because it seems to make your life easier. For those outside of Christ, serving Master Sin feels like freedom.

We hear, “the wages of sin is death,” but, when we think of sin as the type of work we do, we think we can simply make a change in our lives before payday rolls around. But that is not the picture that Scripture is giving here. Sin is not simply the type of work you do. Sin is your employer, your boss, your master, and even your owner.

Every moment, Master Sin is draining your blood, sucking the life from you. But while he does that, Master Sin likes to inject good feelings and energy into you every time he takes more blood. He’s sucking your life away while you are enjoying it. But eventually, Master Sin will leave you dead at his feet, sucked completely dry and eternally lifeless. You see the difference?

Repent.

Christian, we ought to hate Master Sin and his slave wages. But remember, as you heard last week, you have been Baptized. You don’t belong to Master Sin anymore; you are no longer a slave to Master Sin (Ro. 6:1-11). Identify Master Sin for who he is and hate him. You have been bought and freed by the death and resurrection of Christ. So now, every time Master Sin calls to you from across the plantation lines, you ought to hate him and his wages and his chains and his whip even more. Plug your ears to him, and run back to your new Master, your true Master, Christ your Savior.

Look at v. 22, but “now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.” Yes, the slave wages of Master Sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Consider your new Master and how Christ is toward you. What does He pay?

He doesn’t. God doesn’t pay you. Only those who need you and your work pay you, and God doesn’t need anything you could ever give Him. God Himself says, “Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine” (Job 41:11).

So, God can’t pay you wages, but He can and does give you gifts. And the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus your Lord. Consider Eph. 2:6-7 (it’s in your insert), “[Christ] raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Think about this for a minute. God has endured the death of His Own Son to remove you from your slavery to Master Sin. And He has done that for a reason – to demonstrate and show you something. He wants to show you for all eternity the immeasurable riches of His grace in Christ Jesus. God wants to show you His riches, and these riches are incalculable. They are infinite.

In this life, riches are always measurable. Even if you owned the whole world, you could count the number of mansions you have. Your account would have a certain amount in it. Your net worth would still be finite. It might take several lifetimes to account for it all, but it would still have a limit. But God’s gifts and riches are immeasurable. His mercies are new and fresh every morning.

Think of that! For all eternity God would never have to show you a mercy or a treasure that He freely gives to you a second time. Every one of them is new and one that you haven’t seen before. God is infinite, and his mercies are infinite. it will take an eternity of eternity’s for God to show you His love and mercy toward you.

That’s what ‘infinite’ means. It means you could go on for trillions of trillions of years and yet there is still all of infinity before you and nothing is exhausted. There is as much left as when you started. God’s gifts for you are infinite. That is your life now in Christ Jesus, and that is your future.

So, when Master Sin comes and knocks on your door whispering to you about his slave wages, he wants to take away from you the gifts that Jesus would freely give to you. Send Master Sin away and rejoice and hope in the gifts God has for you.

Your God desires to give you an Infinity of riches and mercies delivered to you on account of the death and resurrection of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all of it is His free gift for you. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Good & Perfect Gifts – Sermon on James 1:12-21 for the 5th Sunday of Easter

Listen here.

James 1:12–21

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

As Christians, we know the Source of all good things. “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” So, for example, when you have a perfectly cooked steak (which, by the way, means rare – not well-done not medium, rare), you know that it has come from God. When you are protected from the cold or snow or heat or rain in your house; when you are surrounded by your loving family; when you are awed at the sight of a majestic mountain, a serene sunset, a perfect prairie; when your body works as it is supposed to; you know all of that comes to you as a good gift from God. And because you know it comes from God, you don’t have to ask, “Is this good?”

You don’t have any problem recognizing those good things as coming from God. But you do have the opposite problem.

We sinners are all deceived when we see something that God has not given but think it is good and God is holding out on us. Whenever we do that, we sin.

A lot of people say, “Love is good and can’t be bad.” But if you love someone who is not your spouse and think that is ok to indulge that love, you are wrong. You are deceiving yourself. It is forbidden. It is sin. It is going to hurt you and others.

Same thing goes for the truth. If you realize that the truth is going to harm you or your reputation, you try to be God. You use your words to try to create a different reality or a different truth – in other words, you lie. Again, you have been deceived by your own false desires. You have sinned. You are fostering and nurturing sin which grows up into death. Repent.

Those false desires are like an infomercial or used car salesman. Sin likes to promise of pleasure and ease and peace, but it never delivers.

Dear saints, put those false desires away. Instead of dwelling on and being enticed by those false desires (show James 1:19-21), be slow to speak, slow to anger. Your false desires only bring about anger and sin and death. And most importantly, be quick to hear. Be quick to hear especially the Word of God because it is that very Word of God that the Holy Spirit uses to bring you forth, to give you the new birth which is a perfect gift from above.

God does not play in the false promises that sin and false desire does. Sin is always ready to make a deal with us, and we love making deals because we can negotiate the terms. We want to calculate the cost of the time, effort, and resources we put in and evaluate the payout. Since we like to bargain and deal, sin has us square in its crosshairs.

But God doesn’t operate that way. God does not make dazzling, enticing, or fake promises. God isn’t a swindler, and He doesn’t make trades. God is a giver. With a giver, you can receive or reject, but you can’t make a deal (Nagel). The giving-God doesn’t play around with negotiations, and we cannot make a deal with Him no matter how hard we try because we have nothing to offer that isn’t His already. Instead, God gives us every good and every perfect gift.

We have all sorts of good gifts here in this life. That steak, the beauty of creation, the relationships that God has given us in this life are all good gifts that we have not earned or deserved. Even your life is a good gift from God. Life is always a gift. No one can give themselves physical life. God used your mother to give you life, and for that we are grateful today. Again, all of these are good gifts, and they are good (but not perfect) gifts because they do not and cannot last.

But the giver-God who is pleased to give you good gifts is also pleased to give you perfect gifts which will never fade and will last for all eternity.

Through Christ’s death and resurrection, God gives you eternal life as His children. He brings you forth by His Word of truth. For most of you, God gave you eternal life when He connected His Words and promises to the waters of your Baptism.

When you heard the Absolution earlier, God actually did what His Word said. The same thing is true when you receive Holy Communion. God gives and delivers exactly and precisely what He says – forgiveness, life, and salvation.

When you hear the Benediction in a few minutes, you will actually receive God’s blessing which is why I encourage you to open your hands to receive the Benediction. It helps to remind you that God is actually doing, delivering, and giving to you exactly what those words say (Num. 6:27).

With all the good gifts and all the perfect gifts we receive from God, we can begin to get uneasy. We think it’s too much. We think we are going to be punished by God if we abuse or misuse these good and perfect gifts. But God doesn’t tire of giving. He just gives more. He would have us open our hands wider to keep receiving good and perfect gifts from Him. And if you are worried that His gifts will get too big and overwhelm you, there is a simple solution: Join God in His giving game.

Because God continues to pour out His gifts and blessings us, we know that we are free to bless others and join God in giving His gifts away.

The giver-God pours out His good and perfect gifts on you because He has made you His child. With each gift, He nudges you to open your hands wider to both to receive and to give.

With hands held wide open to receive and give His gifts, we move forward from being the firstfruits toward the joy of the final harvest.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Amen.[1]

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] I am thankful for a sermon by Dr. Normal Nagel for the outline and theme of this sermon.

Created by the Father to Love and Serve – Sermon on the 1st Article of the Apostles’ Creed for Midweek Lent 1

The Scripture readings used during tonight’s service were Psalm 104; Genesis 1:1-2:3; and Matthew 6:22-34.

Listen here.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

What does this mean?

I believe that God has created me and all that exists; that He has given and still preserves to me my body and soul, my eyes and ears, and all my members, my reason and all the powers of my soul, together with food and clothing, home and family, and all my property; that He daily provides abundantly for all the needs of my life, protects me from all danger, and guards and keeps me from all evil; and that He does this purely and out of fatherly and divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all of which I am in duty bound to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him. This is most certainly true.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Tonight, we begin this little adventure of considering the Apostles’ Creed and the God who has created, redeemed, and sanctified us. From the moment I began thinking about this series, I knew that preaching the 1st Article would be the most difficult sermon to write because there are so many possibilities. I thought about preaching against evolution and atheism. Or preaching about the wisdom of God and the wonderful care and detail He used when He situated all the parts of creation for us to live on this little speck of dirt traveling through the universe. I thought about preaching how God our Father and Creator graciously continues to sustain and preserve creation even after the Fall into sin. There were too many possibilities. But my main concern about preaching the 1st Article was to make sure that as we consider the fact that God created us that it also fit with preaching Christ. So tonight, you are going to get a little of all that.

The poisonous theory of evolution that says the entire universe happened by a chance, chaotic explosion, that caused life to accidentally form in a violent world, and that life continues to exist only because of death and Galexysurvival of the fittest. But the more scientists discover and learn, the more it becomes impossible to believe that we are the product of a series of random events.

We live on a big earth, but when you compare our solar system to the size of the universe, our entire solar system is incredibly small. Yet, our solar system is placed in the perfect spot in the Milky Way Galaxy that protects us from radiation. The number and size of other planets in our solar system protect us from asteroids hurtling through space that would destroy Earth. Our planet is just the right distance from the Sun – move us much closer and everything would be too hot, much further and everything would be too cold. The axis of Earth is tilted just the right number of degrees to regulate heat on the planet. The size of our planet means it has enough gravity to hold on to the gasses of our atmosphere, but it is not so large that we become a gaseous giant like Jupiter. The chemistry of our planet is in perfect balance to sustain life. Our moon is just the right size to regulate tides that sustain life in the oceans. And the magnetic field surrounding us is perfect to shield us from the sun’s radiation. Each of these details show that you believe in an Almighty Creator.

That’s just the big picture, macro stuff. Let’s get tiny and consider the micro stuff. Your body is made up of somewhere around 35 trillion individual cells that serve various functions. If the DNA strands in those cells were laid out end to end, it would travel from here to the sun and back 100 times. DNAFrom the moment you were conceived, the information in your DNA would fill 600,000 pages with information. And right now, in each of the 35 trillion cells of your body, biological “machines” are copying the volumes of information in your DNA into amino acids which are taken by other machines and folded in specific and precise ways into proteins. (So, don’t let anyone tell you that you are lazy.) But with all those minute details, you believe in an intricate, sophisticated, wise Maker.

Yes, you believe in God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And we could continue to consider all sorts of other facts about the universe and the size of the sun and the necessity of solar flares on the large scale. Or, we could consider the miracle of trillions of bacteria that line your intestines so you can digest the wonderful soup, sandwich, and desserts traveling through your gut right now on the small scale. And that would be time well spent marveling at the wonders of creation. But we would be missing what might be the most important word in the 1st Article – the word ‘Father.’

Every detail – both large and small scale – shows that you have a Creator who cares about everything large and small. Your God is the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. He cares for you and governs all creation to make sure that you have everything you need for life. Matthew 6_26 Birds Father ProvidesYour heavenly Father created and gives you everything. Your body and soul, your eyes and ears, all your members, your reason and senses – everything you have is a good gift from God your Father who daily provides for all the needs of your life. And He promises to continue to provide those things for you without any merit or worthiness in you. So, you don’t have to go running around worrying about what you will eat or drink or wear. God makes the sun to shine on the evil and the good, and He sends rain to the just and the unjust (Mt. 5:45). Everything that God provides for your life in His creation continues to be given as His good gift. The theological shorthand for all these things needed for life in God’s creation is called “1st Article gifts.” So, if you don’t mind, I’ll use that term again in a bit.

Now, the church has been fighting against atheism and the false theory of evolution for so long that we have forgotten to think about two important questions related to the 1st Article: How do we, as God’s creatures, view our neighbor? And what is our relationship and responsibility to creation? The answers to these questions are bound up together.

First of all, everyone you meet is one of God’s creatures intricately created and lovingly preserved by God. Every child from the moment of conception to the oldest person alive is a precious creature of God the Father. Every individual – no matter their skin color, their culture, their political views, or their ability – is valued and prized by the God who created them. So, treat them as such.

Your relationship and responsibility to them is to use all the 1st Article gifts God has given you to love them, to care for them, and to help and assist them. Sometimes, that means changing diapers, feeding, and cleaning up after them. Sometimes, that means holding a door, shoveling a sidewalk, or letting them merge into your lane. Sometimes, that means listening, assuring, encouraging, warning, or protecting them.

So, protect the blessings of creation. Care for this world and protect the blessings God has given both to you and to others. When you look at others, remember that they too are created by God, and He loves them as His creatures.

Rest in the knowledge that God your Father continues to protect you from all danger and guards and keeps you from all evil. He does this because He is your Heavenly Father. He knows what you need. He knows that you need to eat and drink. He knows every last one of your needs, and He will provide every one of these 1st Article gifts because He is your Father.

How can you know this? Because He sent what was most important in Him to provide for your deepest lack.Hebrews 4_12 - Word of God Sharp Sword

God the Father Almighty who made you has sent Jesus, His beloved Son, into creation, into this 1stArticle world, to redeem you. And to that redemption, we turn next week. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

When Gifts Become Idols – Sermon on John 4:46-54 for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity

Listen here.

John 4:46-54

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

God loves to give us gifts. He has given us life. He has given us our families, our homes, our jobs, our cars, our money, our talents, everything. God graciously and happily gives us these things because He loves us and wants us to have good things.

Where Your Treasure IsHowever, because we are sinful and corrupt to our core, we have a tendency to turn God’s good gifts into idols. This happens all over in the Scriptures. God has given beautiful trees and precious metals and stones, but people would take those things and make images out of them into false gods and bow down and worship them. In Isaiah 44[:9-20], God mocks the people for the foolishness of idols. God says, “You foolish people will cut down a tree and take some of the wood and make a bonfire to warm yourself and bake bread. Then, you take other parts of that same tree and carve it into an idol, bow down to it, and worship it saying, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god!’” What folly to say to a hunk of wood, “You are my god.”

Well, we fallen, sinful humans do this with more than just wood and gold and jewels. We do this with our careers, our homes, our bank accounts. And – I’m going to step on some toes here – we can even do this with our family and children. That is what seems to be going on in this text before us today.

To set this all up, I need to give a summary of what has been going on from John 2 up to our text, so please stay with me (I promise it’ll be quick). This text ends with John telling us that this is the second sign recorded for us in his Gospel. The first sign was Jesus turning water into wine. After that miracle, Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover, and while He was there, Jesus did other signs. But John doesn’t tell us what those miracles were. John simply says that many people believed in Jesus’ name when they saw those signs (Jn. 2:23). While He is in Jerusalem, Jesus talks with Nicodemus (Jn. 3:1-21). Then, He goes out to where John had been baptizing (Jn. 3:22-36). Jesus travels into Samaria where He talks with the woman at the well, and she believes in Him because of what He says to her (Jn. 4:26, 29). And, even though Jesus doesn’t do any miracles there, the Samaritans also believe in Jesus because they heard His teaching and believed that He is the Savior of the world (Jn. 4:42). They heard Jesus teach and believed in Him as the Messiah without seeing any miracles.

Finally, in the three verses leading up to our text, John tells us that Jesus returns to Galilee, and the people welcome Him because they had seen the signs that He had done in Jerusalem. Through all of this, John is setting up two different responses to the miracles Jesus is doing. On the one hand, you have people who see the signs and recognize that those miracles of Jesus point to the fact that He is the Savior of the world. And, on the other hand, you have people who see the signs but just want the miracle worker to do something for them. For this second group, Jesus is nothing more than a good luck charm. That context is the only way Jesus’ response to this official makes sense. Now, to our text.

Jesus returns to Cana in Galilee and an official, a nobleman – he is likely some higher-up bureaucrat in Herod’s court – he comes to Jesus because his son is desperately sick and at the point of death. The official asks Jesus to come and heal his son. But, again, John’s Gospel has set us up to see that this official is part of that second group. The official sees Jesus only as a means to an end – a way to save his son from death. This official has taken God’s good gift of a child and turned that gift into an idol. The official doesn’t care one lick about Jesus except that Christ might be able to heal his son. Once Jesus heals his son, sure he might be thankful, but that’s all. His son is everything and Jesus is nothing more than a magic pill to preserve his son’s life.

Again, I think that’s the only way Jesus’ response there in v. 48 makes any sense. Our Lord says, “Unless you people,” the pronoun there is plural. It’s directed to this nobleman, but also to the other people there who want a miracle worker instead of a Savior from their sins. Jesus says, “Unless you people see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

The conversation gets more heated and confrontational from there. The official isn’t happy with what Jesus said. He commands Jesus, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” His words don’t appear to be begging and pleading; instead, they are firm and demanding. Stop and ponder that for a minute. This official was used to giving orders and having people obey. And here he has the audacity, pride, and hubris to give Jesus, God in the flesh, a command.

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’ve done this too. Most of you, maybe all of you, know that I was born blind in my left eye. Two years ago, I needed cataract surgery for my right eye which meant the only vision I had left was in jeopardy. When I was praying for a successful cataract surgery, my prayers were just as demanding as this official’s request. They were basically, “God, You’ve taken half my sight, and I still trust You. Now, I’m having this procedure done, and You’d better guide the surgeon so I can watch my children grow up because if I lose my sight completely…” And I’d guess you have made similar demands of God as well. Repent.

Jesus doesn’t bow to our idols and demands. If He did, it would do nothing more than reinforce our false faith in those idols. Our heart would keep going after something that can’t save us and is, in fact, harming us. God wants us to have good things, but when His gifts become idols, God has no other course of action than to bash those idols into dust to turn us back to Him. C.S. Lewis Pain QuoteThere is a quote from C. S. Lewis in your Scripture insert from his book The Problem of Pain, which I’d encourage you to read. Here’s the quote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; [pain] is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” In other words, in His mercy, God gets our attention by allowing pain to bring us back to Him for mercy and grace.

And that is precisely what Jesus does here. He doesn’t obey or meet the official’s demands. Instead, Jesus commands him, “Go.” It’s not quite so harsh as though Jesus is saying, “Get outa here,” but Jesus makes it clear that He isn’t going to be ordered around by this man. Jesus is saying, “Listen, I’m not going to bow to your commands. You, go. Your son lives,” present tense, and it is intentionally ambiguous. Jesus says, “Your son is living; he is alive right now.” The official could interpret this as though Jesus is saying, “Go home and spend the final hours of your son’s life with him.” But John tells us that the official interprets this in a different way. He sees this as a promise. He believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way (Jn. 4:50).

Here’s the point: the official initially had his son, his own flesh and blood, as an idol. And Jesus won’t and can’t condone that official’s worship of his son. But Jesus deeply loves both the official and his son. Christ will be crucified and shed His blood for the official and that boy. So, Jesus doesn’t endorse the idolatry that the official has for his son, but neither does Jesus take away the good gift of his son. Instead, Jesus restores all things.

He heals the official’s son without bowing to the official’s demands to protect his idol. Christ removes the idol, gives a promise for faith to the official. This promise even gives the official’s entire family faith that Jesus is the Messiah. In other words, Jesus removes the idol even as He restores His gift of the son. The official has his family in a new and better way than the he had ever had before. Jesus gives the official his son as a good gift and as a brother in faith.

So, what does this mean for you? Well, a few things to take note of today:

First, always remember that Jesus can help from a distance. Yes, Christ has ascended into heaven and sits at God’s right hand with all authority in heaven and on earth given to Him. And Scripture promises that all things work together for good for those who love Him (Ro. 8:28). Christ knows your troubles and trials, and He sends His love, mercy, and forgiveness. He still saves you, forgives you, and gives you His mercy. And on the last day, He will give you everlasting life.

easte-jesus-brings-us-out-of-deathSecond, God will not leave you alone with your idols. Know that, even when you make an idol of God’s good gifts, God wants you to have what He has given you in a way that is better than you deserve or know. Even in those moments when your pain is acute and severe, God is good and is working all things together for good for those who love and trust Him. So, trust Him because He is completely worthy of your trust.

Finally, the son lives. This official’s son lives today, because his Savior, Jesus, the Son of God, lives. Dear saints, Jesus, the Son, lives, and because He lives, you do to – now and forever. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Various Vocations – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity

Listen here.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

How many of you would say that we are a “charismatic” church? Some of you might be thinking, “No! And thank goodness. I don’t want to part of a church where people are rolling around on the floor and babbling in tongues.” But some of you might be thinking, “We should shake things up! We could use more manifestations of the Spirit in this stuffy place.” Maybe, some of you are somewhere in the middle. Well, wherever you fall in the charismatic opinion spectrum, this sermon is for you. Technically, of course, all the sermons I preach are for you which is why they are preached from this pulpit. (That isn’t a throw-away line. Remember that for later in the sermon).

James 1 17 Gift.jpgThree times the English word ‘gifts’ came up in this text, but in Greek, Paul uses two different words that get translated as ‘gifts.’ Twice the Greek word is χάρισμα (which is singular and the plural is χαρίσματα – I’m going to try to be grammatically correct through the sermon). Χάρισμα is where we get our word ‘charismatic.’ Inv. 4, “there are varieties of gifts/χαρίσματα,” and in v. 9, he mentions the “gifts/χαρίσματα of healing…” But in v. 1, Paul uses a different word that gets translated as ‘spiritual gifts’ or ‘spiritual things.’

The New Testament uses six different words or phrases to talk bout spiritual gifts. For the sake of time, I’m not going to give you all six, but χάρισμα is the most common and means ‘gift of grace.’ And if you look through all the texts about gifts, you see that the Holy Spirit doesn’t make Christians clones of each other but there is an enormous variety of ways the Holy Spirit’s work is manifested in people.

Now, Scripture has two different lists of the gifts/χαρίσματα (1 Cor. 12:7-11, 27-30 and Ro. 12:6-8). The two lists aren’t the same, but they include: prophets and prophecy; service (διακονία where we get our word ‘deacon’); teaching; encouragement; generous giving; leadership (yes, that’s a gift of the Holy Spirit); the gift of being merciful; a word of wisdom/guidance; a word of knowledge; faith, not what we would call ‘saving faith’ but an abundant trust and confidence in God’s provision; gifts of healing – which would include physical, mental, spiritual, and psychological healing; mighty works (probably referring to exorcisms); discernment of spirits; the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues; being an apostle is a χαρίσμα; so are helpful acts; even chastity (within marriage and outside of marriage) is a χαρίσμα. All these are the gifts/χαρίσματα that Scripture talks about. Notice that most of these aren’t the wowie-zowie things that you think about as being charismatic gifts, but this is the list that Scripture gives.

For a long time in our country, Christians have been talking about spiritual gifts. You can take inventories to try to discover what your spiritual gift is so that you use it in service to the Lord. Some people get all tied up in knots trying to figure out what their gift is so they can figure out where they should be and what they should be doing to serve the Lord. But Scripture actually teaches that wherever you are as a Christian, you are serving God. Instead of seeking to try to find out what our spiritual gift is, we should be asking ourselves, “Where has God put me?” and, “Who is the neighbor that God has given me to serve?” Or to combine the two and make it a shorter question, “What is my vocation?”

I know I’ve used the term ‘vocation’ quite a bit in the past, but it is good to be clear. When we talk about ‘vocation’ in the Scriptural sense, it means your office or your relationship to the person or people God has placed in your life at any given moment. Every moment of every day God puts you into a relationship with another person where you have different responsibilities. That is your vocation.

As a silly example, if you are in a moving car, you have one of two possible vocations. Either your vocation is to be a driver and your responsibilities are to drive safely, follow the traffic laws, don’t cause danger to others, and get to your destination safely. Or, if you aren’t the driver, your vocation is to be a passenger and your responsibilities are to not put your hands over the driver’s eyes or make the driver’s vocation more difficult than it needs to be.

Here is the good news, God gives you gifts to fulfill your vocation in every moment of every day. So, rather than filling out inventories and reading books to try to discover your spiritual gift, or your χάρισμα, simply ask yourself, “What is my vocation?” and Scripture promises that everything will fall into place.

Thinking back on that list of χαρίσματα, Scripture teaches that there is a great diversity of gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives these gifts equally, but, again, He doesn’t clone people. Instead, He individualizes believers and brings out their distinctive character. Each believer represents and reflects a different aspect of the image of God which is why there is a diversity of gifts.

Trinity and Vocation.jpgAccording to our text (v. 4-7), these various gifts are given through the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t ever work alone; instead, the entire Trinity is involved. These various gifts are given by the Spirit; the varieties of service are given by the same Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son; and the varieties of activities are empowered by the same God (think Father) who empowers them all in everyone. We don’t determine what gift we receive, it’s up to our Triune God. And God will provide whatever we need to fulfill our Christian duty to our neighbor.

Paul will go on after our text to say that each member of the entire church and each congregation is part of the body of Christ. And each member is dependent upon the other members. Eyes need ears and toes and noses and hearts and livers and bladders. No part of the body can say that they don’t need the other parts. All the parts work together to do one common thing, and the most important thing is that the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Gospel, is proclaimed.

Back to that line that wasn’t a “throw away”: I have been called by God to be your pastor and to preach this sermon today. And God has called you here today to hear this sermon, use your Holy Spirit-given gift to listen because Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it” (Lk. 11:28, Rev. 1:3).

So, you might be wondering, “What are my gifts? What are my χαρίσματα?” Well, rather than focusing on what gifts we have, we should be focusing on the people that God has placed in our lives to serve. Doing this helps to shape our prayers so that we ask God for the gifts we need in any particular moment. It also helps to protect us from getting puffed up and arrogant so that we decrease and Christ increases (Jn. 3:30). First, get your priorities right. Holy Spirit open eyes new heartsDo you believe in Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins? Do you trust that His blood has covered all your iniquities and transgressions? If so, praise God! Then ask, “What is my vocation/station in life? What am I called to do right now?” “What do I need now as a mother?” “What do I need now as a husband?” “As a child?” “A student?” “A customer?” “A citizen?” God has called you to those vocations and He won’t leave you in a lurch. He will give you the gifts you need. In every moment of every day, you have a particular relationship to someone else, so you are called to be God’s representative in that moment. So, ask God to give you what you need to fulfill that vocation.

God doesn’t equip us with gifts/χαρίσματα in advance, but He gives us what we need when we need it to minister to others as we serve in our vocations.

When you need to do something, you can confidently expect to receive exactly what you need to serve in the way that God has called you. Wherever God calls you He will give you whatever you need to minister to that person in that situation (Mt. 10:19-20).

Now, there is a lot here, and I need to wrap things up. So, two concluding thoughts. You, Christian, have been given unique gifts by the Holy Spirit to serve those whom God has put in your life through your various vocations. The Holy Spirit has uniquely equipped you to serve in every vocation where He has placed you. So, what are you waiting for? Don’t wait to figure out how God has gifted you because He has already called and equipped you to serve your neighbor in your vocation. Which brings me to the second conclusion.

In the opening verse of our text, Paul says that he does not want us to be ignorant about spiritual gifts. Our translation says ‘uninformed’ but the word there isn’t about a lack of information rather a lack of knowledge, so ‘ignorant’ is probably better. So, understand this, and don’t be ignorant. Paul speaks about many different gifts/χαρίσματα in our text. But Paul will go on to boil everything down to the three greatest gifts by the end of ch. 13 – faith, hope, and love. These three gifts are the most important χαρίσματα given by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has given you faith. No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. And because of that God-given faith, you have the gift/χάρισμα of hope.

Dear saints, the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, and will continue sanctify and preserve you in the true faith. But also remember that the greatest χάρισμα that you are given is love. Any use of your gifts without the gift, without the χάρισμα, of love is detrimental to the body of Christ. So, may you be faithful, may you be hopeful, and may you be loving as you use the other gifts He gives you as well.In Jesus’ name. Amen.[1]

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1]I am thankful for a lecture by Rev. Dr. John Kleinig titled “Heavenly Power for Earthly Service” for much of the information in this sermon.