How Do I Speak to My Adult Children About Jesus?

One of the questions that I am often asked as a pastor is how to speak to adult children about Jesus Christ and the Gospel. Every Christian parent, young or old, recognizes that they want their children to believe the Gospel, be baptized, and be connected to the Body of Christ, the Church. This is a part of who we are as Christians, as Saint Paul writes to the Ephesians “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:3–4)

So the question goes something like this:

But what do I do when my children are adults and have either left the Christian faith entirely or the Christian faith is no longer a meaningful part of their lives? I don’t want to drive them away, but it weighs on me deeply. What can I say or what can I do to bring them back to Christ?

It’s a tough question. There are no simple or stock answers that will fix things, that is for certain. But here are a few ideas to get the conversation started:

• DO love your children continuously. Hold them up in prayer, give them your affection, and help them in any way you can. They are your children. Be their parents. Your actions will speak louder than words.
• DON’T try to argue them back to the Church. Chances are that their falling away from Christ and the Church was the result of years worth of work and attack on Satan’s part. It isn’t so simple as a piece of information is missing. So engaging in an argument will probably just cause a fight and won’t actually get anywhere.
• SHOW them how important this is to you. It is easy to want to avoid talk about Christ and the Church because it might get awkward. But if it is important to you, and they love you, they will want to listen to what you have to say. This might mean bringing it up in different ways. Write a letter, send an email. What about a baptismal anniversary card?
• OFFER to help with transportation or other barriers, especially if there are grandchildren involved. While it may not be everything, demonstrating that you are willing to sacrifice in order to keep them connected, well, it will make a difference.
• DON’T be afraid. I know, that’s hard. There is a lot at stake. But Christ promises that He will never leave nor forsake His children. If God can raise Jesus from the dead, then surely he can change the hearts of His wayward children here on earth!

Finally, in the words of St. Paul, “…let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

Peace be with you,
Pastor Peperkorn

Whatever you ask in my name, I will give it to you. That does seem like a dangerous thing to offer, doesn’t it? I mean, really, how is it that God can offer us anything we want

So what do you want? That’s the question, isn’t it? That is really the question. Riches, people, power. Would you ask for peace on earth, or just the latest in great gadgets?

It is that question, what do I want, that really defines things for us. And that is where prayer comes in. One church father wisely said that the commandments teach us what to do, the Creed teaches us what to believe, and the Lord’s Prayer teaches us what to desire.

And if we are honest, our desires aren’t really that noble. Would you post your real wish list on Facebook? Do you really want people to know what the desires of your heart are? But God, our heavenly Father, frees us from over thinking our desires. Luther wrote this way concerning the words, Our Father, who art in heaven:

With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him as dear children ask their dear fathers.

Now it works like this. god knows that our desires are all over the map. He knows how hard it is for us sons and daughters of Adam to get over ourselves and think of others, and so God gives us a place where we can practice our Christianity, and the shaping of our will to His. This place is called the Church. Well, truth be told, God gives us two places for us to practice: The Church and the Christian home. For it is here, Church and home, that we learn how to love, and forgive, and desire what is best for each other.

The reason I call this practice is, well, it’s practice because we mess up so much. We forget our lines. For forget to love and look out for each other. We bicker and fight with each other, saying, “Not thy will, but MINE be done.” So it is that fathers and mothers teach their children how to get outside of ourselves. And i’m here to tell you as a father that this does not come easily or naturally. We are all selfish by nature, and God puts us in families, at home and at church, so that we can learn to be more like him.

This is why, I believe, that mothers are both exalted and taken for granted. Motherhood forces moms into a place where they simply must think of their children first. Laundry service, cook, taxi driver and nurse, these are just a few of the more obvious tasks that come to mind. We could add cheerleader, encourager, protector and sympathizer. I’m sure each of you could add or subtract from the list.

From our mothers we get a glimpse of what it means to desire what is best for someone else. Now I’m not saying this to put motherhood up on a pedestal. Okay, maybe a little. It is their day, after all. But my point is that in Christian parenthood you see what it means to look out for the best of someone else, without any real promise of reward at the end. Children are expensive and a lot of work, and there is no rational reason to have them. But we do, why? Because of love. Because God has put this spark into humanity, that we create. Imperfectly and with plenty of room to improve, but it is there. No question about it.

Now I’d like you to take a step back from earthly motherhood for a moment and think about another mother. I want you to think about the Christian Church. Every one of us actually has not one, but two mothers. Just as we have an earthly father and a heavenly father, so too we have an earthly mother and a heavenly mother. St. Cyprian, an early Christian pastor, once said that no one can have God as their Father unless the Church is their mother. What Cyprian meant by that is that God brings us forth and makes us His holy children by Baptism, and that we grow up in Him in the Church, His Bride, our Mother.

The Church, perhaps more than anything else, is a place of safety and forgiveness. It is a place of healing, where life’s hurts and sorrows are soothed and where you know, you know you believe. In my experience at most family gatherings there is at least one moment where you have to ask yourself the question, am I really related to all these people? The same could be said of the Church. Here sinners lash out at each other in our sorrow and pain and heartache. No one can hurt you more than a brother or sister, because you know that no matter what they do, you are still bound to each other.

If that is true in earthly families, how much more is that true in our heavenly family, the Church? We fight and argue, have differences in vision and purpose. We can find the craziest things to fight about in church! Have you ever notice how it seems like Satan wants to make every little thing into a nuclear war? It’s because He knows that we, all of us together, are bound together not just by blood. We are bound together by the blood of the Lamb, who has washed us and made us His own. Satan knows that if He can get you to forget who you are, that maybe, just maybe, you will abandon this holy family for one of his own evil choosing.

I remember as a kid thinking that it was so weird that all my mom said she wanted on mother’s day was for all her kids to be together. Have a meal together. Laugh and be a family. In many respects, that is what Christ and HIs Bride, the Church, want for us as well. They want us to show up, have the meal together, listen to the words of our heavenly father. For it is here, in His Word and at His Table, that we are most family. It is here that we learn what it is to desire all things in Christ.

So come to the table, children of God. Come and feast with your brothers and sisters from near and far. Set aside your squabbles, big and small. Come and be a family. Be the Body of Christ. Be the Bride, and receive all good things from Him who loves you and gives Himself completely over to you. Come and be loved. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

How can we sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land? This was the question that the Israelites asked while they were in exile. How can we sing the songs of redemption and the gracious presence of God in our midst, when we are stuck in such gunk down here?

We can sympathize with the Israelites. They had been in exile for decades. Their homes had been destroyed, their possessions taken from them. Their very identity as the people of God was in jeopardy. How could they sing of God’s miraculous works in saving His people, when what they saw before their very eyes said that God is not read, that they were still in their sins, and that things were not going to get better any time soon.

Yes, we can relate to the Israelites. It is hard to sing of Easter joy in the midst of death. It is hard to accept the great salvation of God when there are so many in pain, so much suffering, so much sorrow.

Yet here is Isaiah, talking about singing and praising God, even though the exile was right around the corner. Or there were the Israelites, giving thanks to God for all his marvelous works in Psalm 98, when who knows what hardship or trial they would undergo next.

Have you been there? Have you been in that place of sorrow, where it seems that words alone could not express your grief, and yet that the songs of Zion just did not seem right? We have all been there. We walk by faith and not by sight, and yet the things which we see and experience every day, well, they are pretty hard to ignore and put on a happy face about, aren’t they?

This is what our Lord is speaking about in John chapter sixteen, when He talks about the coming of the Helper, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth in our text. Truth here could actually be translated as reality. This is the Spirit of reality who comes into our midst.

So what will this Spirit do? He will convict or convince the world of three things: of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Now before we get to those three things, it’s important to know what the Holy Spirit is doing here. He is convicting, convincing, or maybe even persuading the world of these three things, sin, righteousness, and judgment. We don’t just get these things. They aren’t obvious without the Holy Spirit. What’s more, they are impossible to see and understand without Him. Apart from the Spirit of Truth, the Bible, and indeed, life itself, is a closed book. This is why the Spirit preaches to you and convinces you of these three things.

So what does He teach us or persuade us? First of all, He teaches us about sin. The world does not by nature believe in Jesus. They cannot believe in Jesus without first believing that they are sinners in need of the Gospel. You would be surprised, though, how many of us basically think that people are good. Sin, if there is such a thing, sin in the world is an occasional blemish. Sin is something to be covered over with a little makeup. It’s not a sickness that leads to death. So first off, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we are broken beyond repair, that we have caused our own destruction, and that we cannot get ourselves out of this mess.

The Holy Spirit convinces us of sin and then of righteousness. This word, righteousness, is really a work that means God is just and right in everything He does. AND, now this is important, AND that what God does is declares you righteous because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. If it is hard to believe that you are a sinner, it is impossible to believe that you are holy and righteous, perfect in every way, washed in the holy waters of baptism. Yet this is what God does. This is the new song, the song of salvation in the blood of the lamb.

The Holy Spirit convinces us of sin, of righteousness, and finally, the Holy Spirit convinces us of judgment. This isn’t talking about your judgment, no, this is talking about Satan’s judgment. The ruler of this world is judged. What this means is that no matter what may come, no matter what kind of gunk the devil and the world may throw at you, this means that Satan is judged, and that you are safe in God’s merciful arms. Satan cannot harm us, as Luther wrote in the hymn.

The Holy Spirit, the spirit of reality, He is the one who teaches you, who convinces you and persuades you of these things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. You are a sinner but God has declared you righteous in His Son. You are righteous and Satan is judged. You are safe in the arms of your heavenly Father.

So now let’s get back to this new song that started this sermon. The church sings the songs of Zion because this is what the Holy Spirit gives us. This truth, this great reality which was won at Jesus’ death and resurrection, this truth is as real as the suffering you undergo every day. Oh sure,maybe you don’t see it. But this reality is here, right now. My body, my blood, given for you. This water, poured out for you. Those words, I forgive you, echo in your ears even now.

That, beloved, that is worth singing about. So sing and shout for joy! Sing the new song of salvation, the song which never ends. Sing this song with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. You were lost but are found. You were dead and yet you live. You suffer and yet rejoice in the great Shepherd of the Sheep, even Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Believe it for Jesus sake. Amen.

Once again, it is the day.  The anniversary of when I was ready to end my life in the pit of despair and depression.  Last year I wrote about it HERE.  You can follow the links there if you’re interested.

Somehow this day has kind of become a day of self-evaulation for me.  I suppose that makes sense, it being Good Friday and all.  It is sort of a “take stock” day for me, as I reflect on God’s richest mercies in giving His Son and in giving me life.

Things are pretty dramatically different today than they were a year ago.  We now live in California.  I am the senior pastor at a small to mid sized confessional congregation near Sacramento.  There are lots of great people here, who love me and my family.  It is a great blessing, to be sure.

But it is also really strange.  I still feel like they don’t know my story, our history, and our life.  I don’t like talking about myself (ok, not that much), but I do occasionally want to stand up in bible class and say something like,

“Are you people crazy!  I am wounded and broken.  I’m a mess, barely hanging on by a thread.  Why would you want us here?  Surely you could find someone cheaper that isn’t always on the edge?”

Then I remember people like Paul, or Elijah, or Augustine, or Luther, or Herberger, Gergardt, and the many thousands of shepherds God has provided His sheep with over the millennia.  If there is one thing that this history should teach, it is that the Ministry is about God’s service to us in His Son, not about the man.  They are a strange and messed up lot.  In that regard I guess I fit right in.

All things are new, yet all things are the same.  Wounded and broken, but healed by the blood of Christ, we go on despite what our heart and mind might say to us (Psalm 73:26).

We rest in Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith.  So, friends, do not despair.  Christ cares for you with an everlasting love.  From Bach’s St. John’s Passion:

Ruht wohl, ihr heiligen Gebeine, Rest in peace, you sacred limbs, Die ich nun weiter nicht beweine, I shall weep for you no more, Ruht wohl und bringt auch mich zur Ruh! rest in peace, and bring me also to rest. Das Grab, so euch bestimmet ist The grave that is allotted to you Und ferner keine Not umschließt, and contains no further suffering, Macht mir den Himmel auf und schließt die Hölle zu. opens heaven for me and shuts off hell.

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Palm Sunday (April 1, 2012)

TITLE: “The Joy Set Before Him”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.Amen.Our text is the Gospel lesson for Palm Sunday from St. Matthew.

In the beginning, the Scriptures say, there was nothing but a formless void.That void, that chaos, is what God overcame in creating the world.There was darkness and light, day and night, evening and morning.We confess it together every Sunday: I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.His creation was a simple as it was beautiful.It was perfect.No, it was more than perfect.It was filled with the wonder of a new creation.And God gave it to Adam and Eve to tend, to grow, to nurture.He gave them that same creative spark of love that brought forth the world.There was order, but not a rigid order.It was wonderful in its beauty and simplicity and depth.

But that order, that beauty of creation, was lost in the Fall.From that creative beauty came sin and death and chaos and sickness and disease and hatred. Adam and Eve hide from God to cover their shame.Cain murders his brother Abel. We saw the indifference of the people to Noah’s preaching of repentance.We saw the confusion of the tongues at the Tower of Babel.Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.We saw Joseph sold by his brothers and left for dead.

And these stories are only the stories of the Scriptures, the true stories of our forefathers.If we were to look at other cultures and peoples, we would see even more violence and disruption.The Egyptian gods are vindictive and cruel.The gods of the Canaanites would have the people sacrifice their own children upon the altar of worship.The greek gods can only be described as capricious, petty, and often pitted one human against another just for their own amusement.It is sick.It is what we have wrought since the Fall.

This story of humanity is one mess of confusion after another.Sure, there is progress, but with that progress comes more creative ways to hate, more passionate and more efficient ways to reject God and to become our own gods.Stones become knives.Spears become bows.Muskets become machine guns.Dynamite goes nuclear.And that is just the beginning.What could we say about Genghis Kahn, or Ivan the Terrible, or Hiter, or Stalin, or Mao Tse Tung, or Saddam Hussein, or Kim Jong Il?We need not even go beyond our own shores, but simply look at the forty million unborn children murdered these past thirty nine years.Or the increasing spread of euthanasia.Or our inaction about the poor and in need in our country.The list could go one and on.We are all guilty of it, on the small scale or on the grand scale.This is your life, and mine.God have mercy upon us all.

And He did.Into this insanity we call life our Lord steps in.He breathes our poisoned air.He heals. He preaches and gives the forgiveness of sins.He does everything that we cannot because of our sinfulness and pride.He made Himself nothing, took on the form of a servant, and does He ever serve.He serves to the very point of death itself.

So what we see in our Lord’s passion today is a microcosm of the whole of human existence.We get the history of the world packed into a night.He creates new life by giving Himself to His disciples in the Eucharist.He is double-crossed with a kiss by one whom He loves, whom He called brother.He brings peace and healing, and is met with anger and betrayal.

If there is one thing we learn from Jesus’ death, it is that there was anything but clarity and serenity in the whole process.He goes to one high priest then another.He goes to Pilate, who wants to release Him, then to Herod who wants a show, then back to Pilate.Pilate even offers to release Him, but the people want Barabbas instead.He’s flogged, mocked, spat upon, and then takes the way of sorrows outside the city to Golgotha.Can you imagine following all of these events in the crowd, wondering what is going to happen next?Fearful yet glued to the events unfolding?

I remember what it was like ten years ago when the twin towers were destroyed by terrorists in New York.I’m sure many of you remember the day as well.It was a day when you could not keep away from the horror.You were glued to the television, wondering what would happen next, and to whom it would happen.New York, Pennsylvania, the Pentagon.Who else would fall under the knife of terrorism?

That is the sense we have with our Lord’s death.It is gruesome, confusing and just simply messed up, but the crowds could not stay away.They had to know what would happen to this man who would be their king.They could not stay away from the spectacle of a man who claimed to be God Himself dying as a common criminal.

And through all of it, through the shame and mockery, the abandonment, the apathy, the betrayal, the scorn, through it all, our Lord is faithful to God and therefore to you.When He is dying on the cross, it is you that He is thinking about.That is what it means for us to say that He died for our sins.He takes our place in line to pay the penalty for our sin.Perhaps Isaiah put it best:

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4–6 ESV)

Behold, your God.Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.He comes to suffer so that you may rejoice.He comes to heal.He comes to restore everything that was broken.He comes to die so that you might live.This is our God, who loves us with a love that knows no bounds.

So come and receive Him at the altar.Come, and receiving His deepest blessings.Come, and journey with Him this week, so that you may know the power of God, made perfect in the weakness of Christ.Come, come, come.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel just read from St. John chapter

8. We look at the words of the Jews, who do you make yourself out to be?

Before Abraham. Before the waxing and waning of the tide. Before sound or even light. Before there were roads or trains or airplanes. Before Prozac and Prilosec. Before Lipitor and methamphetamines. Before malaria and AIDS. Before hatred and racism. Before pediphilia and rape. Before divorce and children without fathers. Before the heartbreak of this life. Before loneliness and depression. Before death. Before anything. Before everything. Jesus is. Not Jesus was. Jesus is.

He is the great I AM. He is always in the present tense, never before or after. He is without beginning or end. He is the divine three-in-one who spoke from the bush to set His people free from slavery. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the Word of the Father’s Sprit. He is Love incarnate. All things were made through Him, and it is only through Him that all things will be remade anew. He is Mary’s Son and Mary’s Lord. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one who died for the sins He did not committ and rose victorious with the indestructible life that He now gives for you. All the earth is in His hands, and He rules from the Father’s right hand with love and mercy for you, always for you.

But somehow, this is hard for fallen sons and daughters of Adam. They think themselves greater than they are. They are blind and deaf to what they do not wish to see and hear. It is easier to hide in the sand with cotton in the ears than hear the simple reality that they are not gods. They want to live a life of significance and control. They want their deeds to be remembered. They want to wage wars great and small. They want to make the world a better place whether the world wants it or not. They want to build a tower to the heavens. They want the kingdoms of the earth to bow down to their ingenuity and wisdom. In a word, they want to become gods, knowing good and evil and reveling in their own power.

What they cannot bear is a God who would become Man. God, who cannot be contained by the heavens and the earth, surely He cannot become man. The mystery of the Almighty God, contained in a mere person? Never.

If God were to become Man, at the very least he should be the greatest man who ever lived. Beautiful and terrible. Smart and to be feared. Strong and cunning. He should be a leader of men, the product of many years of careful work and planning. If God were to become man, he should be that greatest man ever.

But that is not Jesus. Jesus is not that man. He is of lowly birth. A carpenter turned rabbi. He is greater than all and yet is nothing to look at. He is greater than Abraham and all Israel, and He stands before the leaders of that same Israel and says that HE IS GOD IN THE FLESH. Really? This backwater carpenter-rabbi? He may be even worse than a shepherd like David, if that’s even possible. That is the best God can do? What is God saying about us? Is He saying that we are that lowly, that broken and in need?

So they reject Him. They reject Him, and in doing so, reject the very Word that alone is their salvation. They reject the One who is, who was and who is to come. They kick against the pricks, like Saul on the road to Damascus. They take the Lord of Life and kill Him. They don’t want that kind of a God. They don’t want the kind of God who would become lowly like them, because it reminds them of their great need. They won’t turn the other cheek, for that is for weaklings. They won’t show mercy, because they want to make sure that everyone gets what’s coming to them. They will not stoop down and help the sinner on the road, the woman caught in adultery. They will not get dirty with the man trapped by a demon. They will not touch the suffering, the lepers and drug addicts, the murderers and backstabbers. They are above such people. And because they will not wash the feet of those in need, because they see themselves as better than the broken, they miss their own profound brokenness.

So they reject Jesus, and in rejecting Him, in killing Him on a tree, they reject their very humanity. The fling stones at the cornerstone and rock of their salvation.

They reject Jesus, and so do you. Every time you refuse to serve your neighbor in love. Every time you look in lust toward another, to possess them no matter what. Every time you take what is not yours. Every time to speak ill of your friends and fellow redeemed. Every time you set yourself up as the one who is oh so better or smarter or wiser or holier than those others. Every time you press another’s sins against them, force their sins upon them and will not let them go in forgiveness. Every time you do these things, and you do, every one of you as do I, every time you do these things, you reject Jesus anew like those people so long ago.

But there is another way. There is submission to the Mighty Stone and Rock, and that Rock is Christ. Fall upon this rejected stone and be broken. Be broken, but don’t be afraid. Confess your sins. Recognize them for their destructive evil. Come clean. Be who you are, a broken sinner desperate for Jesus. Be who you are, for Christ is who He is for you.

Christ comes to you now with healing in His wings. Christ comes to you not as a judge, but as your Savior. Christ comes as the great and everlasting door, as the one, great sacrifice for your sin and mine. He comes to redeem you from your empty way of life. He has come to interrupt your road to Damascus and hatred. He has come to pick up on on the road, to wash you and make you clean. He has come to feed you, to give you the drink of ever living waters. He has come to give you the Bread of Life, the bread that gives immortality and the life that never ends.

Your end was never in doubt. God is always a God of mercy and compassion. He comes to you humble and lowly. He comes to you in peace, as the prince of peace who reconciles us by His Blood.

Come and trust the Word made Flesh. He is your Isaac. He is the ram caught in the thicket of your life. He is the one, eternal sacrifice of all time. You cannot be harmed. You may be rejected by the righteous and holy of this life, but you will never, never be rejected by God. He is God for us. He is Immanuel. He is your God. Behold Your King.

In the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

And now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith to life everlasting. Amen.

Gary and Carol, Bruce and Monica, family, friends, and all those who knew our dear sister Marian: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning is the Gospel from St. John chapter ten. We focus on the words of our Lord, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14).

Marian Emilie Winegar neé Schroeder was born on January 5, 1920 and grew up in Grand View, Minnesota. She was baptized into the Christian faith on April 1, 1920, and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church on May 1, 1934. In 1940 she moved out to California, and met her husband, Cliff Winegar. They were married on December 17, 1943. They settled in Sacramento, and were founding members of Our Savior Lutheran Church. Marian died in Christ on March 5 in the year of our Lor, 2012. **“And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”” ** (Revelation 14:13)

It hardly seems possible to summarize and hold together in our hands a life of ninety-two years and more. From Minnesota to California. From San Diego to Sacramento to Sun City. Two children. Grandchildren. Caring for those in need and selflessly giving to those around her. All of these could describe Marian’s life. I’m sure there are many more words that could be said, stories that we could tell, and pictures we could look at to try and capture what makes Marian so special. It will be different for each on of you, I’m sure.

I don’t know Marian very well personally. The last time I saw her, I gave her Holy Communion around a friend’s dinner table. She was there, but you could tell that her mind was just beginning to slip. That was just a couple months ago. It seems as though age and a lifetime of care for others had finally caught up with her.

But we are not here today to simply eulogize Marian, to remember the good times and bad. There is some of that, and that is okay. But the sad reality is that we are here because, for all of Marian’s great traits, she was still a sinner. Marian was broken and in need. Her slowly deteriorating body points us to the simple fact that St. Paul is right, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Slowly or quickly, easy or hard, we are all dying. We all live under the curse of sin. And that is not how it is supposed to be. Not for Marian, not for her dear husband, Cliff, not for you,and not for me.

This is why we grieve. This is why we weep and are sorrowful. It is not right. God did not create us to die, and frankly, it stinks. Jesus Himself wept at the death of his friend, Lazarus (John 11:35). If Jesus recognized that this is messed up and not the way it is supposed to be, then it is okay for us to feel this sorrow and pain as well.

But that is not the end of Marian’s story, or yours. You see, Marian actually died a long time ago. She died at the baptismal font on a spring day in Minnesota 92 years ago. She died there, and her life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossiand 3:3). For her entire life Marian was hearing the voice of her shepherd, her Savior, her Jesus. She raised her children in the Christian faith. She and Cliff were instrumental in starting Our Savior Lutheran Church in Sacramento, and in working with their school to teach that faith to the next generation, including her own children. Week after week, year after year, decade after decade, Marian heard the voice of her shepherd. In Church, in Bible class, at the font, at the altar, in the voice of preaching and in the mutal conversation with fellow redeemed sinners like you and me.

St. Paul said that the wages of sin is death, but that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord (Romans 6:23). Those aren’t just words, beloved. Marian believed with all her heart that her end would not be at her death. That happened long ago. Marian believed with Job, that *“…after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,” * (Job 19:26) Marian believes in the resurrection of the dead. Marian believes that you and I and all who rejoice in the death and resurrection of Jesus will rise from the dead. It’s irrational. It’s crazy. It makes no sense to all logic. But it is true as surely as I am standing before you today. It’s what made Marian tick, and what drove her to give of herself so selflessly.

But until that last day, at the resurrection of all flesh, until that last day we wait. We wait, and we weep. We weep because we miss Marian. And Cliff. And all those sons and daughters who have gone before and are with Christ. We miss them. There is a hole that cannot be denied. Don’t be afraid to weep. But we weep with a twinkle in our eyes. And that twinkle says that this isn’t the end. That twinkle says we will be reunited in Christ at the Last Day. We get a taste of that at His heavenly banquet here Sunday after Sunday, and we will taste it in full on the Last Day.

So rest well Marian. We grieve and sorrow. We miss you and love you. Rest well in the arms of your Savior, until the day of His reappearing, and we are reunited again.

In the strong name of Jesus. Amen

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
Oculi – Lent 3 (March 11, 2012, rev. from 2008)
Luke 11:14-28

TITLE: “By the Finger of God”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel lesson just read from Luke chapter 11.

A house divided cannot stand, so says our Lord. In this season of political speeches and party politics, we can see a little bit about what division can cause. The worse the internal division, the weaker a candidate becomes. This is true in politics, and it is also true at home. A home that is being ripped apart by divisions, hatred, jealousy and envy cannot handle the external pressures put upon it. How many families have fallen apart over some tragedy, because they could not agree on how to handle it?

If this is true in politics and in the family, how much more is this true in the church? Imagine a church where no one agrees on why they are here. Are we hear to preach the Gospel, to provide social opportunities, to serve the poor and the destitute, or are we here because we have always been here? Are we here to serve the community or is there some higher purpose involved? While we may seem to know the answers to these questions, what is obvious to one person is not always obvious to another.

It was the same in the day of our Lord. The Jews were divided in to more little sub-groups than we can imagine. Pharisees, scribes, sadducees, essenes, who knows all of the groups we could have found in Jesus’ day? Each group had alliances with the others on certain subjects and not on others. It is a wonder in many ways that Judaism survived at all.

But this is the way of the world. Pride, vanity, envy, these things all push us to divide, to bicker and fight and divide much more than they do to be at peace with one another. St. Paul exhorts us to be imitators of God and to sacrifice for one another, as Christ did for us (Eph. 5:1-2). But that does not come easy, does it? The me factor in us always gets in the way. “It was the woman you gave to me!” It is much easier to ask someone else to bend, to change, and to sacrifice for us than it is for us to do it for them.

So it is that when our Lord heals this man who was a deaf/mute, that some of the Pharisees declared that He casts out demons by the power of Satan, or Beelzebub. They can’t imagine Jesus being in league with God, far less being God-in-the-flesh. It must be that what He is doing is satanic. Still others didn’t think Jesus’ miracles were enough! He didn’t part the waters like Moses, or the river like Joshua. He hadn’t ascended into heaven like Elijah. If Jesus wanted to be taken seriously, He was going to have to show off a little more. Jesus needed a better PR firm at the very least.

Our Lord, though, is not satisfied to convince a group os skeptics that He is the Messiah. He has bigger plans. He didn’t come to bicker with the various groups in Judaism or to simply be another miracle worker. He came to seek and save the lost, to redeem the captives, to raise the dead and to forgive the sins of the whole world. He came to work by the Spirit and Finger of God to bring you to heaven, and to bring the kingdom of God into your midst even this day.

Do you believe it? Do you believe that Jesus is still at work, here, now, forgiving sins, rescuing from death and the devil, and giving eternal salvation? That is what He is doing here this day. He is as present today as He was for that mute man who was possessed by a demon. But He is not merely present, like a sympathetic friend in times of trouble. No, He is the mighty redeemer. He comes not merely to listen, but to act. He comes to do what you cannot do, to fix what you cannot fix, and to redeem what you cannot possibly redeem.

How does He do this? The Finger of God is His Word and holy sacraments. Johann Gerhard put it this way:

Just as Christ here by the Spirit and the Finger of God expels the devil, so also He still today imparts His victory against the devil and transfers us out of the kingdom of the devil into God’s kingdom of grace through the Spirit and the Finger of God; that is to say, through the Word and holy Sacraments. For the Word and the holy Sacraments are nothing else but the Finger of God which He lays into our ears and upon our eyes. The power of the Holy Spirit is in these means. Through them He works in us faith and rebirth, along with renewal, so that we are redeemed from the kingdom and the power of the devil.

The kingdom of God is your kingdom, dearly baptized. We pray that God’s kingdom would come among us also, and He answers our prayers by coming down through His Word and Sacraments. Through these we receive Christ Himself.

This is why we pray in the Psalm, My eyes are ever on the Lord. In the midst of the fighting, divisions and fear that your life may be sometimes, God enters in to gently place His Finger where it is needed most, and to inscribe His name upon your heart. “On my heart imprint your image,” as we pray in the hymn. The Finger of God does not finally point to you with words of accusation and judgment. His Word and Holy Sacraments create faith out of nothing, hope for the brokenhearted, and peace where there is no peace. That is who He is. That is what He does for you.

So come now, dearly beloved, and feast on great mystery which is Christ Jesus. He has defeated Satan for you. Come and worship Him by receiving what only He can give to you. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

lent02-2012

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen.  Our text for this morning is the Gospel just read from St. Matthew chapter 15.  Today we hear and learn about the holy persitence of faith, and how we are all beggar dogs who receive God’s mercy at His table.  Let us pray:

O my most beloved Lord Jesus, at whose table of grace I wait even now: cause, I beseech You, a mere crumb of Your help and assistance to fall to me, and I and my hearers will be satisfied with instruction, comfort, and exhortation.

Today might properly be called Canine Sunday or Doggy Sunday.  Jesus calls this Canaanite woman a dog and she agrees with him!  It is a very odd thing, you have to admit.  See how the Christian faith is like the dog seeing the crumbs or scraps from his master’s table, and how this is a good thing for poor sinners like you and I.

In the Bible we find that dogs are almost without exception seen as dirty, generally unpleasant animals.  You may remember the giant Goliath mocking David and saying, ““Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?”” (1 Samuel 17:43)  And you know that you are down on your luck when the dogs are the only ones who will help you, as in the story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:21).  Dogs are both pathetic in the Bible, but also not to be trifled with.  We hear in Proverbs, “Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.” (Proverbs 26:17)

So this woman comes to Jesus with the simple request: heal my daughter!  She is possessed by a demon, and cannot free herself.  Jesus answers her with silence, then seems to question whether God’s promises are for her, and finally says ““It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”” (Matthew 15:26)  It is as if Jesus is saying to her, “Look, you aren’t of the people of Israel.  You have no right to sit at God’s table.  You are nothing but a dog.”  Harsh words, coming from the compassionate one.

But if we are honest with outselves, there are times when that is exactly what God does with us.  We pray and get silence.  We beg and get put off.  No amount of tears or weeping or questions seem to give us the peace we long for.  Eventually things may even get so bad that we are stuck wrestling with God in His Word.  Like Jacob in our Old Testament reading, there are nights where we do nothing but fight with the One who is one our side.  ”I will not go unless you bless me,” Jacob cried out as he wrestled with the Lord (Genesis 32:26).  That’s this woman.  Her persistence is rather amazing.  It reminds us of Luther’s words introducing “Our Father who art in heaven.”  Luther says,

With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true father and that we are his true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him as dear children ask their dear father.

Truth be told, this dog of a Canaanite woman sounds more like a, uh, persistent child than anything else.  She will not be put off. She will not be deterred.  She will not quit until she receives what is promised to her.

For you parents, you know that when the child starts flinging your own words back at you, that you are in trouble.  When the dog begins to know what to expect, then you really have to keep up with things.  I eat at this time!  They know what you give them.  Give it once, and they fully expect you to keep on giving it.  Luther once remarked,

“See how the dog jumps, leaps, and scratches at the table, and does not give up until you give it a bit of bread or a piece of meat. Even if you chase it off, it comes back. Would to God we poor men might be more like them…”

So it is that our Canaanite woman catches Jesus in His own words.  He calls her a dog, and her response is “yes, Lord, and even the dogs get fed from the master’s table!”  She will cling to these words of our Lord as a burr does to your clothes (Katie Luther).

In 1941, the newly elected Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, met at the Harrow school and gave a speech. It was shortly after the Blitz, while London was being bombed almost to oblivion.  It wasn’t a long speech, but here is the line that concerns us here.  Churchill said,

Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Today God invites you to persistence.  He invites you to come to Him with boldness and confidence, as dear children come to their dear father.  He invites you to come to Him like our Canaanite woman, like blind Bartemaeus, like the Centurion, like Joseph, and yes, even like Jesus Himself prayed to the Father in the Garden.  He says to you, NEVER GIVE UP.

Dearly baptized, suffering remains for the night, but eternity comes at the break of day.  Job suffered for seven years, then prospered for one hundred and forty.  Joseph suffered for thirteen years, then ruled over Egypt for many more.  Yet even if the relief for your hardships does not come in this life, it will come in the next.  God promises you an end like Simeon, when you may depart in peace.  He promises never to leave you or forsake you.  He promises to hear your cries, and to answer them every single time.

Sometimes the answer may seem no more than a crumb., a pittance of a promise against all the forces of evil.  But with that crumb, that drop of His blood comes everything He won for you in His death and resurrection.  The crumbs and drops can move mountains, create faith, give hope, and draw you into Him.  We pray it this way in the hymn,

Thou, like the pelican to feed her brood,

Didst pierce Thyself to give us living food;

Thy blood, O Lord, one drop has pow’r to win

Forgiveness for our world and all its sin.

Or if we want something more appropos to our text today,

The Lord His little dogs adores,

And from His table crumbs He pours;

Wait but on Christ, who satisfies,

With bounteous grace—’tis sure advice.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Invocabit Sunday (Lent 1) (February 26, 2012, revised from 2007)

Genesis 3:1-21, 2 Corinthians 6:1-10, St. Matthew 4:1-11

TITLE: “God’s Devil and Jesus’ Temptation”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.Amen.Our text for today is from our Gospel lesson just read from St. Matthew chapter four.

All things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose, as St. Paul writes in Romans (8:28.Again St. Paul writes in Ephesians one that God put all things under Christ for the sake of His Church (Eph. 1:22-23).As we begin this holy season of Lent, it is important to recognize that it is God’s plan for Jesus to be tempted, to suffer, and to die for you.“Even the Devil is God’s Devil,” so said Martin Luther.

This is easy to forget with a text like this.Right after Jesus is Baptized, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.This isn’t the devil’s idea.Jesus hands Himself over to be tempted.He is led by the Spirit, or even driven by the Spirit, as St. Mark records it (Mark 1:9).So Jesus is tempted by selfishness, by religiosity, and by idol worship to leave the path of righteousness, the path that leads to our salvation, by the very one who started us on the wrong path to begin with in the first place.

We have heard the story of the Fall into sin so many times that we think we know it all.Adam and Eve are deceived by the devil.They listen to his words rather than the Word of God.The apple is good food, isn’t it?You will be like gods, won’t you?Come to me and we will overthrow God’s kingdom all on our own.So the devil tempted them, and they fell.They fell into sin, the pit of despair and shame which we all live in even now.

You are still there, you know.Worldliness, a false show of religion, and idolatry face us every day.Who among you have not been tempted to put your own needs above others?Who among you has come to church, read the Bible, prayed, or done all the right things because you believe doing religious things will save you?Who among you have not put other things before God, like hobbies, work, friends, or even your family?You have fallen prey to all of these temptations and far more.That is the Law, and you can’t keep it.

But remember that Christ orders all things for the sake of His bride, His body, His Church, you.When Jesus goes out to do battle with Satan, he does so not for Himself.He is led by the Spirit to face these temptations for you.Always for you.Where you fall into temptation and the snare, as sons and daughters of Adam, Jesus, the new Adam, answers the temptation with the Word of God.He uses God’s Word to defeat Satan.He stands in your place and is tempted , but he does it so that you will be blameless and free before God.

Because Christ has won the victory for you over sin, death and the power of Satan, you are free, just as Christ is free by the resurrection of the dead.You are free to serve your neighbor in love.You are free to serve your neighbor because you don’t have to pretend you are perfect.You are free to receive the blessings of God by faith.You are free to worship God alone, because He alone can save you.Dr. Luther put it this way:

Christ has served and helped us by His fasting, hunger, temptation and victory. Also, whoever believes on Christ shall never suffer need, and temptation shall never harm him. Instead, we shall have enough in the midst of want and be safe in the midst of temptation because the Lord triumphed in our behalf. Christ’s fasting also encourages us to believe that, by His example, we can cheerfully suffer want and temptation for the service of God and the good of our neighbor, like Christ did for us. Therefore this Gospel is sweet consolation and power against the unbelief. It awakens and strengthens our conscience, that we may not be anxious about the nourishment of our bodies, but be assured that God can and will give us our daily bread. (Luther)

Christ’s temptation, fasting, hunger and victory demonstrate to you that God will always take care of you.You need not worry about tomorrow, for God will be there.Christ has come and bore the brunt of God’s wrath on the cross, and all of the devil’s attacks for you.Christ feeds you not only with bread to sustain your body, but with the bread of the Word of God, the bread of His very body to keep you body and soul in Him.He gives you faith to look past false religious practices, and to be who you are: a sinner redeemed by Christ.He gives you the strength to withstand the evil one, by giving you His Word, by keeping you here, in the bosom of His Church, so that you are never alone in your struggles.

“Even the Devil is God’s Devil.”There is much comfort in these words.While the Devil is trying to bring down the Son of God, the Son of God is doing His work of saving you.Satan’s power is only as far as God will allow him to go.So God actually uses Satan and all of His evil work for your benefit.Amazing, isn’t it?What kind of God is it that can turn even the evil things of this world to our benefit?This God is none other than the true God, who comes down from heaven to save you.Trust that when He gave you His Spirit in Holy Baptism, that you are now in His hands, safe from all the assaults the devil, the world and your own sinful nature may fling at you.

Be at peace.Christ has overcome the world, and He creates a new world for you.Believe it for Jesus’ sake.Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.Amen.