The Crux of the Matter

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I am very pleased to announce the release of a new project that my good buddy, Scott Stiegemeyer, and I are producing:

Crux Logos 002

This is a weekly podcast that is by pastors and for pastors. Obviously anyone can listen in, but our intention is to discuss matters of theology and pastoral care that are geared toward the busy parish pastor who would like to hone his craft.  Our plan is to make the show about a half an hour. Once we figure out what we’re doing a little more, we may start adding guests for special topics, and all kinds of other fun things.

The first show is out and ready for you to listen.  If you would like to subscribe in iTunes, you may CLICK HERE to find the link. Or you may paste the direct feed link into any podcatcher. My personal favorite is Overcast, but there are plenty of others out there.

Take a peek. I think you will really enjoy it!

-LL

The House that God Built (Luke 1:26-38, Advent 4b, December 21, 2014)

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Advent 4b, (December 21, 2014)
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
(Luke 1:26-38)

Annunciation CHAMPAIGNE Philippe de c 1644

Sermon 12-21-14.mp3

TITLE: “The House that God Built”

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

King David had it all. His enemies were dust under his feet. He had a beautiful wife, Michal. He had a grand city, Jerusalem. He had a palace that was the envy of kings for hundreds of miles. King David had everything. And it was then that a thought occurred to him: I should build a house for God!, for he is still traveling in a tabernacle. God deserves better than that, so he thought. So David set about to build a better house for God. A temple made with hands, that would be beautiful beyond all imagination, that would put that lowly tent of a tabernacle completely to shame. God will come down and dwell with us even more if we make everything just right for Him down here.

Isn’t that how it goes so often? We believe, instinctively, that in order for God to come down and dwell among us, we have to set things up just right. Our house must be in order. Things must be just so. We can’t let anyone or anything be out of place, or God may not want to really be with us.

Do you live with that mindset? Now I know that we don’t consciously think this way, but underneath it all, I suspect that for us all there is a sense that in order for things to be right with God, we have to, well we have to clean house. Maybe even build a new house for God. I shudder to think of how many people never darken the door of a church because they fear that they have to get their act together in order for God to accept them.

God had an answer for his servant, David. He said through the prophet, Nathan:

“have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’”” (2 Samuel 7:9–11, 16 ESV)

This is where Mary comes in, and the angel Gabriel. David wanted to do something for God, but he was too weighed down by his sins and transgressions to have anything to offer. For centuries humanity had been weighed down by sin and shame. Death has ruled over us all.

But no more.

The archangel Gabriel came to Mary, a peasant girl from the house of David. His greeting sets the stage for the most amazing story of all time. ““Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”” (Luke 1:28 ESV) That term “O favored one,” is one of the richest in the whole Bible. It literally means “graced one” or something like that. It means that God looks upon you with eyes of kindness. As we say in the benediction, God shines upon you, lifts up his countenance upon you, and gives you peace.

That is how God looks at this young girl from the backwards city of Nazareth. God would give her a child by the Holy Spirit, and that child would be the very Word of God made flesh. Mary’s womb became the tabernacle through which God Himself came into the world.

By entering into the womb of Mary, he made the womb the most holy place of all. It is here that life itself begins. And not just any life. It is here that Life, real and true and eternal begins, not just for Jesus, or for Mary, but for the entire world. I don’t think we can overestimate how amazing a gift that is to us all.

This child, this little, helpless babe, is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is is the heir to the throne of David. He is your king and mine, but His rule is not in power and show. Rather, His rule is much like His coming into the world. Lowly, through the unexpected, the marginalized, the least of His people, at least to the eyes of the world.

Beloved, the world does not look at Mary as God does. And in the same way, the world does not look at you the same way God does. To the world, you are nothing. A statistic, one of billions, and your life has no purpose, no meaning. It doesn’t go anywhere. You live and then you die.

But that is not how God looks at you. God looks at you with the eyes of grace, the eyes which gazed upon the Mother of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. His graceful eyes now turn to you, and in you He sees eternity. This mystery was kept secret for many ages, but is now revealed in Jesus Christ. By coming into your flesh and blood through the womb of the Virgin, God becomes man so that we may receive all of His blessings and gifts.

And you receive that same Son, those same blessings, today in the Sacrament of the Altar. Like Mary you do not deserve to receive Him, but He comes to you nonetheless. He comes to you now, hidden under bread and wine, and He gives you His very body and blood for life and salvation.

So come, worship the Christ-child by receiving His flesh and blood in this most Holy Sacrament. Eternal life is yours. You are holy by His flesh and blood. God looks upon you with favor, and He lifts you out of your sins and sets you up as His family, for that is who you are in Christ.

Believe it for Jesus' sake. Amen.

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

Two Parades into Jerusalem (Advent 1b, 2014)

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Advent 1b, (November 30, 2014)
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
(Mark 11:1–11)

Sermon 11-30-14.mp3

TITLE: “Two Parades Into Jerusalem”

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

Two parades took place that week, the beginning of what we call Holy Week. The first was a parade from the west, where the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, entered into Jerusalem, the conquered city. He came from Caesarea, the center of the Roman government. He had to be present in Jerusalem for this Jewish feast that everyone was talking about. Passover, it was called. Well, he wasn’t there to worship. As the governor, he was also in charge of crowd control. The Jewish people of his day had a tendency to get testy at Roman rule, and they were known to riot if just the right, or wrong circumstances happened. Now Pilate was a soldier, and so he entered into God’s city with all the pomp and bravado that the military could muster. Rows of infantry and cavalry, and Pilate himself on a large stallion, as befit his rank. But there was no cheering to this crowd. Only silence. Pilate was the representative of Caesar, the one known as the “lord of all” and “savior of the world”, and even “a son of the gods”. He was power and control. Pilate was everything about how to world really worked in his day, and in ours.

Now contrast that with another procession, coming in from the east. A preacher and miracle worker was entering into this thronging city. But his entrance could not be more ironic. One rides a stallion, the other an untamed colt of a donkey. One has soldiers and protectors who will guard him with their lives. The other has a group of disciples who half the time don’t seem to get what he’s doing, and when they do actually get it, they try to stop him from doing it! One has the backing of the greatest power on earth, the might of Rome. The other has the backing of the creator of the universe, but that “backing”, so-called, is hard to see at times. The people hate Pilate and seem to love Jesus. But in a few short days, the crowd of worshippers will turn into a riot and call for Jesus’ crucifixion. It seems that hatred run pretty deep in some places.

So where do you fit in this topsy-turvy world? Do you fit with Pilate, with power and authority? Are you ready to riot when things are unfair or unjust? Or are you ready to sit in judgment of those people, safe behind closed doors and gated communities, glad that you don’t have to associate with such people. The fact is that whether we are silent watching Pilate, or releasing our “hosannas” and “save me now” cries to the preacher/miracle worker, in either case, we sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are fickle. We want to have our own way. We don’t want anyone telling us what to do. Not the government. Not any preacher. And least of all God. We want what we want when we want it, and we will not be denied. While there are riots in St. Louis and around the country of one sort, we also saw the riots of Black Friday as well. It doesn’t matter if it’s justice, or stuff, or my team to win, we are more like lost sheep or stubborn mules than we are anyone else. Repent.

What our Lord does in our text today is invite you to another way. The way that He goes is not the way of the world, it is not the way of Pilate. Remember again the words from our Old Testament reading this morning:

“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.” (Isaiah 64:1–3 ESV)

When God comes down, it is not what the world expects. God enters into our world, which is really His world all along. He enters into this world that is so far gone, and His entry is violent. But it is not violent because He is violent. No, it is violent because the enemies of Christ know that their time is short. Christ our Lord has come down to lead us home to be with Him, and the devil, the world, and our own sinful hearts, well they want nothing to do with a king of peace.

And yet He comes. Remember again those words from the hymn:

“Sin’s dreadful doom upon us lies; Grim death looms fierce before our eyes. O come, lead us with mighty hand From exile to our promised land. (LSB 355:6)

And yet He comes. He in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, as a child small and helpless. He comes as a lowly carpenter-turned-preacher. He comes into His city as the king of irony, the Word of God incarnate, riding atop an untamed colt. He comes to die for you and for me. He comes to life again, for you and for me. He comes through simple water, and calls Gabriel (Mitchell) to be His own. He comes to you now, hidden under bread and wine which is His body and blood. And He will come again in glory, to lead us with a mighty hand to our home with Him, a new heavens and a new earth.

And today He calls you by the Gospel. He calls you out of darkness into His light. He calls you to turn away from the love of self, from the false gods of this world. He calls you to live as a child of God, and heir of the kingdom of heaven. He calls you to live as free men and women, free to love your neighbor as yourself, free to sacrifice because He has made the greatest sacrifice. He calls you to all this and more, and it is a great and mighty calling.

Trust in your King to save you, for He will. Follow Him, for He will lead you through death to everlasting life in Him.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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

A Sermon on Faith and Good Works (November 23, 2014)

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Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
Last Sunday of the Church Year (November 23, 2014)
Matthew 25:31-46

TITLE: “A Sermon on Faith and Good Works”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.  Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read, Christ’s judgment over the sheep and the goats.  This is a sermon on good works, and how we as Christians are to understand them properly in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we look at the nature of the church and who we are, it is inevitable for us as Christians to end up talking about good works.  It is so very difficult for us as Christians to simply live according to faith and love of God and the neighbor.  We are obsessed with measurement in every way.  Who gives the most?  Who does the most at church?  Who has the most beautiful house, the best behaved children and the nicest neighborhood?  We constantly seek to measure both ourselves and everyone else around us.

But, of course, the danger of measurement, I guess like the danger of statistics, is that it is so tempting to always measure what is most important to you.  If you are a good giver, you measure everyone else by your self-defined standard.  If you donate time to the church or the community, then it is easy to look to everyone else and measure them by how you work and what you give or do.  If you teach, then who else teaches like you do?  If you solve problems, then who else solve problems like you do?  Be honest, dear friends.  You are as self-righteous as I am.  You can come up with a justification for everything you do, measure yourself against anyone else, and come up with more than enough reasons to defend your own works or lack of good works.

What is wrong with this view, and we all do it, is that it betrays a basic misunderstanding about good works.  Let me be very clear: you don’t do good works; God does.  As long as you think of good works as something you do and try to measure yourself against others, you lose and the Church loses.  You don’t do good works; God does.  Good works flow spontaneously from faith in Jesus Christ, and the more you look to Jesus for your life, the less you will care about measuring good works.

Now just in case you think that I am speaking out of turn or going against what the Scripture teaches, let’s look for a moment at what Jesus says in his picture of the sheep and the goats.  You’ve heard the story, so I won’t rehearse the whole thing.  But one thing is very clear from this story: nobody will know what good works they are doing until the last day.  That’s really astonishing, so let me say it again: nobody will know what good works they are doing until the last day.  You can’t know.  Remember the sheep and the goats.  When did I do all of these things?  When did I not do all of these things?

You see, dear friends, this shapes your very life as a Christian.  How can this be, that you won’t know the good works you do until the last day?  Don’t you find that incredible?  Now let’s think for a minute about how good works happen, because that really gets at the heart of this matter.  The Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran Church confesses: When through faith the Holy Spirit is given, the heart is moved to do good works. [Tappert, T. G. (2000, c1959). The book of concord : The confessions of the evangelical Lutheran church (The Confession of Faith: 2, XX, 29). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.]

Think about it like this.  At one time each of you was about this big (hold fingers together).  And you are all, well, you know what size you are now.  Did you read a book about how to grow up?  Did you have someone giving you directions, having you read books, and motivating you to grow?  Well, maybe your mother told you to eat your lima beans when you were young, but by and large, you weren’t commanded to grow.  You grew because you were fed!  And because you were fed, you did stuff.  It’s just that simple.

Here is another story or analogy that might help to understand good works.  It is obvious that we are getting closer and closer to winter around here, or at least for what passes for such here.  The leaves are disappearing, or blowing away.  We’re all seeing things on the news about Buffalo getting seventy-six inches of snow.  So if you were to take a trip to Buffalo right now, you would have a hard time telling what trees are alive and which ones are dead.  Why?  Because it’s the wrong season to tell.  You can tell in the spring, you can tell in the summer, you can usually even tell in the fall.  But not in winter.  Life is dormant.  It’s inside, hidden within the tree and under the ground.

That, dear friends, is a pretty good picture of the Christian life.  It is impossible to see and validate and measure good works.  You can’t.  Nobody will know what good works they are doing until the last day.

But it really is a good thing for us that we can’t see and know our good works.  You don’t need them.  They aren’t for you.  They are the sweet smelling afterthought which God gives just because He loves you.  Notice again the words of our text: receive the inheritance prepared for you before the foundation of the world.  Did you catch that word, that great and rich word?  Inheritance.  Your life as a baptized child of God is an inheritance, paid for by the death of Jesus.  But this is an inheritance which God has always planned on giving to you.  It has nothing to do with your works or anyone else’s works.  

As the church year draws to a close this week, we remember our Lord coming in judgment.  But that great and awesome day of His judgment is not a day for fear for you and I.  All of our talk and fretting about what we do and don’t do will simply fade away in the glory of His love for us.  God’s plan for you is life, full, rich, eternal life.  You are His sheep.  You hear His voice in faith.  That is what makes you one of the elect, one of His chosen ones.  It’s not about you, it’s about Him and what He does for you.

For one day the springtime of the faith will come after the long winter.  Faith and works always go together, but like that tree in the middle of winter, things must bloom and grow in their own time and in their own way, and no sooner.  But someday everything will be revealed.  The love of God will shine forth for you, and He will say to you: well done, good and faithful servant.  It is true.  Trust His Word, cling to His promises for you.  For in them you will find your salvation.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

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

This sermon is revised from a sermon originally preached in 2003 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Come to the Feast (Proper 23a, October 12, 2014)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Proper 23a (October 12, 2014)

Matthew 22:1-14

TITLE: “Come to the Feast”

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, with focus on Jesus’ words from the parable: For many are called, but few are chosen.

God loves weddings.  He loves weddings so much that he created a special Garden for the very first wedding in Eden.  Adam and Eve.  Truly the perfect couple.  God loves weddings, families and children so much that He even uses this image as a picture of Christ and His love for His Holy Bride, the Christian Church.  A wedding is the union of a man and a woman in love and faithfulness for life.  It is a mark and sign of hope in the world.  It is a sign that there is life and a future, no matter what may come.  Marriage involves children, and children are the work of God in our midst.

So because God loves weddings, it shouldn’t surprise us that they appear so often in the Scriptures. It seems like marriage and weddings are all over the place in the Bible.  The Garden of Eden.  Ruth and Boaz. The wedding at Cana.  All of these parables about banquets and feasts.  Most all of them are not just about a group of people getting together to eat.  No, they are almost without exception wedding banquets.  And these banquet parables usually begin with something like “the kingdom of heaven is like a marriage feast that the king had for his son….”  The feast is for the marriage of the Son, and we are guests of honor.

The marriage feasts happens on top of a mountain, of all places.  This great feast that God throws for His bride.  It happens on a mountain, not in a Garden like the first marriage.  Isaiah talks about it in chapter twenty-five of his prophecy:

And in this mountain

      The LORD of hosts will make for all people

      A feast of choice pieces,

      A feast of wines on the lees,

      Of fat things full of marrow,

      Of well-refined wines on the lees.

       7 And He will destroy on this mountain

      The surface of the covering cast over all people,

      And the veil that is spread over all nations.

       8 He will swallow up death forever,

      And the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces;

      The rebuke of His people

      He will take away from all the earth;

      For the LORD has spoken.

       9 And it will be said in that day:

      “ Behold, this is our God;

      We have waited for Him, and He will save us.

      This is the LORD;

      We have waited for Him;

      We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” (Isaiah 25:6-9)

On this mountain of the Lord, this marriage feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end, the Son destroyed death forever.  That was the wedding present.  It was the gift He gave to His Holy Bride, the Church.  Death is swallowed up in victory.  Life reigned where death once ruled.

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that a three-fold strand is not easily broken.  The earthly marriages that we see all around us, or that we may even be blessed to receive ourselves, they are held together by the cord of the Word of God.  They point us to this great Marriage of the Lamb and His Bride.

Like most marriages, this great wedding produces children.  Only the marriage of the Lamb and His Bride, the Church, produces children not by the will of the flesh, but by the will of God, borne out in Holy Baptism.   In a sense, you could even say that Baptism is the garment that we now wear.  In ancient times a child was baptized naked and then received a white garment, to show the white robe of righteousness given in Baptism.  We don’t do that anymore, but it is a good picture.

So who comes to the wedding?  Who is invited?  Who receives this gift of forgiveness of sins, life and salvation given by these holy waters and won by blood on the mountain?  Everyone is invited.  As our hymn put so eloquently:

A multitude comes from the east and

To sit at the feast of salvation

With Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

Obeying the Lord’s invitation.

Have mercy upon us, O Jesus! (LSB 514:1)

Everyone is invited.  But even more, everyone is offered the garment of salvation in Holy Baptism.  God plays no favorites.  He is not unfair or mean.  He invites one and all, and He gives what is required.  God’s Son, Jesus, paid the price on the mountain so that you could sit at this feast of salvation.  If some refuse God’s gracious invitation, then that is their own doing, not His.

But this day the feast is before us!  God has come into our midst.  He loves a wedding, and He wants you as the honored guest at the feast.  Come to the waters, you who are weary.  Come to the Table, you who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Come to the mountain, you who long for what only God can give.  Come to the wedding.  Everything is prepared.  Come to the Feast!

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