The Timing of God (Easter 5c, 2013)

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Easter 5c, 2013

Easter5c-2013.mp3

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

Ask any craftsman and they will tell you how much work it is to ply their trade. Hours of labor, callouses on the body and the mind. It doesn’t matter if the trade is woodworking or cars or computer programming, the bottom line is time and work.

Ask any creative type, and they will tell you very much the same. Music, art, dance, writing, the answer is still there. There is no replacing real, hard work. Ask our musicians who prepare our services week after week and they’ll tell you.

The same could be said for sports, or war, for good things or evil, for small acts of great care and large, sweeping works of history. But perhaps we should even use Jesus’ example of the ultimate creative endeavor: motherhood. In the midst of it, motherhood is, well, it’s a lot of painful work. Especially the actual process of birththing a child. There is, as Jesus put it, “much sorrow” behind giving birth. It hurts. But there is joy that a life has been brought into the world. Paul would later use the same analogy to say that all of creation is in the pains of childbirth, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

So if this is the picture, childbirth, of our journey to heaven, then why is it that we are surprised when the Christian life is painful and fraught with peril? That is the question our risen Lord puts before us this day.

We are strange, fickle creatures when it comes to matters of faith and life. It is easy to look down upon others as lacking wisdom or understanding because they have not “paid their dues”, yet not one of us would exclaim with St. Paul that we truly “rejoice in our sufferings.”

Why is it that we are so inconsistent when it comes to the Christian life? We are Christians, and yet act shocked when we suffer. We believe in the resurrection of the dead and eternal life, and yet live our lives as if God did not matter and we mattered most.

The answer, of course, is sin. Our sinful nature always wants things NOW. We always want things when we want it, the way we want it, and exactly how we want it. So Jesus’ talk this morning about “a little while” comes as a bit of a shock to our system. When you are in the midst of sorrow and heartache, your world becomes small. Everything, everything, centers around your hurts. You can hardly believe that there is anything beyond what you are feeling right at that moment. It is very hard to imagine that others suffer as you do. That is the nature of suffering and hardship, and that is why it is such a trial for Christians.

So what Jesus does for us this morning is give us a little lesson in time management. Oh, I’m not talking about time management like the world thinks of it. In the world, managing time really comes down to making every instant count for the most it possibly can. To the world, because time is short, everything has to happen right away, and every instant must be squeezed of every last bit of energy.

But it is not so in the kingdom of God. What Jesus does is point us to this simple, beautiful reality that all things are in God’s hands, even time itself. What may feel like an eternity here is in the scale of things, a little while. Your hardship is as nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed to the sons and daughters of the King.

That is the miracle of what our Lord gives to you this day. He gives you the gift of time. That doesn’t mean you have an extra hour in the day to dedicate to the hamster wheel of life as we know it. No, what Jesus is saying is that you don’t have to be on the wheel at all. He is saying that there is a new heaven and a new earth that is coming (Rev. 21:1). Jesus hear holds up this great and glorious picture of what will happen to time itself. “Behold, I am making all things new,” He says.

So what does this mean for you here and now, dearly baptized? It means this. Jesus Christ has forgiven you all your sins and drawn you into His loving embrace. Your old way of life, the way of sorrow that means trying to eek out a meager existence, where you can barely cling to what you have, far less get ahead, that way is coming to an end. For now God dwells with His people. God Himself will wipe every tear from your eye, and even that greatest time-enemy of all, death itself, death has been destroyed by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

“It is done!” He says. “And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.” (Revelation 21:4–7 ESV)

This is what is going on at the altar of God here time after time, week after week. It is as if heaven itself were opened and we get a glimpse into the eternal portal of life with God. Here, in this Sacrament, time is consumed and everything is one great eternal now. Now God dwells with His people. Now you are at peace with God, for God is at peace with you. Now Jesus delivers you His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Now the new song of salvation rings forth in all the world.

So come, you who are wearied by the changes and chances of life, come to the Table. Come, you who time seems to have crushed beneath its great weight, and God will make all things new. Come, for in a little while all of this will be over and the new heavens and new earth will be revealed once and for all. Come, it is all for you. Come, for all things are new.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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

On our Motivations for Good Works

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Fork in the road sign

On of my dear cyber-friends, Katie Schuermann, just posted a provocative and wonderful article about the question of adoption and her own motivations for desiring to adopt a child.  I would encourage you to read it.

I will leave the fertility/infertility/adoption question for another time right now. But she brings up an extremely important point that I think is worth our consideration. Why do we do what we do as Christians? What is our motivation for good works, and what are we to do when we feel like our motivation for a certain action (in this case, adoption) is less than pure or even tainted with sin?

Katie writes,

I want to adopt, because I am a guilty sinner, a people pleaser, and a selfish barren woman. I am so gross.

Yet, even in my grossness, my husband and I still think of adopting. It is the question we ask ourselves every month, and every month, thus far, we come up with the same answer: not today. The green light we currently see before us seems to lead straight towards serving our neighbors in our church and in our community. Our hand continually hovers over our turn signal, but the left-turn arrow still shines a stubborn red.

In all of the questioning and the hovering and the waiting, it helps me to remember this comforting truth: whether my husband and I adopt a child or not, the Lamb of God covers my grossness with His precious, redeeming blood. Christ is my salvation. Only He can truly assuage my guilt. And only He can give me the gift of child.

Thy will, Lord, not mine.

God bless you and your dear husband, Katie. These are terribly difficult decisions that I will not presume to answer for you or anyone.

So as I read Katie’s article (quoted in part above) a part of the anxiety seems to be fear of acting from impure motivations.  That’s what I’d like to address briefly.

The more one grows in faith, the more aware one is of their wretchedness and inability to do anything right or from pure motivations. As Saint Paul wrote,

“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Romans 7:18 ESV)

If, then, I am continually full of sin and my motivations are always mixed, what does this mean for me as I go about determining how to serve my neighbor? There are two parts to that answer:

  1. What it means is that I continually flee to Christ and His mercy for forgiveness and peace. I will continue to sin this side of the grave, and Christ will continue to forgive me and embrace me with His grace. This is the very heartbeat of the Christian faith.  Katie does a nice job of highlighting this at the end of her article.
  2. My reasons for wanting to do or not do something are always secondary to the question of “how may I serve my neighbor“? Knowing that God is going to use even my bad motivations in service to my neighbor, what will actually be of service to them? And since we always have multiple neighbors and this is at best an imperfect process, I make the best decision I can, move forward, and ask God to forgive me however I may mess up.

I don’t know if this helps or not, but this is how I try to approach the “how, then, shall we live” sort of questions.

+Pastor Todd Peperkorn

Original Article Referenced:

To Adopt or Not to Adopt | He Remembers the Barren

Jesus and Fishing (Easter 3c, 2013)

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Easter IIIc (April 14, 2013)

easter3c-2013

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

Jesus has risen from the dead. The apostles have seen Him not once, but twice. Maybe even more. Even Thomas has acknowledged Him with the words, “My Lord and my God.” So now what are the disciples supposed to do? Wait. They are to wait until Pentecost, when they will receive power from on High. So like any good Jew from the shores of the Sea of Tiberias, Peter and his friends go fishing.

A lot of life is about waiting for something to happen, isn’t it? Any time there is a big event in your life, there is some kind of a waiting period afterwards, where you have to digest what this really means. A graduation, getting married, having a child, job change, and of course, the ultimate change would probably be death itself. Experts will tell you not to make any big decisions after one of these life changing events, because your judgment may be impaired. You may not be completely making sense at the time.

So they go out and go fishing. All night they fish. All night they ply at their trade, which for many of them had been their very livelihood for most of their lives. Jesus called out to them three years before and said, “Follow me.” Well, Jesus has risen from the dead, but He isn’t there in the flesh to follow. So they go back to what they know, and wait.

Our text then says the following, “They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.” (John 21:3 ESV) It seems that even though Jesus had risen from the dead, they still couldn’t provide for themselves on their own. Do you remember that episode near the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when He tells them to go fishing and they don’t get anything? This has happened before to them.

But this isn’t just about them. It is about you. You are baptized, or Lord willing you will be. You have eternal life as your inheritance. You have the very kingdom of God as your possession. You have the ear of the King and the Son of God Himself calls you brother or sister. It is all yours in Christ. But you still can’t catch any fish without Him.

Now I’m not talking about fishing here, not really. I’m talking about the day to day way that you live your life. It is tempting, oh so tempting, for the Christian to put Jesus in a box and want Him to come out for an hour on Sunday, but then to put Him back in the box and keep Him on the shelf until some kind of emergency happens. Maybe it should be a glass box and have a label on it, “If things get really bad, break this glass!”

What we do by nature, time and time again, is try to go it alone. We continue to try and make it so that we don’t need Jesus. Prayer remains a last resort tactic. Hearing God’s Word and receiving His forgiveness and counsel, well, let’s just say that it is not a priority in our lives. It was true for Peter and the disciples. It is true for you and me.

But notice what happens next. Jesus appears to them, but they don’t know it is Him. Hear again this little interchange:

“Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.” (John 21:4–6 ESV)

There wasn’t anything special about the right side of the boat. That wasn’t the point. The point was that Jesus instructed them to do it. His Word and promise are sure and certain. Even when they don’t make sense. And if we are honest with ourselves, sometimes Jesus’ Word and promise don’t make sense.

But His call still goes out, “Follow me.” Jesus calls you to follow Him in a life of service to your neighbor. Why? Because He has served you even to death itself. Because of everything our Lord has done for you, you are free to live not for yourself, but for those around you who need you.

You see, beloved, God’s mercy extends to all. What may look like a waste of time or failure to you may be exactly what your neighbor needs to hear and see and know and experience. I’m confident that Peter wasn’t happy about working all night and getting nothing. But without Peter’s failure, they would not seen the mercy of God in providing for them, body and soul.

In your weakeness and need, God provides for those around you. This frees you to be human, to suffer and be in want and not be ashamed. Why? Because Jesus’ death and resurrection points the way.

Eventually Peter and the other disciples knew the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread and the fish. Eventually they would cast out the net of God’s Word into the deep, and it would bring forth a harvest, a Church full of weak sinners redeemed by Christ the Crucified. You are a part of that harvest. It doesn’t happen because Peter was such a great fisherman. The Word doesn’t go out because of the power of the preacher, but because of the promise of the Lord.

That promise is yours today. Come, be in the boat which is His Church. Receive our Lord’s body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, for life, and for salvation. God in His mercy has caught you in His net, and it is a good place to be.

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.

 

 

Peace be with you (Easter 2c, 2013)

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Easter 2c (April 7, 2013)

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

John 20:19-31

easter2c-2013.mp3

TITLE: “Peace be with you”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from John 20, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

You have in the Gospel lesson today a wonderful picture of the tenderness and love of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who rose from the dead. Put yourself in the place of the disciples for a bit, and you will see how much God loves you and only wants to forgive your sins and bring you the peace which surpasses all understanding.

The disciples were gathered together in the upper room for fear of the Jews. They had heard the resurrection story. The women had even seen the Risen Lord. But there was still this nagging fear. What would Jesus response be to them? After all, how had they done in their commitment to the Lord and His message? Frankly, they hadn’t done very well. In fact, they had all rejected him and fled from the scene. In the face of fear and opposition from the Jews, their friends and relatives, they had left Jesus to die the death of a common criminal, without a friend or a loved one to even stay with him to the bitter end.

But Jesus had risen from the dead! And now the question was before them: what will Jesus do? Now that’s a question, or one very similar to it, that you hear asked a lot. There is even still the remnants of a popular movement that seeks to ask that question. When faced with a moral or ethical dilemma, they want you to ask the question, what would Jesus do?

Of course, that is a completely Law question. Consider your place according to the 10 Commandments, and you will both learn what Jesus would do AND that you fail constantly. As a sinner from birth, there is no doubt that you fail in the quest for perfection. Gossip, slander, theft, covetousness, adultery by thought, word and deed, even hatred or worse fill your thoughts and minds. You may not admit it to others, but it is the truth as sure as you sit in the pew today. You are no better than the disciples who abandoned Jesus so many years ago.

They were afraid. They were afraid that their hopes were lost. But perhaps even more, they were afraid that He was God and that they had abandoned Him to die. What could be worse than abandoning the Son of God to die, only to have Him come back? What would be His response?

If you take sin seriously and believe that it is your sin which caused Jesus’ death on the cross, this is a question you simply must ask of yourself. How does God look you, a sinner? Does He judge you according to the Law and condemn, or does He judge you by looking at His Son and forgiving your sins for Jesus sake?

It is very easy to toss this question away as a no-brainer. Of course God loves me. Of course God forgives my sins. But the nagging doubts will come back at the worst times. Death and heartache brings it out. Broken relationships, painful lives and all of the thousand other things which afflict us all can bring doubt and fear to the front.

This is what the disciples faced that evening of the resurrection. This is what you face as a sinner from birth who needs God’s love and forgiveness. And that is what Jesus comes to give this very day. Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

God gives peace by His Word. He shows them His hands and His side, but it is finally His Word that creates faith and gives the peace which the world cannot give. For you see, the Word of God which created the world and everything in it creates faith in your heart and gives you the peace which is beyond understanding. That is the joy of Easter. That is the miracle of the Christian faith.

Jesus loves you with an everlasting love. He tenderly invites you to believe in Him and His forgiveness. He gives you a pastor to speak that Word of Absolution to you. He gives you His very body and blood in His Holy Supper to forgive you and draw you into His presence.

I think that is what is so difficult to understand about Jesus’ words, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. God defines both the Christian Church and the Holy Ministry. They are about forgiving and retaining sins. Nothing more, nothing less. This is why John says at the end of our text, these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

God creates faith and gives you peace by forgiving your sins. And He uses the most earthy and mundane things in the whole world to accomplish this great and wonderful task. He uses pastors. Common sinners, with all the faults and foibles and weaknesses that every sinner has. He uses words. Just words, that in our day and age are there and gone in the blink of an eye. He uses common wine and bread. He uses common water. But with the breath of God’s life in them, these common things are not so common after all. For when attached to God’s Word and promise, these common things bring you life and peace that does not exist anywhere else. These common things are the tools that God uses to give you faith, the faith that moves mountains, the faith that brings you through this life and into eternal life.

We don’t have to ask the question, what would Jesus do? While it may be an important question in some ways, it ultimately misses the point. The really important questions are, what did Jesus do when He died on the cross, and what does Jesus do even today? He forgives you. He gives you peace. He makes you His own for all eternity. Believe it for His sake. Amen.

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

Sermon revised from 2002.

The Mind of God (Palm/Passion Sunday 2013)

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Palm Sunday 2013 (March 24, 2013)
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California

palmarum2013.mp3

TITLE: “The Mind of God”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for today is the Epistle just read from Philippians chapter two, as well as the Gospel from St Luke chapter 23.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” So Paul begins this beautiful section of this Epistle. God is His mercy through St. Paul calls us to have the mind of Christ. But what does that really mean?

What St. Paul is talking about is really asking the question first of why God created us, and secondly, of what we are to make of our lives here on earth as His children. As we enter into Holy Week and suffer our Lord’s death with Him, that is a question really worth asking. What is the point of all these readings and celebrations of our Lord’s death and resurrection? Here is what Martin Luther had to say about it in the Large Catechism:

Why did God create us? “For He has created us for this very object, that He might redeem and sanctify us; and in addition to giving and imparting to us everything in heaven and upon earth, He has given to us even His Son and the Holy Spirit, by whom to bring us to Himself.” – Large Catechism (Martin Luther)

Let’s put it this way. God didn’t create us in order to DO something. He created us first in order to BE something. Now don’t get me wrong. We have all kinds of things to do here on earth. But our lives are far more significant than a do-to list for you to check off at the end of each day. We are so easily caught up in this mindset. Productivity and efficiency are very popular words, even in churches.

But that is not why God created you. Hear again those words from St. Paul, “Have this mind among yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus…” Did you catch that? The mind of Christ is yours already. It is what God gave to you in Holy Baptism, when He gave you His Son and the Holy Spirit. What this means is that you ARE God’s child, first and foremost. It is that which shapes what you do in service to your neighbor.

Think of it like this. You don’t start a family and have children so that they will do things for you. If the reason we have children is in order to have cheap servants, well, then it isn’t a very good investment. No, we don’t get married and start families because want want to get something from it. Not finally, at least. The reason we are families is because that is who we are. We have children because, well, because we love them and we want to care for them and give to them as God has given to us.

So our text here from Philippians gives us an important insight into the nature of God. Jesus did not think equality with God is a thing to be grasped. Striving and working toward becoming a better person, even reaching up to god’s divine nature, that’s not the point. The Christian faith isn’t a self-improvement program or a better community service plan. No, God has way, way bigger plans than a little self-help. Rather, our text says, Jesus made himself nothing. Literally it is that he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant or slave. And He was born in the likeness of men.

So when Jesus took on our human form, He because a servant. Even more, He became your servant. And He became obedient, to the point of death itself. The very essence of the Gospel, the very throbbing heart of the Christian faith, is that God serves you, loves you and cares for you above all else.

So because of God’s great love and care for you, He sent His Son, Jesus, who took on this form of a servant and became obedient to the point of death on a cross. When we hear the story of our Lord’s suffering and death, this simple, beautiful reality must always be the motif, the theme that runs through every verse and every hearing of our Lord’s Passion. For you. For you. Always and evermore for you.

Hear Luther’s words again on this:

In the heart of God you will find a divine, good, fatherly heart. As Christ says, you will be drawn to the Father through Christ. Then you will understand what Christ meant when He said, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). This is how we know God as He wants us to know Him. We donʼt know Him by His power and wisdom, which terrify us, but by His goodness and love. There our faith and confidence stand unmovable. This is how a person is truly born again in God. (From Luther’s “How to Meditate on the Passion of Christ”)

This Holy Week we will hear anew God’s great love toward wayward sinners like you and me. We will hear how’s God’s love and service to you goes even unto death. So come now and receive the Testament of His love in His Son’s body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins. Come and find refuge in Him, for He has given His Name and His very life for you, so that you might dwell with Him forever.

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.