Grace Words (Epiphany IIIc, 2013)

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[This sermon was preached at Kramer Chapel on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on January 30, 2013]

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Our Lord begins His ministry in Nazareth with the following words from Isaiah 61:

““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”” (Luke 4:18–19 ESV)

Everything in our Lord’s life and death and life again is bound up in setting us free from the bondage of sin and death. For make no mistake about it: you are held captive by sin and death, you are blind to the mercy of God before your very eyes, you are downtrodden and smushed under the weight of guilt, and you are broken. You need a divine reset button. No, more than that. You need resurrection. Nothing less will do.

These words from Isaiah point to the simple reality that God does all these things by His Word, His only-begotten Son in the flesh. “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears,” Jesus says to them. All of it, erasing the guilt of sin and consoling those burdened by their brokeness, all of it is Jesus great and mighty work.

In fact, the people get this right. They marvel at the “gracious words” coming from His mouth. Now I don’t know about you, but when I think about something or someone as gracious, I think of someone giving out an extra dessert at dinner. That’s gracious! But this is far more than that. It is literally grace words or words of grace.

When we talk about our Lord’s life and ministry among His people, it is above all a word of grace. God’s love for you, His wayward children, comes not because of your great deeds or thoughts or feelings for him. Now, His great love for you comes to you because that is who He is. He is the Grace Word who brings that Word of Grace to the poor and downtrodden, the suffering and in need, the brokenhearted and those who are just plain broken.

But it is strange how hard it is to hear grace words. The people of Nazareth marveled at Him, until they realized His grace words weren’t only for them. His grace words are for all, not just the Jews. Our Lord reminds them of this with two episodes in the lives of the prophets, Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, and Elisha with Naaman the Syrian general. In both those stories they were outside of God’s chosen people. One of them could even be considered an enemy! And yet God’s grace word is extended to them. Why? They needed it, and God’s promises never just stay in one place. Grace words are always moving, always spreading when and where He wills them to go.

It was at this point that Jesus’ homecoming sermon, well, it takes a turn for the worse. When the people heard that God’s grace was for those stinking foreigners, in their anger they drove Him out of town, and were prepared to throw Him off of a cliff.

So what is it that angered them? What angered them was that they didn’t have a monopoly on God’s grace words. Jesus’ ministry of grace went out and it kept on going. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, out out out to the uttermost parts of the earth. And yes, those grace words were meant for Nazareth, too. And California. And yes, even Fort Wayne.

Ultimately, it isn’t the Law that raises the ire of the people. It is the grace words. God’s love for His wayward children is irrational. It’s bizarre. Why would He forgive all of them? Like rebellious children always vying for their parents’ attention, we limit God, we are afraid that God’s love is going to run out, and that we will end up getting the short end of the grace stick. We still believe the lie of Satan. We still cling to that old nortion that God is holding out on us somehow. We fear that God’s love cannot be for you or for me.

But God’s love for you will never run out. It is His very nature to love, for He is love incarnate. He gives you a pledge and sign of that love in the grace words of His Testament. This is my body, this is my blood. His very love for you, always for you.

Your sins are released. Your death has been drowned. Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears, for you have heard the Word of Grace delivered to you, in your ear and on your tongue. Fix your eyes on Jesus now, for He comes for you.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

“Jesus Came to the Marriage” (Epiphany IIc, Jan. 20, 2013)

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epiphany3c-2013.mp3

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen. The sermon for this morning is based upon the Gospel of the Day from St. John chapter 2, and it is about God’s gift of marriage.

We’re going to play a little game here at the beginning of this sermon to see if you’re paying attention. Everyone close your eyes. Now raise your hands if you have a perfect marriage, where you and your spouse never fight, your children are well behaved, and life clips along smoothly all the time. You can open your eyes now.

I am sorry to tell you that Holy Cross Lutheran Church is full of messed up marriages. Surprised? Me neither. Marriages have been messed up since Adam and Eve. Because of our fallen nature, it frankly comes with the territory. Husbands and wives fight and quarrel with each other. Children are disobedient and rebellious. In one fashion or another, we all demonstrate this sinful nature that lurks within us. Sometimes you can’t see it directly, but all of the problems of our lives really prove this to be true.

That’s the Law talking to you. The Law shows you that you are a sinner, and it does this either directly through His Word, or indirectly by pointing to you to all of the problems and messes of your life. This is not how God wants the world to be. This is not how God wants your life to be.

This is all reflected in that little phrase from our text, they ran out of wine. Now you may be thinking to yourself that this is hardly on the same level of a problem as divorce, or death, or the myriad other problems that families face the world over. I mean, come on, they just ran out of wine. What’s the big deal?
The big deal is that God loves you and wants to show His gifts upon you, yes, even wine. And yet time and time again, our resources as husbands and wives and families come up short. There isn’t enough money to stretch on the bills. I don’t have enough time to spend with my family. And yet you are stuck. If you work less, you can’t provide. If you work more, what’s the point? You can’t win. Sin has us so wrapped up in this world that it very hard to see your way out of the quicksand at times.

They ran out of wine. At a wedding, running out of wine is a problem. A marriage is a gift from God and a thing of beauty in His eyes. For that, God gifts of Himself and His great creation to us. But because of our sin, we run out. Our work and effort can only take us so far, and sooner or later, they fail. Every single time. They fail when it comes to smaller things like not having the resources to buy the right kind of wine for the wedding, all the way up to wrecked marriages and even death. You can’t do it. That’s what God’s Law says to you.

But Jesus came to the marriage. There is incredible comfort in those words, aren’t there? If anyone can save our failed lives, spent resources, and save us from the chaos and wrecks that seem to trail after us, it is Christ Himself. Heaven knows that no one else can help.

Yet that is exactly what He does. Like this unnamed couple in our Gospel reading for today, Jesus enters into your lives. He does not enter into the lives where everything is shiny and happy and pretty and perfect. We all try to put on that front from time to time. God knows better. No, He enters into your life precisely because it is messed up. He comes into your world because you can’t get yourself out of your world.
In the Gospel, Jesus provides for their needs when the least expected it. Who would think that the Almighty God would use something as common as water to bring joy and happiness to a marriage? And yet that is exactly what He does. He takes the common things of this life, the most ordinary and humble, and through them brings about something that is miraculous. Imagine a wedding feast where the wine was created by God Himself! Now that is a good vintage.

As miraculous as that miracle is for them, it doesn’t hold a candle to the miracle that God does for you in His Holy Supper. Here at His wedding banquet, He gives you the finest bread and the richest of wines, for the bread which He gives is His body, and the wine which He gives is His very blood. He gives this to you not finally to make the trials and struggles of this life better. No, He gives this body and blood to you so that you may come and be a part of His eternal banquet. He gives this to you so that you feast not just for this life, but for all eternity.

So what about your marriage? What about all of these problems that you face today, like trials and struggles with money and time, family stress, medical problems, and whatever other crosses you may face. What does God do for them?

For these problems He gives you many things. For of all, He gives you faith so that you can look at these crosses in perspective. All of these trials will come to an end. They are just for a time. So no matter what the problem is, when it is viewed from the perspective of eternity, God gives you the strength to carry on.

But He also gives you something else. In our Gospel today God says to you that marriage, and everything which comes with it, husbands and wives and children, that marriage is blessed by God. Jesus came to the marriage.

And He comes to yours this day and every day. So when you are frustrated with your wife for nagging at you, when you are angry at your husband for being so lazy, and when you children are exasperated with your parents for being so demanding, and when you parents and mad at your children, know this: you are doing God’s work in that place. As a husband or wife, as a father or mother, as a son or daughter, God is at work in your life. For you see, you are God’s instrument, His hands and feet in that house.

There is great comfort in that. A task is easier to handle if you know that someone cares about what you do. Well, I am here to tell you today that God cares. More than that, though, God is actually a part of your life, especially when things are tough. He will not abandon you. Just like Jesus came to that young couple so long ago and turned their sorrow into joy, so He will see you through the crosses and trials of your life so that you may join Him at that great eternal heavenly banquet feast. 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.

Eight Years

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+ Susan Marie (Troy) Peperkorn +

1947-2005

I remember getting the phone call the night my mom died eight years ago.  I assume is was from my father, although I honestly don’t remember for sure.  I was on my way to the airport at the time.  He had called a couple hours before to say that she had had an aneurism, and was in the hospital, and that I needed to get there right away.  One of the many wonderful and generous people at Messiah had the extra miles to get me a flight immediately.  My father-in-law (who was visiting) drove me to the airport.  We were in the car when my dad called to say she had died.

The flight, not surprisingly, was numb.  All I remember was that I listened to Dvorak’s Requiem while I was on the plane.  My sister picked me up at the airport in Des Moines.  It was late, and we (of course) were in the middle of a snow storm.  One of her wonderful friends drove me/us.

The week was mostly a blur.  Heart ripping grief, unresolved feelings of anger and miscommunication, hope in the resurrection.  It was all there and more.  All hemmed in by bitter cold and snow.  Appropriate, I’m sure.

Eight years later the grief is less raw, but the sadness is no less.  I think about how my own children will never really know her.  My oldest was only 4 when she died.  My two youngest weren’t even born yet.

But today I am thankful for the resurrection of the dead.  And for the verse from Isaiah:

 “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”” (Isaiah 25:6–9 ESV)

Two things have always struck me about those verses.  The first is that my mom loved the mountains.  She was a Colorado snow bunny from way back, growing up on the Western slopes in Grand Junction.  She was never really far from the mountains.  They were home for her.

The second is that she loved steak.  Strange, I know.  But she did.  She would often have steak early in the morning for breakfast.  It’s not that often that you get such a smell associated with breakfast.

So when I see this picture of salvation and the resurrection, it reminds me how much at home she is/will be on the Last Day.  The mountain of the Lord is for her.  He is most comfortable on the mountain, for that is where His love is shown most clearly for us, his wayward children.

So hug your mother today for me.  And if you are of a mind, have a little steak.  It will be good for you.  Think of it as a confession of the resurrection.

-Todd Peperkorn

January 10, 2013

 

Mom shoes

The Song of Simeon (Christmas 1, 2012)

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Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
Rev. Todd Peperkorn
Christmas 1 (Dec. 30, 2012)
Luke 2:22-32

TITLE: “The Song of Simeon”

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. Luke chapter 2. Let us pray:

O God, our Maker and Redeemer, You wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of Your Son yet more wondrously restored our human nature. Grant that we may ever be alive in Him who made Himself to be like us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

I’ve always liked this reading after Christmas. It is the picture of a man who is waiting to die. Now don’t think of this as morbid. Simeon was given a promise by God that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s anointed one. So like so many others we heard about this past Advent, Simeon was waiting. He was waiting for the “consolation of Israel,” our text says. In fact, this whole Song of Simeon is packed with rich, Gospel words. So let’s take a look at them. In fact, open your hymnal up to page 165 so that you can follow along.

Depart
This translation has us starting with “let go in peace.” When I was growing up, it was “Depart in peace.” We still sing it that way in Divine Service 3. Really none of those quite get it. The word means release. It’s also the word we often translate as “forgive.” God’s forgiveness is tied up with our desire to let go of this fallen world and embrace the resurrection of the dead. Like Simeon, we need not fear anything, not even death itself. Why? Because God has released us from the bonds of sin and death in this little babe of Bethlehem.

Salvation
Next we see the word “salvation”. Now that is a good church word, isn’t it? But what does it mean? Salvation. Literally, it means healing. Can you see the word “salve” in “salvation”? Salvation, save, heal, they are all one and the same idea. God has prepared the healing of the nations in the sight of the whole world. The babe, our Lord Jesus Christ, He is presented here before the whole world as the medicine of immortality. He is salvation, for only in Him can we receive the healing that we need.

Revelation
The next word is “revelation”. Jesus is the light of the world that the darkness cannot understand. He is the one that enlightens us. He is the only one that can give true understanding. We by nature are, well, we’re in the dark. We don’t get it. We don’t understand how God can both love the world and be so intolerant of sin. We don’t understand death, and everything that flows from it. There is so much we don’t get. There is so much we don’t understand. But in Christ we have revelation. We hear in the book of Hebrews, “In many and various ways God spoke to his people of old by the prophets, but now in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.” What this means is that everything we need to know about God we can find in Jesus. He is the light. I don’t look in the sunset or the tsunami. I look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For that is enough.

Glory
The last one is the word “glory”. If ever there was a misunderstood church word, this is it. When I think of glory, I usually think of the wonder and amazement and hero-worship that goes along with winning a football game. Or maybe a war. Glory and pride seem to go together in our world. Glory and might or power also seem to go together.

But here, glory doesn’t mean that. It really means the gracious presence of God with His people. God’s glory in the Old Testament was in the cloud on Mt. Sinai, in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. God’s glory meant that if you wanted to know where to find God, you don’t look in your heart, you looked right there, in the Temple. That’s where He promised to be.

And that’s where He is in our reading. Jesus is God in the flesh. Mary is, in a sense, the Temple preparing for the Temple not made with hands. In her womb the very glory of God dwelt.

And this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this word in the Christmas story, is it? We also heard the angels sing it to the shepherds. Glory to God in the highest and peace to His people on earth. God’s glory here is His holy and gracious presence with His people.

But notice who is on the receiving end of the glory in our text. Israel. Or the Church, if you will. We are the ones who receive the glory, the victory, the gracious presence of God. We sing “glory be to the Father” and then He turns around and gives the glory right back to us in His own body and blood.

This old man, Simeon, must have had quite the twinkle in his eye when he beheld our Lord in his lap. Heaven and earth could not contain His majesty and glory, yet here he is. The mystery of the word made flesh is right before his very eyes. Depart, salvation, revelation, glory. It’s all right there:

Depart in the peace of the forgiveness of sins.
Salvation or healing in the person of Jesus.
Revelation or understanding that can only come from God. And
Glory where God gives us the credit for all of his great work.

This, beloved, is why there is so much joy to be found in these words of Simeon. And we sing them every single week. These words, as our Epistle puts it, dwell in us richly. In these words we give thanks to God for all He has given to us in His Son.

It is an almost uniquely Lutheran tradition to sing the Song of Simeon at the end of our Holy Communion liturgy. But it is a really, really good one. For Simeon confesses for the whole church everything that we receive by eating his body and drinking his blood.

So come, receive the Christ-child this day, and sing with saints and angels, with Simeon and Anna and Mary and Joseph and all of heaven and earth. Christ our Lord has come to us even now. Rejoice and be glad!

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.