Lutheran Logomaniac

Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
Trinity 24 (November 18, 2012)
St. Matthew 9:18–26

For an audio version of this sermon,click on this: 11-18-2012sermon

TITLE: “Interrupted Healing”

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

You can imagine the father’s dread here, can’t you? In St. Luke’s version, we learn that the man’s name was Jairus. We don’t know his daughter’s name. We only know she was a young girl, about twelve years old. She is at the beginning of her journey, and far too young to have her life snuffed out. We don’t know why she was sick. We only know that she was dead, and Jairus, this ruler of the Jews, he will do anything to help his daughter, anything.

Jairus comes to Jesus, the great physician. He falls to his knees and begs Jesus to help, and wonder of wonders! Jesus agrees to help. There are times in all our lives that it seems like the first thing that needs to happen is we have to get God’s attention. Remember how our Old Testament reading starts off? Wake up, God! We’ve got needs here, and you’re not paying enough attention to us.

But things go terribly haywire for this father. While they are on their way to heal his daughter, Jesus is interrupted. It is a worthy interruption. A woman with a hemorrhage for twelve years touches Jesus’ garment, believing that God would heal her.

But this father , well, what he sees is that his daughter is dying or maybe even dead, and Jesus is stopping and acting like nothing is wrong. Don’t you know my daughter is dead? How can you wait? Why aren’t you running, Jesus? Get on with it, already!

There are times in our lives when it seems as though God has been interrupted in taking care of us. There is always someone more sick. There is always someone more broken or more in need. God may have started with me, but frankly, it seems like He gets awfully distracted at times. It is easy to convince ourselves that really we aren’t that important to God.

What are we to do? What are we to do when healing doesn’t happen as quickly as we’d like? What are we to do when things aren’t going according to our plan? The plan may be reasonable. It may make sense. It may even be good, taking everything into account that we know of. Sometimes we go to God with a proposal in our prayers, a plan on how things should go, and how He can fix things for you and I. Like the child coming to their parents with the greatest sleepover plan ever, we go to God, just knowing that He will see things our way. Not thy will, Lord, but MINE be done. But our plans, well, they never seem to quite work out, do they? We are not the first to have this experience.

Moses had a plan. Then along came a burning bush. I wonder if his plan included the Exodus and getting to the Promised Land?

David had a plan. Did it include becoming king? Did it include adultery with Bathsheba and murder?

Job had a plan. I’m pretty certain that Job’s plan didn’t include losing everything, almost life itself.

Then there’s Ruth. Did her plan include her husband dying and receiving Boaz as her kinsman-redeemer? I doubt it.

I wonder what Mary’s plan was, the mother of our Lord. Did she plan on bearing the Son of God in her womb while remaining a virgin? I think it’s fair to say that wasn’t how she thought her life work out.

Simon Peter had a plan. But when Jesus announced His impending suffering and death, Peter even went so far as to rebuke the very Son of God! Now that is confidence in your will over God’s will! Peter’s plan ended up going horribly awry, and it was all the better for it.

Even Jesus Himself had a plan. Remember His words in the Garden of Gethsemane? Not my will, but thine be done, Father. The Father’s plan brought about the salvation of the world, but it also included suffering, hardship, and yes, even death for the very Son of God.

But notice something important here. In every one of these cases, the plans they had made were nothing compared to the great plans God had made for them. And quite simply put, God’s plan was far, far better than anything they could have imagined. Remember again the words of our Lord,

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)

This is the thing, beloved. God has plans for you. God’s plans for you are, however, bigger and greater than you can possibly imagine. God has bigger plans for you than to heal your sicknesses of body, the weakness of your life. God has bigger plans for you than that. Much bigger. His plans for you are forgiveness, resurrection, communion with Him, and eternal life. His plans for you are amazing, beyond anything you or I can foresee of scheme or work out.

In the meantime, though, it still looks as though God’s plans have been interrupted. Healing takes longer than we’d like. Forgiveness, well, forgiveness just isn’t as obvious as I wish it was. I’m still sick. I’m still feeble. Things still aren’t going my way. Your life isn’t turning out like you expected it. What are you to do?

This, beloved, is why God gives you the Sacrament of the Altar, His very Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins. God gives you this Sacrament so that you can see, touch, smell and taste that the Lord is good, that His will is for your good, and that all things will work out according to His plan. Unsure of where to turn? Flee to Jesus. Don’t think God is on your side anymore? Flee to Jesus. Is death looming, so that you fear for what is coming? Flee to Jesus. In Him you have life, and hope, and a future that is secure and whole.

Jairus’ daughter was healed. More than healed. Jesus raised her from the dead. The world, the crowds laughed. They could not believe that Jesus could do something so great, so amazing as that. But God’s plans are so wonderful, so amazing that the world cannot even fathom it. It laughs at your hope, and scorns your faith in a hidden God who reveals Himself when and where He will.

But no matter. God has your future firmly in hand. A resurrection is coming. Your body will change. Your life will be renewed. You will enter into the eternal rest with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. Taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Blessed are you who trust in Him.

Believe if 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.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for today is the parable of the wedding feast from St. Matthew chapter 22.

When it comes to grace and the kingdom of God, we are all skeptics. How can grace and eternal life be free? How is it that God would give us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation with nary a thought for his own well-being? Surely there is a catch. Surely God wouldn’t just give everything away. What kind of a God is that? We even hear this a bit in our Old Testament reading for the day:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”(Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV)

When we think about God’s thoughts not being our thoughts, what we gravitate toward is all of the terrible things that happen in this life. How can God want cancer, or tragedy, or natural disasters, or war, or the many other things that so define us and hem us in here in this life? Surely God cannot want such things! Surely God is not like that, is He?

While it is true that there are many things we do not understand this side of heaven, the one characteristic of God that we really, truly do not understand is grace. What is grace, you might ask. Grace is God’s underserved love toward us for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Grace means that God loves you, no matter what. Grace means that God is always, ALWAYS on your side, that He is always looking out for you, guarding you and keeping you. Grace means that God’s commitment to you is beyond anything you can even understand.

Now our heavenly Father knows how dense we are when it comes to understanding grace and mercy. He knows this, and so He uses parables to hide and to reveal, to get us outside ourselves and our own fallen way of thinking. He uses parables to show you how crazy God’s love is for you. So here’s the story for today.

It’s a crazy story. I know. Who would believe such a deal? Come, we have the most beautiful house for you. It is huge, with high-vaulted ceilings. Oh, and the utility company has agreed to waive all billing. There’s a yard, and a pool, and we made special arrangements so that you can control the temperature both inside the house and outside. It’s a perk we’re starting to throw in to all the new houses. This house will be more than you could ever want for all the days of your life. There’s no home owners association. This place is a peach. I can’t believe it’s still on the market. It is an amazing house.

And the price, you say? Well, we are having a special deal right now. If you act now, the price, well, how can I say this. It’s free. Yes, that’s right. Absolutely free. No ginzu knives. No tricks or gimmicks. The house is yours. Free. The last people I offered this house to, well, the last people thought free was too expensive. They were afraid that if I started to give this house to them, what would I give to the next guy who came in looking for a house? What would the neighborhood turn into if I started giving away houses willy nilly? I mean really. Think of what kind of neighbors you could end up with.

It’s crazy. I know. If you were to be offered such a deal, you would think that the realtor had lost it for good. What kind of a commission do you get on free? What’s in it for them? Surely this must be some kind of trick. Surely there are hidden fees that are hundreds of thousands of dollars. Surely this will end up costing more than anything else.

But no. There is nothing hidden. It’s all right there. It’s free.

And this realtor is persistent. They are not going to be satisfied until you either take this house or kill them for trying to give it to you! Now that’s persistence. But there it is.

Oh, and one more thing. In this house, you have to wear this white bathrobe. I know it’s silly. Trust me on this. You have to wear this white robe, but here’s the deal. I’m going to give you the robe, too.

Now if you got an offer like this, you would have to be nuts to take it, wouldn’t you? I mean really. Nobody offers you a deal like that. Nobody. Everyone has an angle. Everyone has some way that they are going to get their piece of the pie. We are all skeptics when it comes to something that is free.

But not God. God comes down here with this hare-brained notion that you, yes you, that you should have a mansion in the heavenly places. He comes down here and gives and gives and gives and gives until you can hardly even believe it’s true.

What kind of a God is that? Aren’t gods supposed to be stern and somewhat condescending? Isn’t God supposed to be mean? That’s what the world would have you believe. God is judgmental, and basically doesn’t want you to have any fun. That’s what church is to many people. Church is the place where they tell you what to do so that your life can be tired and wearisome.

But it is not so. Our heavenly Father has great plans for you. Plans for your good, and not for evil. He has plans for you that go far beyond anything you can even imagine. These gifts which He comes to give to you are just that, gifts. There’s no “or else” behind these gifts. Everything that He expects of you, He gives to you.

I know your inclination. I know your fear. You look at this house, this mansion in the heavenly places which God has prepared for you. You look at this and think it’s too good to be true. Free? Really? Yet there it is. Right before your eyes. Believe it.

Now there is another temptation that you and I face before God’s crazy generosity. Maybe we accept the free gift of the heavenly mansion. But there we start to cast our eyes around. So if He’s giving me this great place, what’s He giving everyone else? What if God is holding out on me? What if this free mansion, which looks so great, what if it is really an old shack compared to everyone else’s homes?

And so we start to look. And to measure. And to scheme and plot and plan and wonder and get incredibly bent out of shape over what? Maybe God isn’t just generous to me. Maybe God is generous to others, too. Maybe God really loves them more than he does me. And they don’t actually deserve to be in that mansion which God has given to them. And in our house-measuring, and judging of one another, we forget one really important point. It’s all a gift. Every bit of it, from start to finish. It’s a gift for you, and for your neighbor, your friends and your enemies. There are houses enough for all, and room to spare. We can’t measure God’s love and mercy and generosity. All we can do is receive it, and rejoice that this crazy topsy turvy world is in God’s hands, not ours.

So here’s the bottom line, plain and simple. God loves you. Every one of you. He longs for you to come and join and have a place in His heavenly home. It’s all free. You don’t deserve it and neither do it. But God is rich in mercy. He has it all setup for you. Everything is ready at this banquet feast. It’s all yours. It’s all free. Come, join the party.

In Jesus’ holy name. Amen.

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

For an audio of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “God Working All Things for Good”

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: “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?

Right before our text as St. Luke records it, we hear that Jesus often went off by Himself to pray. It was especially in preparation for visits like this that Jesus needs the strength of the Word of God sanctified by prayer. While Jesus is on the way, he crosses over the Sea of Galilee in a boat, and lands in His own city of Nazareth. There some friends bring a man who is paralyzed to see Jesus. In other versions of this text, we hear how these men actually lowered their friend through the roof, by removing the tiles of the roof. We see their persistence paid off, for they had brought their friend to the right place for healing. They brought him to Jesus.

There is something terribly lonely about being sick, especially when you are seriously ill, so that you can hardly move, hardly even have the energy to read a book, talk on the phone, or engage in that most passive all activities, watching television. When you are sick, you are stuck. Here you are, in this bed, and there isn’t a thing you can do about it. You are trapped. But this bed you lie in that should be a source of comfort, which should symbolize home for you, is really for you a bed of pain. Many of you have been there. Others can imagine it. How is it that God can let you end up in such dire straits? If we can imagine the self-reflection and loneliness from being sick, how much more so would that be to be paralyzed. Trapped in your own body, unable to move. Today we would have lots of scientific explanations for it, but in Jesus’ day, it would have been much simpler: he was cursed.

It is at this point, when things could hardly get worse it would appear, that the Scriptures often point us to the value and need of prayer. David once confessed in prayer, I will water my couch with tears. There are times when the loneliness of sickness, heartache and helplessness get the best of us all. Even King David. Jesus Himself wept for Lazarus, and even for Himself and for us all with tears of blood at the Garden of Gethsemane.

This man’s friends bring him to Jesus, the One who makes all things right. They bring him to Jesus, and pray that He would heal their friend. Now this is the wonderful and dangerous thing about prayer. God always answers with more than we asked for. God loves to answer prayer. He delights in it. He revels in answering your prayers more than a father or mother does in helping their own children. God is gleeful at the thought of you coming to Him with your needs, fears, and sorrows. He is gleeful, because He sees right through you. He knows your real needs. He knows that underneath all of the muck of your life, all of the trials, all of the things that you face each and every day, that underneath at all, the root cause is the paralysis of sin. Sin causes all of the brokenness in your life. Oh, not in a one-to-one causal relationship, like I didn’t help a little old lady across the street and so a bus hit me. No, sin is the root and cause of all of our problems. Even paralysis. Even death itself. This is why forgiveness is the very lifeblood of the Church, and therefore of any Christian.

So these friends bring the man to Jesus and entreat Jesus to heal Him. Our text then says the following: When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” So the man is paralyzed, and Jesus recognizes that the man’s deeper problem is not his nerves, muscles and bone. No, the man’s problem first and foremost is this sin which lurks beneath the surface of us all. So Jesus, being God, does what only God can do: He forgives the man his sins. He then goes on to heal the man of his paralysis. Most commentators will say that this story is a prefiguring of the resurrection of the dead. Our sins are forgiven, our bodies are raised up at the last day, and we go to be with Him forever. Does it get any better than that? Clear Gospel, straight from Jesus’ mouth: your sins are forgiven.

Now that we understand what this text means for us at the Last Day, I want you to reflect on this with me for a moment, because this episode also gives us a deep insight into the Christian life, and how Christians view suffering and the trials that they face. If this man had not been paralyzed, he may not have been brought to Jesus and had his sins forgiven. Think about that, because it’s kind of amazing. What this means is that God uses the terrible things in your life, even sin itself, and brings about good for you.

Think about it this way: You are one of God’s elect, His chosen ones by Baptism into Christ Jesus, right along with little Grant here today. Because of this wonderful reality, God now works everything for your good. Saint Paul put it this way:
And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (Eph. 1:22-23).

What this means for you, dearly baptized, is that God orders all things in your life for your benefit. Even when terrible things happen to you. Even when you sin. That doesn’t make sinful things good, but it does mean that we can see God’s miraculous hand at work in the strangest of places. If God can take the death of His only begotten Son and bring about the salvation of the world, then God can use the hurricanes that strike, be they big or small, and use them for the good of His Holy Church.

That is the real benefit and blessing of being in the water of holy baptism. In holy baptism God works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to those who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Your baptism into Christ means that Jesus’ cross marks your life. It means you can look at all of sin and sorrow, suffering and pain that you and your loves ones have faced over the years, and know that God is at work in you, forgiving your sins, and preparing you for that great final resurrection of all flesh at the Last Day.

Unbelief cannot see the world this way. Unbelief looks at hurricanes big and small, and says that God cannot be God. He either doesn’t care or he can’t do anything about it. Unbelief looks at all of these things and cannot recognize God’s hand at work, forgiving sins, preparing the world for the Last Day. But you, dearly beloved by God, you see the world differently. Because you have been baptized, God smiles upon you with a friendly face, and He takes all of these troubles of this life, and turns them around, so that even the terrible things are but a shadow compared to the glory which shall be yours. The prayers and entreaties of these men in bringing their friend to Jesus brought forth fruits of forgiveness and everlasting life. In the very same way God hears your prayers, and answers them with the greatest gift of all: God has forgiven all of your sins in Christ Jesus. You are free and healed. Go in peace. Amen.

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

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Trinity 19 (October 14, 2012)
Matthew 9:1-8

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning is the Gospel just read from St. Matthew chapter 22. Let us pray:

O God, because without You we are not able to please You, mercifully grant that Your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (H78)

So what do you think of the candidates? This is kind of the question of the day for many. We have passed the first debate and now move on to the second. Opinions are forming, or for many, have long been formed. We have now moved into that point of American politics where every question is loaded; everything we say and do has meanings and double meanings. Everything is taken out of context. A missed word, a thought that hasn’t been vetted by the marketers, well, one little slip and it’s all over.

Jesus would have been right at home.

That was the life Jesus lived. Oh, it wasn’t politics as usual, at least not in quite the same sense. It was instead a time when everyone wanted Him on their side. Everyone wanted to nail Him down. Was He a Pharisee or a Saduccee? Would he be on the side of the lawyers or the tax collectors? Who would get to claim the endorsement of Jesus Christ, the Man Who Would Be King?

So they pressed in around him. Thousands of them even. Near and far, Jew and Samaritan, the sinners and the righteous, everyone wanted to get their pound of flesh. Everyone wanted a piece of Jesus. Today we hear from a Pharisee/lawyer. He’s got the question for Jesus. ““Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”” (Matthew 22:36 ESV) This is the sort of question that the Pharisees loved. Of all the laws in the Old Testament, the ceremonial laws, the civic laws, the moral laws, which was the greatest? Whose side would Jesus be on?

We ask the same questions of God today. Does God care more about poverty and world hunger or life and abortion or euthanasia? Is it more important to God that we eliminate war, or that we preserve the resources of the earth? Do we provide water to the needy in Africa, or food to the homeless in San Francisco? C’Mon, God! Tell us! What is the most important? What is the biggest? What is it that I can do so that I know your will and what you would have of me?

The answer, of course, is both simple and impossible. Jesus replies to the lawyer by quoting Deuteronomy: ““You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37–40 ESV)

Love God with everything, your whole life. And love your neighbor with everything, as much as you love yourself. That’s it. We usually hear this summary as the Ten Commandments, but it does come down to that one, simple word. Love. Love means sacrifice. Love means not doing what you want but doing what the other needs. Love means not looking to your own needs, but trusting that others will care for you just as you care for them.

So the answer to the questions before? Simple. Does God care more about abortion or poverty? Yes. Does God care more about world peace or care of the earth? Yes. Does God care more about the thirsty in Africa or the hungry in San Francisco? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

And guess what? You can’t do it. You can’t navigate in this love stream. You can’t pick and choose and make the right choice and get it together so that you are now God’s perfect instrument in the world, always doing His will, always acting just as He would want you to act. You can’t do it. You can’t love God like that. You certainly can’t love your neighbor like that. It is simple. It is simple, and impossible.

Jesus says that on this question hangs or depends all the Law and the Prophets. That’s shorthand for the whole Bible. The Bible hangs on this question. How is it that we, God’s holy people, can love Him above all and love each other as ourselves? The answer? We can’t. Not on our own. You will never do it, and neither will I. No matter how hard you try. No matter how many ways you navigate these waters, you will sink. You will never be able to make that all work.

This is why all of this son-talk from the second part of our text is so important and even central for us. Is Jesus David’s Son or David’s Lord? Now I know what you’re thinking. WHO CARES? I can’t do all that God has asked of me, and all of this talk about Jesus genealogy doesn’t help one bit.

This is why it matters.

The Pharisees and the lawyers knew that the Messiah was going to come from David’s family. He would be a Son of David. This Messiah or Anointed One would be the King of Israel. He would rule over His people, and would see them through to the end. Mary was from King David’s family. So Jesus was a son of David because He is the Son of Mary. What the Pharisees had forgotten was that the Son of David would also be the Son of God. He would be David’s Lord.

As the Son of God and the Son of Mary, Jesus does for you what you cannot do for yourself. He fears, loves and trusts in God, His Father, above all things. He trusts that His Father would care for Him, even in death. Abraham did not have to slay his son, Isaac, but God did. Jesus trusts that God will see Him through whatever suffering, whatever price and whatever trial He would have to undergo.

What’s more, Jesus loves you as He loves Himself. St. Paul actually calls us the Body of Christ. We are His body. Without the Head we can do nothing, be nothing. Without the Head we are, well, dead.

But you are never without Christ. This is the genius and beauty of this place, this Altar, that rail, this Eucharist, which is His Body and Blood for you. Here, you are in Him and He in you. Here, the Head and the Body come together as one flesh. Here you have received every spiritual gift that will sustain you to the end (1 Corinthians 1:7).

This, beloved, is what it means to be in Christ, and to be baptized. You are now grafted to the tree of life. You are now living branches of the tree. Because of Jesus’ coming into our flesh and blood, you are in Him and He in you. And that is a very comforting thought indeed.

The politicians and statesmen of the day will always argue about what is the most important law to keep. We will always fail each other, because we each have different perspectives on what is important or unimportant. The key for you and I in living our life here and now is to understand that all things are God’s, and that we are in Him. Live, and love, and be free. For in Christ, all things are now yours.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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

Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Trinity 18 (Matthew 22:34–46)

October 7, 2012