In My Name (Rogate 2012, also Mother’s Day)

ToddPeperkorn1 Comment

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text for this morning is from St. John chapter sixteen. We focus on Jesus’ words, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, I will give it to you.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Song of Zion (Cantate, Easter 5, 2012)

ToddPeperkornNo Comments

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel just read, as well as from Psalm 98, sing to the Lord a new song.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Delivered

ToddPeperkornNo Comments

[This was posted originally on my other blog, I Trust When Dark My Road. -LL]

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

The Joy Set Before Him (Palmarum/Passion Sunday 2011)

ToddPeperkornNo Comments

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Palm Sunday (April 1, 2012)

TITLE: “The Joy Set Before Him”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I AM (Judica 2012)

ToddPeperkornNo Comments

[I need to give credit to my friend and brother-in-office, Rev. David Petersen, for some of the ideas and language in this sermon.  Thanks, friend!  -Peperkorn]

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

NewImage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

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