With the Lord There is Mercy (9-11 remembrance sermon)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
September 10, 2011
Evening Prayer
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the
bombing of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon

9-10-2011

TITLE: “With the Lord there is Mercy”

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our text for tonight is from Romans 8, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

It seems like just yesterday that we all met and prayed together around the world. The images were fresh in our mind. There was numbness and a state of shock over this horrible thing that had been done to our country. The days and weeks and months and years have changed the way we look at the world. There is a suspicion and a fear that was not really present a decade ago. All you have to do is go through an airport security system to see that. Or see one walking down the street with a funny headscarf. Or the wrong colored skin, whatever color that may be.

At the same time, though, the world hasn’t stopped, has it? Airlines continue to do business, children keep on going to school, life goes on. The years have numbed us to the pain of that dreadful day. But it has left many of us with a feeling of doubt, of questioning what this world is really all about, that human beings can do such horrible things to each other in the name of truth or religion or freedom or whatever the cause of the day may be.

There is one thing we have gained after being a decade away from this terrible event: I hope there is a little more sense of history about us. This was a horrible thing, but it is one more episode in life under sin in this world. We could add other events of the last century to the list: Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, Stalin’s purges in the 1930s, the martyrdom of Christians in Africa under Islamic regimes, the Sudan, and many other events in recent memory have taught us that human beings are capable of almost unbelievable evil against each other. That is the Law speaking to us in the harshest terms. Sin leads to death. That is the only place it can go. And it will come.

This, of course, is not even including so-called natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina has come and gone since 9-11. Haiti. The Tsunami in Indonesia. So much death, so much suffering in so many places and ways, that we hardly even register it anymore.

So where are we to place our hope as children of God? Very simply, we place our hope in Jesus Christ alone. No matter what the tragedy, no matter what the event, the mercy of God shines through bright and clear. How do we know this? How do we know that even in the midst of death and pain, that our Lord’s love comes through? We know this because of the cross of Jesus Christ. St. Paul reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. There is no power too great, there is no hatred too strong that God cannot overcome. For you see, all of the wrath of God toward sin was carried out in the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, all of God’s righteous anger at our sinfulness died with Him. God is not angry with you for your mistakes or your mess ups. In the midst of things we cannot understand, both natural and man-made, all we can do is cling to the cross. Now this is hardly settling for second best. After all, as St. Paul says, He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? He only wants what is best for you, and because of His Son, Jesus Christ, you can know for certain that God is in your corner, fighting for you.

This is the only place where we can place our hope. We cannot place our hope in fallen and sinful man. We cannot place our hope in the good of the world or that everything will improve over time. We cannot reconcile such pain and heartache. We can’t brush it aside. No, Jesus Christ is the only hope for you and I. As Jesus Himself said, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the one who will can heal your sorrows and dry your tears.

The hard thing for us is that we still live in this mess. People still die. You don’t have to go to New York or Washington D.C. or Port-au-Prince or Moscow or Auschwitz to find tragedy. It happens right here, in your own life today. But God’s work of caring for you, His children, will never fail.

Perhaps more than anything else, remembering a tragedy such as this reminds us that our time here on earth is short, and that what we truly look forward to is a life with God forever, where He will try every tear, and all of our hurts and fears will go away forever. Eternal Lord, Your wisdom sees

And fathoms all life’s tragedies;
You know our grief, You hear our sighs–
In mercy, dry our tear-stained eyes.
From evil times, You bring great good;
Beneath Your cross, we’ve safely stood.
Though dimly now life’s path we trace,
One day we shall see face to face.

 

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Saving and Losing (Proper 17A – Pentecost 11, 2011)

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Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
Proper 17A
Matthew 16:21-28
August 28, 2011

For an audio of this sermon, LS110047a

Title: “Saving and Losing”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning is taken from St. Matthew, chapter sixteen. We focus on the words of our Lord, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

What a great text for a first Sunday as a new pastor! Last Sunday we had Peter’s great confession of faith, and we were blessed with not one, but two sermons on it. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Peter’s great confession was a gift from God, as faith always flows from God.

But it didn’t last, did it? It is literally right after Peter’s great confession that Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem. We move from who He is, Christ, to what He has come to do. He has come to be betrayed, to suffer, and to die in the hands of sinful men. He began to show them what was what. He began to give them the picture of what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus. It meant betrayal and suffering. It meant loss and yes, it even meant death.

This is the part of the Christian life that is hard for us. It’s easy at big services like last Sunday, with the excitement of new beginnings, to see the joy of the Christian life. Like the disciples at the Transfiguration, we can look up at the vision and say in effect, “Ok, just like that. That’s what I want. That is the Christianity for me. Happiness and glory. All the time.” Click. That’s the picture I want. Right there.

Here at Holy Cross, it is easy to fall into delusions of grandeur. Now that the new pastor is here, we will have 300 people on a Sunday! All of our problems will be solved. Money worries will fade away. There will be no more conflicts, ever. Strong personalities will suddenly be imbued with peace and joy. Everyone will love every hymn, the committees will be full with a waiting list. Even the elevator will pay for itself! Whew! That’s a relief.

What’s more, that is the life we want for ourselves. Nobody wants suffering in their lives. Nobody wants to think about serving our neighbor in mercy, especially if no one is going to give you credit for it. We all want things to be our way. We want there to be money, friends, the perfect house, the well behaved family. Everything in just the right place and at just the right time. That’s the life for me. Click. The perfect image for the victorious life.

So you can picture Peter at this point, can’t you? Jesus began to tell them what was coming, and so Peter begins to rebuke or correct our Lord. Can’t you see it in your mind’s eye? “Uh, Jesus, come over here. You know, you’re God, right? Well, we don’t have to do all of this suffering and dying stuff. That is so Old Testament. So can we just skip to the good parts, please? Thanks very much.”

In Lutheran terms, we would call that a theology of glory. I want the glory and not the cross. I want the empty tomb but not the blood drenched Jesus. We may very well say with Jeremiah, Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? (Jeremiah 15:18)

What’s more, this theology of glory makes it so that suffering and hardship makes no sense. Think of all of the people suffering under hurricane Irene. Do you think they feel God’s love right now, or are they hurt and confused? Or next weekend will be the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacked on our country. There are ten years of loss and pain. But we could go on and on at this. Our first, natural reaction to suffering of any kind is to either blame God or deny God.

So repent. Repent of believing that anything we say or do or think or feel are going to make everything right with God. Repent of the false belief that you’ve got it all figured out. Repent of the notion that we can grow the church by our own plans or actions. We cannot. We cannot grow the church. We cannot make things right. Not in our own lives, not in our nation, and not here at Holy Cross.

Our Lord’s response to Peter is rather startling, though, isn’t it? “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23). The suffering and the death of our Lord on the cross is not an option. It isn’t one path among many. It is the only way. This is why St. Paul would write, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). This is what it means to be a Christian, just as the only God there is is the one who gave Himself on the cross for you.

The things of God, dear baptized, are the things which God uses to bring about your salvation and mine. When we suffer and hurt, when we are in need and face trials we do not understand, it is precisely at those moments when the things of God become clear. Holy Baptism and His Supper. Preaching and the Word. Absolution, that is, the forgiveness of sins. When there is nothing else, when you are stripped bare of every pretext or false belief that you can do it alone without the cross, then these gifts, the things of God, become the very lifeblood coursing through your veins as a Christian.

A new pastor means a time of new beginnings for any congregation. That enthusiasm we all very is wonderful and very real. But what makes us tick as the people of God, what shapes us as His people, well, that never changes. It is Christ and Him crucified for your sins and mine.

So come. Come, you who are weary and heavy laden, for Christ will give you rest. Come, for your death and suffering are not the end of the story. Your story is Christ’s story. He gives Himself for you and for your sins in His very Body and Blood this day. Come, and be refreshed. Come, and live in Him. Come, for all things are now ready for you. In the holy 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.

Mercy (Trinity 03, 2011)

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Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Trinity 3 (July 10, 2011)

Luke 15:1-10

trinity03-2011

Rev. Todd Peperkorn

TITLE: “Mercy”

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. Luke chapter 15, the parables of mercy and repentance.

I really wonder sometimes if we understand God’s mercy at all.  There is such a pervasive sense in our culture that God is all about condemnation, that God is basically a mean taskmaster whose sole goal is to trip us up into doing something wrong, and then BAM, we are condemned to an eternity in flames.  Certainly that is the perception we get of God in popular media.  I couldn’t help but notice, for example, the upcoming remake of the 80’s classic movie Footloose.  It’s basically the story of how an overbearing father who happens to be a pastor tries to keep his daughter from having good, innocent fun.  Perhaps the story hits too close to home for me, but the impression of God in movies like this is that God is the bad guy, the devil is the good guy, and if we can just get past all of the religion stuff our lives will be much happier.

Now the other popular impression of God is that He is a like a kind and somewhat forgetful grandfather who just lets us get away with stuff because He doesn’t care that much.  God just wants us to be happy, and everyone knows that the way to happiness is permissiveness.  As long as you can do anything you want, whenever you want and with whomever or however you want, well, then you must be happy.  Happiness in this view is the ultimate in selfishness.  God, so it goes, wants us to do whatever makes us feel good.

Both of these views are wrong.  Both of them hold God to be either small and vindictive or dottering and helpless.  A better, more biblical view of God is that He is our Heavenly Father, that He created us by the Word of His mouth, and that He loves us with an everlasting love.  Our sin has separated us from God and from each other, but God goes after us, He goes after you.  Why?  Because that is who He is.  He loves you.

You can almost sense Jesus’ frustration at the beginning of our parables here.  He is sitting at a Pharisees house for dinner, and tax collectors and public sinners are coming to eat with Him.  The Pharisees are offended by this.  They don’t want that kind of people eating in their homes.  It isn’t civilized.  It’s dangerous.  It’s messy.

So Jesus tells them a few stories to try and get their heads on straight.  He compares you to a lost sheep.  He hunts you down, because you are lost and alone and in great need.  And when He finds you?  He throws a party.  You are worth that much.

Or, Jesus says, the kingdom of God is like a crazy housewife that turns her house upsidedown and inside out because she lost that one fifty cent coin she got at the grocery store in 1984.  God’s love for you is like that.  It’s irrational.  It, frankly, is a little crazy.  We can surely agree with Micah when he says, “who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?” Or one pastor put it this way,

Our Blessed Lord receives sinners, welcomes them, and embraces them. He does not turn them away when they cry to Him. He does not ignore their prayer or turn a deaf ear to their plea. Our Lord receives sinners. And Our Blessed Lord eats with them. He feeds on their bread of sorrows, drinks down their cup of suffering, and consumes their grapes of wrath. In other words, Our Lord does not shrink from coming into the filth our natural desires produce. He does not refuse to take into Himself the very thing that kills us.

Christ carries you on His Body. He took your sins upon Himself, the Church seeks you out, and the Father receives you. Our Savior rescues, the Church intercedes, and the Creator reconciles. In this way, the weary sheep is recalled by the shepherd, the coin which was lost is found, and the son retraces his steps to his father and returns, guilty of error, but wholly penitent. So let us rejoice that the sheep which had strayed in Adam is lifted on Christ. The shoulders of Christ are the arms of the Cross. There, I laid down my sins. There, I rested on the neck of the noble yoke. And the angels rejoice, whose protection is to be sought and whose displeasure feared. (St. Ambrose)

God’s love for you, dearly beloved, does not end.  It does not make sense.  It isn’t fair.  It is mercy.  It is mercy in the flesh, the flesh of His own Son for you.  You were lost, but God has found you.  You, like Paul and Peter and all the sinner-saints before, do not deserve God’s love.  But love is never about deserving it.  God’s love is for you even now.

So come.  Come to the feast of God’s love for you.  Come and receive what only He can give you.  Come and receive God’s mercy in your mouth and heart in His feast, prepared for you this day with great care and love.  He is both the host and the meal here, and He comes to give you Himself.  Come, for all things are now ready.  Come, for He wants you here and now.  Come, and receive and live.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

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

Gathered by the Spirit (Pentecost 2011)

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2011Pentecost

The Tower of Babel

God had given a command to Adam and Eve in the Garden, when He said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)  God’s plan from the very beginning was for Adam and Eve to take part in His beautiful work of creation.  God had created the whole world, and He wanted them to take part in this great activity.

But things went awry.  They went so awry, in fact, that God sent a flood down to cover the entire earth.  Only Noah and his family were saved, along with the animals.  When they came out of the Art on Mount Ararat, the world was new again.  And God again gave them this command:  “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth” (Genesis 8:16–17).

But this did not happen, either.  Rather than go out and spread God’s creative work, they huddled together, built up their pride and not the world, and forgot the very nature of what it means to be human.  In their pride they built up a tower to reach the very heavens.  We know it as the Tower of Babel.  They became so focused in upon themselves, that they could not see how their self-centeredness would not stand.  It was not stable.  The Tower would fall just as their pride would fall.  God confused their language, so that they couldn’t understand one another and they were forced to separate and spread out.  It was how God wanted it to be, but that is how it happened.

Since that time, we have been fighting our languages.  George Bernard Shaw once said that “England and America are two countries separated by a common language.”  And how many times have you felt as though men and women use two completely different language?  Or, how often have you heard an angst ridden high school student say of their parents, “they just don’t understand me!”

This is what sin has wrought in our lives.  Sin has brought us to our knees, so that there are so many times when we can’t even understand and speak to the ones whom we love, far less the rest of humanity!

This, dearly baptized, is what the great feast day of Pentecost is all about.  It is about the great reversal.  Instead of the cacophony of voices, the confused din of sorrow and sin that we all endure, God brings to you and me the one Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Our Lord said it this way in our Gospel for today, “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

The work of the Holy Spirit is to cause you to remember the words and promises of Jesus.  That is why Pentecost is sometimes called the birthday of the Church.  When you hear Christ’s Word of sweet Gospel in your ears, the Holy Spirit is at work, forgiving your sins and drawing you together into that one, great family, the Church.  For it is here, in the Ark of God’s House, that our differences and squabbles and arguments and distinctions of class and race and gender melt away in faith.

So God gathers us together into this house, this home of His Church.  But He does not gather us in order to build up a new Tower.  No, He does not draw us here so that we can repeat the sins of our forefathers.  Sometimes it may feel that way.  Even in the Church we can get so wrapped up in our own lives and problems and challenges that we forget the world out there that so desperately needs to hear His Word of forgiveness.  Sometimes we even forget how wonderful the gift of God’s grace really is.  So He draws us here, preaches to us, and teaches us over and over again what it means to hear His Word and to give it away.  He teaches us how to be human, by going out into this world of hurt and sorrow and passing on the gift of life.

So what does this mean for you, sons and daughters of Adam, today as we sit in Church?  What it means is this.  First of all, this is your home.  This is the place where God has called you to be His children.  This home is a place of refuge for sinners like you and me who need to know that we are safe, and that we speak the same language, the language of faith.  Secondly, like any home, this is a place you go out from and come back to time and time again.  We leave from this place as the salt of the earth to go and draw many back into His kingdom.  This is your home, but this is not only your home.  There are so many more out there that need what only God can give.

So happy birthday, Christ’s Church!  Welcome home.  Come, be refreshed, be at peace, and God will be at work in you and through you so that many may come into His kingdom.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

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

Task/Project/Time Management and the Pastor

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I recently had the opportunity to gather together with a small group of DOXOLOGY alumni to discuss ways of improving the DOXOLOGY program, how to reach more pastors, and the like.  One of the topics which came to mind was the question of time management.  I thought y’all might appreciate some of my thoughts on the topic, so here goes:

The reason I got into thinking about task management as it pertains to the Office is because of my own background with stress and clinical depression.  One of my ongoing symptoms that leads to and flows from depression is the overwhelming nature of all of the “stuff” that comes at me as a pastor.  The usual pastoral duties, the left-hand kingdom duties of being the only full time staff, being the unofficial volunteer coordinator and all around cheerleader, and more generally “managing” all of the different kinds of information that come at me.  Some people communicate by email.  Others by meetings.  Phone. Notes.  Letters.  Text messages.  Facebook.  The list could go on and on.

With all of these different ways that information comes at me, it is very easy to become overwhelmed in trying to figure out how to hold onto all of these bits and pieces in a way that won’t make me insane.

Furthermore, I as a pastor really don’t want to be defined by task management.  Being a pastor is not about checking things off of a list so that I feel that I have accomplished something.  The things that I “do” must always serve the members of my flock, my family, and the others that have crossed my path.  I am very conscious of the fact that as a pastor, if I appear “busy” to people, that translates into “he doesn’t have time for me and my piddly problems.”

On top of all of that, there are all of my obligations as a husband and father which cannot be given the back burner, either.

Pastors above all really are what David Allen would call “knowledge workers”.  We don’t make a product.  There aren’t quotas to uphold or sales goals to reach.  We receive and give.  We receive God’s Word and give it to our flock.  We receive our people’s sins and give them to God.  As a pastor, that shapes how I think about who I am and what I do.

So what I want and need is a way so that all of the “stuff” doesn’t control me or define me.  I want to be able to focus on ideas and people, not things and juggling.

Enter David Allen.  David Allen is the author of a book called, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity.  I suppose in some ways it is similar to Stephen R. Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  I think it is far more helpful, and actually fits in with the life of the Lutheran pastor quite well.  He has several basic premises that resonate with me.  Here are some of them:

  • Your brain is for creating ideas, not storing them.
  • One of the biggest reasons people get overwhelmed or stuck is because they haven’t figured out what is the next action they need to take on something.
  • If you know everything that involves action on your part is kept in a secure system, you don’t worry as much about what you’re supposed to be doing.
I think this is enough for first thoughts.  This is a bit stream of consciousness, but that’s okay.

So what are your thoughts?  If you are a pastor, does the knowledge overload overwhelm you?