Jesus heals the lepers (Trinity 14)

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[I am indebted in part to my friend Ken Kelly, for his insights into the text.  He probably won’t like the sermon anyway, but I’ll mention him nonetheless…-LL]

Trinity14-2010

There is always a temptation when it comes to the healing miracles of Jesus to look for a deeper meaning, to find the hidden message in the bottle of the story that takes an expert to find. What does this story have to do with the doctrine of justification, or thankfulness, or stewardship, or whatever it is that you are interested in right now? When we come to a story and read the bible, it is very easy to draw our own needs and wants and desires into the event, so that the actual event gets lost.

So what happens in this story? Let’s unpack it to make sure we understand everything.

Jesus is traveling from Galilee south to Jerusalem. He is going around the land of Samaria, right on the edge of it. This is the part of the country where no good Jew would voluntarily travel. You know what parts of town we’re talking about here. The Jews and the Samaritans did not intermingle. They were just close enough to each other to be very, very different. The differences weren’t economic or strictly racial. The difference was religion, that most divisive of things. The Samaritans only accepted the first five books of Moses, and rejected the Temple in Jerusalem entirely. So the Jews would have nothing to do with them. And Jesus is right on the edge of their country.

As he is traveling and enters a border town village, Jesus is met by 10 lepers. We can understand the plight of these ten lepers to a certain extent, although not as well as we might think. In our society today, if you have a terrible contagious disease, you are treated for it. Even the poorest in our country would receive medical care, and the politicians would fight later about who is going to pay for it. But it was not so in Jesus’ day. In Jesus’ day, these men had to wear black, and probably had to wear something that looked almost like a cowbell around their necks. They have to cry out unclean, unclean when others came near to them. So they are shunned by their family and friends alike. But perhaps the greatest pain and sorrow that these men had to endure is that they were shut off from the house of God. In our Introit for the day from Psalm 84, David cries out, How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD. There was a longing in Jesus’ day to be in the house of God. Maybe it come from the travel of the Israelites. Maybe it came from their years of Exile and wandering. But there was no question that in the piety of the people of Jesus’ day, to be in the house of God, well, that is as good as it gets.

Yet that is precisely where these lepers were left to fend for themselves. Because they were ritually unclean, they could not enter into God’s house, they could not be in the very presence of God in His Holy Temple. They longed for it. They knew that this is where the children of Israel belonged. But it was not to be so. Their disease prevented them from entering into God’s house.

So they come to Jesus and beg Him for mercy. Jesus tells them to go visit the priests, who could judge whether they were cleansed or not. While they are on the way, they are cleansed of their leprosy. Wonder of wonders! Jesus told Nicodemus that in order to gain eternal life that he must be born again. Well, these men now look like they did go back through their mother’s womb and came out whole on the other side! It’s hard to imagine for us what kind of joy that must have brought.

One of them turns around and does the polite thing that your mother always told you to do. He returns and gives thanks to Jesus. He falls at Jesus’ feet and thanks him over and over again.

So what is the miracle here? What is the point of this story? It would be very easy to make it about thankfulness, or one of the other many themes that kind of run through our heads after hearing the texts so many times. But at the end of the day, the point of the text is very simple: Jesus healed the man. It is really that simple.

Jesus, God in the flesh, came down to earth to fix what was broken in your life. The big and the little. The eternal and the temporal. Jesus comes to make things right that have gone oh so wrong. He does it by the authority of His Word. Proverbs reminds us to be attentive to the words of Jesus, for they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

So the question for you today, who come to hear the words of Jesus, is this: what has Jesus promised to do for you? Do you know? Do you believe His words? He promises forgiveness of sins, life and salvation for you. He promises to heal your diseases and to make everything right that is wrong. That is His promise to you.

Believe His Word of promise to you, just as this Samaritan believed His Word. Jesus gives you a pledge, a sign and token that is proof of His Word. He gives you His own body and blood to you so that you might live. It is as if Jesus says to you, “here I am. My word is my bond. Trust in me, for I will give you all that you need for this body and life. And to prove this to you, I give you my own body and blood. I pledge myself to you. You are clean by my uncleanness for you.”

Trust in His word of promise for. Jesus is as good as His Word, and His Word for you this day is a great one indeed. Amen.

Praying in school

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Praying in school

““Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–9 ESV)

It’s the start of a new school year! And what an exciting year it is. Christ Lutheran Academy is now at Messiah Lutheran Church, Little Lambs Learning Center has the beginning of their re-tooled pre-school program, and Sunday School starts up on September 12. I love fall. It is the season of new beginnings.

Here at Messiah Lutheran Church, every day is a day of prayer. Morning Prayer (Matins), Afternoon Prayer (Vespers), the Divine Service, school openings and closings, pre-school chapels, there is always somebody praying around here!

It is entirely appropriate that we spend so much time in prayer at our schools, because prayer must be taught. Praying does not come naturally, or if it does, these prayers will quickly run out of conversation with God, and will degenerate into talking either to ourselves or at least about ourselves. So how do we teaching praying at Messiah Lutheran Church. Let me count the ways:

  1. We teach praying by doing it. Lead by example. At home or at work. Before meals or after. When you get up and when you go to bed. What we actually do as adults teaches far more than anything else.
  2. We teach praying by giving the words. Just like a child repeats words back to their parents, in the same way a student repeats the words of prayer back to their teacher. These words may be the Lord’s Prayer, the Psalms, the collects (prayers) of the church, or praying for various needs. But we teach children how to pray by giving them what to pray. They will learn and build upon that foundation throughout their lives.
  3. We teach praying by being diligent yet patient. Moses in Deuteronomy six exhorts us to be diligent in teaching prayer. Holy persistence, I would call it. That kind of persistent work means that we must also be patient with our children, our parents were patient with us. It means giving them the time they need to learn the words. It means going slow enough so that they can follow and eventually lead. It means praying for God’s guidance as we pass on the faith once delivered to the saints.

That is how things tick around here at Messiah Lutheran Church every day. It is a new day, a new year. Receive what God has to give you in His Word, and say it back to Him in words of prayer!

+The Lord be with you+ 

Pastor Todd Peperkorn

From Messiah’s Messenger, September 2010

Why groups like the ACELC aren’t helpful: Part Two

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In my last post on the topic, I posited that the multiplication of statements has not historically been helpful in the Missouri.  I would be delighted to be corrected, but I am hard pressed to find one example in our LCMS history that would point to an external group (which I will explain in a moment) serving to call the synod to repentance, admonish, exhort, etc, and that actually resulting in a change in LCMS doctrine and practice.  I will happily be corrected.

It seems as though there are a couple of basic objections to this line of thinking.  Let’s see if I can list them off here.

  • This is not an “outside group,” but members of the LCMS calling it to repentance.
  • There are plenty of “outside groups” that have a very positive influence on the LCMS.  Higher Things, LLL, LWML, etc.
  • How will we discuss and correct the problems in our church without such entities?  Doing nothing is not an option.
  • The synod is not a church, but simply an external organization.  As such, it is good and reasonable that congregations join together to serve as a positive influence on the LCMS as a whole.

I’m sure there are other objections to my first post.  That is my distilling of the arguments as I’ve seen them.  Here are my responses:

This is not an “outside group,” but members of the LCMS calling it to repentance.

In one sense this is true, in another obvious sense it is not.  The ACELC (as well as Higher Things, LLL, etc.) are by definition an outside organizations.  They are incorporated, with officers, a constitution, finances, and so forth.  While the individual members of a given organization may be LCMS, the organization itself is not.  I as an individual member of synod (rostered) may interact, cajole, influence, and speak.  So can congregations.  I would contend, however, that when a group of pastors and/or congregations start speaking together ad hoc, and outside of our agreed upon structure, it creates a conflict that I do not believe is helpful.

Please note, I’m not saying it’s wrong, sinful, or anything to that effect.  I am saying it is not helpful.  I don’t believe that it will help the confession of the faith in the LCMS.

The reason I do not believe it is helpful is because once that ad hoc entity is created and begins to espouse a particular position, the underlying question is now “what is the point of this group?” and NOT “what are they trying to say?”  That is one of the many things I learned during my time working with Consensus.

There are plenty of “outside groups” that have a very positive influence on the LCMS.  Higher Things, LLL, LWML, etc.

Very true.  The way that these various entities have served as a positive influence has been by what I would call vocation.  Higher Things works with youth to teach and pass on the faith.  LLL (primarily) works and teaches men.  LCMS works and teaches women.  Bethesda, all of the various Lutheran schools, the groups that are the most helpful are the ones that have a laser tight focus on how they may serve the furtherance of the Gospel in our midst.

None of them have as their stated purpose to change the doctrine and practice of the LCMS (either in a good way or a bad way).  They simply do what they do, and the results speak for themselves.

I would commend that the places where confessional Lutheranism has been the most vibrant are the places where there is a need and it is filled by like minded people who recognize the need and act upon it.

I suppose one could look at a group like the ACELC and say that is exactly what they are doing.  As I look at the stated goals, that’s not what I see.  (I will address where this conversation should take place in my next post.)

How will we discuss and correct the problems in our church without such entities?  Doing nothing is not an option.

I believe conservatives are people of conviction.  People of conviction want to speak what they believe, see things in pretty clear black and white categories, and want to have all of the lines cleanly drawn.  I resonate with that.  It is who I am as well.

But publicizing a list of all of the “tolerated errors” in the LCMS, what that does and will do is create fissures, cracks, broken relationships, side taking, antagonism, and anger.  The laity will remain ignorant of the whole picture, or they will only be catechized about one “side” of an issue.  Where does it end?  Is this really the best we can do in the LCMS?

The synod is not a church, but simply an external organization.  As such, it is good and reasonable that congregations join together to serve as a positive influence on the LCMS as a whole.

This is a big one.  It is big enough that it shapes much of our common discourse together.  I’m going to deal with this in another post, because I don’t want this to get lost in a bullet.

So what is coming next is an answer to this last bullet, and a proposal for a more positive and helpful way to approach the challenges facing the LCMS.  I welcome your thoughts.

Pr. Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church (LCMS)

Kenosha, Wisconsin

The Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist (Aug. 29, 2010)

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On the occasion of the baptism of Luke

Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

The head of John the Baptist on a platter.  That’s what Salome, the daughter of Herodias, asked for when her sick step-father offered to give her anything, up to half of his kingdom.  I can think of a lot better ways to use that kind of genie-like wish.  What good was the dead head of John going to do her?

She was probably about twelve years old, a child by most people standards, except for twelve year olds.  Certainly she was a pawn in the very adult games that adulterous Herod and his new wife were playing.  I’m sure their behavior made sense to them.  All of our sins make sense to us at some level.  We call it rationalizing.  We might also call it willful ignorance or even rebellion.  But every one of us here has done things we aren’t proud of.  Things that make us fit right in with the crazy games of Herod, his wife and stepdaughter.  While we may step back at their actions, it’s not that far off from many of the things that we do every day.

That’s what got John the Baptist in trouble.  God’s Word isn’t a game, and John was in no humor to set aside or ignore their sinful behavior.  And for John’s fearless and faithful preaching, he lost his head.

At first glance, this seems like a pretty tragic ending to the forerunner of Christ.  Dying because he made a half-rate king mad for speaking the truth that everyone already knew?  What kind of a death is that?  And if we were to take even a cursory look at the martyrs, those Christians that died  for confessing the faith to an unbelieving world, we would probably find that many of their stories were not exactly movie material, either.

Being faithful in the Christian faith isn’t about what it looks like on the outside.  That’s what John the Baptist understood.  If it is, then he was in big trouble.  Crazy clothes, crazy food, and an even more crazy message.  Repent, John cried.  Repent, turn around from your sinful ways, for the King of Glory is near!

What John understood is that our lives are not about outward appearances.  What makes the difference, what changes things for sinners like you and me, is not what we look like, what we wear, how much money we have (or don’t have).  No, what makes the difference is the life and death and life again of Jesus Christ.  St. Paul put it this way:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3–4 ESV)

What that means for you and me and little Luke, who was baptized this morning, is that you are already dead.  You died with Jesus almost two thousand years ago.  It doesn’t look like it.  You’re all holding up pretty well for being dead.  But it is true nonetheless.  You died when you were baptized.  Your baptism, which on the surface didn’t look like much, was the event that changed everything for you.  Your baptism means that Jesus death was your death, and even more importantly, His resurrection was your resurrection as well.  He is the first-fruits of them that sleep, as St. Paul says in I Corinthians.

For John, this meant he could preach without fear, knowing that he was already dead.  For little Luke, it means that no matter what turns his life takes, no matter the ups or downs, no matter what may come for him, he is baptized, and that means that he is in Jesus and Jesus is in him.

On the Last Day, Luke, and you and me and John the Baptist and all of God’s baptized children, will be reunited around the Lamb who was slain for us.  It begins here, at the font, but this life in God never ends.  Some of us may be martyred for the faith, some may live a long life reflecting Christ’s love to the world, but no matter the path our Lord takes you on, the end is the same.  You are in Him.  The tombs will be opened, the dead will be raised, and there will be life eternal to all who trust in Him.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.