The Way of the Lord (Ad Te Levavi, Advent 1, 2009)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Ad Te Levavi, November 29, 2009

Matthew 21:1-11

On the Baptism of Sergei and Artyom Varvil

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, click here: Advent1-2009

TITLE: “The Way of the Lord”

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 the words from Zechariah, Behold, your King is coming to you.

Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. So prays the Psalmist in our Introit, and so prays the church together every year as we begin this Advent season.  This is a time of new beginnings for God’s church.  Every year we begin with Jesus entering into Jerusalem, and it already seems as though we are out of step with the world around us.

For you see, this is the day our year begins as the Christian Church: The first Sunday in Advent.  And so we pray that God would stir up His power to rescue us from sin, death and the power of the devil.   How will He do it?  How is God’s work of salvation done day in, day out, year after year?  What will this year bring for God’s holy bride, His Church?

For us Christian pilgrims here on earth, the path to heaven is not always as clear as we would like it to be.  We are beset by trials and temptations every step of the way.  We continually pray that our Lord would show us the way and teach us His path.  Both as a congregation and as individuals, we can easily find easier paths, less difficult ways, and simpler roads to take.  Or at least it seems that way at the time.  But Christ our Lord, gently and patiently, brings us back and sets us on the path of righteousness that we may only be on by His blood.

That’s why this Gospel text is appointed for us this Sunday.  What are we doing with the Palm Sunday Gospel on the First Sunday of Advent?  Shouldn’t we be talking about John the Baptist, Zecharias, Gabriel, Mary, and the upcoming Christmas story?  That’s what our hearts would probably tell us.  That certainly is what our culture would tell us.  The world around us is blissfully unconscious of this season we call Advent.  But for literally thousands of years the Christian Church has begun her journey of grace with this Gospel lesson, Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, the animal of peace.  Maybe it isn’t the path that you and I would pick, but it is the path that has been chosen for us for millennia.

The journey of the Christian life is a pilgrimage with our heavenly kingdom at the end of the journey.  The path is set; Christ our Lord gives it to us, and anything or anyone who would lead us away from that path is of the Evil One.  Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer.

But there is a temptation in our day and age to look at the Christian life and our journey of grace not as a pilgrimage with a set goal, but as a vacation.  When you pick where you go on a vacation, you want someplace you will like, relaxing, maybe warm sounds good about now.  But your purpose in the journey is entirely different.  Variety is the spice of life when it comes to a vacation.  Or perhaps at least well-trod places that you know what you’re getting.  But in a vacation, basically you pick where you are going to go and what you’re going to do.

But that is not the way of the Christian faith.  We don’t pick the destination; Christ does.  We don’t pick the path or even the scenery; Christ does.  In fact, Christ not only picks the path, but He takes the path before us, so that as we go on this pilgrimage, we can move ahead with confidence and faith, knowing that He has been there before us.  This is all right there in that little word, Hosanna.  It is the cry of Advent.  Save us now!  Save us from what?  Save us from ourselves, from our own whims and petty desires.  Christ comes to save us from the whimsy of our day and bring us into His eternal kingdom.

What I am talking about, dear friends, is the essence of our life together as a liturgical church.  Everything in our life together here at Messiah Lutheran Church as a liturgical congregation flows out of this pilgrimage to heaven.  The liturgy, the readings, the hymns, the choir music, the sermons, they all serve that one great purpose of clearing the path and leading us in the path of righteousness.   When we pick our own path, we do so at our own peril, because we don’t know where we’re going.  The whole point is that He does.

Allow me to use the baptism of Sergei and Artyom this morning as an example of how God chooses the journey.  I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Mark and LeAnn would have have dreamed when they got married that the path to having children would take them to Russia and back with twin boys named Sergei and Artyom.  Their journey has not been an easy one.  No journey involving children is ever an easy one, in my opinion.  But I’m also going to guess that for them, looking back at it now as we stand upon the plateau of the boys’ baptisms, that it would be very difficult for them to see that journey going any other way.  It was not a vacation.  It is more of a pilgrimage, where Christ Himself has been their guide, even through the darkest moments.  I don’t know about you, but that sounds like the Christian faith to me.

Saint Paul says in our Epistle that we are to do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The Christian faith is not a game or a past time or a vacation.  It is the greatest treasure, the highest gift, the most important thing in your life.  Your salvation now is nearer than you first believed.  Every time you come to this Altar and receive His body and blood, you have a taste of the great eternal banquet at the end of our pilgrimage.  It is this Altar that sustains you and keeps you in the journey.

Jesus comes to you this day.  He comes to you humble and gentle, and wanting only to forgive your sins and bring you along in this journey of the Christian faith.   He is not satisfied to give you a better life here, or to satisfy your curiosity or cure your boredom with the same holiday stuff.  No, He comes to redeem you, and to carry you out of this vale of tears to Himself in heaven.  That is a journey that is worth traveling.  That is the way of the Lord.  It is His way.  It is our way.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting.  Amen.

Do Pastors Dream of Electric Sheep?

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It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am a techno-nerd from way back.  Worked at a computer store in the 1980s.  Had Radio Shack Model 1 parts strewn around my room at home through high school.  Bought a laptop before laptops were cool.  And so forth.

One of my ongoing questions has been how to reconcile my gadgetry and general nerdiness with the Holy Ministry.  How can I use these powers for good, and not evil?

Enter the new blog, Do Pastors Dream of Electric Sheep?

This blog, started by yours truly and a half dozen or so fellow pastor buddies of mine, will explore the question(s) of how technology impacts the Holy Ministry today, and is impacted by it.  We’ll talk about things from the mundane to the hyper-nerdy to the more sublime.  God willing, our readers will learn something and will have something to contribute along the way.

I would urge you to go over, check it out, sign up to put the RSS feed in your reader, or however you keep track of such things.  I think it will be a good time!

Pastor Peperkorn

Wake, Awake (Trinity 27, 2009)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Trinity 27 (November 22, 2009)
Matthew 25:1-13
TITLE: “Wake, Awake!”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for today is the parable of the 10 virgins from Matthew 25.  Let us pray:
Lord God, heavenly Father, send forth Your Son, we pray, to lead home His bride, the Church, that with all the company of the redeemed we may finally enter into His eternal wedding feast; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  So said our Lord.  But the virgins don’t look too shiny sleeping in the middle of the night, as they are depicted here in our text.  On earth their works were not thought wise, the hymn exclaims.  By all appearances, the faith of the wise and the faith of the foolish appeared the same.  You couldn’t tell the wise from the foolish as they slumbered.
Yet there is a difference.  The Christian here on earth lives and breathes and struggles through life just like everyone else.  But by the grace of God, you have the one thing needful.  God in His mercy has given you the oil of gladness, faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ.  This faith points you upward toward heaven.  It means that no matter what you do here in this life, one ear is listening for the trumpet.  There is a part of you that wonders, is it today?  Will the bridegroom return today?  Will our sorrowing have an end now?  We pray it every day in Christ’s Church: Thy Kingdom Come.  When it it be, Lord?  When will you come back?
We don’t know, of course.  We don’t know when the coming of the Son of God will be.  It will be when we least expect it.  He will come in glory, with His holy angels going before Him.  They will cry out to a dying world, Wake, awake,  your king is coming to you even now!
What will that mean for the redeemed, the Baptized into Christ on that last day?  It means all sorrow will come to an end.  It means that all the waiting and wondering and fear and heartache and anxiety and gunk of this life will be over.  Our hymn exclaims that joy as follows:
Zion hears the watchmen singing,
And all her heart with joy is springing;
She wakes, she rises from her gloom.
For her Lord comes down all-glorious,
The strong in grace, in truth victorious;
Her star is ris’n, her light is come.
Now come, Thou Blessèd One,
Lord Jesus, God’s own Son,
Hail! Hosanna!
We enter all
The wedding hall
To eat the Supper at Thy call.
Yet there will be no second guessing that Last Day of our Lord.  There is no place for salt-lookers in Christ’s kingdom.  Set your eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  Like the virgins in our text, the oil is yours and yours alone.  You cannot believe for another, and God will not share your heart with anyone else.  You are His, and His alone.  The things of this life cannot hold you, dearly Baptized.  If they hold you down, they will shackle you to the earth and will keep you from looking up to the Rising Sun, who comes with healing in His wings.
This is what we mean might call in the Church a holy indifference to the things of this world.  It means receiving and rejoicing in what God has given you, but it means not letting those things which God has given you to overshadow the God who gave them to you.  Practicing charity and love toward the neighbor means confessing that because Christ is coming again, the things of this life cannot hold you back and holy you down.  For if they do, there is great danger in losing the oil of gladness as we try to hold on to and juggle all the things of this life in our hands.
The Last Day will be here soon.  There will come a day when all of the evil of this life will pass by as a dream.  The day is coming when Amen will be the only word that really makes sense at all.  The evil of this place will be gone.  Luther put it this way in his catechism:
But deliver us from evil.
What does this mean? We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.
So rejoice this day, dearly beloved. When your last hour comes, be it today or in fifty years, God will give you a blessed end, because you are His child, holy, baptized, a part of the family, with the oil of gladness.  You are ready.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Trinity 27 (November 22, 2009)

Matthew 25:1-13

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, click this link: Trinity27-2009

TITLE: “Wake, Awake!”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for today is the parable of the 10 virgins from Matthew 25.  Let us pray:

Lord God, heavenly Father, send forth Your Son, we pray, to lead home His bride, the Church, that with all the company of the redeemed we may finally enter into His eternal wedding feast; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  So said our Lord.  But the virgins don’t look too shiny sleeping in the middle of the night, as they are depicted here in our text.  On earth their works were not thought wise, the hymn exclaims.  By all appearances, the faith of the wise and the faith of the foolish appeared the same.  You couldn’t tell the wise from the foolish as they slumbered.

Yet there is a difference.  The Christian here on earth lives and breathes and struggles through life just like everyone else.  But by the grace of God, you have the one thing needful.  God in His mercy has given you the oil of gladness, faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ.  This faith points you upward toward heaven.  It means that no matter what you do here in this life, one ear is listening for the trumpet.  There is a part of you that wonders, is it today?  Will the bridegroom return today?  Will our sorrowing have an end now?  We pray it every day in Christ’s Church: Thy Kingdom Come.  When it it be, Lord?  When will you come back?

We don’t know, of course.  We don’t know when the coming of the Son of God will be.  It will be when we least expect it.  He will come in glory, with His holy angels going before Him.  They will cry out to a dying world, Wake, awake,  your king is coming to you even now!

What will that mean for the redeemed, the Baptized into Christ on that last day?  It means all sorrow will come to an end.  It means that all the waiting and wondering and fear and heartache and anxiety and gunk of this life will be over.  Our hymn exclaims that joy as follows:

Zion hears the watchmen singing,

And all her heart with joy is springing;

She wakes, she rises from her gloom.

For her Lord comes down all-glorious,

The strong in grace, in truth victorious;

Her star is ris’n, her light is come.

Now come, Thou Blessèd One,

Lord Jesus, God’s own Son,

Hail! Hosanna!

We enter all

The wedding hall

To eat the Supper at Thy call.

Yet there will be no second guessing that Last Day of our Lord.  There is no place for salt-lookers in Christ’s kingdom.  Set your eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.  Like the virgins in our text, the oil is yours and yours alone.  You cannot believe for another, and God will not share your heart with anyone else.  You are His, and His alone.  The things of this life cannot hold you, dearly Baptized.  If they hold you down, they will shackle you to the earth and will keep you from looking up to the Rising Sun, who comes with healing in His wings.

This is what we mean might call in the Church a holy indifference to the things of this world.  It means receiving and rejoicing in what God has given you, but it means not letting those things which God has given you to overshadow the God who gave them to you.  Practicing charity and love toward the neighbor means confessing that because Christ is coming again, the things of this life cannot hold you back and holy you down.  For if they do, there is great danger in losing the oil of gladness as we try to hold on to and juggle all the things of this life in our hands.

The Last Day will be here soon.  There will come a day when all of the evil of this life will pass by as a dream.  The day is coming when Amen will be the only word that really makes sense at all.  The evil of this place will be gone.  Luther put it this way in his catechism:

But deliver us from evil.

What does this mean? We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Himself in heaven.

So rejoice this day, dearly beloved. When your last hour comes, be it today or in fifty years, God will give you a blessed end, because you are His child, holy, baptized, a part of the family, with the oil of gladness.  You are ready. Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

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

Heavenly Citizenship (Trinity 23)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Trinity 23 (November 15, 2009)

Matthew 22:15-21

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, click this link: Trinity23-2009

TITLE: “Heavenly Citizenship”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel lesson just read from Matthew 22, with focus on the words, Render to Caesar that which is Caesars, and to God that which is Gods. We also will examine the important phrase from the Epistle: Our citizenship is in heaven.

Heavenly citizenship. That’s how Paul describes the Christian. “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).

But what does this heavenly citizenship entail? What does it really mean for us sons and daughters of Adam, as we live and work and struggle here, now, in the midst of a very earthly life? What does this heavenly citizenship mean to you? Does it change who you are? Does it change your relationship to your neighbor, to those in need around you?

There really are two ways that Christian’s have traditionally looked at this question. One way is to think of it like this: “‘I’m but a stranger here’ means that I am not a part of the world. It means that I can blissfully ignore my neighbor in need, and anyone and anything around me. I am a Christian. I am above such things.”

The problem with this view, of course, is that it is simply not true. Heavenly citizenship doesn’t mean that we write off the earthly as irrelevant or beneath us. If this were true, why did Jesus come to earth at all? Why did God become man if w are really supposed to ignore or belittle the world and everything that is in it? Remember the words of our Creed: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, make of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” A part of what this means is that the Christian Church must have her feet firmly planted here, on earth, in the midst of all of the trials and troubles and difficulties that this life beings about. If we don’t do this, and it is oh so tempting, if we don’t do this, then we risk becoming so heaven oriented that we actually forget we’re on earth!

Now the other view of heavenly citizenship is that I can only think of things below, because heaven is just too hard to understand and really get a grip on as a Christian. I know heaven is coming, and I don’t really understand it, so I’m just going to worry about the here and now and not be overly concerned with what’s coming.

In this view, the things of this life actually take on too much importance. We can start to get the idea that we’re God, and that we are the ones who are at work here below ordering everything according to His holy plan. There are many churches the world over that have become so here and now focused, that the lose the connection between taking care of and serving the needs of today and taking care of and serving the needs of the whole person, body, soul and spirit together. Churches that forget about heaven and eternal life in Christ has forgotten the Gospel.

Remember again the words of St. Paul in Colossians chapter three:

3:1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

So then if we aren’t to be so heavenly focused that we forget we live on earth, and we aren’t to be so earthly focused that we forget our hope is in heaven, how then are we to live as children of God?

We live and serve our neighbor not because we are trying to create heaven on earth. We live and serve our neighbor in love because heaven is our home. Think of it this way. God has given you all things. You are set to inherit eternal life, where you will be changed from this sinful sack of flesh to a new, glorious body, perfect in every way. But even more than that, you will be at peace. You will be at peace with God through the forgiveness of sins. You will be at peace with everyone because of what God has won for you.

All of this begins now. We have hints of this all around us, pointers and signs that lead the way to this great mystery. Baptism, preaching, the Lord’s Supper, absolution, all of these and more point to this great and beautiful reality that because God has done all these things for you, you are free to live here, now. You are free to enjoy the gifts that God gives you. Gifts of family and life and the things of this world. But even more than that, you are free to share those gifts with everyone around you.

The Pharisees in our text want to trip Jesus up with this distinction, but our Lord does not stumble or falter. He knows full well that we live in the world but that we are not of the world. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. Give the world its due. If taxes, then taxes. If tribute, then tribute. If that means taking care of your neighbor more than seems reasonable to you, then do it anyway. Why? Because you also render to God what is His. And you, dearly baptized, are His. You are His body and soul.

So come, feast on our Lord’s body and blood. Live as free men and women. Give freely because Christ has so freely given to you. Come, eat, live, and give everything of yourself, because God Himself will fill you up more than you can possibly imagine. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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

Forgiveness without Calculation

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Trinity 22 (November 8, 2009)

Matthew 18: 21-35

For an audio mp3 of this sermon, Trinity22-2009

TITLE: “Forgiveness without Calculation”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is the Gospel lesson just read, the parable of the unmerciful servant.

Forgiveness without calculation, that’s the goal. That’s what God does. To forgive someone their sins means to not count it against them. To forgive means to forget, for they go together. It means the wipe the slate clean. It means to delete the spreadsheet, eliminate the debt calculator. It means to lose your memory that such an event ever happened. Forgiveness means starting over.

If you’ve ever been forgiven of a big debt, you know what kind of a feeling I’m talking about. There’s a sense of unreality about it. It’s too good to be true. You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Now of course, debts don’t just involve money. You can owe a debt to your wife or husband or mom or dad or children that goes far beyond anything you could ever pay. It is possible to mess up so badly that I don’t believe that forgiveness is even possible because I’m such a terrible person. But sometimes our spouse surprises us. Sometimes your mom or dad forgive you far more than you ever would have imagined. Sometimes things really are better after you confess and receive absolution.

But why don’t we ever expect that kind of forgiveness? The answer to that is easy. We do not forgive by nature. Oh I suppose that by nature we forgive at some level, but in one hidden part of our minds we keep a running total, just in case. We are by nature more concerned about protecting ourselves than about forgiving. That means when I forgive, what I really mean is that I will wait until just the right time to bring this back up, and then POW! Right in the kisser. I will forgive, but I will never forget.

You know this is wrong. We pray it every time we pray the Lord’s prayer:

The Fifth Petition
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

What does this mean?
We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

So this is the situation in which Peter comes up to Jesus and asks the question, “how many times should I forgive? Seven times?” You have to admit that forgiving someone 7 times sounds like a lot. Yet Jesus’ response makes it sound like this is nothing! No, Jesus says. I say to you seventy times seven. Well, 490 is a nearly impossible number to wrap your brain around. Can you imagine forgiving your spouse for the same infraction 490 times in a row? Can you imagine forgiving your parents for their impatience 490 times? It is hard to imagine. This is why the old saying is true, to err is human, but to forgive is divine. That kind of forgiveness just seems impossible for us to grasp.

Now to demonstrate the near impossibility of our situation, Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven, he says, is like a banker that decides to settle up all his accounts. He calls in one small businessman, who owes him about 500 billion dollars. That kind of debt really takes a government to rack up, but that’s what this man owes. It’s hard to imagine that kind of debt. Yet, there it is. The banker is ready to throw him in jail for defaulting on his loans, but the man says to him, “just give me a chance! I’ll come up with a really creative way to pay you back this 500 billion dollars I owe you! Give me more time!” How much time does the man need? There is just no way this little guy is going to pay the banker back. It’s impossible. But the banker then does something un-bankerish: he simply erases the man’s debts. Wipes them out. Gone.

This, of course, is you. The debt you owe to God is far beyond anything you could possibly repay, even if you wanted to. But God, in His mercy, simply forgives the debt. Okay, there’s nothing really simple about it. He takes your debt and puts it on His Son, Jesus. That’s the Gospel, dear friends.

Now back to our parable. So this man, who has gotten a new lease on life by having this massive debt repaid, sees a colleague. This colleague owes him fifty bucks. What should the man do? He is in his rights to demand the money. But this isn’t so much about rights as it is about doing what is right. What is right is to think of the context. The context is that he has been forgiven so much, this fifty bucks is hardly even worth his notice. But what does he do? He throws the guy in jail for not paying him back. Ouch. Talk about not thinking about the context. He demonstrates by his actions that he learned nothing from the bankers generosity.

Now here’s the kicker. The kicker is that this isn’t about a banker and a small businessman at all. It’s about you and God. God has forgiven you all your sins, a debt far beyond anything that anyone could possibly have done against you. What God wants you to do is to forgive your neighbor when he sins against you. All the time, every time. He wants you to forgive them even if they don’t deserve it, which they don’t. He wants you to forgive them, period. He wants you to never hold a grudge, to forget, to put these wounds against you behind you completely. Forgiveness without calculation, that’s what God wants.

But you don’t, do you? No. You hold on. You cling to these sins done against you like they are your very own. And by clinging to these sins, these debts done against you, you actually make it so that God can’t get through. You make it so that God’s forgiveness is dimmed in your own life.

But there is hope, dearly beloved, dearly Baptized. You see, God is not a one stop shop. God not only forgives you once. He does it over and over and over again. He forgives when you cannot. He forgave you in your Baptism, and He continues to forgive you every day of your life. His riches and mercy know no bounds. Absolution, preaching, the Word of God, prayer centered in the Scriptures, and chiefly the Lord’s Supper, through all of these wonderful means, God forgives. He starts over again and again.

God’s mercy goes beyond all bounds. So forgive! Forget! And be at peace, for God has wiped it all away for you, and for those who have sinned against you. Amen.

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