Advent 2 – Sermon: “The Brood” – Luke 3:1-14

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Advent 2C, (December 6, 2015)

Holy Cross Lutheran Church

Rocklin, California

Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn

Luke 3:1-14

TITLE: “The Brood”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel just read from St. Luke chapter three.

Stir up our hearts, so we pray in the collect. And if there’s one thing that John the Baptist is good at, it is stirring things up. He is the great leveler, bar none. It didn’t matter if you were rich or poor, high-born or low-born, Jew or Gentile. If you came to hear John preach, out there in the wilderness, you were going to be stirred up.

And this stirring up, at least at the beginning, well, it wouldn’t be pleasant. Listen again to those words about John from Isaiah:

““The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”” (Luke 3:4–6 ESV)

We have come to hear those words as part of the sweet saccharine of the Christmas season, but they aren’t. Imagine, if you will, a spiritual construction team coming in with graders, explosives, asphalt, backhoes, all of it coming to do work on your soul. What these words describe is God’s Law working upon your hearts, and the work, well, it’s messy, and hard, and you aren’t really meant to like it.

Because you see, you are broken. Your pride lifts you up like the Tower of Babel, and your despair brings you down to hell. Your path is not straight and clear, receiving from the Lord His mercy and grace. Rather, your path is crooked and windy. You go this way and that, one moment generous, and the next moment you are selfish, or full of gossip, or jealous of your neighbor. You never know from one minutes to the next which Christian is going to show up. Will it be the true one, or the fake one? The follower of Jesus, or the prideful, self-righteous one?

This is why John called the crowds a brood of vipers. Any way you look at it, calling a group of people a big pile of snakes isn’t good. You get the picture of everyone crawling upon each other, scrambling to get on top, when no one knows why or what purpose it serves.

John, it seems, may have been on to something there. Perhaps we are more like his brood of vipers than we would like to admit. Our lives are more scattered, more busy, and yet less generous than ever. When the people asked John what they should do, his answer was pretty simple: take care of your neighbor. Don’t cheat, don’t lie, don’t steal. You know, the Ten Commandments. But when you are constantly trying to run over the other guy, in the serpent scramble to get on top of the pile, well, things like love and mercy tend to go out the window, and become snake bait along the way.

So I say to you the same thing that John said to his brood: Repent.

You see, beloved, you are not finally a brood of vipers, destined to bite and devour one another. You are children of God, baptized, beloved. The one who follows after John is the same one who crushes the head of the great serpent, Satan himself (Gen. 3:15). St. Paul said in Philippians that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6 ESV) God is at work in you and for you. He will not let you remain in your sins. He comes even now with His love and mercy to forgive your sins, to remake your heart into something altogether new. Jesus Christ goes into the pit of vipers, and in the greatest gift of all, turns them, that is, YOU, into something new.

And what is this new new thing that He is making? He is making you anew. In Holy Baptism you were filled with the righteousness of Christ, without spot or blemish. It was given to you, and is yours even now. You may forget and become more viperous, but He does not forget. So again and again, slowly but surely and with great patience and love, God continues to remove the scales of your sin, and give you that new life which can only come in Christ, Jesus our Lord.

The prophet Malachi wrote many years before, where the Lord said through him: “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6 ESV) God’s love and mercy for you is steadfast and enduring. His purpose for you does not end because you fall. He lifts you out of the pit, sets you up at His Table, and reminds you once again that you are not a brood of vipers, you are a brood of children, His children, holy and righteous.

Be who you are, beloved. Be his child, for He loves you with an everlasting love, which will never go out or be quenched, no matter how much the devil and the world may try. Be who you are in Him.

Let us pray:

Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be enabled to serve You with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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

Pentecost 19 – Sermon: “What God Has Joined Together” – Mark 10:2-16 (October 4, 2015)

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Proper 22b, (October 4, 2015)
Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Rocklin, California
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
Mark 10:2–16; Genesis 2:18–25

Sermon 10-4-15.mp3

TITLE: “What God Has Joined Together”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel just read from St. Mark chapter ten. We focus on the words of our Lord: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”” (Mark 10:9 ESV)

I think it is fair to say that there has been a lot of talk this year about marriage. With the decision of the Supreme Court this past June, so-called same-sex marriage is now the Law of the land, at least according to many. In order for Christians to get with the times and become the tolerant members of society that everyone wants, we need to change our views on marriage, on human sexuality, and perhaps even on how we look at questions about how we come to understand truth itself.

Now I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like it when society forces us to examine our practices. My instinct in the face of that pressure is always going to be to push back, to become defensive, and even to get angry. Maybe it is the same with you. But our Lord holds up something for us today about what it means to be human that no court, no poll, and no amount of cajoling or pleading or shaming on the part of our culture can change. So the question of the day is, what does God have to say about marriage in HIs Word?

But before we answer this question, I have to make one more thing really clear. This sermon isn’t written to married couples. It’s not written to singles, divorcées, or to children, or to widows or widowers. It’s not a how-to sermon or targeting anybody. The purpose of this sermon is to get at the basic question of what it means to be human and how is it that God puts us into family.

When we hear how God created man and woman in Genesis chapter two, a couple of things really stand out. First of all is who is doing the work. God creates Adam. God puts Him in the Garden of Eden and gives it to him to work it and keep it. And God sees, from the very beginning, that man cannot do this work alone. Caring for the earth, guarding it and tending it, well, that is not the job of one person. It requires many hands to make light work. Furthermore, the commission to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, that is impossible to do alone. God Himself recognizes that Adam needs help, he needs someone who can complete him and finish the work. So the God who formed Adam from the dust of the ground, forms Adam’s wife from his side. Adam himself recognizes this, that his relationship to Eve is fundamentally different than it is to anything else on earth. Adam exclaims:

““This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”” (Genesis 2:23 ESV)

The man and the woman are one, because they come from the One who created them for each other.

Now fast forward to Jesus. The Pharisees come to Jesus with a dicey question: ““Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”” (Mark 10:2 ESV) I don’t know anybody that likes to talk about divorce, least of all pastors. People who have suffered through a divorce are wounded and shamed when you talk about it; and people who haven’t gone through a divorce tend to act self-righteous and holy because they haven’t been “lowered” to such problems.

Jesus answers the Pharisees that the reason that they have divorce at all is because of the hardness of their hearts. In other words, the reason divorce is real is because of sin. We are broken and fallen, and that is true for relationships as much as it is for the sin that lurks within the heart.

Now Jesus knows all this, and so while He answers them according to the Law, He really does get to the heart of the matter. Who is it that makes two people into one? It is God. Only God. The God who created us is the self-same God who draws us to each other. He is the one who joins two people together into one through holy matrimony.

But who cares? Why does this matters? It matters because this holds up a great and wonderful mystery. The mystery is that two people with two very different ways of looking at the world, with their own sins and sorrows and hardships, that these two people become one flesh why? Because God is the one who makes it so by His Word. You can’t do it. I can’t do it. Only God our Father can make this into a reality. It is, I would argue, one of the fundamental things that make us different than the animals. God makes us as one flesh because He chooses to do so in love, not because we are just like the wolves or beavers or gorillas or whatever other monogamous animals there are in nature.

This is one of the very simple and obvious reason why we as Christians care about marriage between a man and a woman for life. If marriage becomes whatever two people or things want to make it be, then we’re no longer talking about how God created the world. We’re talking about how we can make up anything we want to because we feel like it.

But there is an even more fundamental reason why this matters to us as children of Adam and Eve. As St. Paul puts it, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:32 ESV) You see, beloved, all of this man and woman one-flesh talk is about marriage, but it is really about the marriage of Christ and His Church. Jesus Christ leaves His Father, clings to His bride, the Church, and they become one flesh. And it is through that marriage, that life-long union, that you and me and the whole world is redeemed.

Jesus Christ lays down His life for His Bride. He sacrifices Himself for a bride that is not worthy, and makes her worthy by the blood of His death. She is, that is, you are spotless and holy because of this Bridegroom, the One one who comes to seek and to save the lost.

Marriage is about the life-long union of a man and woman here on earth, where they submit to each other and sacrifice for one another and for their children in ways that frankly make no sense. Our marriages today are imperfect, even broken sometimes. But the God who created us uses that union to point to the great reality that He loves this world, that He longs to be with her every day, and that we feast together in Him in the Lord’s Supper each and every Sunday.

So rejoice, beloved! Christ your bridegroom has come to save you, to make you His own, and to present you spotless and holy before God our blessed Father. That is who you are, because that is who He is: the Groom who became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Rejoice! This is your identity, and it is a glorious one indeed.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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

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The New Scheme of Things (Sermon on 1 Cor. 7:25-40)

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Friday of Proper 14b, (August 14, 2015)
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
(1 Corinthians 7:25-40)

TITLE: “The New Scheme of Things”

INI

What I appreciate about St. Paul here in 1 Corinthians seven is that he is not afraid of addressing the conflicts and anxieties that the Corinthians are facing in their day. They are faced with the real and frankly scary question of whether or not it is even right to marry, given the temptations and persecutions that are coming upon them all too quickly. In the midst of such trials, is it right to engage in the very earthly and human estate of marriage? And in the same way we may ask the question, is the celibate life superior to the married life, is it more spiritual, more able to focus upon God and service to him? These are some of the questions the Corinthians face.

In our own day, we are barely waking up to the fact that such questions exist. Throughout the world the persecution of the Church is on the rise. While we lament and moan about whether the ten commandments can be displayed in a courtroom, in other parts of the world baring the name “Christian” may mean lost of family and property, or even loss of life itself. In some respects, I think you could almost argue that we in the West aren’t even grown up enough to worry about the questions of married versus single in the face of persecution and distress. But God, who is merciful and gracious, will teach us in His own time and way when we are ready to receive such trials.

So what St. Paul does for us here is outline how the Christian is to look at the estates of marriage and celibacy or virginity. Notice how Paul puts the emphasis on how each person is to make such decisions. What is going to promote good order? What will restrain the passions? What will keep you free from worry or anxiety? The answers will be different for each person, and learning how to answer those questions is a matter of wisdom, and takes time and work, with much prayer.

But look at what St. Paul does not do. Paul does not urge the Corinthians to judge each other on whether to marry or remain single. If our focus is on judging the spiritual estate of one another, of trying to measure our levels of holiness based upon the relationships and things of this world, then, well, we really will be caught like a child in the midst of a very adult war when the persecutions come.

In a war it is in your best interest that the soldiers next to you are strong, of good mind and will and body. You want them to be ready and well trained. You need them just as much as they need you. And so St. Paul recognizes that the Church will have the single and the married in the persecution to come. We are to look out for each other, to build one another up, to help the body to grow up into what our Heavenly Father has in store for us all along.

In this way, we look to our Lord, Jesus Christ, who did not turn aside when the trials faced Him. He did not shrink away when asked the question, He did not run and hide or let the things of this world distract Him from His divine work of the salvation and restoration of the world. He is stretched out toward His beloved even now, always preparing her and keeping her for the world which is to come.

Do not be afraid of the trials and hardships which are to come. Whether married or single, unburdened or full or sorrow and hardships, Christ our Lord is all in all for you, and you are in Him by Word and Spirit, water and meal. He will see you through, for the scheme of this world is passing away. And thanks be to God for that!

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

SDG

You Laid Aside Your Glory

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Sermon for Higher Things – Las Vegas
Rev. Todd Peperkorn
July 15, 2015
Is. 7:14
Matt. 1:18–25

TITLE: “You laid aside your glory”

INI

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

I love origin stories. You know, the stories about how the superhero became the superhero. Stuck in a vat of radioactive goo, bit by an alien cockroach, coming in from the planet Zeldon. Whatever the origin story, what it tells is how so-and-so can do all the amazing things they can do. They tell how it is that our hero is more than he appears, can do more than it looks like he can, and is able to save the world from whoever the bad guy is today.

All of us would like a better origin story, don’t you think? All of us secretly harbor the feeling that I want to be more than I appear. I want to do more, have more powers, have abilities that no one would suspect, and at just the right moment, POW, out comes my special power-up, to get me out of my bind for the day. We are never satisfied that what God has made is very good, and so the search continues. Maybe someday I’ll find out I’m actually adopted, and that my parents were aliens. Admit it, you wish your parents were aliens. Or they wish you were.

But when it comes to our Lord’s story, His story is, well, not that exciting. His origin story is that He has all the power, all the abilities, everything that you could ever want. He is the Son of the eternal God, the very image of God, an icon of God’s holiness. And His origin story is that He gave it all up. Our hymn says, “you laid aside your glory, were born of virgin’s womb”. And St. Matthew says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.”

Well that has got to be about the dumbest origin story there ever was. What kind of a story is that? Our hero had every superpower there ever was, could leap tall buildings in a single bound, solve any problem, create the world itself, and what does He do? He is born in a backwater town, lived the life of a carpenter’s son. Whoever heard of a carpenter hero? (maybe a plumber…) And then, to top it all off, He dies the death of a common criminal.

But God uses the least and the last, the strangest and yet the most ordinary things to accomplish His great and mighty purposes. And make no mistake, God’s purpose in all this is you, your salvation and life, the forgiveness of sins and an eternity in fellowship with Him. So the angel speaks to Joseph, and tells Him to take Mary as his wife, even though appearances, well, they don’t look good. But looks can be deceiving.

When this Son is born, Joseph gives Him the name Jesus. He names His Son, like every Father or Mother has named their children since the world began. But His name, Jesus, isn’t just pulled from a “best Hebrew names for the year 6 B.C.” baby booklet. This name preaches. Yahweh, God, saves. So Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us. And He is with us, in our very own flesh and blood. While you and your sinful nature wants to be something or someone else, with superpowers, able to escape this messed up world. Jesus Christ, well, He wants to be you. He wants to be one with you, and so He now lays aside His glory, and is born into your flesh and blood.

And now, dearly Baptized, now the glory of God which He laid aside, it is now hidden in you. “For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Immanuel, God with us, is now and forevermore God for you and with you.

You don’t need to be a superhero, or to have a superhero. God has come into your flesh and blood, into your very life. He is your life. Live in Him, and do not be afraid.

SDG

Nothing Can Separate (Wedding Sermon for Anna Lewer and Neil Dorsey)

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Eve of Pentecost 5, (June 27, 2015)
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Rocklin, California
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
Marriage of Anna Lewer and Neil Dorsey
Romans 8:31, 32, 37–39

TITLE: “Nothing Can Separate”

Family and friends, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, relatives galore, but especially you, Neil and Anna, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ.

2015 06 27 neilandanna 51

It is not good for man to be alone, said God our Father in the Garden so many years ago. Man apart from his bride is a wreck, incomplete, unable to fulfill what God has given him to be and to do. That is the picture we have of Adam in the Garden.

And so our Heavenly Father said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”” (Genesis 2:18 ESV) And so began the parade of animals. You can almost picture the parade as God walked them past Adam, can’t you? “Well, God, I really like this one, but it’s not quite right for me. Let’s call it a turtle. That one’s pretty strange. Let’s call that one a cow.”

God put Adam into a deep sleep and took from him a rib, and from that rib He formed Eve. Adam took one look at her and said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23 ESV)

Thus the two became one flesh, in a unity that is a reflection of God Himself, and of Christ’s love for His bride, the Church. They were not the same, any more than a cow and a turtle are the same, and yet, somehow, they fit together. They were, as only God could create and make, made for each other.

Sin does have a way of messing things up, though. And this is as true in marriage as it is in the rest of life. God created man and woman to be wonderfully, gloriously different from each other, to complement each other so that they fit together perfect. But sin puts us at odds with each other and with ourselves. Your sin and mine, and everyone’s sin.

God, however, will not allow anything to separate you from Him. Not persecution or famine, peril or sword, enemies or friends, not sin, not even death itself. Christ’s love for His Bride, the Christian Church, has no bounds, no limits. He will do anything, anything for her. Frankly, Christ’s love is not particularly rational. It is a mystery. St. Paul writes

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”(Ephesians 5:31–32)

So what does all this talk about mysteries, separation and unity, and your favorite word of all, love, have to do with the two of you?

Your marriage is and will be a picture or an icon of Christ’s love for His bride, the Church. Neil, you sacrifice everything for you dear one, Anna, and in doing so, you show all of us here a little hint of Christ’s love for us. Now you won’t be perfect at it. Sometimes you will stink at it, and Anna will learn to forgive you. But since she comes from a family of forgiven sinners, she has already had plenty of practice at forgiveness, so it’s okay. Your love for her is a picture of the one, great love of God, and that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Anna, your love for Neil is a picture or an image of how the Church loves Christ Jesus, her Lord. It’s a strange picture, I know, but if I know anything about you, it is that you are comfortable with…odd. You will not reflect that love of the Church for Christ always, and Neil will learn to forgive you, but Neil, too, comes from a family of forgiven sinners, so you are in good hands with both them and with him.

God, you see, loves to take the ordinary and give it life beyond all understanding. And so he will do with the two of you. Today as you begin your life together in Him, Christ our Lord makes a sure and certain promise to the two of you. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb. 13:5), and a three fold cord is not easily broken (Ecc. 4:12), and again I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20). These promises and so many more mean that you life is safe and at peace in God’s hands, and that everything will turn out according to His divine purpose and direction.

So rejoice, Anna and Neil, Steve and Beth, Richard and Janis, friends, relatives, and all those who are here! Christ is present in this place, your love for each other is bound up together in Jesus’ love for His bride, and He who does all things well continues to give Adam his Eve and Eve her Adam. Rejoice, for paradise is just beginning.

Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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