It’s Not What You Feel, But What You Know That Matters!

January 22nd, 2012

3rd Sunday in Epiphany B, January 22, 2012
Pastor Brian Henderson-Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA
Jonah 3:1-5, 10, Mark 11:4-20

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“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe.” [Mark 1:15]

What does a traveling preacher with a divine call and one of the most sinful cities known to man have in common?  Both were separated from  God because of their sins, and both heard God’s invitation to turn to Him for forgiveness and faith, and they did; both are examples of  repentance!

Many of you are familiar with the story of Jonah.  God ordered him to go to one of Israel’s arch enemies and announce the need to repent or be  destroyed.  Jonah threw a fit; he didn’t want them to repent, he wanted them to be destroyed, so he booked passage on the nearest freight ship  intending to get as far away from Nineveh as possible.  Why?  Because he knew the LORD “is a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and  abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”  In other words, he knew that if his enemy repented God would even love and forgive  them!  Isn’t that something?  At the expense of his own salvation, Jonah refused to play a part in bringing salvation to an entire city.

Well, eventually Jonah did repent, but it took the help of an angry boat crew who threw him overboard and the God  directed presence of a big  fish or whale, that swallowed him and safely spit him up at the shores of the very place he was trying to run from… Nineveh!  Through God’s  work in the circumstances of Jonah’s life, Jonah was put back on course for Nineveh and salvation; he returned to the call and will of God.

Now if you think that was miraculous, what about the entire city of Nineveh repenting?  That’s huge!  Christians throughout our nation have  been praying for that to happen right here in the good old US of A, and well, it hasn’t happened yet!  Abortion is still legal, even though God  say’s it is an evil abomination.  So if we as a nation haven’t repented yet, then what happened to save Nineveh?  Well, it was the very same thing that caused Jonah to repent; the Word and work of God.

The people of Nineveh heard the Word of God, both the law and the gospel.  The law was the Word of truth that the Living God was angry with their sin and about to destroy their entire city.  The gospel was the truth that this same living God was giving them 40 days to repent, to turn and confess their sinfulness and receive mercy and forgiveness.  Through both the law and the gospel, God created faith in a city full of faithless hearts.  In the darkness of sin, He created a city of light!  Could that happen in this country?  Could we ever repent of the sin of abortion?  Yes, but only through the work of God causing us to repent and turn to His forgiving love!

So what is repentance?  Really it’s a person’s pain over their sins and a turning of faith to a God who will show mercy and forgiveness.  It’s realizing that everything that you’ve done apart from God and faith in Him, is nothing but evil and darkness.  Everything?!  Yes, everything!  God’s Word confirms it, listen:  “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one!” [Romans 3:10—12]

Do you understand what that means?  It means that no matter how hard you try to change your life, to become a better person, you will never succeed in pleasing God!  Why?  Because God can see into your heart; he knows that whatever you do or try to do will be self-serving; that is you will only be trying to save your own skin!  Just as it didn’t matter if the whole city of Nineveh voted and decided to take care of the poor with their vast amount of wealth, God was still going to destroy not just the city but everyone who lived in it!  Even if they decided to never make war again, and even if they freed every one of the slaves from every country they ever conquered, God was going to destroy them, unless… unless they confessed that they deserved His punishment and acknowledged that the true and Living God was the only one who could save them.  But this work of repentance, this one work that was pleasing to God was impossible for them to do, unless… unless God desired it to happen.  And here is the miracle, God did desire that very thing, so he created faith in the hearts of all of those sinful people through the preaching of Jonah; He created faith  so they could see the truth about their sins and turn to the LORD who is gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  When they turned to God’s forgiving heart He relented from bringing down punishment for their many sins.

Now, there are some here this morning who are in the very same predicament as the people of Nineveh.  You’ve been living a lie; you’ve been telling yourself that if you try real hard to live a good life, God will see that and help you to be better.  But like I said, that’s a lie.  You have to see, like the people of Nineveh had to see that you can’t do better; you can never get rid of all of the evil that is in your heart.  You can’t erase all of the sins you’ve committed and you can’t prevent the sins you’re going to commit.  So what are you going to do?  Nothing but the only good work that God counts as righteous; you must by faith turn to God and confess that He is right and you are wrong.  You must call out to God for mercy and pardon and do what He tells you!

And that friends is the obstacle you can never overcome unless God wills it; unless He creates faith within your heart to see this narrow doorway into His kingdom of forgiveness and peace.  It’s like the little boy who got His hand stuck in His mother’s expensive vase.  His parents tried everything to free him; they tried soap, cooking oil, lard, even engine grease, but nothing worked.  Reluctantly, the father went to the garage to get a hammer to break this expensive vase.  It was then, when the boy asked one simple question that changed everything: “Dad, would it help if I let go of the quarter I dropped into the vase?”

And that is what some of you need to do this morning.  You need to let go of your own efforts to please God and do the one and only thing that will; you need to hear Him speaking to you this morning and let go of the ways of this sinful world and turn to His forgiving heart and be freed, changed, forgiven, and loved!  You need to agree with God that you can’t change yourself, and that your only hope is for you to allow Him to change you!

In our gospel lesson this morning, God’s only means of salvation is made to stand right in front of us and speak the only Word’s that will make us right with God!  “The time is fulfilled” Jesus said, “and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe.”  What time is he speaking of?  The time when God will bring both judgment and salvation.  The time that everyone, including the evil city of Nineveh was waiting for… the time of God’s final work; God’s solution to sin.  It is the time to repent and believe.  Believe in what?  Well, the better question is: Believe in Who?  You see the what and the who are the very same thing.  Believe in the good news of God’s forgiving love; believe in the Living Word of God Who is telling you that through Him alone, God will forgive you and save you from your many sins!  Believe in Jesus Christ!

As Jesus spoke to the people in Galilee, He not only proclaimed God’s forgiveness, He demonstrated it.  Standing before them was God in human flesh; their only means of forgiveness and salvation.  What must they do to be saved?  The very same thing we must do; hear the Words of eternal life and receive them.  Repent and believe.  Even now, God is working within our hearts to provide faith, faith to receive this message and live.  Jesus is inviting you to let go of your past and to receive your future.

Listen to this poem by Theodore Brennan and see if it doesn’t describe your life and your heart as well: “I looked upon a farm one day, that once I use to own; The barn had fallen to the ground, the fields were overgrown.  The house in which my children grew, where we had lived for years—I turned to see it broken down, and brushed aside the tears.  I looked upon my soul that day to find it too had grown, with thorns and nettles everywhere, the seed(s) neglect had sown.  The years had passed while I had cared for things of lesser worth; the things of Heaven I let go while minding things of earth.  To Christ I turned with bitter tears, and cried, “O Lord forgive!  I haven’t much time left for Thee, not many years to live.  The wasted years forever gone, the days I can’t recall; if I could live those days again, I’d make Him Lord of all!”

Friends, if that is how you feel, then God is working a mighty work in your heart right now.  That pain you feel over your wasted life, your sinful life is called contrition.  Now the only thing left for you to do is hear God’s gospel Word and receive His forgiveness.  You are forgiven!  Leave those feelings of regret behind and turn to Jesus Christ and live.  You see, it’s not about what you feel, or even how you felt in the past, instead it’s about what God says to you now… you are forgiven through Jesus Christ!

You know, we’re all a lot like Jonah when you think about it.  We have been forgiven and loved by God.  We’ve been washed clean in the waters of our baptism, and yet we can get caught up in our own anger and disappointments to the point where we can no longer see Jesus upon the cross crucified for us.  We can sometimes get to a place where we no longer see the miraculous life giving work God did for us in our baptism.

And now, here is Jesus standing before us in His Word, saying to even we life-long Christians, “Repent and believe.”  Put to death that old angry and sinful nature that was drowned in your baptism and turn to God’s forgiving love; a love which can only be yours by turning to Jesus.  That was the only work that the people of Nineveh could do that pleased God and it is the only work that we as Christians can do.

When you let go of how you feel, and grab onto Jesus and His Word and believe that He alone is your source of hope and salvation, something amazing begins to happen… you begin to change.  The good things that you use to wish you could do but failed become the very things you can do.  And as you do these good things, God begins to give you right feelings to replace your old feelings of guilt, anger, and disappointment.  He gives you a feeling of peace and satisfaction, as you realize that it isn’t you doing these good things, but God doing them in you and through you!  That’s the message that saved all of Nineveh from their sins, it’s the message that’s saving you, and it’s the message that can save even our great nation from the sins of abortion and many others.  All it takes is turning to God in repentance and receiving His forgiving love as we forget the sins of the past and embrace God’s will.

So you see, it really isn’t about what you feel, but it’s about what you know.  And what is it that you know?  In God there is forgiveness; there is new life when you receive Jesus’ work upon the cross, His suffering, death, and resurrection, as your only source of hope and peace in this life and the life to come.  I pray that you will hear Jesus message of repentance and not just believe it but share it with your neighbors.  I pray that you will let this forgiveness of God cause you to be salt and light, as you continue to speak the things of God even to your elected officials, and I ask this in Jesus name… AMEN!

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Good News!

January 15th, 2012

January 15, 2012
Rev. Douglas Shamburger, Assistant Pastor
Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA

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NOTE: Only the audio is available for this message.

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he
stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty
to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And
he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”” (Luke 4:16-21, ESV)

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The Happy Exchange

January 8th, 2012

Baptism of Our Lord B, January 8, 2012
Pastor Brian Henderson-Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA
Romans 6:1-11 and Mark 1:4-11

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“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” [Mark 1:9]

Every year the church celebrates the baptism of our Lord, and every year we try to answer a simple question: “Why was Jesus  baptized?”  Last year, the answer was, so that He could fulfill all righteousness.  In other words He did what was necessary to complete  our salvation.  This year, we will answer that question with the same answer but from a different perspective… our perspective.  So let  me rephrase the question a little differently, “Why was Jesus baptized for you?”

Jesus entered the waters of the Jordan River to be washed.  That is what the word baptize literally means; it is a washing.  Whether you  splash, sprinkle, or immerse, you are washing or baptizing.  So what kind of washing is baptism?  Well for each of us, baptism is a  spiritual washing, where the old creature within us is drowned every day.  We learn from personal experience that we need to drown  that old sinful nature every day, because, well it sins every day.  But there’s another part of living out our baptism, and that is turning  to Jesus every day for forgiveness and renewal.  In this way of God, every day our new identity, a new person rises up to live before  God in righteousness and purity forever.  Or as St. Paul puts it in our Epistle reading, “We were buried with Christ through baptism into  death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we, too, are to walk in a new life.” [Romans 6:4]

But what sins did Jesus need washed away?  None, He was, is, and always will be Holy, perfect, and righteous.  But in His baptism, He announced for the first time publicly that He who knew no sin, had come to become sin for us… for you!  So, in a sense, when He entered the waters of the Jordan he was clean, but when He left, He was drenched and soaked with not just your sins, but indeed the sins of the world.

In exchange for your sins, Jesus would spend the next three years of His life obediently walking to the cross, where He would suffer and die.  On Good Friday, every one of your sins that He took upon Himself would be paid for with His very life.  Think about that, all of your sins were locked within the only place that God refuses to see, the tomb of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ!  But the tomb isn’t where Jesus work for you ends, no it ends in His resurrection!  In His resurrection, His rising from the dead, Jesus won eternal life for all sinners; He created a way back to paradise!  This is what we might call a happy exchange.

Now I know that for many of you this is the very best news you could hear, but for others this is just foolishness!  For some they would call this exchange a hilarious exchange, because to them, it’s just foolish!  And that’s always the way it is for those who are just fine with their sin or struggling to make up for their sinfulness in their own way.  They refuse to acknowledge that God’s ways are right and their ways are not just wrong, they’re evil!

They can’t understand that when God chooses to use the simple things that are foolish and weak in the world’s eyes, He does it to shame the sinners (1 Corinthians 1:18-30); He chooses to shame them so that they might see their sin-filled and lost condition, and then receive God’s gift of life as a happy exchange.  He wants everyone to see that the life and death of Jesus reveals both the ultimate love of God for sinners and His eternal punishment for those who will not turn to Jesus as the only cure for their sin.  It’s God’s will that each and every sinner would see that while foolish men did their best to put Christ away in the tomb, He came back to life so that He could free even them from their existence as a sinner.  He came back to give them and us new life!

So what is it that prevents so many people from embracing this happy exchange?  Well, certainly it’s their sin, but it’s also our sinful society.  If there’s one thing that this old world teaches us, it’s that there are always strings attached; nothing is as good as it sounds; there is always a catch!

That’s what my wife and I thought back in 1997, when a young lady called our home and said that my wife won a brand new Ford, Mustang convertible.  After she told my wife she won, my wife promptly answered, “I didn’t enter any contest and I’m not interested!”   She hung up the phone and told me it was a salesperson with another come-on trying to sell a car.  Well a few seconds later, the phone rang again and this time I answered.  The young lady on the other end said quickly and nervously, “Sir, please don’t hang up; I know you didn’t enter a contest but you really won a car.”  I asked, “And just how did we win?”  She began to explain that several months ago, my wife applied for a Von’s shopping card, and every time she used it to get the “Von’s discount” she was entered into the contest to win a car.  She also explained that there was nothing we needed to do, but simply show up at the nearest Von’s store to get our certificate and instructions on how to redeem it for our new Mustang.  Wow!  We became loyal Von’s shoppers after that.

In a way, that is what this happy exchange is like.  You didn’t do anything to enter and win eternal life, God just put your name in those waters at the Jordan; God had you soaked into Jesus’ very flesh.  On Good Friday, Jesus had your name on His mind and in his heart as he suffered and died upon the cross, and on Easter Sunday He announced you and the whole world as the winner!  But announcing this gift to the whole world and assuring you of this gift personally are two different things, aren’t they?  If you don’t hear about the victory, how can you claim it?  So God has to notify you personally, and He does this very thing through the preaching and sharing of His Word!

In His Law, He shows each of us clearly that we are sinful and in need of His work of recreation, and in His gospel He assures you that your sins really have been paid for through Jesus death.  And through this same gospel Word He promises that in your baptism you’ve received a new identity; you are a saint!  This morning God is reminding you that He has chosen you!  In your baptism, He took that very Word of salvation and applied it to you in the washing of the water and the Word!  Jesus died for you, have you received it?  Even now, God is equipping you to open your heart and receive His gift; to receive His promise that through Christ Jesus you are saved!

Now some people will think that this offer from God is just foolish, and they’ll want to hang up on God’s offer, and that will be the end of it.  And others, well they’ll be wondering how it can be that simple.  They will doubt and want to hang onto their old life, but that’s only because they can’t see the beauty and the love in God’s offer.

Listen friends, God wants you to give to Him all of your sins, the things your ashamed of; He wants your hurts and disappointments.  He wants all of the pain that people in your life have caused you.  He wants the bitterness from your broken marriage and the misery of your past and present addictions.  He wants to take away the emptiness you feel from the loss of a loved one. He wants the fear and worry that consumes you as you struggle to find a way to feed your family and pay your bills.  How does He do all of this?  By teaching you to rest in your relationship of love with Him that comes through the washing of the water and His Word.

In Jesus baptism, He points us to our own baptism.  In Jesus, all wrongs are made right, and death is left behind for life.  Through the cross and the waters of our own baptism, Jesus is asking each of us to follow Him.  He’s asking us to follow Him in faith and trust that all things will work for our good, simply because we’re resting in His work and trusting in God’s love for us!  In this happy exchange, Jesus takes our old sinful nature and He crucifies it on the cross; He drowns it in the waters of our own baptism and He seals it away in the tomb.  And all that He asks of us is that we rest in and trust this work that was done for us!

Last week, I asked a very simple question several times throughout our message, and it was this: “Who are you?”  Well this morning, I would like to answer that question again, so that you will see the need to receive and rest in this happy exchange.  You are God’s own child through the work of Jesus Christ alone, and that identity was given to you in your baptism.  In baptism you were joined in Christ’s death, where He buried your old sinful nature once and for all.  So quit digging up that old no good sinner!  Instead of digging him up and letting him take the joy out of your salvation, spit on his grave and remind him that he’s dead.  And then remind yourself that not only were you joined in death with Jesus you were also joined with Him in life.  In your baptism Jesus raised you to a new life, a new identity.  Christ victory over sin, death, and the devil is your victory!  Your old sinful nature, your old life and sins were crucified with Jesus once and for all in your Baptism.  So because that old nature is dead, it’s no longer that nature living but Jesus nature; your new nature.  And that new nature by faith simply rests in Jesus and follows His nature, as God’s Word reshapes you into the very image of His Son!

Dear friends, let’s allow God’s Word to remind us every day that this happy exchange isn’t just a one-time gift; it’s an eternal one that keeps on giving.  What does it give?  Well first and foremost it gives you forgiveness of all your sins, past, present, and future.  But it also gives you faith to receive this gift everyday as you fight to put to death your old sinful nature.  Every day, God’s Word reminds us that not only did our sinful nature die on the day of our baptism, but with God’s Spirit we are taught to put it to death every day for the rest of our lives as we follow Jesus in the crucified life, where we live out our baptism.  This is the result of Jesus living in us and among us.

Listen friends, when the world, the devil, and our own conscience accuse us of being weak, inconsistent and ineffective; when we begin to doubt God’s gift of forgiveness and peace, let’s allow His Word and the family of God to pick us back up in forgiveness, and together let’s loudly proclaim to the devil and this sinful world, “I am baptized into Christ!  I am baptized into Christ!”  So you see, it’s not about you, it’s about the finished work of Jesus on the cross for you.”  To God be the glory for the great things He has done for us and in us through Jesus Christ… AMEN!

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Posted in Mark 1:4-11, Romans 6:1-11 | Comments Off

His Name is My Name Too!

January 1st, 2012

Circumcision and Name of Jesus B, January 1, 2012
Pastor Brian Henderson-Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA
Galatians 3:23-29 and Luke 2:21

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The old jingle about John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt says, “His name is my name too!”  Did you know that in your baptism, Jesus gave you His  name?  So who are you?  Are you living out the new identity that Jesus gave you?

Let me tell you a story about a mother eagle and four eggs.  One day the mother eagle flew off to find food for the soon to hatch eaglets.  While she  was gone two of them hatched early, and they decided to go down the mountain to see the world.  They found a bunch of wild turkeys and lived with  them for a while.  As the two eaglets grew, they discovered that they didn’t look anything like the turkeys and they didn’t want to eat what the  turkeys ate.

So they decided to go back to where the nest had been to see who they really were.  As they got close to the top of the mountain a full grown eagle  took flight and began to soar into the wind.  That was when the eaglets realized who they were.  Who are you?  Are you living like a turkey, like a  sinner when you’re supposed to be soaring, living like a child of God?

Who are you?  I know who you were; before God gave you faith, you were someone who was held prisoner by the law.  You needed to be held prisoner, because your sinful nature was in control.  Within your sinful nature was the potential to be a thief, sexual deviant, liar, and even a murderer.  You were forever separated from the love and presence of God because of your sin.  So it’s true, “Before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.” [Galatians 3:23]

But faith has come; the Living Word of God, the promise of God that He would come and be the Savior of the World has come to us, in our own flesh.  He was born of the Virgin Mary, presented at the temple of God for circumcision and a name.  The act of circumcision was done so that Christ would be held accountable to the law of God just as we are; the only difference is he kept the law perfectly.  The name that was given to this baby God-man was Jesus.  What is in a name, well in the name Jesus, there’s a whole lot.  You see Jesus or Joshua means God saves!  In this child is God’s answer to the sin of the world; even your sin that separates you from His love.  In this child is the only One who is the begotten Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary.  He is the one who has suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.  He alone is the one who not only gave His life for sinners separated from God, but He took it back up again by rising from the dead on the third day and He ascended into Heaven, where He forever sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

All of this, He did for you.  He did it so that you would be free from the bondage of God’s Law that always declares, “You are a sinner.  You don’t deserve God’s love or His forgiveness.  No matter how hard you try to be good, you will always fail; you will always fall short.”  So, who are you, really?

Well, let me tell you who you are!  Through faith, because of faith in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God!  Through faith, because of faith, only by faith are you right with God.  It has nothing to do with what you did or wanted to do, it’s by faith alone.  Listen to me now, you are a son of God.  Don’t change it to daughter, because this has nothing to do with your sex.  It also has nothing to do with your race or economic status.  You are a son of God exactly and precisely as everyone else who has received this gift of faith.

It’s a gift that you received in your baptism, and it’s a gift you’ve confirmed you still want, within the rite of confirmation.  You see, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”  You have put on His identity, His persona.  And what is that identity?  You are one who is holy, perfect, and righteous before God the Father.  There is nothing that you need to do to have this new identity, it was given to you 100% in your baptism.  All that you’re asked to do is live out this identity.  And that dear friends is where the struggle comes in.  In our baptism, we were given Christ’ identity, Jesus name once and for all.  Our old sinful nature was drowned in the baptismal waters where we were washed by the water and the Word of God.  But now, every day God directs us to live out this identity by daily drowning or putting to death our sinful nature.

Every day we are asked to turn away from our sins and turn to Jesus for forgiveness, faith, and strength to live for and with God.  It’s a little like learning to climb a telephone pole.  In order to climb, you have to have a belt that goes around the pole and you have to wear spike shoes.  The secret is to lean back and depend on the belt so that the spikes can dig into the pole.  Leaning back, I mean really leaning back and trusting in the belt is hard to do, because it’s in your nature to be afraid and doubt the effectiveness of the equipment.  All beginners go through this period of doubt.  The first few times they try it, they get partially up the pole, panic and slide down, getting splinters in their arms and other places.  Eventually, each beginner is faced with a decision, give up and look or another profession or lean back and trust the belt.

In your walk of faith, God wants you to follow Him by trusting in and depending on Him.  When we are hurt by splinters or falls and failures, He wants us to recognize that the successful climb has already been given to us, He just wants us to keep following Him and learn to depend on the faith and strength that He gave to us in His name, which is our name too!

Who are you?  Are you someone who’s defined by your failures or someone who’s defined by Jesus victory over sin, death, and the devil?  Every morning, when you get out of bed you have a choice; you can live as a victim or as a victor.  You can follow Jesus and watch as His forgiving love remakes you into His image, or you can shrink away in anger, hurt, or disappointment.  Who are you, really?

God wants you to always remember that in your baptism, you were given a gift, the gift of faith.  It’s the same gift He gives you every time you come to His table of mercy and receive His body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine.  Faith is a gift from God.  So is the air, but you have to breathe it.  So is food, but you have to eat it.  So is water, but you have to drink it.

So who you are depends on whether you will receive and live out this gift.  How do you receive it?  I’ll tell you one thing; it doesn’t depend on how you feel, because “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” [Romans 10:17]  Faith isn’t something that you need to sit down and wait to experience, instead it comes when you take God at His Word, and that Word says that in your baptism, through the gift of faith you have been made a son of God!  You have been made right with God!  You either take that truth and live it out and let it change you, or you walk away from it and go back into bondage.

I’d like to close with a story about a young boy who was doing chores in the yard with his Dad.  He was doing his best to lift a rock that was too large for someone his size.  He grunted and groaned as he tried to lift the rock.  He tried all different methods to move it, but nothing seemed to work.  His father finally walked over to his son and asked if he was having trouble.  The boy answered, “Yes, I’ve tried everything, and I can’t move this rock.”  The father knelt down to his son and asked, “Are you sure you’ve tried every possibility son?”  The boy looked up with frustration at his Dad and grunted, “Yes!”  With kindness, the father bent over and softly said, “No, son, you haven’t tried everything.  You never asked me to help.”

How often are we like that little boy, struggling with our problems, unable to solve them, and forgetting that we are children of the Most High God.  We forget that we have a new identity, a new nature, and a new name, and a Heavenly Father who loves us because we carry His Son’s name!  Jesus, God Saves, His name is your name too, so trust that name and in prayer continue to ask the Father for His help and protection!

Who are you?  You are a Christian now go and live out that identity.  I ask this in Jesus name… AMEN!

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Posted in Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 2:21 | Comments Off

Behold the Word and the Light!

December 25th, 2011

Christmas Morning B, December 25th, 2011
Pastor Brian Henderson-Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA
John 1:1-14

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and you know what, the Word still is God!  He was  God in the beginning, He was in the manger God, He was on the cross God, and that very same God is with us right now.  How is He with  us?  In His Word, and in the light that the Word gives to us!  Will you allow that Word to be your God?  Are you willing to live in the light  that He gives to you through that Word?  Will you receive the mystery that an eternal and almighty God can and has come to save you  as a tiny helpless baby in a manger?  Will you by faith believe that He was born from a virgin, with Almighty God as His Father?  But will  you also accept by faith that before He was born, suffered, died, rose, and ascended He was always very God of very God?  Will you by  faith receive the truth that all things that were made were made through Him, and without Him, nothing made was made without Him  and by Him?  By faith along with all of the saints, will you give a loud Amen and declare that this is most certainly true?

This declaration of faith can only be made if you have been given new life; it can only be given if God’s Word has given you light, and it  is only this Word of God that can protect you from the darkness of sin that surrounds you and seeks to fill you!  This Word of God is He that is called “Faithful and True.”  He is the “Amen, the faithful and true witness,” and the absolute “Yes”, without a single no concerning the promises of God.  He is the final and absolute revelation of God, demonstrated in God’s own Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus, the baby, Jesus the boy, Jesus the man, Jesus the crucified and resurrected Messiah is God’s final Word to you because in Him alone we find all of the purposes, plans, and promises of God.

Now, He isn’t an attribute of God, or a power that comes out of God, but a person within God.  He is the Son of God and has always been in a constant relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit… with One mind and One heart; the heart and mind of God!

Because the Word alone brings light and life, then all of us here this morning must admit that without the Word of God we wouldn’t, we couldn’t be alive.  But there is another kind of life that God’s Light gives us, and it is the gift of eternal life.  So the Word of God wants to take our minds out of the physical world and turn our focus onto the spiritual world.  Just as life and light are forever joined together in the physical world, in the same way they are joined in the spiritual world.  Where eternal life is given, it is only given by the Word of God.  So where true Light is, there is also the offer of spiritual life. St. John said it this way in our Gospel reading: “In Him (the Word of God) was life, and the life was the light of men.”

John uses the word “was” and not the timeless “is” because He wants to demonstrate that this Word of God entered our world in our flesh at a specific point in time; it is the time that the Word became flesh, He took on the flesh of a baby and lived among us, as one of us.  He was born and lived among us completely as one of us, but He did it without sin.

Behold your God!  Behold your salvation!  Behold the Kingdom of God, which comes to men!  Behold the Word and the light of God, which has taken on our flesh!  The Word did not stop being what He was before when He came to us, but He did become what He wasn’t… He became flesh!

The Word and Light of God has come to us, to give us faith, but He also comes to point out our unbelief.  You see there are many people who refuse the Christmas gift of God because they can’t understand this gift with their reason and logic.  They can’t accept the fact that this same Jesus who was born as a baby is also the timeless Word of God, the Only begotten of the Father, who is full of grace and truth; a Word that is the eternal God.

The Word is God’s speech, thought, and conversation with Himself and within His divine heart.  It is a conversation, a Word that is unknown to angels and men.  This Word remains unknown until God chooses to reveal it, and reveal it He has through Jesus Christ.  In Jesus the Word of God took on our flesh and proclaimed God’s love and forgiveness to us!

The creator of the world came to His creation, but His creation would not receive Him!  Why?  Isn’t He the Light that shines in the darkness?  Isn’t He the Light that reveals all truth?  Is there something wrong with the Light, the Word of God?  No, there is nothing wrong with the Light; there is something wrong with a creation that insists on living in darkness.

In our society we give a lot of respect to the men and women of science and rightly so, but when science trumps the Living Word and Light of God we can actually begin to loose God’s Light.  What I mean is this, when you let it bother you that God can’t be proven scientifically, then isn’t that kind of like lighting a candle to see the sun?

I’m afraid that the Light of God seems to make very little progress in the world because the world refuses to see Him as He chooses to present Himself.  This world of unbelief is so saturated with darkness that it doesn’t even fear God, but it does fear His light that brings them His truth and life.  Now just because the Light of God seems to make very little progress does not mean that the Light is ineffective.  In fact, I would say that we are blessed to live in this time, because the light is shining so bright right now!  It’s God’s Light that’s brought you here this morning.  It’s His light that’s brought you into the church, through Holy Baptism.  It’s the light that made you, who were once not God’s people, God’s own children!

(But) “He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.”  That was the greeting the Word of God was given when He was born in the manger in Bethlehem.  As wise men sought out His presence, Herod, the king of Judah sought Him out to kill Him!  Even though He would grow up to enter His office as the Savior of the World; even though He performed many miracles, signs and wonders and spoke life giving Words of faith and light, His own people crucified Him!

But we aren’t doing any better today.  When if ever, do you see the church of God, the body of Christ united together as one heart and mind, setting themselves towards the very mission of God to build the Kingdom of God?  We are so fractured and even competitive; we care more about our budgets and styles of worship than we do about reaching the lost; people who are dying without Jesus Christ.

If all Christians really believed that Jesus was the only true Light of the World and they fought to keep that belief, to share that belief, then we would really begin to see the outward expression of our faith become uniformed and united towards building His Kingdom; a Kingdom that will have no end!

Listen to what Luther said even back in His time and see if it doesn’t ring true within our own congregation: “I am preaching to all of you (here).  But how few of you improve (your lives because) of my preaching and accept the blessed Light in faith and are enlightened by it!  Indeed, my sermons find faith only in a (few) of you.  But in spite of this I am and remain the pastor and teacher of you all.”

Can you hear the frustration in Pastor Luther’s words?  What was true then is still true today: not everyone here this morning believes in the Christmas message.  But that doesn’t take away a thing from the Word of God, the Light of God, and the mission and work of Jesus Christ!  He still remains the Light which saves all people.  From the beginning of the world up till its end Jesus is the true Light.

Jesus is our Light and He is very God of very God, begotten not made.  He alone is the Word that became flesh in this world and because of that, He’s has brought us grace and truth, even love from our Heavenly Father!  He alone takes away your sins, and He alone comes into this world of sin to save you!

Behold your God!  Behold your Savior!  Behold the Kingdom of God!  Behold the Living Word of God and the Light of the World!  Behold your Creator who has come to us in our world and in our flesh.  He lives among us even still in His Word.  He is the Light that no darkness can overpower, but He remains hidden to those who will not leave the darkness of sin.

Behold your God who comes to you through other sinners who have been redeemed and saved through the Word and the waters of baptism.  They are converted sinners, just as you are now.  Behold the Word and Light of God which accepts you as you are but loves you too much to leave you as He found you.  Behold the Word and light of God, which desires to continue speaking to you and filling you with faith, all so that you can one day join Him for eternity within His Kingdom of Heaven.

Behold your God who wants to work through you as He fills you with His light and faith.  He wants to use you to draw other sinners to Himself so that they like you will also become true children of God.  This is how God builds His Kingdom: Through the Word and the Light that His Word brings.  May this Word and Light of God fill us not just this Christmas season but for all eternity.  I ask this in Jesus name… AMEN!

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Behold the Kingdom of God!

December 18th, 2011

4th Sunday in Advent B, December 18th, 2011
Pastor Brian Henderson-Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

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As 2011 is coming to a close, there’s a lot to be thankful for, but there were also a lot of things that we might like to forget, and think of as a bad nightmare.  For instance, we are told that the peak in the foreclosures has not yet been experienced.  There are a lot of good people out there who will continue to lose their homes in 2012.

What started out as the American dream, has turned into an American nightmare.  I have personally met a lot of those good people who’ve lost their homes.  They’ve showed up in record numbers here at our church seeking help in our food pantry and our free community breakfast.  Each one, to the person tells the same story.  Their dream turned to a nightmare when they or someone in their household lost their job in the recession, and then were unable to find a new one.  As time went by, they were forced to choose between eating or paying the mortgage, they chose to eat, and so began the slow and steady decline to foreclosure!

Who’s to blame?  Is it the fault of the homeowner for buying more home than they could afford?  Perhaps.  Is it the fault of the mortgage broker and the banks, writing loans that they knew the perspective buyer couldn’t afford?  Maybe.  Or is it God’s fault?  God’s fault, why would I say that?  Well because more than a few of the people I’ve met have wondered out loud to me, why God allowed this to happen.  They wonder if God was trying to teach them something.

So is it God’s fault?  No, it was their decision to borrow or to give.  They were the ones taking the chance, hoping that God would bless their decision after-the-fact.  This is somewhat similar to the decision King David made, when he decided to build a house, a temple for God.

Since the time of Moses, the Hebrew people toted around the tabernacle of the Lord.  Although vast amounts of earthly wealth were used to create the tabernacle, it was still nothing more than a series of tents.  And now King David had just finished building his palace in Jerusalem, when he realized that the Lord’s Ark of the Covenant was still living in a tent.  So David gets an idea that he’s sure will please God: “I will build the Lord a beautiful temple!”  Now that he had the idea, David wanted to make sure that it would be blessed by God, so he found the Lord’s prophet Nathan and told him about his plan.  And what did the prophet say?  “Go (and) do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”  The only problem with this is, no one bothered to ask God what He wanted done!

So what did God want?  Well he wanted a home, but not one that David would build; He wanted a home that He would build Himself and establish by His own strength.  And this is where we discover that God’s no isn’t a bad thing, but a blessed thing.  It is the promise that something greater than we could ever imagine or think would be given in its place!

Now eventually, God did allow a house or temple to be built in order to worship Him, but it would not be a temple that could hold Him.  After all, He is God and He is present everywhere.  So while David’s son Solomon would be allowed to build, it would not be the building that would fulfill the Words of promise that came from God Himself.  Listen: “Say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, In all of the places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I (ever) speak a Word with (anyone), saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”  (Now) the Lord declares to you that the LORD will make you a house.  And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.  Your throne shall be established forever.’”

Do you hear God’s “no” in those Words?  But do you also hear His “just wait” in those Words as well?  So what happened?  Well David’s son, King Solomon was allowed to build a house for the Lord, and after Solomon there were a few more from David’s family who sat upon David’s throne, but like all earthly reigns, it came to an end.  And yet God said that David’s house and kingdom would remain forever.  Did God foreclose on the mortgage to David’s reign and throne?  No!  God is not a man that He should change His mind, and He’s not like a bank that He should foreclose.  Behold the Kingdom of God.  A kingdom that comes after God’s no and in the middle of His just wait!

“And the angel said to (Mary), “Do not be afraid for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” [Luke 1:30-32]

Behold the mystery of God’s Kingdom.  Sinful man thinks that he can take a dream and build something that will cause God to bless him; something that will contain the good pleasure of the Creator of the universe.  And God takes that desire and turns it on its head and makes something that will save sinful mankind from their bondage of thinking, living, and dreaming independent, apart from Him!

God used the temple in Jerusalem, a temple that expressed the dream of all people that one day their God and Creator would be pleased with them and live with them.  And through that earthly temple He pointed to an even greater temple;  a temple of human flesh, created by God and occupied by God.  He used our flesh, created in the womb of a virgin through the work of His Holy Spirit.  And then He sent His Son to forever live in that flesh so that God could live among His people.  Behold the mystery of God’s Kingdom!  That Creator moved into and lived among the created forever!  That which is all powerful took on the form of a humble servant.  That which can not contain God does in fact contain God; all of God!  The God Who is the creator of all, took on the form of man so that He could save sinful man!  The flesh of sinful men and women would forever be redeemed and inhabited by God!

Are there any dreams in your life that you’ve been holding onto, waiting  so long for God to respond to?  Have there been dreams that seem to have been lost or foreclosed by God?  Maybe what you thought was God’s final no was really His wait and see.  Maybe, you’ve been walking by faith for so long that you’ve lost track of where you came from and where you’re going?  Maybe you’ve lost sight of your final destination!

So where are you right now?  You are in His Kingdom of Grace!  A Kingdom you neither built nor established.  A Kingdom where your God comes to you embodied in His Living Word and Sacraments.  You can see and hear these things, and you receive them but you can’t explain them.  They are a mystery to you, and yet within the mystery you know by faith that your God is really with you.  In these things you’re shown a crucifix like this one and told that our God who came to us in our flesh died for you, for your sins, and by faith you believe this.  In the waters of your baptism, you are told that you were given a life giving bath of simple water empowered by His Word and Spirit.  By faith you believe that not only is your Savior Jesus Christ really with you, but He will never leave or forsake you!  In the Lord’s Supper, you are given simple bread and wine and through His Living Word you are told and you believe that within those simple elements are Christ’s very body and blood; given for you and shed for you… for the forgiveness of all of your sins.  And within this meal God proves that it was He who began the good work of faith by coming to us in our flesh, dying for our sins, and inhabiting our souls through our baptism, who will complete that work, all while He and He alone is nourishing and strengthening your faith so that you can wait patiently to see God’s wait and see turn into an “I told you so!”

In our Old Testament lesson this morning there’s one important part left out of our reading, and it is David’s response by faith to God’s promise of building a house that will last forever.  Listen, because his response is amazing: “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?  And as if this were not enough in your sight, O Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant.  Is this your usual way of dealing with men?” [2 Samuel 7:18-19] The answer to David’s question is a resounding, yes!  This is always how God responds to His children whom He has called into His grace through Jesus Christ, by faith, through the power of His life giving Word!  God’s promise to build your house, to build your future is set on the solid foundation of His Holy Word.  You can’t afford this gift and you can’t earn it; but you can relax and celebrate it because God doesn’t foreclose.  While it’s true that He will allow you to walk away from this gift, He will never ever leave you nor forsake you!

So what is our response to all of this?  We simply cry out with the blessed virgin Mary and say, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word.”  AMEN!

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Behold Your Salvation!

December 11th, 2011

3rd Sunday in Advent, December 11, 2011
Mr. Mark Kunkee, Deacon of Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA
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“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;” (Isaiah 61:1 ESV)

Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

Our Text comes to us from Isaiah 61 verse 1: “The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has moved me to preach the good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind me up to the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness from the prisoners.”  Who is this speaker?  Of course it is Jesus Christ.

It was in our baptism, where our sins were washed away; it was there that we became a child of God; it was then that the spirit of the Lord came upon us.

Yes the Holy Spirit came upon us in our baptism but there is someone that doesn’t like that.  And that foe is the devil or Satan.  Because the devil hates it when we do not follow him,  he even gets more upset when we worship and praise  our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.  Oh he hates it when we read the holy bible, receive Biblical teachings,  or work to serve the Lord in gladness; all of this upsets the devil.

So it goes without saying that we need to stay far away from the devil and close to Jesus who provided us victory over all of the devils and our own sinful flesh.  We do this when we call out to God in prayer.  We call out to Him for strength and wisdom.  When we stay in God’s Word, turn to Jesus, and call out to Him in prayer we are actually living in, resting in, and believing in everything that God has done for us through Jesus Christ for us!  Through Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection He has healed our broken hearts and set us free from the bondage of our sin.  When we turn to Jesus and His cross, we are focused on the lord and not the temptations of the devil and our own sinful flesh.

I know I have said it before how much does the lord love us?  He loves us enough that He sent His only begotten Son to suffer and die for us. And this was done so that whoever believes in HIsaiah 61 ESV

im should not perish but have everlasting life.  Because of what he did for us on the cross we gladly continue to turn ourselves to God.  God has crushed Satan’s head, and because of that, we continue to worship and praise our Lord as we see Him building up his kingdom through our obedience.  And as we gladly follow Jesus He also empowers us with His Spirit so that we aren’t afraid to tell others what he has done for us.  In other words, He wants us to be that fisherman who goes out to catch the unbelievers and then bring them into the church where they be baptized in the name of the Father son and Holy ghost and sent out to do the very same thing.

The Spirit of the Lord is coming from the all-powerful God, who carries out the promises he makes.  He has promised us grace and mercy.  Jesus did not come on his own; God the Father sent him and anointed him with the Holy Spirit.  And that same Spirit is still will us today; empowering us with God’s grace and faith, which are ours through Jesus Christ.  Through Jesus Christ, we too can speak words, the good news, which binds up the broken hearted, proclaims freedom to those captivated by their sins, and proclaims and provides release to those who are held captive by the devils.  All of this is God’s own comfort given to a world that mourns and grieves because of death

Yes, that same Spirit is still with us every time we read our bibles or hear the Word of God proclaimed!  It is in this way the Jesus makes true His promise that He will continue to be with us forever. Remember when you have a problem; take it to the lord in prayer.   Let’s continue to remember that God is the way the truth and the life, and no man can come to the father accept through Jesus, so continue to love your savior Jesus Christ with your heart mind and soul, forever and ever amen.

Now may the love and grace of god which surpasses all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting Amen.

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Behold Your God!

December 4th, 2011

2nd Sunday in Advent B, December 4th, 2011
Pastor Brian Henderson-Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA
Isaiah 40:1-11

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What kind of God do we serve?  When we give a testimony about Him to our neighbors, what should we say?  Well listen to His own  Words and then behold your God: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her  warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

Not just once, “Comfort”, but twice, “Comfort, comfort.” So the Lord begins with a single repeated command; it’s a command to the  preacher of God’s Word, that would be me, and it’s a command to God’s ambassadors, that would be you. This command flows from the  mind of God, and God himself directed it to his messengers, messengers who will announce the good news of his love. God wants  everyone to hear this message. He claims all people as His own when He calls them, “my people.”  Think about that for a moment; after  all of our unfaithfulness, all our rebellion, all our sins, we are still his people. God remains our God; for us He is still faithful and  gracious, just as he promised to be: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and  faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Exodus 34:6, 7).

What is our warfare?  It is our struggle to fulfill God’s Law.  It is realizing that because of our sin we can’t make things right with God.  But in order for our warfare to be over, in order to receive a double portion of God’s own comfort we will need to see our sin and want it removed; we need to hunger for His forgiveness; we need to receive it according to His terms and not ours.  Each of us must admit that we alone bear the responsibility for our hard life, the hard service that our life represents.  It was our own sin that separated us from God’s love and it is our insistence on atoning for that sin our own way that causes such warfare.

This morning God’s is asking each of us to agree with Him that all of our accomplishments, the things that we count as good are like grass and the beauty of wild flowers in a field.  The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it, when He calls us home.  Then all of our goodness vanishes as we stand before a perfect and holy God.

This was the message of John the Baptist as he lived his life proclaiming the way of the Lord; preparing the way of the Lord!

This morning, that same Word, that same message is crying out to us from the wilderness of our hearts: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Prepare the way of the Lord. To our sinful ears, this is a hard word to understand, because it sounds like God is asking us to do even more to earn His love; but that is exactly what He isn’t saying.  No, instead, He’s telling us that He will no longer let us do things our way.   To prepare the way of the Lord means to prepare ourselves for the Lord’s activity in us, so that He alone may be our source of help and pride; so that our lives and eternities will be one with His Son Jesus Christ. But how is this way prepared? What are the obstacles and obstructions we are to remove?  Nothing other than our own arrogance and pride. Those are the very things that prevent people from receiving the grace of Christ.

So how hard can it be?  Well to walk this way, you have to get onto God’s royal highway naked as a Jay bird!  You can’t travel with any merits of your own; you have to receive only the clothing that God provides!  You must be clothed only with His double gifts of grace and faith!  Your heart must agree with the psalmist and say: “If You, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand,” (who could walk on your royal road to your royal kingdom)? “But with you there is forgiveness (there is grace and faith)” [Psalm 130:3]

Now, this is where all sinners equally stand at the edge of a cliff; they will either allow God to turn them away from certain death and see the beauty of God’s way, or they will ignore the way of the Lord all together and jump head-long into pride and an eternity of death.  Those who chose death hear the command to prepare the way of the Lord and say, “What more do you want me to do? I go to church every Sunday and I try to be good. What do you want from me now?” But what they fail to see is that if there is any doing to be done, it must be done by God.  They fail to see that the mountains and valleys that God wants leveled are in our own hearts.  Martin Luther said that the Mountains are saints, and valleys are sinners. As we stand before God all of us are the same without distinction, whether we are saints or sinners. In fact, you who are baptized are both at the same time!  This is the way of God; He levels the playing field.  But why? So that the gospel can be receive by everyone with the exact same assurance; God’s Word gives exactly what it promises… an eternal life of peace with God.  Before God all things must be leveled.

In God’s declaration of double comfort is the assurance that the Law has been fulfilled for us.  Our sin has been removed from us.  He is telling us that we have been set free from our sins, not by working and struggling but by the forgiveness that the Son of God, Jesus Christ provided for us through His suffering and death upon the cross. This is the continual message of God’s Word, which teaches deliverance from sins by forgiveness and grace; grace completely removed from anything we do or fail to do.  This is not the way of the world, but it is God’s way!  God’s way is the gospel, and the gospel doesn’t look backwards at the life we led, but it looks to Jesus Christ upon the cross Who and says, “Believe God, trust in God. For your faith receives forgiveness for sins.”

Faith is completely a gift from God.  It allows you to hear His Word and believe it.  It is a Word, which declares that you are no longer a slave to sin; you are no longer locked in the dungeon of fear and pain! Your hard service is over, not because you’ve earned it or because you’ve done your time and satisfied the law. No, your bondage is over because God has provided your release through his Son, Jesus Christ!

Jesus alone paid the debt, a debt caused by every twisted and perverted sin ever committed, even your sins!  Your debt has been paid off. Your sins are forgiven; they  were paid for by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

So as our reading says this morning, we have been paid double.  Not only have we been forgiven and promised to receive the blessing of an eternal life of peace with God, but we may also enjoy that blessing in the here and now, in this sinful world.  But you have been blessed to be a blessing to others.  How?  By speaking the gospel.  The gospel alone saves people from all sin.  It alone is what saved you, correct?  So the voice of God speaks to us this morning and says, Cry out!  You who have heard the good news and been freed from the bondage of your own sins, “lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, and do not be afraid; say to the people in your community, “Here is your God!”  See the Sovereign Lord born in a manger; see Him high and lifted up, crucified for you… for your sins.  He is the Sovereign Lord who is coming again with power and His arm rules for Him.  His arm is His Holy Word, and His reward and recompense is in the gospel for you.  Jesus died to save you!

Speak the gospel, and do not be afraid to give your witness, because that witness and the Word of God are the very power of God!  No one can become a Christian, no one can be saved unless they hear the Word of God and receive the gift of faith from God which comes through the hearing of His Word.

I’d like to close with a Christmas story that explains very nicely how God prepares us and puts us on His road of salvation.  It was Christmas almost Fifty years ago when a man named Rex was stationed in Korea as a young Marine lieutenant. His wife and new born daughter were home in the United States.

On Christmas morning the thermometer hovered around zero with several inches of snow covering the ground. Outdoor worship services were planned and Rex decided to attend out of respect and “to set a good example for the other men.” Nearly two hundred Marines turned out for the service. They sat on their helmets in the snow. They faced a small portable altar. The chaplains had no microphones, and the portable organ suffered from the extreme cold.

Something happened to Rex in that worship service. God broke into his life. He thought of all that was precious to him: home, his wife, his unseen infant child. In that moment as they tried to sing Christmas carols in the cold air he realized that knowing God does not depend on anything he has done or will do; it doesn’t depend on a building or nice clothes, instead knowing God is an act that God does in our hearts so that it can be celebrated and shared with others.” Far from home and loved ones, Rex realized that Christmas Day — in itself — is not important, but the faith it represents is.”

The truth is, God often breaks into our lives in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. He always does it through His Word and He does it through people speaking and sharing that Word.

Behold the mystery of your God; He comes to you in your own language!  Born as a baby in a manger; beaten and bloodied by the government and mocked with the words, “Behold your king!”  Crucified to silence Him, and now reigning with power and might!  Behold your God!  Behold the Lord God comes as your Savior who will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, (even you); he will carry (you) in his bosom, and gently lead to your eternal heavenly home.  Come Lord Jesus, come!  AMEN!

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Wait!

November 27th, 2011

1st Sunday in Advent B, November 27th, 2011
Pastor Brian Henderson-Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA
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We spend our whole lives waiting.  We learn to wait for Mom or Dad to hold us when we cry.  We waited for Christmas and Easter with great anticipation.  We waited to be old enough to go to school.  We waited anxiously to start high school and then we waited to graduate.  We wait for our first kiss and then we wait for our first love.  We wait to find our spouse and then we wait for our first child.  We wait for the perfect calling or occupation and then we wait for retirement.  We wait for grandchildren, and then we wait and wonder whether it will be our spouse or ourselves who will die first.  How sad it is for those who wait without hope!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!  These are more than just words of greeting and introduction from our epistle lesson, (1 Corinthians 1:3-9) they are the gospel itself. Within these words are the very truth that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” [John 3:16]  This is a statement of fact.  God loves the entire world; He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for everyone including you!  There is no room for discussion within these words, because it is a certainty.  If you will receive this truth you will have peace; not a feeling of peace that the world tries to sell as peace, but real God given peace; assurance that even if everything is going to hell around you, for you it is well with your soul because God loves you and Jesus died for you.

How do you know that this peace is real?  You just do; you see, it’s more than just a feeling it is a certainty, and this certainty is the result of God’s gift of faith; faith to believe that in spite of everything that is going on around you, God is still with you and will never leave you.  By faith His Word promises that one day soon, He will come among us again and He will take you home to be with Him.  You know this is true because His Word, like the Word in our gospel lesson this morning (Mark 13:24-37) promises you this very thing.  And so you wait.

But there are some who hear this truth and they are not moved in the least.  Even though they have waited their entire lives for everything else, for this one thing that is the greatest of all other things, they refuse to believe and wait for it!  They refuse to put their name in the statement of fact that God so loved them, that He gave His only Son Jesus, so that they can receive Him, love Him, and believe in Him as their savior and God!

Then there are those who believe that God’s grace through Jesus Christ is theirs; they believe that Jesus died for them but their lives don’t demonstrate the love and loyalty of someone who is waiting for Jesus to return.  They have in fact received God’s gift of grace that was given to them in Jesus Christ, and in every way they have been enriched by God’s Word, which has come to them in all manner of speech and knowledge, yet they are living a life that in no way demonstrates that they are waiting for Jesus to come again.  Why?  I mean, they’ve had His message of grace confirmed among them in all manner of ways; they lack nothing in terms of God’s mighty gifts that reveal Jesus presence among them, and it does not seem to make the least bit of difference in their lives.

Theirs is the washing and regeneration of the water and the Word in their baptism!  Theirs is the sweet Word of forgiveness and the leading of the Holy Spirit into repentance!  Theirs is God’s own meal of forgiveness through the body and blood of Jesus!  All of these things continually provide grace and peace, yet they still live a life that reflects nothing of that grace and peace given by God Himself.  They live like someone who has nothing to wait for!  Why?

With both of these different yet similar groups of people, God’s Word still calls out to them to repent; turn to His forgiving heart that comes only through the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return of Jesus!

I am praying for these people with anguish in my heart that they would see the season of Advent as more than just a time of waiting for Christmas and baby Jesus.  Oh how I have cried my heart out to God for so many of them; so many who seemed to have deliberately chosen His coming judgment over salvation.  I have tried to convince, implore, and even to my shame out of desperation, I have tried to manipulate these people into God’s Kingdom of grace, but still they will not turn in repentance to God’s grace and peace.

But you dear Christians have.  You have heard the advent Word of repentance and you have taken your sins to the cross of your Savior.  Through God’s gift of faith, you have not rejected Jesus, and because of that faith, you know that you are not lacking in any gift of God.  By faith you rest in God’s grace, peacefully waiting until Jesus returns.

In grace, you wait peacefully and you watch for the revealing of your Lord Jesus Christ.  It is God’s gift of grace and peace that sustains you to the very end, and as you wait you continue to feed your soul with the gospel Word that assures you that when Jesus returns, He will present you as His gift to the Heavenly father; a gift that is guiltless.  You know this because your God is faithful.  By faith, you know that it was He who called you into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and it is He alone who will sustain that same faith through His

In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus gives us some interesting words to close with.  He says that “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

What is the generation that Jesus speaks about?  It is the generation of those who wait, and those who refuse to wait!  They were there when He was born in a manger, they were there when He was crucified upon the cross, and they are still here today.  Some will wait expecting to be greeted by God’s loving heart and they will not be disappointed.  Others refuse to wait and will dismiss our Lord’s coming as  pure rubbish.  Will they one day repent before it is too late?  I hope so; I pray so.  But as we pray and wait to see the outcome, for us, the church of Jesus Christ, our waiting is really a time of peace, because it is well with our souls.  So we wait and during this season of advent we sing: “Savior of the nations, come, Virgin’s Son, make here Your home!  Marvel now, O heav’n and earth, that the Lord chose such a birth.” [LSB 332 vs. 1]

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Faithful is Our God!

November 20th, 2011

23rd Sunday after Pentecost A, November 20th, 2011
(Last Sunday of the Church Year)
Pastor Brian Henderson-Trinity Lutheran Church, San Diego, CA

INTRODUCTION: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.  Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. [Matthew 25:31-33]

In the time of Jesus, it wasn’t uncommon for shepherds to allow the goats and sheep to graze or pasture together.  But at the end of the day, the shepherd would separate them according to their kind.  And that is a picture of the Day of the Lord, judgment day.  Some will be considered sheep; they are the apple of our Lord’s eye.  On judgment day they will hear Jesus say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  But others, others who are goats, will hear something completely different; they will hear Jesus say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

So what is it that determines whether we are sheep or goats?  Is it something we can get my hands on and protect; something we can have as our most cherished possession.  Is there a ticket to heaven?  Well… yes and no!  If we were to look at our gospel lesson this morning, we might be tempted to think that our ticket to heaven or our identity as a sheep or goat is based on good works, or something we do to inherit God’s love and forgiveness.  But you’re all much to informed about what your Bibles say to believe that.  So what then; what is this blessed assurance that promises us that we will be citizens of heaven in a place that has been prepared and waiting for us since the foundation of the world?  Well, It is nothing less than faith… faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  When the Son of Man comes in His glory, will He find faith; will He find faith in you?  Are you a sheep or a goat?

I. If this question is making you a bit uncomfortable, then may I be the first to say congratulations; congratulations for not being happy at the prospect of being a goat!  You see there’s one thing I know about goats and it’s this, they’re just fine with being a goat.  In fact, for the most part they’re stronger, faster, and more clever than sheep.  They don’t have a problem with being a goat.  But not so with you; you want to be a sheep; you want to know that there is a place for you in heaven, just waiting for you to move in.  And because this is true, then you won’t have a problem with admitting something about yourself and something about God.

You are faithless!  That’s right, I said it; on your own you are completely powerless and useless for assuring that your eternal abode will be something other than weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Now don’t feel too bad about this, because you see it’s something you were born into!  St. Paul in our epistle reading (1 Corinthians 15:20-28) explains it like this, he says that death came by a man, the first man Adam to be exact.  In Adam all of us are guaranteed nothing more than an eternal death; a separation from God and His kingdom.  Instead of inheriting a mansion, well we’re cast out into the outer darkness; a place where there will be eternal longing and desire.

What was it that Adam did that was so bad that it condemned all of his ancestors?  He doubted God’s goodness and love; He doubted that God would provide everything that was good and withhold nothing helpful, while He protected him from everything that was harmful.  So from the doubt of Adam and Eve has proceeded every sin that each of us has committed.  From the doubt of Adam each of us has been judged guilty.  From the doubt of Adam our relationship with God has been lost.  The church has always called this doubt the original sin.

Now most goats don’t like this doctrine.  They don’t like the fact that they’re being punished for something someone else did long ago!  They get angry with God and they say, “I didn’t ask to be born this way!  This isn’t fair; since my birth, you’ve put me on a road that goes only to hell!”  Yes, the goats are so upset with this idea of original sin that not only do they protest against God, but they get angry with anyone who will repeat the doctrine.  Why is that?  Simply put, if this doctrine is true, then that means that their salvation, their ability to inherit the Father’s Kingdom is entirely outside of their control.  It means they have to have faith, and remember, that is the one thing goats do not have; goats are faithless.

II. So what is the solution?  Well, goats must be saved by someone who can give them faith.  They must be saved by someone who is faithful.  They must be saved by someone who can fill them with this faith; someone who can make them faith-filled!

Jesus is that someone and His Word is the means that God uses to fill goats with His gift of faith; it’s how he turns goats into sheep.  But faith in what?  Faith to believe that Jesus, God’s own Son came to this earth, lived a perfect life for you, suffered and died for you in order to remove the curse of sin, Adam’s and your sin from you.  Now, if you are agreeing with this premise, that’s all well and good, but some goats believe this too.  No, I’m afraid that you must hear the rest of the premise before you celebrate.  You see, Jesus also rose from the dead in His body, and promises that you will do the very same thing because you’ve received His gift of faith.

Now this is where many of the learned people discover that they aren’t sheep at all and they don’t care.  They can receive the idea that sin has to be paid for, even original sin.  And the fact that God paid for it Himself, makes perfect sense to them, because well, He was the One who allowed everything to break-down in the first place.  But raising a body from the dead, a body that’s been dead and decomposed for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, well that’s just foolishness to them.  What about people blown into thousands of little bits in explosions during war or a tragic accident, how in the name of science, will they be raised?!  Or what about people who die at sea and are eaten by a million little fish who then scatter what’s left of their bodies all over the ocean floor?!  No, I’m afraid that to the goats this is just too big of a leap of faith!  They believe in Jesus, a spiritual Jesus; a Jesus who inhabits the best of man’s philosophies and religions, but not a physical Jesus.  They believe in a spiritual resurrection but they can never accept a physical one!  That goes against everything that is sensible to them.  It goes against the very laws of physics!

But if this is how you feel, then you are condemning God’s entire Word as fantasy.  You have recreated God’s plan into a plan of your own making.  You do this because you are a goat; you are a goat because you are faithless.  But if the goats are right and we sheep are wrong, then we are to be pitied ahead of all others; because that means we sheep have staked our very lives and eternity on a lie!  Poor sheep; poor lost sheep, who will save us!  Jesus Christ the true shepherd will!  He will smash the head of king of the goats, the devil himself and speak words of faith that turn goats into sheep!  Listen: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by (the God) man (Jesus Christ) has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  But each in His own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.” [1 Corinthians 15:20-23]  Those who are called sheep!

III. This is the gospel!  This is your hope!  By His death upon the cross and the empty tomb on Easter morning Jesus has declared and demonstrated His victory over your enemies, sin, death, and the devil.  When you hear that Jesus suffered and died for you, you are given faith… you are filled with faith to believe that He also rose from the dead for you!  And you also know by faith, that as the head of the church, which is His body, which you are a part of, you must follow your Lord and Savior; for where the head goes so must also follow His body!

This is the truth, God’s own truth.  It is what sheep believe because they are faith filled by a Savior God who is faithful.  It is the truth that goats can never believe because they are faithless.  This is the truth that has sent untold numbers of sheep peacefully into the arms of their Savior at the time of death, and it is the truth that will lead you home as well!  But I must warn you, that the devils don’t want you to lie down on your last day with this truth.  They look at you as another victim.  Another morsel that they can eat.  They’ll do everything they can to get you to doubt God’s own truth.  If they can get you to live in doubt then I’m afraid that they’ve trapped you again in the same old sin of Adam.

Remember, to them, you are nothing more than a tasty morsel that they plan to devour.  You are a sausage sandwich waiting to be gulped down.  But if you’ll simply rest in God’s Word and the work He did for you on the cross and in your baptism you will see that Jesus is the one who does the devouring.  And He’s not only devoured the devil, but your own sin and death.  If you will continue feasting upon the Lord’s Table where He offers you His body and blood, then by faith you will not only be eating and drinking forgiveness for your doubts, but the very gift that makes you a sheep; you will be feed faith!

So at your time of death when the devil goes to bite into you, all he’s going to get is a mouthful of the poison that He gave to you.  We might say he only has a mustard and ketchup sandwich to look forward too, because you will not be there; you will be with your Lord, in a new body; a body that will never know sickness and death, sorrow or sin.  This is how Jesus puts all things under God.  He does it so that God may be all in all and sin, death, and the devil will be no more, ever again!

CONCLUSION: But now let me close with the proclamation of a mystery.  This process has already begun and it is already completed.  All that is left is for you to experience it outside of this world of sin and death.  Indeed the day has already come when you can say, “I will praise you, O Lord.  Although you were angry with me (because I behaved as a goat), your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.  Surely God is my salvation (and His resurrection is the source of my joy); I will trust and not be afraid.  For the Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.”  With joy (I can draw from my baptismal water) that is the well of your salvation, and give thanks to the Lord.  So let us call upon the Lord (who is faithful); let us call upon His name.  And let us make known His saving work of the cross and the empty tomb throughout our community, and let us proclaim the exalted name of Jesus!  Let us shout and sing for joy because the Lord who has done wondrous things is with us (Isaiah 12:1-6) and promising to take us with Him in paradise.

May God’s Word continue to make each of us faith-filled sheep, as He continues to be our God, in this life that began with our baptismal death as sinners and in our baptismal resurrection to new life in Jesus Christ.  AMEN!

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