A Place at the Table

The greatest Christmas present I have ever given to Mindy were tickets to a George Strait concert. She grew up listening to George. He is her favorite. She had never actually been to a concert before and I, being the awesome husband that I am decided to take her. So I went online to buy the tickets. And they were great. Row 12, seats 24 and 25, section B. I did not mind having to pay a little more for floor seats. It would be worth it. I looked at the seating plan and she was in the section that was right in the middle. I was going to make sure that her first concert experience with her all-time favorite singer was going to be the best.

I packaged the tickets in a CD case so she would not be able to tell what was in the wrapping. When she opened the case and saw what was in there, she literally screamed. I did it. Husband of the year. Now the concert was still a few weeks away, so I made child care arrangements. My dad flew in for the weekend. Mindy and I drove the four hours to the concert. We were outside waiting for the doors to be opened, and it was cold, actually it was downright freezing. I think ice was forming on my eyebrows. But knowing that Mindy would be so close to her favorite singer; the pride I was feeling kept me warm.

The doors finally opened and we got inside and someone directed us upstairs. Wait a minute these are floor seats. We need to go to the floor. Section B is right there on the ticket. At this point I was informed that this was not section B on the floor. The "B" on my tickets stood for balcony. I was crushed. And talk about wounded pride. It was a good show, but we were not as close to the stage as what I had expected us to me. The seats were good, but they weren't the best.

Where you sit matters. Right? Where do the cool kids sit on the bus? In the back. What are the best seats on an airplane? First class. Or by the emergency exits, more leg room. Children understand the importance of seat selection. Have you ever seen kids fighting over who gets to sit next to whom? Or what about planning a wedding reception and the joys of the seating chart? Need I say more?

The importance of seating can even find its way into the church. Lutherans like to park as close to the door as they can when they are outside, and once they are inside they like to sit as close to it as they can. I once heard a pastor lament because after the sanctuary had been expanded he had to re-learn where everyone would sit, and it was more difficult for him to take attendance.

In our Gospel lesson this morning, we see Jesus at a meal. He is around a table with some big important religious leaders. They have not invited him because they enjoy being around him, they have him there in order to trap him. Talk about an awkward social environment. Wouldn't you love to go to a party where the only reason you are there is because everyone else wants to get you in trouble? And yet here is Jesus. Not to show them up or to spite them either. He is there because, even though they may not want his love for them, that doesn't keep him from loving them anyway.

He goes and he watches and notices something rather curious going on. They fight to sit in the seats of that contain the most honor. The one who gets to sit closest to the host is most important. Everyone wants that spot. Now these are people who would be considered some of the highest society. They are scholars and religious leaders. They are the ones who were distinguished and well off, these are adults who should know better, especially because of how well they should know God's word, and the reality of the situation is that they are acting like children.

Jesus notices this and he uses the situation in order to tell a parable. He does not do this to spite, embarrass or humiliate them. He does it to teach them. It is kind of a strange parable. It does not read like some of the other parables that we find in the gospels. But Luke tells us that it is a parable. This is a clue to let us know that what Jesus is saying here must teach us something important about God's kingdom.

He says that when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the place of honor. Because someone more important might show up, and then the host will have to come up to you and have you go to a lower place and that will be a humiliating kind of experience for you. Instead, when you go, seek out the place that is the lowest, then when the host comes and sees you there, he will tell you to go to a higher spot and you will be honored. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Now. Let's pause here for a moment. If I hear or read this parable and say to myself, "Self, this parable is good, for it lays out the exact plan to show exactly how important we are. Go and find the lowest place, because when we do, we will surely be moved up and then everyone can see just how important we are." If that is what I walk away with after hearing this parable, then I am completely missing the point of the parable.

Jesus is not telling us to be humble so that we can then receive honor. If the ultimate goal behind our actions is our own honor, then it makes no difference if we seek out the high seat or the low seat because our ultimate goal is the same. This is not true humility. If that is all we are going to be doing then you will find the same kind of scene that Jesus witnessed, only instead of fighting for the highest seat, everyone would be fighting for the lowest seat.

What he is talking about here is an attitude, a mindset a worldview. He is teaching us about God's kingdom and life in that kingdom. This is a kingdom where things are turned upside down from the ways that we might expect, from the ways that we know in our world. This is a kingdom where some who are first are last, and some who are last are first. This is a kingdom where the greatest is the one who is the servant.

This is because this kingdom is a kingdom of grace. No one who is in this kingdom is there because they have earned the right to be there, rather our place in this kingdom is one that is secured by grace. Not by our works or good deeds, but because of the life, death and resurrection of the host of the banquet, of our Lord Jesus. Having this sure place in God's kingdom frees up from having to think only of ourselves. It frees us from fighting, biting and clawing our way to the top. It frees us to live in the sure and certain joy of knowing that we indeed have a place at the table with our Lord, and therefore we can love and serve one another and the people around us, because in doing so we are loving and serving our God.

Now to be sure, this is not something that we do in order to make God love us more. We can't do anything to make him love us more. Although it will make him happy. It is not something that we do in order to earn brownie points with God. We can't do anything to earn brownie points with him. Although it may win us a few with our neighbors. It is not something that we do out of fear that God will give up on us if we don't. Our God does not work that way. Although doing it can open our eyes to see God in all kinds of unexpected ways and places.

This simple life of love and service comes out of thankfulness to God. It is not that we can ever repay God for the gifts of life and forgiveness that he gives to us. We could never even come close. But as I said before we are talking about a mindset, a worldview, an attitude. So as we live our lives we cultivate an awareness of what God does in our lives. And we live out of that. We realize all that we have is from him, not because we earn it or deserve it, but because he is good and gracious and loving and merciful.

Our seat at his banquet table is not ours because we did all the right things or did them better than anyone else. Our seat is at the banquet table because he wanted us there. He paid the price in order to allow for that to happen. Have you ever had the experience where you go out to eat and someone else picks up the tab? It is great isn't it? Especially if they don't expect you to pay them back. Because Jesus gave up his life on the cross your place at the banquet is secured. You have a seat.

As we understand that God is the host of the ultimate banquet, the kingdom of God, as we understand that he makes it possible for us to attend, then we can begin to understand the final part of our text here.

Jesus said to the one who invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, let they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Remember that experience where you go out to eat and someone else picks up the tab? Do you ever feel obligated to pay them back? Does the thought that you now owe them cross your mind? Or worse, have you ever picked up the tab so that the other person would now be in your debt? This is what Jesus is getting at here as he is talking to the host of his dinner. Don't host, don't pick up the tab so that the others owe you. If you are going to pick up the tab, don't expect to get repaid. And while you are picking up the tab, pick it up for those who can't pay you back.

What we are ultimately talking about here is hospitality. It is not that you can't invite the people who can pay you back, just don't limit yourself to them only. Hospitality is how do we welcome people that come to us, whether we know them or not? How do we show them the love of God, whether they can show it back to us or not?

Why would we even consider this? Because we believe that hospitality is not ours to give. We are simply reflecting the hospitality that has been shown to us by our God. Because God loves us, forgives us, welcomes us, we too then show love, forgiveness and welcome to those people that God has placed into our lives. We do this because we see God treat us this way, and we know that he is given us a great privilege in allowing us to join him in showing this to others.

Again we are talking about a mindset, an attitude a worldview here. How do we welcome the people that come into our midst? How do we welcome those we know? How do we welcome the strangers among us? How do we welcome those who cannot welcome us back?

These questions are somewhat rhetorical. But when we begin to think about these kinds of things, and have our answers come out of an understanding of who our God is and how he works in our lives. Then as we seek the guidance and will of the Holy Spirit in answering these questions, we will find ourselves on an adventure unlike anything we could ever imagine.

Seating may be important in world. But at that great banquet, where you sit, is not as important as being there. And knowing that we are there because of Jesus, enables us to then welcome others, that they too might know a place at that great party. May your place in God's kingdom always be a source of joy, comfort and peace for you. Now and always. Amen.

The Narrow Door

The most powerful lesson about the gospel I have ever learned, I did not learn in seminary, although I was on vicarage at the time. I did not learn it from any professor. I learned it from my son David, who was just over the age of two. He has changed a bit since he was two. As you get to know David now you will meet a wonderful kid who is outgoing, smart, empathetic and very helpful. David likes to talk and he will talk to anyone and everyone. But he was not always like that, and especially not at the age of two.

Believe it or not, there was a time when David was actually shy. If someone he did not know would go up to him and say, "hello, David." He would respond by screaming "Nooooo," and if he had the opportunity, he would run in the opposite direction. He was consistent. He would do this with people in stores, members of the congregation, even his grandparents.

That year, December 28^th was the first Sunday after Christmas. It was also the first time that I was solely responsible for the church service. The pastor had gone on vacation to visit family and I got to do the whole thing. It is quite the experience for a vicar to do this.

One of the practices of the congregation is, just like here, to have prayer request cards that people would fill out and then they would be included in the prayers. This always made me very nervous, because I had a difficult time reading the handing writing of the people.

But that Sunday there was a card requesting prayers for a local family. Their twelve-year-old son had been playing with a gun and accidently shot himself. The accident happened the week of Christmas too. Not knowing anything more about the situation than that, I prayed that God would comfort the family and be with them and comfort them in this awful time.

When the service had ended, I was relieved. None of the things that you expect to happen the first time you do a service by yourself happened. No one ran out of the sanctuary screaming. Nothing was thrown at me. The roof did not cave in. Nothing caught fire. This meant that it was a good service.

I was standing at the door greeting people as they left the service and one gentleman asked if he could speak to me after I was finished greeting everyone. He needed to talk to me about the service, and immediately my mind began to race through the sermon to find the heresy that I unknowingly spoke. He waited in the corner, and when the last person left came over to me and told me that he had an issue with my prayers.

I was immediately relieved that the sermon was ok, but perplexed as to what have been wrong with the prayers. He told me that I prayed for this family in the community. They were not members of a Missouri Synod congregation and therefore God would not hear prayers for them. I thought it was a joke, but he was serious.

The more we talked the angrier I was becoming. I was able to keep a calm composure on the outside, but on the inside I was beginning to fume. I mean the audacity of this guy saying these awful things about this poor family who had to endure a tragedy that no family should ever have to deal with. And to have it all happen at Christmas time.

I tried explaining to him how his position was mislead and misinformed and he only persisted. And the more he did, the more upset I was becoming until I was at the point that I was ready to hit him. And then it happened.

We had been there for over half-an-hour at this point. The only ones left in the building were me and him, and Mindy and David as they were waiting for lunch. It happened so suddenly and unexpectedly that to this day I still can't really believe it. But my two-year-old, who never wanted anything to do with anyone, ran up to this guy, and at a point when I was ready smack him, David threw his arms around his legs and gave him the biggest bear hug those little arms were able to muster.

Do you get what is going on here? Here is a man who is clearly in the wrong. I was righteously angry and to a point where I wanted to exercise divine judgment (I wouldn't have, but sure wanted to) and David comes in and gives him what he really need at that point, love. This is the power and perhaps even the yscandal of the gospel. God's love and mercy and forgiveness are for people who do not deserve it.

In the church we can easily say this, but then we can act as if the opposite were true. It is like there is a list out there somewhere of "acceptable sins" and "unacceptable sins" and if your sins are on the acceptable sins list, then you are OK. You really aren't that bad. You deserve to be here. But if your sins are on the unacceptable list, well then…look out. Go away and when you can behave yourself, you can come back.

What I am talking about here is an attitude toward other people. We allow those who are like us and have sins that are acceptable to be in our midst, and those that have unacceptable sins are to be shunned. This does not mean that we ignore sin or look the other way. You know that sin is serious business. We don't treat it lightly. We certainly deal with, but we deal with it from a perspective of love. This is much more difficult to do. It easy to shun a person and tell them to go away, because you do not have to live in relationship with them. But to love them means that you are in relationship with them, and this task is much harder for us to accomplish.

Our text for today occurs at a point in Luke's Gospel where Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem. He is going in order to give his life on the cross to pay the price for your sins and for mine. He is going to pay for the sins of the whole world. This section began at Chapter 9 and will go all the way through to chapter 19. It is a section that contains a lot of his teaching. It is a section that is not always easy to hear, but is certainly necessary.

In our text today, someone calls out a question, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" This is the kind of stuff that we want to know. We want to know who is in and who is out. Not only that but we like to spend our time trying to figure it out and we set up rules, guidelines, acceptable and unacceptable sins lists. All in an effort to enable us to be able to have assurance of the answer to this question. And then Jesus answers it.

Now this is a simple question. Yes or no. Will those who are saved be few, Lord? Jesus can say yes or he can say no, but note what he says instead. Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many will seek to enter and will not be able. He answers a yes or no question with a command. Strive to enter.

How does this happen? It is actually quite simple. Repentance. When we recognize our sin as such; when we understand the ramifications of our own sins and that it makes no difference which list our sins are on, and we ask our gracious and loving God to forgive our sins, that is entering through the narrow gate.

It is a narrow gate. It is not a popular gate. It is a gate that we don't enter by way of our good deeds or religious knowledge or church attendance. It is a gate that is not entered as long as we are better than the really bad people. It is a gate that we cannot enter through and still be allowed to hold onto our pride and prestige.

It is a gate that is shaped like a cross. It is a gate that all who enter say with St. Paul, "I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith."

It is a narrow gate. It is entered to through repentance and knowing that the forgiveness and life and salvation is given to us through and for the sake of Jesus. He is the only way. This means for us that we can know with certainty where we stand with our God. But as we know this, we dare not use it to see ourselves or make ourselves out to be better than anyone else. We are not to sit around and decide who is in and who is out. God is the judge.

But we who have been reconciled to him, who strive to enter through that narrow gate, also know that that door is not opened forever. So he sends us out to proclaim. So we go and we love and we serve and we share the good news of the gospel. We do this with the hope and prayer that as we love and serve and proclaim that the Holy Spirit would work in the lives of the people we come in contact with so that they too might enter the narrow door.

As we see the kingdom of God growing in our midst, we will celebrate with great joy at the work that God is doing. And it will not matter if we are first or last, Because we will be a part of this awesome work that God is doing. Amen.

God’s Passion for Creation

A little girl was quite distraught. She had heard her dad talking about the Sunday service (she was in Sunday School) and she couldn't believe how violent the service was. You see, the choir had "murdered" the anthem. The organ had "drowned" the singers. And having to listen to the sermon was "killer."

Luckily we do not have that problem here. Our choir sings quite beautifully. Elaine, what you do on the organ is some of the best that I have ever seen or worked with. And as far as the sermon goes… Well you can make the call on that one.

While our experiences at church generally are nonviolent, there are times when we have to deal what some challenges and difficulties that we may rather not have to deal with. These can be in a variety of areas over a variety of topics and while we may rather place our heads in the sand and pretend that there is no problem, sometimes we have to address them.

Of course those tend to be on the business side of church life. And while that is important and I do not want to take away from its importance, for the most part we do not have to face those kinds of things while we are in the worship service. However, from time to time in the worship service we do find ourselves faced with a theme or a text that may put us a little bit on the uncomfortable side. I think today we find ourselves with one of those texts before us.

Jesus said, "You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" There are some Gospel lessons where it is really difficult to say, "Praise to you, O Christ." Do you know what I mean? In the service we hear the Gospel lesson and then the reader says, "This is the Gospel of the Lord." And the congregation responds with "Praise to you, O Christ." Seems kind of odd doesn't it? I mean Jesus' words can sound really quite harsh. Does it make you a little uncomfortable? I mean wouldn't you rather hear something more along the lines of "Have no fear little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."?

That is nice. That sounds much better. And yet, we do not have the luxury of being able to simply pick and chose which scriptures we want to acknowledge and study and which ones we want to ignore and pretend that they do not exist. But then, neither do we consider them only by themselves. One of principles that we as Lutherans use as we read is study God's word is that Scripture interprets Scripture. So as we are studying a text, even a difficult one, what we will ultimately find is a meaning that is in line with the rest of the Scriptures. It's actually a pretty cool thing. So let's take a moment and together take a look at this text.

You may or may not be aware, but the church has its own calendar. Each year is broken up into different seasons. There is Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and the Sundays after Pentecost. Each season has a different theme or emphasis that goes with it. The seasons of Advent through Easter take us through the life, death resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The Sundays after Pentecost, where we are now, focus on the teachings of Jesus and how they are applied to the life of the church. The theme today is that believing in Jesus can be divisive. And yet, we still do believe.

Luke 12:49-50

There are a couple of images that we see in play here. Fire and baptism. The fire here is a reference to judgment. The baptism here is a reference to Jesus' death on the cross. This is why he came. And yet, even for Jesus the experience of the cross was no walk in the park. Remember when we see him in the Garden of Gethsemane? What is he doing there? He is sweating blood. What is his prayer there? Father, if possible, remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.

To understand the seriousness of this we have to understand the seriousness of sin. We live in a world where we are no longer allowed to talk about sin or to call anything a sin, unless we are using it as an adjective to describe chocolate cake. You've seen the commercials where they say that it is "sinfully" delicious.

But the reality of the matter is that sin is serious business. My hunch is the reason we don't talk about it anymore is because the way that it has been talked about has not been very loving or gracious. But the solution is to change how we talk about it, not to stop talking about it. So as we talk about sin and the reality of sin, we do so with humility, because we too are sinners.

And we need to understand this reality, not so that we can walk around feeling guilty or sorry for ourselves. But so that we do not lose sight of our need for Jesus. Sin breaks apart and destroys relationships. The relationships that we have with God and the relationships that we have with one another.

Sin has corrupted the creation and introduced into it things, that were never intended to be a part of the creation. Sin introduced into the creation things that prevent it from being whole. Sin introduced into the creation things like death and destruction, brokenness and separation, injustice and sadness. Sin breaks apart the creation and separates us from one another and us from God.

This is real and serious business. Not because God is petty or because he is a prude who does not want people to have fun, but because of the effects that sin has on his creation. So he comes in judgment, not to punish or get revenge, but to heal and restore. It is not like God is saying, "You hurt my feels therefore I will destroy you." But God, out of his great love for his creation will not allow it to remain affected by sin the way that it is, and so he comes to destroy the powers of sin, and death and the devil in order to renew and restore his creation.

When Jesus talks about being "distressed until it is complete," he is not just talking about being nervous, but we also see here his desire for the renewal of and restoration of the creation. Ultimately this is all motivated by God's love and his working to make his creation right. It cost him dearly. Jesus willingly offered up his life. And because he did this, then you and I are able to know forgiveness and reconciliation with our God. It is ours it is real. It is certain. We have it for the sake of Jesus.

This is why Jesus is known as the Prince of Peace, because he brings us peace with God and peace with one another. Since we know this about him, and we believe it about him, it is also why these next verses can cause us a little bit of difficulty.

Luke 12:51-53

So if Jesus is the Prince of Peace, how do we reconcile that with the statement above? How is it that the two go together? For starters we need to realize that Jesus is making a distinction here between "peace" as the world sees it and understands it, and even as the majority of people in his day would have understood it. He is making a distinction between that and real and true peace.

You see, the majority of people in his day were looking for a Messiah who would give them peace from the Romans and from their military enemies. They are looking for someone to come in, takeover and make things right. Yet, what Jesus offers is so much greater. He offers peace with God. Those of us who are sinners, and have been separated from God by our sin, because of Jesus are reconciled to God. We are restored to him, forgiven of our sins, we have peace with God.

And yet, our own sinful natures do not like this or want it. Sin will not take this one lying down, and so will fight against this idea. Because this is the case, there is irony in the peace that Jesus brings, because it is not like the peace that the world gives. And because of the sin in our lives and in our world then, we see the reaction to the prince of peace, not peace but division.

For the original readers of Luke's gospel, they would be experiencing this kind of thing directly. As the Spirit worked in people's lives and gave them the gift of faith, it created problems in their families. I have a friend who grew up as a Jew in a Jewish home. Good family made up of wonderful people. This friend became a Christian and this presented a great difficulty for them. One of the things that we spent a good amount of time talking about was this dynamic of what it would mean for them in their family. Because for them, they were really running the risk of being completely cut off. That is not peace, but division.

In this case, peace would mean denying Jesus, but accepting Jesus runs the risk of experiencing division in our families and places of work, at school and out with friends.

So what do we do with this? How do we make sense of it? Jesus says,

Luke 12:58-59

You see, Jesus is talking with people that should understand who he is and what is going on, but they don't. Their focus and understanding are off. When it comes to Jesus, we who have his name on us, we who carry his name are to live our lives and conduct ourselves in manners worthy of that name. That is what is meant by the image here. Don't wait until it is too late. Live life now, do what you can with what you got. Try to work out the issue before you get to the judge, because once you get there, and the decision is made it will be too late to change it.

So we live our lives now. We do the best we can with what has been entrusted to us. We are not just to sit around and wait for Jesus to come back, but we are to live our lives giving witness to his great love, mercy, forgiveness, restoration and reconciliation.

I think as we talk about sharing our faith, standing up for Jesus and all that other kind of stuff, it is easy to get all worked up and nervous. We feel like we have to be sales people and put pressure on those we love or even complete strangers and no one enjoys that. We can sum this up best in talking about love. As we love and care for each other and our neighbors we are bearing witness. Now this will not always be easy. And as we deal with the ramifications of our sinful natures being involved there may even be some division. But we move forward in love and faith, knowing that in doing so we are standing up for Jesus and living as his called people in this place.

And we do this knowing that he is with us, and loves and forgives us, and so no matter what we face, we can face it confidence, and our Prince of Peace will give us his everlasting peace. Amen. And now may the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Creatures of Hope

    Have you ever felt like you are living in a country music song? Maybe you struggle with the way things are going at work. Maybe you or some one you love is struggling with illness. Maybe you are trying to figure out how in the world you are going to find the means to make it through the month. Maybe you look around at the death and destruction, the hatred and injustice that fills our world, and see an overwhelming problem. Whatever it is, there times in our lives that can throw us down, knock us down, kick us down, and leave us broken and bruised. It is very painful, and it is out of that pain that we cry out, that we wonder, "What is going on here?"

 

    Of course being in a country music song doesn't always have to mean that things are going bad. You could be spending time with friends and it could be great. Yeah, just me and my gang. Or everything in life can be working out just great. All is going according to plan. You are well aware of the blessings that you have in life. Life is a highway. But there are times when living in a country song can be bad too. I am a man of constant sorrows, today, my world slipped away, maybe even, I just can't go on dying like this? (by the way, those are all titles of country songs).

 

Whatever kind of situation we find ourselves faced with, we know that the promises of God are for us. If things are good, then the promises of God make those good times even better. If things are not so good, then the promises of God are for us a source of comfort and hope and strength.

 

We know that God has promised that he will be our God, that he will never leave us or forsake us, that he will be with us. We know that he promised us forgiveness and life, and that he promised that one day Jesus will come back and we will live forever in him.

 

    Abram found himself in a situation way where he would be more on the negative side of the country music spectrum. But before we get to those verses, we need to take a moment to set the stage. At the age of 75, Abram, a life long resident of Haran, is told by God that he is to pack up and go to the land that God will show him. That's it, pack it up, move it out. No idea where he is going or what will happen. So Abram packs up all his belongings, all his animals and servants, wife and even his nephew Lot, and he heads out on his way. Abram is promised that the land that God will show him will belong to him and to his descendants. There is just one missing piece here, do you know what it is? Abram, which means exalted father, is childless. There is no heir and thus no descendants. And yet, Abraham goes.

 

    The Lord takes him on a tour of the land. And keep in mind that these would not have been quick travels. Everything was done by foot or hoof. Again Abram is promised that he will have descendants. Yet at this time he does not.

 

A famine strikes the land and Abram ends up in Egypt, and by the time he leaves, he has accumulated a significant amount of wealth, but still no descendants. In fact his flocks have gotten so big that the land can no longer support him and Lot at the same time so they go their separate ways. God again promises to Abram descendants, and not just a few, but so many that they cannot be counted, his descendants will be as the dust of the earth; which is an analogy that we will appreciate much more once construction begins around here.

 

There is a war that breaks out among the some local kings and Lot gets captured in the process. Abram puts together a crew and goes in and rescues Lot. And though he is offered rewards from some of the kings he does not take them. You see Abram is not interested in accumulating wealth. After all, what good does it do to have wealth when you have no one to leave it to?

 

This is the stage on which the verses for our text are played out. Once the cries of battle have ceased, and payment has been turned down, the Lord says to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great." And Abram responds, "O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don't even have a son? Since you've given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir."

 

And so we find Abram standing, not between a rock and a hard place, but between barrenness and a promise. The promise of God is there over and against the barrenness, yet the barrenness persists. The promise of God is there over and against the barrenness, yet the promise has not overcome the barrenness. Not yet anyway. So how does Abram continue to trust solely in the promise when all around him is evidence against the promise? And the same goes for you and me doesn't it? How do we trust in God and his promises where there is so much that seems to be contrary to those promises?

 

The answer for Abram, and for you and me is to live as creatures of hope. We live in a world that is filled with hopelessness, and it is in the midst of that hopelessness, it is in the face of that hopelessness that we stand as creatures of Hope. In verse 4 the Lord reassures Abram of his promise, "No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir." Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, "Look up into the sky and count the starts if you can. That's how many descendants you will have!" And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

 

In the midst of hopelessness, there is again the promise and Abram places his hope in that promise. He rightly places his hope in the promise because of the one who made the promise. And by hoping in that promise, by hoping in the promise of God, Abram is rooting himself in God, he is rooting himself in the one who made that promise.

 

The hope of Abram is not in the human reason that suggests that the presence of the barrenness is proof that there is no validity to the promise. The hope of Abram is not in the presence of the barrenness itself, even though that barrenness is pretty convincing. No, the hope of Abram is in God and knowing that God is God. And if God says that he is going to do something, if God makes a promise, it is a good bet that he is going to keep that promise, because God always keeps his promises.

 

We know and trust God's promises. We strive to live our lives in accordance with these promises, and doing this is faith in action. Abram believed God, and it was credited him as righteousness. Abram believed God and trusted his promise. That trust is what it means to believe.

 

Last month some of our congregation's youth attended the Nation Youth Gathering in New Orleans, LA. The theme of this gathering was "Believe." For those who attended it was an opportunity for them to be with 25,000 other teenagers who share their believes and worldviews. It was a powerful experience of the community of faith together in one place, worshiping and praising God. It was a powerful experience of the community of faith living as creatures of hope.

 

You and I are right to place our hope in God. You and I are right to place our hope in the promises of God. Because God is God. When he promises something, he will keep them. We may find ourselves faced with the frustrations of work, the sadness of sickness and death, the uncertainty of our finances and the grief over the injustices that exist in our world. We may find ourselves singing songs like, I am a man of constant sorrows, today my world slipped away, I just can't go on dying like this. We may find ourselves drawn to the human reason that says these things are in control. We may find ourselves convinced by the evidence of their presence. We may find ourselves thinking that even though we know God's promises are over and against these things, his promise has not yet fully overcome them.

 

It is in these moments that we, more than ever, need to place our hope in God. When there is so much hopelessness around us, we trust and hope in the one who makes the promises. Even though this is beyond reason and our understanding we hope in God because of who he is. We trust in God's promises and take risks according to those promises, because the one who makes those promises is faithful.

 

What are those promises? They are life. Not just life after death, but life before death. They are forgiveness and restoration and reconciliation. Won for us, not by anything that we have done or do, but by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. It is the promise of God's kingdom breaking into our world and destroying the power of sin and death and the devil. It is knowing that even though these things have not been fully overcome, they have been overcome, and when Jesus returns, they will be no more.

 

God strengthens us and encourages us through his word and sacraments. He gives us to one another to hold each other up. To remind one another of God's promises and faithfulness. To encourage one another to place our faith in those promises. We pray for one another and care for each other, and in so doing we show to one another the love that God has for each of us. We may not always agree or get along, but we are united, we are one in Christ. We come together to trust and risk according to the promises of our God, and to make known to the world around us his love and grace and mercy and forgiveness.

 

This means that in the face of problems and conflicts, sickness and death, need and lacking, suffering and injustice we can know that our God has overcome these things in Christ. And though they are still present they have not overcome the promise. And when Christ returns these things will no longer exist. That is our hope and so we live together in that hope.

 

And while we live in that hope we work to bring God's kingdom, we work to bring this hope to the world, we work to share this hope with the world. And while we are doing this work there is another country song that we can sing together it is entitled, Love without End, Amen.

On Things Above

As I was driving to class last Sunday, I had an epiphany. Ok. Maybe calling it an "epiphany" is a bit of a stretch. But as I was traveling to class I realized a very valuable lesson. That is this: there is a difference between being a wise steward, being frugal and good with money, there is a difference between this and being cheap. Being frugal is doing what my wife Mindy does. She wants to buy something and she researches it, she looks around in order to make sure that she is getting the best quality and deal for her money. This is a skill that I am constantly in awe of. I on the other hand am cheap. I don't worry about quality, I want to get away with paying the least amount of money for something. This occurred to me as I was stuck in traffic just north of Chicago.

I had survived the drive through downtown, though I nearly died about twelve times. I got a lovely tour of the northern suburbs. They are very lovely this time of year. Got a good view of it too, because every mile there was a traffic light. And I hit every single one of those red lights. It was a special day too because there was a parade that I got caught behind and had to wait for. Thus it took me two hours to go twelve miles.

What happened was that I selected the "avoid toll roads" option on my GPS. All in all I saved about six dollars. Or course it took me an extra two hours. But I saved six dollars in tolls. Yes, there is a difference between being frugal and being cheap.

Ultimately the frugal cheap conversation is not really a conversation about money as much as it is about value. What do you value and how does that play out in the way that we live our lives? What do you value in your life? What is it that grabs your attention, your focus? What is it that you spend your time working on, thinking about, dreaming about? What is it that you value?

Or, to ask the question in a different way; What is it that you value in your faith? This is the issue that the Christians in the city of Colossae were wrestling with. What is it that we value? What do we spend the most of our time focusing on? What do we spend the most of our time doing? I once thought it would be fun to write a sermon that was nothing but questions. It looks like I may be well on my way.

Our text from the third chapter of Colossians talks about this exact question. Paul writes," If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. OK. That's kind of interesting, but just what exactly does this mean? What are we getting at here? Well, a little background always goes a long way when we are trying to understand God's word and what it means.

The city of Colosse had at one time been a hopping kind of a place. Located in the modern day country of Turkey, it was on a major east-west trade route. By the time we get to the time of our text, the glory days are long gone. The neighboring towns of Laodicea and Hierapolis have now taken all the glory and splendor. Yet God's ability to work is not bound by the splendor of one's city and the church grew in Colosse.

But all is not perfect, because within in this growing church there were struggles. False teachers had come up and started teaching that there were things for us to do in order to secure our salvation. There are ceremonies to keep and days to observe. We have refrain from certain things, and subject ourselves to others.

Now there are practices in the Christian life that we can and do observe that are good, but they do not contribute anything to salvation. Living a God pleasing Christian life is important. How we live our lives and the decisions that we make matter. The way we live is important because of how it impacts our witness. We can't just go around doing whatever we want to do, but if you are not careful in doing so, you can become entrapped, and suddenly life is about rules and regulations.

So what do you do in this kind of situation? What do you do when there are all kinds of things competing for your attention, how do you know what to focus on? What do you do when you are trying to figure out how to live life in a God pleasing way? Paul's answer is simple. Seek the things that are above, set your mind on the things that are above. In other words, what is it that really matters, what is most important to Jesus, that is what you are to focus on. That is what you are to seek.

In our lives in general, and in our lives together as a congregation it is really easy for us to get caught up in earthly things. It is really easy for us to get caught up in the same kinds of things that the Christians in Colosse got caught up in, rituals and ceremony and knowledge and human wisdom and tradition, and while those things have a place, they are not supreme they are not most important.

What is most important is Jesus and the things that he is concerned about. As his people we should value the same kinds of things that he values.

Our lord is about the work of reconciling the creation back to himself. He came to seek and to save the lost. He came that we might have life and have it in abundance. So as we are thinking about, talking about and working through together what is most important, what deservers our attention, what are the things that we are to value and to seek, the answer is those things that are above, in other words the things that matter to Jesus and the things that should matter most to us.

Here is the thing, we are to focus on the heavenly things. We hear that and it is easy to get caught in a mindset that says we want nothing to do with anything that is remotely "earthly." So we create this distinction between things that are secular and things that are sacred. And so we find ourselves turning up our noses on the things that are secular so that we can better focus on the things that are sacred. And yet if that is what we do, if that is what we take from these verses we are missing the point.

We are to focus on the things above, not because the things on earth are bad, and therefore we should have nothing to do with them. But we are to focus on the things above in order to better be able to care for the things below, the things on earth. Remember, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it. God is about reconciling the creation back to himself. So we focus on the things above, not to ignore or escape from the things below, but so that we can appropriately be below and not lose sight of our role or place as God's people in this world.

Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis once wrote that if you focus on heaven you get the earth thrown in. If you focus on the earth you get nothing. As sinful human beings it is so easy for us to get caught up in things that are really not that important. That really do not matter all that much. And especially in the matters of religion.

But because in Jesus the price for our sins has been paid in full. He is victorious. There is nothing that we can do to add to our salvation. We have it in full for the sake of Jesus. There is nothing that we can do to make God love us more or to give us special status with him. We have a relationship with our God, not because of who we are or the things that we do, but because of who are God is, and how loving and gracious and merciful and forgiving he is.

This is what Paul is getting at here. As far as life goes for us, we have died. Do you know when that was? At baptism. In our baptism we are connected to the death of Jesus. We died with him. This also means that in baptism we are connected to the resurrection of Jesus and so there is life for us in him, both now and even after we die. Though now our lives are hidden in Jesus. But in him we experience life, real true life. Life that is not based on how good we are, or how well we perform. Life that is not based on our abilities to be better than other people. Life that is not based on how much we contribute or the quality of the things that we do. But we have life because our God loves us so very much, and in this life then there is freedom.

That is why Paul says to put to death those earthly kinds of things like sexual immorality, and impurity evil desire and idolatry. Those things don't give us life, they entrap us and bring about death. There is no place for them in the life of the people of God. And the good news is that even though we may struggle with them, we can be victorious in Jesus. We can put off these, and the old ways of our sinful human nature and instead put on the new self renewed in the knowledge and image of the creator.

Luther describes it as daily remembering our baptism. We do this by daily confession and repentance so that our old sinful nature not only will not win out the day, but will actually be drowned. And then a new person can rise up to live before God in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. So when you get up in the morning, you make the sign of the cross and say, "I am a baptized child of God." You ask God for forgiveness for your sins, and you go on your way living in the knowledge that you are forgiven restored and renewed. You go out to with your mind set on the things above where Christ is seated.

This is to be a daily practice. Why? Not because it will earn us anything from God. Not because it will make him mad with us if we don't. Not because we have to. We do it because that old sinful nature that we are to drown in our daily remembrance of our baptism, Luther called it the old Adam. That old Adam, well he is a really good swimmer.

As we move forward in our lives together, as we seek what God has in mind for us as his people in this place at this time. There will be all kinds of things that will be clamoring for our attention. There will be all kinds of things that will threaten to distract us and throw us off track. But as we live our lives together let us seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and let us set our minds on the things that are above and not on the things that are below, because in living this way we experience life and what a great blessing it is.

And may that blessing be yours now and always. Amen.