Rejoice in the Lord Always

Rejoice in the Lord Always

Philippians 4:4-7

     One of the great things about the Advent and Christmas season is the music.  Probably more music has been written that has something to do with Christmas than any other single subject.  While much of it doesn’t really say much about the real meaning of Christmas, there are still many songs and larger musical works that proclaim the coming of the Christ Child.  A word that is often used in the songs that are sung is “Rejoice.”  For the people of God there is good reason to rejoice.  You have received the gift of a Savior, a Savior who was promised by God to the first people after they had sinned.  The Savior is truly a gift of God’s love because nothing you could have done could make it possible for you to earn this great blessing.  Through Jesus your Savior, your sins are forgiven and you have the gift of eternal life.

     We sing and we celebrate.  We celebrate with special music.  Some of you may have seen the presentation of the Boar’s Head Christmas Festival at Zion last week or the annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah that takes place in a number of communities at this time of the year.  That is one of my particular favorites, not just because of the grand music but also because it proclaims Jesus to be the promised Messiah, the Christ, the Savior.  We celebrate with family get-togethers, dinners with friends and co-workers and with the giving of gifts.  Through it all we have the opportunity to give witness to the world of the Good News of Jesus.  We celebrate His coming but we can’t forget why He came into the world.  We also remember His suffering, death and resurrection that brought us back to the Father with our sins covered over by His righteousness.

     Just think about it for a minute.  At what other time of the year does the rest of the world get into a frame of mind where they at least tolerate the proclamation of the Gospel?  As much as the world tries to suppress the Gospel during the rest of the year, during Christmas time they are actually singing and using the words that Christians use.  What an opportunity for us to witness to the truth about Christmas.

     Our text however says to us, “Rejoice in the Lord always.”  When the presents are opened and the wrapping paper is gone, when the parties are over for another year and when the sound of Christmas carols no longer fill the air, are you still rejoicing?  “Rejoice in the Lord always”, Paul says.  What is interesting about this passage is that it is part of a letter that Paul sent to the people of Philippi, people who were facing persecution because of their faith.  They were having a difficult time being open about their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.  Paul himself was a prisoner at the time for his work of proclaiming the Gospel.  In the midst of all those troubles, he says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.”  Think of the lesson there is in that message for you.  Certainly you can rejoice at Christmas time but you have reason to rejoice at all times.  You can rejoice when things aren’t exactly going the way that you would like them to go.  When the flat tires and broken windows of life cause you to get down in the dumps you don’t feel much like rejoicing in the Lord.  In fact, you might be looking for someone to blame and the first candidate might just be God.  When illness or losses of various kinds plague your life you are more likely to be angry than joyful. 

     Paul was not just giving you some good words of advice when he said “Rejoice in the Lord always.”  These were words inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore you need to take them seriously.  There is good reason for you to rejoice in the Lord always.  The difficulties that you face should not surprise you.  Jesus warned His disciples that they would experience difficulties but that in all things they were to trust in the Lord.  You don’t know all of the reasons why You may have to suffer in this life but you also have the Lord’s promise that all things work together for your good.  You also have the promise that nothing can separate you from the love of God that is yours in Christ Jesus your Lord.  As you trust in the Lord’s promises, you can rejoice in the Lord always.  You know that even in your troubles, the Lord is with you.  Paul also wrote in these verses that the Lord is near.  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heats and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  God is near.  He hears your prayers.  He guards your hearts and minds.  Rejoice in the Lord always.

     Before I mentioned that the Christmas season is a wonderful time for us to witness to your faith.  When you are experiencing troubles in your life, you also have the opportunity to witness to your faith, a faith in God that will strengthen and uphold you in any circumstance.  As you have opportunity, rejoice in the Lord always.  What a powerful witness that can be as people see you keeping a consistently joyful attitude toward God.  That is what Paul meant when he said, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.”  Another version uses the word “reasonableness” here.  It means that in the good times and in the challenging times of your life, you can keep an attitude of joyful gratitude to the Lord for all of His blessings.  That joyful attitude will be evident to those who know you and it will be a powerful witness of the love of God that is alive in the hearts of those who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and who live that life of love everyday. 

     It is that kind of witness that can touch the heart of someone who is not sure or who may have never heard about the love of God through Jesus.  You might be thinking to yourself that you have never been the kind of person who is comfortable sharing your faith with someone else.  You might be reluctant to talk about the blessings that you have through Jesus.  That kind of feeling is pretty common among Christians.  It is evidence of how the devil works to get you to clam up when the opportunity presents itself to witness to your faith.  But as I mentioned earlier, this is a great time of the year to take advantage of the fact that world is celebrating the birth of Jesus and many of them don’t even know it.  The other night on television I heard a woman say that when she was growing up she heard all of the Christmas music but really didn’t understand what it was all about. When she came to know Jesus, the songs suddenly made sense to her and the words that she had heard many times before now had a new meaning.  How many people out in the world are in the same position as that woman?  The harvest is truly ripe.  The words are being sung all the time.  The music is in air.  It is your opportunity to bring new meaning to people around you in the things you say and do.

     Obviously you can’t do this on your own.  You need the help that the Holy Spirit provides for you. God, in His wisdom, knew that human wisdom would never be enough to change people’s minds and hearts and bring them to saving faith.  He provided you with some very special gifts, not just at Christmas time but throughout the year and throughout your life.  He has given you the Holy Spirit, who works in you through the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, so that you can overcome the attacks of the devil, the world and your sinful nature, who want to drag you down and  discourage you from sharing any kind of joy in the gift of salvation that Jesus came to bring.  By that same power of the Holy Spirit, you can rejoice in the Lord always.  You can praise and thank Him for the great gift of salvation through His Son and you can give witness to the Good News of Jesus by your consistent rejoicing at all times in all circumstances.  Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again I say rejoice.  Amen

Rev. Gerald D. Matzke

December 13, 2015

Peace Lutheran Church

Chardon, Ohio

 

 

Which Part of the Building Are You?

Which Part of the Building Are You?

 Ephesians 2:19-22

     Have you ever paid much attention to the things that stand out when you enter someone’s house for the first time?  At this time of the year you might notice if they have air-conditioning.  I feels so nice when you first walk in on a hot day.  You might notice the color of the walls.  You might notice the furniture.  You might notice if the rooms are bright and inviting or dark and forbidding.  Think of how you would describe that house to someone.  The writers of the Bible were directed by God to use some interesting word pictures to help describe the Kingdom of God in ways that people could understand.  Jesus was the master of the parable but there are other fascinating word pictures  in other books of the Bible besides the Gospels.  Our text for today speaks of the church, the people of God, as a building.  The earlier part of our Epistle lesson addresses the fact that the church of God is made up of all kinds of people.  Originally the chosen people of God were the descendants of Abraham.  Even though God told them to welcome the stranger, in later years there were sharp divisions made between the Jews and the non-Jews or Gentiles. Is was incomprehensible to some people that God could ever include Gentiles among those who thought of themselves as the people of God.  Yet God called the Apostle Paul to be a messenger of the Gospel to Gentiles.  He rejoiced that all people could hear the message of salvation through Jesus Christ and come to faith and the hope of eternal life.

     In his letters to Gentile churches, Paul wanted to make them feel that they were just as much a part of the true church of God as were those who had been in a close relationship with God all of their lives.  That’s why he said in verse 19, “So then you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the  household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,  Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone.”  He uses the word picture of a building to describe the whole church, the people of God.  It is a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.  That word picture has some interesting implications.

     If we are all part of that building that rises up and becomes a holy temple in the Lord, as Paul said, then which part of that building are you?  Where do you fit in to this picture? A building has many parts.  Some are essential.  Some are very functional.  Some are mainly there for decoration.  As we think about this today, may you be honest with yourself and assess your place in the building that is the church, the people of God.  May you be honest about your short-comings, confess your sins to God and be assured of your forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  May you take hold of the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can grow in your faith and your understanding of the ways in which you can function in God’s household.

     As you look around a house, you will find a number of spaces.  Some rooms are meant to be attractive and welcoming, especially to guests.  Some rooms are meant to be private and comfortable where you can be alone to get way from the stress of daily life.  Let’s take an imaginary tour of a house and see what parts might have some interest for us people of God.  Hopefully you can begin to answer the question, “Which part of the building are you?”

     The first part of a house that is built is the foundation.  A house wouldn’t stand very long without a solid foundation.  Paul spoke of this dwelling place of God being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.  That of course is a reference to the teachings and proclamations of the apostles and prophets.  We have those teachings passed down to us in the pages of Holy Scripture.  The Bible is certainly the foundation of the teachings of the church because it is God’s Word.  The church needs that solid foundation to be able to stand against all the false teachings and worldly philosophes that we face today.  Without the solid foundation, the rest of the house would crumble and fall.  As we think about ourselves now, none of us could presume to be as important as the apostles and prophets who wrote the Bible.  Rather than thinking about the walls of a basement, let’s consider the space in the basement.  Unless you are careful, a basement can become cold and damp.  That’s an ideal environment for mold to grow.  That is the way some people in the world see the church.  They have gotten the impression that the church is cold and moldy because of the reception that they have received from some church people.  When a guest in the church is treated as a stranger and an outsider and is ignored by everyone, it can seem pretty cold. You have to ask yourself if you have been guilty of being cold and moldy like an old basement.  If you find that you have, perhaps you need a spiritual dehumidifier.  By the power of the Holy Spirit you can warm up and clean up some of the cobwebs from the corners of your heart.

     Another fascinating place in house is the attic. An attic can be filled with all sorts of wonderful treasures.  When I was young, I used to love to explore in my grandparent’s attic.  The only problem with the attic is that it could get pretty hot and stuffy up there.  That image can lead to another one of our considerations of the church.  Sometimes you find yourself being hot and stuffy. When you get that way, you don’t have a lot of patience for anyone or anything that gets in your way.  You tend to be angry and critical about everything.  Basement and attic people in the church really don’t help the church to carry out its mission.  The truth is though that all of us have spent some time as either an attic or basement person in the church.  It is for those times that you need to come to the Lord and repent of your sins and seek the spiritual strength to get out of those cold and moldy or hot and stuffy places. 

     Another important part of any house are the walls.  Walls can serve two different purposes.  They can be walls that support the building or they can be walls that divide the building into its different rooms. How do you see yourself as a wall in this dwelling of the Lord?  Are you a divider or a supporter?   Often when you want to make sure that you get your own way, you may be more of a divider than a supporter.  You try to force people to take sides.  You gather around you those who agree with your point of view and you seek ways of dividing the church instead looking for ways to support the whole church.  For those times when you have acted as a divider, you need to come to the Lord and seek His forgiveness.

     We can also think of the rooms in the house. When you think about it, though, a room is nothing but an empty space until it is filled with things that make it functional.  We are all that way to start with.  You are empty spaces that need to be filled with power of the Holy Spirit.  Through your Baptism and the teaching of the Word, you are filled with all that you need to be useful parts of the dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.  Just like the various rooms of the house may have different functions, so the people who make up God’s household have different functions.  Every room can be used for something. Every person in the church has a function in carrying out the mission of making disciples. 

     Houses also have windows.  Windows allow people to look out but at the same time they can also allow people to look in.  People who function as windows in the church are those whose lives allow others to see what it means to be a Christian.  They are witnesses for the Lord and His love and mercy.  Windows are open to sharing the love of God through Jesus Christ in what they say and what they do.  Through the windows, the church carries out its mission of making disciples in the community.

     Another important part of the house is the door.  People come into the house through the door.  Those who are doors in the dwelling place of God are those who bring people into the church through their intentional and personal invitations.  They invite others to share in the blessings that are found in the Word and the Sacraments.  They welcome all who come to the church and do all they can to make them feel at home and comfortable.  The doors are certainly an important part of the whole building that is joined together and grows to become a holy temple, a dwelling place of God. 

     The church is made up of many different people, just as a building has many parts.  Not everyone is a door or a window.  Hopefully there aren’t too many attics or basements.  Hopefully there aren’t too many who are merely decorations.  When you find yourself acting cold and moldy or hot and stuffy or just an empty space, you can come to the Lord and confess your sins and be assured of the forgiveness that is yours through the blood of Jesus Christ.  You can then be strengthened by the Word and the Sacraments to be able to function in a way that builds up the church and helps it to grow.  Which part of the building are you. Amen.

 Rev. Gerald D. Matzke

Filling in at St. Mark Lutheran Church

Chesterland, Ohio

July 19, 2015

 

    

Clothed With Garments of Salvation

Clothed With the Garments of Salvation     

Isaiah 61:10-62:3

     As many of you know, this is my last Sunday here at Zion as pastor.  This will be what some people would call my farewell sermon.  As you have come to know over the years, my sermons have never been centered in some kind of political or social agenda.  My task as a Lutheran pastor has always been to preach the Word.  The motto of Concordia Theological Seminary where I studied for the pastoral ministry was “Preach the Word.”  I have always taken that very seriously.  When I began preparing for this Sunday several weeks ago, I took a look at the Scripture readings appointed for today and I had to smile.  I don’t know if you caught it when they were read before but there were some lines that would seem to lend themselves well to my situation today.  The Epistle lesson started off with the words, “When the fullness of time had come.”  That would seem to speak to a time to retire.  The Gospel lesson has the words of Simeon when he saw the Christ Child, “Lord now you are letting your servant depart in peace.”  This one also could be applied to a final sermon.  However, to do that with either of those lessons would be taking them out of context and twisting them to fit a different set of circumstances.  To use Scripture out of its context is never a good thing and it is not something I want to do today or any time I have the privilege of preaching the Word.

     Instead, I have chosen the Old Testament lesson for today.  It expresses the joy that is in the heart of one who has come to understand and appreciate the blessings of salvation that God has given to His people.  It expresses the joy that is in my heart and I pray that you have that same kind of joy in your heart on this Sunday after Christmas and throughout the year and throughout your life.

     The prophet Isaiah had the privilege to speak for God to call the people of Israel to repentance but also to encourage the people in their times of difficulty.  As he did that, he also was inspired by the Holy Spirit to prophesy about the coming Messiah and what that would mean for the people of God.  This text starts with the words, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”  Think of what that means.  The picture language is not too hard to figure out.  You know what it means to be clothed.  You know what it means to be covered.  This should be the cry of every believer.  I greatly rejoice that I am clothed with the garments of salvation.  I am covered with the robe of righteousness.  That truly is reason for rejoicing. 

      The problem is that in our world, even often in the church, the reason for our rejoicing is not quite understood.  To really understand what this means you have to consider the opposite of what Isaiah is saying.  If you are not clothed with the garments of salvation, you are left on your own. You would have to stand before God with all of your sin showing.  The excuses that you try to make about your sinful behavior can not cover up the reality of your sin.  All the denials in the world will not cover up your sinful nature.  The only thing that will allow you to stand before God is the garment of salvation that has been purchased for you by your Savior, Jesus.  Unfortunately there are many people who don’t understand that.  Human reason would tell you that you have to stand before God on your own merits.  Even if they are not perfect, your good intentions ought to stand for something.  Your hard work ought earn you a few points.  There’s not much comfort in that kind of thinking.  You would never be certain that you had done enough.  When there is no security, there is no joy. 

     Often there is no real appreciation for the great gift that we have been given in that garment of salvation.  That fact becomes obvious when you observe people who have no joy in their life.  One who does not appreciate the gift of salvation is often one who is not willing to show love and forgiveness to others.  This shows itself in holding grudges, ignoring those in need, and insisting on having your own way.  There is also no rejoicing in a life that is self-centered because others are always disappointing you. 

     If you saw a bit of yourself in ether of those descriptions, you realize that you are still a sinner.  If you didn’t see yourself in those descriptions you are probably not being honest with yourself because we are all sinners.  We all need to hear the message of Law and Gospel that reminds us of our sin and then brings us the sweet message of love and forgiveness that is ours in Christ Jesus.  By His perfect life and His death on the cross, we have been clothed with the garment of salvation.  You have to remember that when this was written, most people wore an inner garment and an outer garment that covered a person completely.  That is a good picture of the kind of garment of salvation that Isaiah describes.  Our sins are covered over completely by Jesus.  To make that even more clear, Isaiah, is a way that was typical of Hebrew poetry, continues by saying that God has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.  The robe of righteousness covers over our imperfections with the perfection of Christ Jesus.  Think of how a bridegroom and his bride adorn themselves.  For a brief time they appear before one another looking better than they ever have in their lives.  It is done to give the appearance of wealth and beauty when perhaps there wasn’t much to start with.  The robe of righteousness covers our unrighteousness but it is not just for a brief time.  It is for eternity.  Covered in Christ’s righteousness we can stand before God and He sees us as righteous because Jesus has done all that is necessary to make that possible.  When you understand and appreciate how wonderful that blessing is, you can’t help but be joyful.

     With Isaiah you can rejoice greatly.  That joyful spirit will be evident in the way you live your life.  First of all, you will live with a thankful heart.  Your thankfulness will show itself in the way that you are willing to share with the Lord your time, your talents and your resources to help carry that message of salvation out to the world, a world that does not understand or appreciate the great blessing that comes from the gift of the garments of salvation in which God has clothed you. 

     Secondly, your joy will show itself in your willingness to serve the Lord and His church with talents that each has been given for the building up of the church.  Not all are gifted the same way but in every church, the gifts are there to do the Lord’s work of expanding the kingdom of God through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments.  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention those Means of Grace as the ways in which the Holy Spirit works to brings you to faith and keeps you in the faith and empower you to do the good works that God has prepared ahead of time for you to do. 

     In verse 2 of chapter 62, Isaiah mentions that the nations shall see your righteousness.  People will notice the rejoicing that is in your life when you understand and appreciate the garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness that you wear.  They will see the difference that is made in your life.  May that be an opportunity for you to witness to your Savior Jesus who came into the world when the fullness of time had come.  May it also be a time for you to say with Simeon, “Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace.  My eyes have seen Your salvation.”  It has been my privilege to proclaim that to you here for nine years.  It is my prayer that you will continue to joyfully proclaim that message of righteousness and salvation in your lives until the Lord calls you home.   Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

1st Sunday after Christmas 

God Is Love

God Is Love

I John 4:7-16

     What a night!  This is a night like no other night in the whole year.  There is excitement in the air.  There is an anticipation of special things that will take place this night that will bring joy to everyone’s heart.  I have a question for you.  What is the one word that describes Christmas?  I suppose there could be all kinds of answers to that question.  Some of the answers would depend on how old you are.  The younger ones might say “presents.”  Some might say, “Music.”  Some might say, “Decorations.”  Some might say, “Family.”  Some might say, “Savior.”  Some might say, “Jesus.”  After hearing the Epistle lesson from I John 4, I think we might have to conclude that the one word that describes Christmas is “Love.” 

     If you listened carefully to the reading of the Epistle lesson, you probably heard the word love used sixteen times in those nine verses.  If you count the word “beloved,” then it goes up to eighteen times.  Just from that it’s hard to argue against “love” being the word of the day.  The love that the Apostle John is describing is a love that is very special.  It is a love that comes from God.  It is a love that knows all about the one being loved and loves in spite of the sin and rebellion that are a part of our nature.  John describes how that love has shown itself in several of the verses of our text.  For example, in verse 9 he says, “God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.”  In verse 10 He says, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as the propitiation for our sins.”  In verse 16 we hear, “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in Him.” 

     Through God’s love, we have new life.  The old is gone, the new has come.  If you have never thought about that before, you may wonder how all that works.  Apart from God and His love, your life is an endless search for meaning and purpose.  You seem drawn to satisfying all your human desires but it seems like you never really reach that level of happiness and fulfillment that you are looking for.  In fact, earthly happiness always seems to be just out of reach.  You find yourself thinking that there has to be more to life than this endless quest for self-satisfaction.  Love can be fleeting.  It seems to change with time.  It never seems to be returned in the same way that it is given.  You may begin to wonder what love really means.  That almost sounds like a song title and it probably is because most of the love that you hear in popular songs is a physical, earthly kind of love that can be very elusive. 

     But God’s love is different than the love we generally hear about in popular culture.  God’s love is a love of action.  It is founded in His nature.  God is love.  He loved us so much that in His great compassion for our fallen condition, He sent His only Son into the world to save us from the consequences of that fallen condition.  In order to do that, the Son needed to come down to earth to be like one of us.  Since the Son was true God from all eternity, it would take a miraculous birth to make it all happen.  God sent the angel Gabriel to a virgin named Mary, a young girl living in the town of Nazareth of Galilee.  It seemed like an out-of-the-way place but it was foretold by the prophets that the Messiah would come from Galilee.  There was a slight problem in all of this.  Mary was betrothed to a good man named Joseph, a local carpenter.  They had not begun their life together as husband and wife and so there were some questions in his mind when Mary was with child.  Again an angel appeared to him in a dream to explain the whole situation.  The child was the Son of God.  He was also to be born of a human mother so that He would be true Man.  This was necessary so that He could live under the Law and keep it perfectly. 

     Because of the Roman census, Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem, their ancestral home because they were from the family of David.  It was there that the child was born in rather unusual circumstances.  The census brought crowds of people to even the small towns like Bethlehem.  It is that birth of the child, announced by angels to simple shepherds, that we celebrate tonight.  That birth was all according to God’s plan.  We can say that because the prophets of old had foretold it, and the specifics were announced by angels, God’s messengers. The coming of the Son of God was a big thing, even though it went relatively unnoticed by the rest of the world.  Now it is still a big thing but the real meaning of this celebration is downplayed by the rest of the world. 

     He also had to be a true Man so that He could carry out God’s plan for our salvation.  Only as true man could He could suffer and die as the punishment for our sins.  Yet He had to be true God so that suffering and death and resurrection could be the satisfaction or propitiation for the sins of the whole world.  That is real love.  That is the love that God demonstrated for you and for me and for the whole world. 

     John then adds an important point as we consider the love that God has shown to us.  “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  As you consider the tremendous blessing that you have because God took this action on your behalf, you are moved to show that some kind of love to one another.  When I say “the same kind of love.” I mean that your love for one another should imitate the love that God has shown to us.  That is a love that knows all about the one who is loved, sins and faults and imperfections, and loves anyway.  It is a love that is a giving love.  It is a love that expects nothing in return.  It is a love that is unconditional.  There are no “ifs” or “whens” or any other qualifications before that kind of love is shown.  That can be really hard sometimes for you when you are still influenced by your sinful nature but with the power of the Holy Spirit you can overcome that selfish nature and show that special kind of love to others.  John speaks to that in verse 13, where he says, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”  The Spirit works in us through the Means of Grace. Through the Word and the Sacraments, we are given the power of the Spirit to show the love that has first been shown to us. 

     It is that love that we celebrate tonight.  We do it with all the joy that is in us.  We do it with special decorations and special worship.  We celebrate the fact that God loved us so much that He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.  We celebrate because we have been the recipients of that love and joyfully and confidently confess our faith in Jesus as our Savior.  John concludes in the last verse of our text: “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.  God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.”  What a wonderful blessing to know that in and through Jesus, God abides in us.  He is in us not only when we feel the love in times like this, but also in the times when our sin weighs us down, in the times when we don’t feel all that great.  He is there because He is love and His love for us never fails.  It is strong enough to overcome our weakness.  It is strong enough to pull us back when we seem to wandering.  It is strong enough to see us to our life’s end.  His love is eternal.  It is strong enough to reflect from us to others as we share the love that we have first received from God.  Truly, He showed that love when He sent His only Son to be your Savior.  May your celebration reflect that love not only tonight be throughout your life.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio  

Christmas Eve

Sanctified

Sanctified                                                        II Thessalonians 5:16-28

      Imagine for a moment you are the Apostle Paul.  You had close relationship with the believers in Thessalonica but were forced to leave because of persecutions.  Now some time later you wanted to write a letter to them to encourage them to remain firm in their faith and to be a strong influence for the Gospel in the whole region of Macedonia.  As your letter was drawing to a close, you would want to leave them with some solid words of advice.  What do you suppose you would want to say to them? 

     The words of our text, the Epistle lesson for today, show us just what Paul had to say to his dear friends.  His words of advice pick up in verse 16.  “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  Think of that.  This is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  When you understand the blessings that you have from God in Christ Jesus, the blessings of the forgiveness of sins, a blessing that you certainly don’t deserve, the blessing of reconciliation with God by His grace and the sure and certain hope of heaven through Jesus Christ, you can’t help but rejoice always.  You can give thanks in all circumstances, not just in the good times but in the difficult times as well.  He says in all circumstances.  Pray without ceasing.  When you think of prayer as talking with God, you can understand what Paul meant by praying without ceasing.  You have the opportunity to be in constant contact with God through prayer.  Why wouldn’t you want to take advantage of that golden opportunity? 

     He continues with some good advice when it comes to hearing God’s Word.  “Do not quench the Spirit.”  Do not try to put out the fire of the Spirit that purifies the heart and strengthens your faith.  When you think about the importance of the Holy Spirit in your faith and life, you can see how important it is to keep the Spirit’s flame alive in you.  “Do not despise prophecies.”  Prophecies come from one who is speaking for God.  Because there are many false prophets out there, it is important that you test what you hear.  Those that are consistent with what God has revealed to us will be good.  Those that contradict the clear message of God will be evil.  One of the tricks of the devil is to proclaim that something is from God when it actually is intended to draw you away from the truth of God’s Word.  That is why it is important to test what you hear against what God’s has already made known. 

     Those words of advice come from a heart that cares deeply for the spiritual welfare of those who are to receive this letter.  The point that is made over and over is that you need to let the Spirit do His work in you.  The work of the Holy Spirit is called Sanctification.  That’s a big word that has as its root a word that means holy.  Sanctification means to make holy.  It is something that is done to you.  You are made holy, something that you can not accomplish on your own.  Because of the inherited sin that is a part of every one of us, you could never make yourself holy.  It is something that the Holy Spirit does in you.   That is why St. Paul can say, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

     That word “completely” indicates to us that the whole work of making us holy is the work of the Holy Spirit.  It begins by bringing us to faith in the first place.  In most cases, that happens through the blessing of Baptism.  It continues throughout life as the Holy Spirit works through the other means of grace, namely the Word and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, to keep us in the true faith.  The Spirit also works in us through those same means to strengthen your faith and empower you to live a God-pleasing life as you wait for the time when Jesus will come again.   That’s what it means that He will sanctify you completely.

     The reason that Paul includes this in the last part of His letter is that it is so contrary to what your human nature tries to tell you.  Your human nature tends to want to take all the credit for the things that only the Holy Spirit can do.  Human nature, which tries to figure everything out logically, would rather have you think that you come to faith through your own will.  It tries to tell you that you become a follower of Jesus when you let down your defenses and decide to give yourself to the Lord.  That makes your faith not a matter of sanctification, but rather your own work.  Sanctification, remember, is a description of something that is done to you.  If it is thought of as something that you can do for yourself, then you would also have to say that keeping your faith strong is also a matter of the things that you do in order to remain firm in the faith.  You would then be convinced that you would have to work hard at keeping your faith strong enough so that you don’t fall away.  If you would fall away, it would be because you didn’t work hard enough at it.  The logical extension of that is that you can live a God-pleasing life through your own good works and as a result, God should be pleased with your good effort and reward you for all your hard work.  The error of that kind of thinking, which is quite common in our world today, just as it has always been, is that you are never sure if you have been good enough or worked hard enough to earn God’s approval.  It rejects the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification and, worst of all, it ignores Christ’s work of redemption.   Our human nature can be a dangerous thing, especially when it interferes with God’s plan of salvation that is clearly taught in the Scriptures.  That’s why it is so important for us to stay close to God’s Word.  There we find the truth.  There we find what we need to know and believe about our relationship with God in Christ Jesus. 

     There is something else that Paul mentions in his final words of this first letter to the Thessalonians.  He prays that your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Being kept blameless is also part of the work of the Holy Spirit.  You are blameless because God declares you blameless because of what Jesus did for you.  He lived the perfect life that you could not live because of your sinful human nature.  He then died as the punishment for your sins.  Because of God’s grace you are then declared righteous or blameless.  You are kept blameless through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Paul then adds, “He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.”  He doesn’t say, “Come on now, work hard and you can do it.”  He says that He who called you is faithful and He will do it.  What a difference!

     You are kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is that reference to the coming of Jesus that makes this an important Advent Scripture lesson.  You are waiting for the second coming of Jesus.  You can’t forget that in all of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season.  We celebrate that God sent His only Son to the world to bring about our salvation through His life, death and resurrection, but we can’t let that overshadow the reality that one day, He will come again.  He calls you to be prepared.  He calls you to give thanks for the Father’s love, for the Son’s work of redemption and the Spirit’s work of sanctification as you wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.   Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

December 14, 2014

The Third Sunday in Advent  

     

Come to Save Us

Come to Save Us

Psalm 80:1-7

     Christmas time is a time of traditions.  The songs of the Christmas season bring back memories of Christmas celebrations often when we were children.  The tradition of giving presents reminds of the great gift that we have through the gift of the Christ Child.  We are also reminded of the gifts that were brought by the Wise Men to the young child Jesus.  Of course, one of the great traditions of Christmas time is the food that is prepared from recipes that are passed down from generation to generation. 

     One woman told her pastor as she was leaving church on the First Sunday in Advent that when she hears the words of the Collect for that Sunday, which begins with the words of our text, “Stir up your might, O Lord and come,” she knows that it is time to start baking her Christmas cookies.  The pastor looked a bit confused so she explained that when you say, “Stir up,” it’s time for me to stir up my ingredients.

      All of the Christmas traditions help us to remember Christmas celebrations of the past and they tie us to the generations that have gone before us.  They also have special meaning because they generally have some connection to the real meaning of this time of the year.  We are starting a new church year and we are focusing on the birth of the Christ Child.  This was the fulfillment of the prophecies about the coming of the One who would bring salvation to the world.  To really appreciate the significance of the coming of the Son of God into the world, you have to look at what the people of the Old Testament thought about God’s promise of a Savior.  It was something that God’s people had been looking forward to for centuries so a passage like the Psalm that we read together this evening helps us to see what they thought.  It shows us how God was preparing their hearts for the time when the Savior would come.  As we consider these words for a few moments tonight, may we come away with a better understanding of what the coming of Jesus meant for the people of ancient times but also what His coming means for us today as well.

     Back to the words, “Stir up your might (or power) and come to save us.”  This was the cry of the people of Israel to be saved.  At first that might sound strange to us when we think of the children of Israel as God’s chosen people.  Why would they need to be saved?  The truth was that even though they were God’s chosen people, their hearts were far from the Lord.  They had fallen away from Him.  They had adopted the pagan worship of their neighbors.  They were a rebellious people.  In order to bring them back to their senses and to the worship of the true God, they were punished as God sent foreign powers like the Assyrians to conquer their land.  The Psalm mentioned the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.  These made up the Northern Kingdom of Israel and they were the ones who were conquered first.  Some of the people had fled south to Jerusalem and it is thought that this Psalm came from that time period.  They were asking God to stir up his might and come to save them.  It is a fitting passage for the Advent season because it calls upon God to come and save us.  The coming of the Lord is what the Advent season is all about.  We celebrate the coming of the Savior with repentant and joyful hearts because we know that His coming meant that God’s plan for our salvation had been carried out when His only Son came down from heaven to save us.  Our Christmas joy is meaningless if it is not grounded in the fact that God heard the prayers of His people and sent His only Son in power and might to defeat sin, death and the power of the devil. 

     This 80^th Psalm is still an appropriate Psalm for the people of God to use as a prayer.  Even though you might consider yourself part of  God’s chosen people by virtue of your Baptism, you still may find yourself in situations where you need God’s help.  You still may find yourself straying from the truth of God’s Word in favor of the philosophies and practices of the world around you.  Isn’t it interesting how in every age, the ways of the world seem so attractive to God’s people that they are tempted to follow after them.  That’s how the devil works.  For the children of Israel, it was the practices of the pagans who lived around them that seemed like so much more fun than the constant bringing of sacrifices to make atonement for their sins.  Today, it always seems to us that the unbelieving world has a lot more fun that those who try to follow God’s ways.  Philosophies are planted in our head through the various worldly media that you deserve to have fun.  Go to Sin City because what happens there, stays there.  If you hear that often enough, you tend to start believing it.  Soon you have new priorities in your life and you find yourself farther and farther away from God.  When God’s law speaks to your heart, however it comes to you, it convicts you of your sin and you find that you are helpless on your own.  The words of the Psalm continue to apply in our time as it describes how your enemies laugh among themselves because of you.  The devil and his crew are overjoyed that they have been able to entice you away from God.  You then cry to the Lord, “Stir up your might and come to save me.” 

     Your only hope is to look to God and His mercy to be saved from the downward spiral that will eventually leave you in the deepest depths in hell.   In God’s plan for your rescue, He did send down His only Son to become like us.  He took on human form so that He could live under the same law that God had established for His people.  Because He is true God, the Son could keep that Law perfectly for you.  He endured all of the temptations that you face.  He was tempted by the same basic temptations that come to all people.  Yet He resisted them in order to do the Father’s will.  He truly did lead a perfect life in your place.  He then allowed Himself to be brutally beaten and nailed to a cross as the punishment for your sins.  Then in His almighty power, He rose from the grave to demonstrate that the power of the grave could not keep Him.  As a result, His victory becomes your victory and you are saved. 

     You are saved because your heavenly Father declares you righteous.  You are justified by God’s grace, His undeserved love for you.  He does this because Jesus came down and lived that perfect life and died on the cross in your place.  The blessings of all of that become yours through faith, through believing and trusting that what Jesus did was for you.  Even the faith to believe and trust comes from the power of the Holy Spirit.  Remember the words that Martin Luther used to start the Explanation of the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed,  “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”  He did stir up His might and power and come to save you.  You also need to remember that He will come again some day in all His power and glory and will judge the world in righteousness.  He will take all believers to their heavenly home.  That is why we can still pray the prayer in the Psalm, “Stir up your power and come to save us.”

     As you prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus once again this year, may you keep your mind focused on the blessings that Jesus came to bring.  May you resist the temptation to let the things of this world became so important that you forget that you are still waiting for Jesus to come down again.  May His second coming be a time of joyful anticipation as you look forward to the eternal peace and unending joy that will be yours in His presence.  It is all possible because of what was accomplished for you at His first coming.  That gives you hope.  It gives you peace.  It gives you joy as you celebrate with your family and friends at home and in church the coming of the Lord to save.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

December 3, 2014

Mid-Week Advent Service

      

Shall We Be Saved?

“Shall We Be Saved?”                                                      Isaiah 64:1-9

     We have come to the beginning of the New Church Year.  I guess I could say “Happy New Year!”  As you know, the Church Year does not follow the calendar year.  Instead it follows the major Church festivals.  Seasons of the Church Year are related to the celebrations of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.  Since Jesus’ birth seems like a logical place to start, then a season of preparation for Jesus’ coming would seem reasonable.  There are really two main themes for the Advent season, which gets its name from Latin and means to come to.  We prepare our hearts for Jesus to come to us.  His first coming has already happened of course so we can’t really prepare for that but we can consider what that coming means for us.  While we do that, we also have to remember that Jesus will be coming again and we need to prepare our hearts for that time when He will come to judge the world and take His people to their heavenly home.  That theme carries over from the last part of the church year when we also talk about the end times.  Advent is a time for us to consider all of what Jesus did for us and what He will do when the final promise is fulfilled through His second coming. 

     Through it all, Advent is considered one of the penitential seasons, a time for repentance as we consider what Jesus did to bring us back to the Father.  Our Old Testament lesson for today calls us to join with God’s people in a prayer for mercy.  When we consider our sin and how it is an offense to God, we may ask the question that we find in the text.  “Shall we be saved?”  That question often comes to mind when we are faced with the reality of our sin.  Can I be saved?  Have I been too rebellious?  Could God really love me after all I have done?  Thankfully there is a positive answer to that question and as we consider the message of Isaiah the Prophet, may we see how that will have an effect on our Advent preparations.

      In our text, the prophet leads the people of Israel in a prayer that acknowledges their sin.  For a long time the people of Israel had put God’s mercy to the test.  They had followed after false gods.  They had mixed pagan worship with the God-given acts of worship and just generally had been a rebellious people.  The only way that they would be shaken from their spiritual slumber would be if God would suddenly come down and bring some kind of destruction on them.  During the time of Isaiah, that destruction came from foreign powers that came in and destroyed their land and carried many of the people off into captivity in Babylon. 

     While the destruction and the captivity was a drastic call to repentance, it was necessary in order to remind them that God was still in charge.  In the words of verse five the people cry out, “Behold you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been along time, and shall we be saved?”  The lament then continued in the next verses where they spoke of being unclean.  Their righteous acts are even like a polluted garment.  “We fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.  There is no one who calls upon your name who rouses himself to take hold of you.”  Those are the words of a people who know that they have sinned.  They have admitted their sin and that is the first step in repentance.  They look to God even though they know that they don’t deserve anything from Him but punishment. 

     Hearing a cry like that ought to make you feel a bit uncomfortable.  It shouldn’t be hard for you to relate to the sins of the people of Israel during Isaiah’s time because they are the sins of people of all time.  The inherited sin that brought about all of those sinful behaviors is in each of you.  Left to yourself, you would have to say right along with the people of old that you are also unclean, your righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.  You may wonder if you will be saved.

     But the prophet Isaiah continues by acknowledging that there is hope.  “But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”  What a wonderful reminder!  You are our Father.  A father loves his children dearly.  He does not like the disobedient and rebellious behaviors of his children but he disciplines them in love.  The whole purpose of punishment is to help them to see the error of their ways and bring them back in repentance.  That is why we look to God as our Father.  He has created us and He loves us with an everlasting love.  He may discipline us  for a time but it is in love that we often have to deal with suffering.  He does want us to be saved.  He wants what is best for us and that is to be brought back into His loving arms for all eternity.  He also recognizes our inability to do what is necessary for us to be reconciled to Him on our own.  We may try but all of our efforts are going to fail because of our continued sinful behaviors that stem from that sinful nature that is a part of our being. 

     At the beginning of the reading for today, the cry of the people was, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.”  Actually that was God’s plan from the beginning.  When sin entered the world, God promised that the seed of the woman would destroy the seed of the devil.  That first Gospel promise would be fulfilled when God would sent His only Son into the world.  True God from all eternity came down from heaven to earth to be one of us so that He could take our place.  He took out place under the Law and kept it perfectly.  He then suffered a horrible death on the cross as the punishment for our sins.  The Son was then raised from the dead to show His victory over sin, death and the devil.  His victory is our victory as well.  He then sent the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts to believe and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior so that we could be saved from all that we deserve because of our sin. 

      Here we can recall the words of the prophet again when he says that we are the clay and the Lord is the potter.  We are the work of His hand.  He has taken us and molded us into His special people.  He is the creator and He shapes us into His own special vessels.  We are the work of His hand and therefore we live to serve the purpose that He has in mind for us.  The answer to the question about being saved is an emphatic, “Yes!”  We have been saved by God’s grace alone.  He declares us righteous because of His great love, so great that He sent His only Son to earth to take our place under the law and on the cross. He gives us the power of the Holy Spirit in the Means of Grace to believe in Jesus and respond His love. 

     That is what we celebrate as we remember Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem.  Jesus came to be our Savior.  That is what moves us to true repentance whenever God’s love is brought home to us as we hear His word.  As we hear the Advent prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, we can remember that it was God’s plan to save us.  As we hear the Advent Gospel lessons about John the Baptist calling people to repentance, that was part of God’s plan to save us.  As we celebrate the birth of the Savior, that was the fulfillment of God’s promise to send His own Son to be our Savior.  Throughout the Advent season, though, we have to remember that there is one more prophecy that has yet to be fulfilled.  We have to remember that Jesus will come again, just as He promised.  May we keep in mind that God is our Father.  He loves us and cares for us and has provided for our salvation.  Because of His great love, there should be no doubt in our minds that, yes, we will be saved.    Amen.

And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.