Christ, Our Great High Priest

Christ, Our Great High Priest

Hebrews 9:11-22

     The Epistle reading for today presents us with a visual image that is not very familiar to most of us.  It talks about a high priest.  I don’t think that any of us has ever seen a high priest so we might miss out on what the writer is trying to say.  The writer directed this letter to people who did know all about a high priest and what he would look like and what he did.  His point was, as you heard in the reading, that Jesus is our great high priest.  The original readers of this letter were Hebrews who knew all about Hebrew tradition and Hebrew worship and the work of the high priest.  They were people who had become believers or who were interested in Jesus and wanted to know more.  The writer does a wonderful job of starting with what they already knew about God and His promise of rescue through the Messiah and showing them that Jesus is truly the one who fulfilled all the prophecies about the Messiah, the Christ.  In this section he is showing how Jesus is our great high priest.  As we think for a few moments about what a high priest did and how Jesus carried out that role on our behalf, may we also see how that role was carried out on that night when Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples and instituted the Lord’s Supper for all His followers in the years to come.

     The priests who served the people of Israel came from the tribe of Levi.  When the land was divided after Israel came into the promised land after their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the tribe of Levi did not receive their own land.  They were spread out throughout the other tribes so that they could serve as the religious leaders of the people.  They were trained in the law, especially as it applies to the religious lives of the people.  They carried out the sacrifices that were required in the law.  They served as examples of a Godly life and they brought the prayers of the people to the Lord.  Aaron, the brother of Moses, was the first high priest.  The robes and the breastplate containing the precious jewels that represented the twelve tribes and the head piece were all part of the clothing that the high priest would wear, following the Lord’s specific commands.  At the time of Jesus, the high priest was still very distinctive in the robes that were worn.  The high priest was also very powerful leader of the people and had a great influence over their religious lives.  As often is the case when someone has great power, there is the danger that the power can cause them to follow their own desires rather than the will of God.  We see that in the Passion Story as the leaders of the Jews ignored their own laws and customs in bringing Jesus to trial.  In spite of all of that, they were still the religious leaders of the people carrying out their traditional roles as priests.  They were seen as examples of a righteous life.  They knew all the customs and traditions and led the people in the observances of all the festivals.  They prayed for the people.  They brought the prayers of the people before the Lord in the Temple.  They were also the ones who carried out the sacrifices of the animals that were brought as atonement for the sins of the people. 

     Into this context then the writer to the Hebrews identifies Jesus as our great High Priest.  In order for this to make sense to the people then and for us now we need to see how Jesus fits the role of the High Priest according to God’s direction.  As the priests were to serve as an example to the people of a Godly life, Jesus, the Son of God, lived a perfect life.  You can’t get a better example than that.  His life and His teaching showed that a true Godly life is not just a matter of putting on a good show for the folks around you.  It is a life that sincerely responds to God’s love and mercy and follows the summary of the Law, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. “  One thing about looking to Jesus and His life and His teaching is that we are confronted with how badly we have fallen short of His example and His teaching.  We have sinned.  But it is important that we realize that so that we look to Him alone for the forgiveness of our sins.  We can’t imitate His righteousness perfectly so we need the help that only He can give.

     Another part of the role of the priest was to pray for the people.  He would intercede for them to the Father.  As we look at the life of Jesus, we see how He prayed for His disciples, not only the ones who were with Him but for all disciples of all time.  Sometime in the same evening when Jesus celebrated the Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper that we celebrate today, He spoke with them at length about many things.  We find this especially in the Gospel of John.  In chapter 17 of John’s Gospel we find a long prayer that has become known as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, where He prays for their safety and for their faithfulness.  In Romans 8:34, we hear that Jesus intercedes for us with the Father.  He knows that we have sinned and He places Himself and His crucifixion as the punishment for our sins so that we could be declared righteous and be reconciled to the Father.  In that way He is also our Great High Priest. 

     As I mentioned before, the priests would also be the ones who would actually carry out the sacrifices that the people would bring to the temple as the atonement for their sins.  All of that sacrificing, the shedding of blood as the punishment for sin, pointed ahead to the one great sacrifice that would be made for the sins of all people.  Jesus was that sacrifice when He gave up Himself on the cross.  The shedding of His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death paid the price for our sins.  He knew that was going to happen.  He prayed that night in the Garden of Gethsemane that, if it were possible, the cup would pass from Him, but not according to His will but according to the Father’s will.  Of course, it was the Father’s plan from the beginning that the power of the devil would be overcome by the sacrifice of His only Son.  It was foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament and now it was going to happen, once for all.  He is truly our great high priest.  He carried out all the functions of a priest and He did it for you and for me. 

     On this Maundy Thursday, commemorating His new command to His disciples, we are gathered to be reminded of that command and to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit, working in us through the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments.  He reminds you that you are to serve one another as He has served you.  When He washed His disciples’ feet that night, He was making it clear that true discipleship means humble service to one another. 

     He also gave a new command as He instituted a special part of the Passover meal to be used to remember His suffering and death.  In the bread and the wine of the meal, He gives you His body and blood, that was shed for the forgiveness of your sins.  It becomes a part of you through your eating and drinking.  As you receive it with faith in the words, “given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” you receive exactly what He promises. 

     You also receive the power of the Holy Spirit, working through the Sacrament to strengthen you for your new life in Christ.  You are brought back to Jesus’ life and His teaching as the example for your life.  It is through the power of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament that you are strengthened to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.  You are given the power to overcome the influence of the devil, the world and your own human nature.  When the temptations come, you know that you are not alone.  You have the power that Jesus, your High Priest, has given to you to

overcome all that tries to separate you from God.  May that power be with you throughout your life as you follow your Great High Priest’s commands.   Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

April 17, 2014  Maundy Thursday

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

John 11:1-50

     What happens when death meets life?  That is really loaded question because there are many ways that you could interpret it.  In our world today, we could think of what happens to a person when he or she is faced with their own death.  There can be a number of reactions.  Often people are filled with fear.  To may people, death is considered a venture into the unknown and that can be very scary. To others, a confrontation with death can be a time to be calmly thankful to God for the final blessing of this troubled life.  To see death as the door to heaven puts a believer in frame of mind that confirms what we have always believed.  When God wants to take me from this life, I am ready to go.  All things are in His hands.

     You could also think of my original question applying to those who are left here when a loved one dies.  The survivors are faced with the reality of the death of a loved one and that can be a very sobering and disturbing meeting of death and life.  It causes you to evaluate your own relationship with God.  It forces you to perhaps think for the first time in your life about the reality of death.

     My opening question can also apply to the situation that we find in the Gospel lesson for today.  Death met life as Jesus summoned Lazarus from the grave.  Death met life as Mary and Martha mourned for their departed brother and again when they rejoiced that Jesus had brought him back to life.  Death also met life as Jesus spoke to Martha about her faith in Him as the Messiah.  Death also met life a short time later as Jesus Himself died and rose again.  As we consider these confrontations between death and life, may your faith be strengthened as you see the great victory that was won for you by Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, who is the Resurrection and the Life.

     The scene that is set for us by the Apostle John is one that might be uncomfortably familiar to many of you.  Jesus received word from Mary and Martha, his dear friends from Bethany, that their brother was very seriously ill.  Jesus knew that Lazarus was soon going to die but He also knew that this was going to be an occasion for Him to show His divine power over death and that through all that was going to happen, the glory of God would be displayed.  As Jesus approached the village of Bethany, Martha come out to greet Him and tell Him the news that Lazarus had died.  Martha was a woman of great faith in Jesus and she expressed the feeling that if Jesus had come sooner He could have healed Lazarus so that he would not have died.  Jesus assured her that Lazarus would rise again and Martha responded that she believed in the resurrection of the dead.  It is then that Jesus spoke the words that I read as our text.  “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?”

     Martha’s beautiful confession of faith that follows can serve as a model for all Christians as we confess with our mouths and our hearts the faith that sustains us though life and that saves us.  “Yes, Lord,” she said, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”  It is that faith which makes the confrontation between death and life in your life a confident time for you.  As Jesus then raised Lazarus from the dead, He displayed the power that gave new meaning to His words about being the resurrection and the life.  As we look more closely at those words, may we see what they mean for us as we live now and look forward to living with our Lord forever in heaven.

     Jesus began with the words, “I AM.”  This may seem like the simple beginning of a sentence but they are very powerful when Jesus speaks them.  They take us back to when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush.  When Moses asked God how he should identify the one who sent him, God told him to tell the people that “I AM” had sent him.  The Lord is the great “I AM.”  Jesus, the Son of God, sent into the world to be the Savior is also “I AM.”  He is not just sent by God, He is God.  He is the resurrection and the life.  Those two words do not indicate two separate ideas.  They actually go hand in hand.  Resurrection means undoing the power of death and giving its opposite, life.  The life that Jesus gives is eternal life.  That life that Jesus gives is for all who believe in Him as Lord and Savior.  Even though we may face death now in this life here on earth, we shall live with Him eternally.  Death has no power over us because Jesus conquered the power of death and the devil and paid the price required by God for our salvation.  As our life here on earth comes to its end, we have our Lord’s promise that it will only usher us into the glory of heaven which is ours for all eternity.  It is ours, not because we deserve it, not because we have earned it by our good works, not because of our background and heritage, but simply by God’s grace.  It is ours by faith.  As Jesus added,  “Everyone who lives and believes in my shall never die.”  Living and believing in Christ implies a complete trust in Jesus alone for the forgiveness of our sins and the blessings of eternal life.  A complete trust also shows itself in a life of faith that is a response to the great gift of salvation that we have received.  Living in Christ is evidence that you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

     As we look at this event in the life and ministry of Jesus, you also have to see the connection between what Jesus said to Martha and His own death and resurrection.  What may not be so obvious at first is that this event had a direct connection to the plot by the Jews to have Jesus put away.  It was the raising of Lazarus that prompted the leaders of the Jews to find a way to silence Jesus.  He was gaining in popularity especially after the word travelled around that He had raised someone from the dead.  The Gospel lesson ends with the statement that from that time on they plotted to take His life.  It was His talk of resurrection that really stoked the fire in the hearts of the leaders of the Jews, many of whom did not believe in a resurrection.

     It is important that you realize that the death and resurrection of Jesus are more than simply historical events.  You have to look beyond the events and understand what they mean for you today.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus, you see, first of all, God’s plan of salvation for all mankind being carried out.  The death of Jesus shows us that God was serious when He made death the punishment for sin.  Adam and Eve were told that if they disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that they would surely die.  When they disobeyed, they began a process of ageing and death that has been a part of all mankind ever since.  God made sure that His people of the Old Covenant understood this by instituting the system of animal sacrifices as a way of making atonement for sins.  That all pointed ahead to the one great sacrifice that would be for the sins of all.  Even though He never sinned, Jesus died because our sins were laid on His shoulders.  He took our sin to the cross and He died a horrible death.

     His resurrection though shows us that God the Father was satisfied with His Son’s sacrifice.  It was the sufficient ransom for the sins of all.  It showed that all that Jesus said was the truth.  Most importantly for us is that because He lives, we shall live also.  His claims that we shall never die, in other words that we shall win the victory over death, are true and sure.  His resurrection guarantees our resurrection to life eternal. 

     The leaders of the Jews did not realize what they had before them.  They were blind to the truth of the message of repentance and forgiveness that was taught by John the Baptist and then by Jesus Himself.  Even after the High Priest, Caiaphas, made his prophetic statement before the Sanhedrin, they didn’t see what was happening and if they did, they ignored it because they were too concerned with their positions and their way of life.  Caiaphas said that Jesus had to die because it was better for them that one man died for the people than that the whole nation perish.  That is exactly what happened.

     Do you realize and appreciate what you have before you in this Lenten season?  Do you see Jesus as the one who died so that you would not have to perish?  The evidence is there for you. His resurrection proves His power.  It proves the truth of His word.  It proves that the Father’s anger over sin has been appeased and it proves that we too shall rise to be with Him forever in heaven.  May you be strengthened in your faith and trust in Jesus as the resurrection and the life.  May you view the remaining days of the Lenten season with a renewed sense of appreciation for the great gift of salvation that is yours in Christ Jesus.  May you say with Martha, “I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who as come into the world to be my Savior, the Resurrection and the Life.”  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, OH  44077

5th Sunday in Lent

I Am the Light of the World

“I Am the Light of the World”

John 9:5

     A few weeks ago most of us experienced something that took us back to the pioneer days.  We had no power.  The first time was so much fun, we thought we would try it again a week later.  While it certainly caused us to change the way we did things and was a great inconvenience for many people, we can think back on it now and smile about some of the unusual things it caused us to do as we tried to cope with no electricity.  We wore more clothing indoors than we usually would.  Many businesses were closed.  I don’t know about you but one thing I continued to do when I went into a room was reach for the light switch.  We are such creatures of habit that even when we know that the lights aren’t going to work we still reach for that switch on the wall and give it a flick.  Because we are so used having our electricity whenever we want it, living in the dark, without the marvel of electricity made us very uncomfortable. 

     Our Gospel lesson for today also presents us with the contrast between darkness and light.  In this case, darkness and light can be understood to symbolize the difference between knowing the truth and floundering in ignorance and unbelief.  Apart from the truth of God’s Word, mankind is left with human wisdom to find guidance and direction through life.  The problem with human wisdom is that it follows human nature.  Human nature looks to human achievement to find fulfillment and it is also very selfish in its outlook.  Human wisdom is very good at ignoring the truth especially when the truth doesn’t agree with its point of view.  As a result, human wisdom leaves you in the dark when it comes to the realities of life and your relationship with God.  Human wisdom tries to reinforce that idea that through human wisdom you can find enlightenment but the truth is that you still find yourself in the dark. 

     Even many religions that are based on achievement through certain works still leave people in the dark because there is no assurance that you have ever done enough works to satisfy God.  You get the feeling that you are religious because you have done all or most of the right things but you can never be sure that you have done all that is required.  You remain in the dark and the consequence of remaining in the dark is that you are a lost and condemned person.  Without the truth that brings light, no amount of human effort or wisdom is going to bring comfort and peace to troubled hearts.  You are still in the dark.

     Into a world of human wisdom, Jesus came when the time was right to bring light to this dark world.  The Gospel lesson today shows us both the darkness of human thinking and the light of life that Jesus brought to not only a blind man but also to the disciples and the Pharisees.  It begins by having the disciples of Jesus asking a question that shows how they had been influenced in their lives by human thinking.  They came upon a man who had been blind from birth and they asked Jesus, their Rabbi, their teacher, whose sin caused the man to be blind, his own sin or his parents’ sin.  Human thinking is always looking for answers in human terms.  According to their thinking, if someone has some affliction, then there must be someone to blame. Jesus surprised them and said that the reason the man was blind was to display the works of God.  He was going to demonstrate His divine power and give the man his sight.  That and other similar miraculous signs would be the fulfillment of the prophecies that spoke about what would happen at the coming of the Messiah.  As signs, they pointed to Jesus as the Promised One, the Anointed One, the Christ, who would bring the light of God’s truth to the world.

     While Jesus brought light to the dark world of the man’s blindness, it was also symbolic of the truth of God’s will that would come from His teaching.  Think about how Jesus taught.  He often used parables and as He did he started with the words, “The kingdom of heaven is like…”  He was bringing the light and the truth about the kingdom of God to those who heard Him and believed.  As you hear about the kingdom of God, you soon see that it is quite different in many aspects from human thinking.  Just a few examples will show you how Jesus brought that light and truth to the darkness of human tradition and thinking.  The story of the Good Samaritan not only criticized the priest and the Levite for their inaction but it challenged their conventional thinking about racial prejudice as well as teaching us to care for our neighbor.  The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple criticized the attitude of the Pharisee who listed all his good works thinking that they would gain him honor before God but in a surprising twist, Jesus commended the tax collector because he simply acknowledged his sin and pleaded for mercy.  Both of those parables brought to light the folly of human thinking when it comes to our relationship to God.  At the same time they brought the light of the truth of God’s grace.

     That light continues to shine as Jesus carried out His heavenly Father’s will when He offered up Himself on the cross for the sins of all.  Through His suffering, death and resurrection the light of God’s mercy is shown to sinful mankind.  Human wisdom would never come up with that kind of solution to mankind’s dilemma.  Human wisdom, as I said before, would look for something that we would have to do in order to make things right with God.  You still hear people today using that kind of human reasoning when it comes figuring the way to heaven.  You can’t get yourself right with God on your own.  It is only through faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, the one who kept the Law perfectly in your place and who then died as the punishment for your sins.  God even gives you the power to have that faith through the work of the Holy Spirit in the Means of Grace.  Luther’s Explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed makes that very clear.  “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.”  That echoes what Scripture says about faith.  “Faith comes by hearing the Word.”

     It is that assurance that brings light to the darkness of sin and unbelief.  Just like Jesus brought light to a man whose world was darkened by blindness his whole life, so Jesus, the light of the world, brings the light of truth to souls who are darkened by sin.  That light brings forgiveness and new life to those who hear the call to faith and then repent of their sin and live the Spirit-empowered life in response to God’s great love.  It also brings the light of eternal life in the glory of God’s presence for all who believe. 

     In connection with the statement that Jesus made about being the light of the world, Jesus preceded that by saying, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  As He taught, He certainly brought the light of the truth about the kingdom of heaven.  As He died and rose again, He brought the light of God’s love to show that because He lives we shall live also.  After He ascended into heaven, His teaching ministry was placed in the hands of His disciples.  His suffering and death and resurrection accomplished the purposes for which the Father sent Him.  The Holy Spirit was sent on Pentecost to empower the followers of Jesus to carry that light to the ends of the earth.  Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world.  Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”  As people of God, the light has been passed to you.  Let the light of Jesus shine in your life so that others may see how He brings light to the darkness of this world.   Amen.

Rev. Gerald D. Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

March 30, 2014 

Consecrated Stewards Start in the Right Place

Consecrated Stewards Start In the Right Place

Ephesians 2:8-10

     Greetings from your brothers and sisters in Christ at Zion in Painesville, and from the Ohio District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.  I want to thank  Pastor Coulter and your Committee for inviting me to be your guest preacher and Bible Class Presenter and to walk you later through the process of Commitment on this Celebration Sunday.  This is a special occasion in the life of any Congregation.  It is our prayer that this is a time for you to grow in your understanding of true Biblical Stewardship.  By true Biblical Stewardship I mean Stewardship in its broadest sense as Scripture describes it.  As you may have heard during the course of this Consecrated Stewards process, the definition of Christian Stewardship is the free and joyous activity of the child of God, and God’s family, the church, in managing all of life and life’s resources, for God’s purposes.

     That’s a lot to digest if you haven’t heard it before.  It’s important though as you think about Christian Stewardship to start in the right place.  Let me tell you about something that happened in my ministry that helps to illustrate the importance of starting in the right place.  When I was on my vicarage, the pastor I worked under had back surgery and I was left to take care of everything for a few weeks.  A family had scheduled a Baptism for one of the weeks when the pastor was recovering and the congregation got permission for me to do the Baptism.  This would be my first Baptism.  Early that morning, I got a call from a member of the congregation telling me that her daughter had delivered a baby that morning and the baby was several weeks premature.  They wondered if I could go and baptize the baby in the hospital that afternoon.  Wow.  I had never done a Baptism before and now I would do my first ones on the same day.  Things went well in the morning service as I baptized the first baby.  When I got to the hospital in the afternoon, things were all ready for me at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  What an amazing place.  Those babies are tiny!  The family was waiting for me and took me in.  Everything was ready.  I had to put on a gown, a mask and the rubber gloves.  The nurse gave me a small container of water and a dropper.  Obviously they had dealt with this situation before.  What an awesome experience it was for me to bring the blessings of Baptism to that tiny infant! 

     Both babies grew up to be big strapping boys who are now in their thirties.  The comforting thing to know is that these boys started out in the right place.  On this Consecration Sunday, I want you to think about your Baptism and remember that, like those little boys I baptized, you were saved by grace, freed to serve and called to commitment. 

     As you think back over that text that I read before from Ephesians  2, you have to remember how it starts out.  “By grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  This is the place to start.  It’s a hard place for many people to start because your human nature would rather have you look to your own accomplishments when it comes to your salvation.  You have a tendency to look at your life and what you want to accomplish and you judge yourself by how well you have done.  You may have a list of things that you want to get done each day and instead of rejoicing over what you did, you get down on yourself because of the things that you didn’t do.  You add those to the to-do list for the next day and so on and so on.  You want to be a good, reliable person but you get frustrated when you realize that you just can’t live up to your expectations.   The danger in that kind of thinking is that it often carries over to your life as a child of God.  You wonder if God could still love someone like you when there are so many things that you have done wrong or so many things that you didn’t do that you should have done.  When that kind of thinking gets you down, you need to go back to the beginning and remember your Baptism.  It’s said that when Martin Luther was feeling down because of his sins, he would say to himself, “But I’m Baptized.”

     Rather than being motivated in your life by guilt, which is often the way of the world, you can be motivated by God’s grace, His undeserved love for you, with an emphasis on undeserved.  He has declared us righteous, not guilty, by His grace because Jesus took my place under the Law and kept it perfectly and then died on the cross as the punishment for my sins.  Certainly guilt can be a powerful motivator.  Humorist Garrison Keillor has said, “Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.”  The problem is it keeps us enslaved.  God’s love on the other hand is an even greater motivator because it frees us from that slavery to guilt and frees us to serve, not because I have to, but because I want to.

     You have probably seen or experienced this in your life.  A teenage boy mumbles and grumbles when his mother asks him to help clean up after dinner and help with the dishes.  But that same boy will go over to his girlfriend’s house and when asked to come into the kitchen and help with the dishes, he responds, ‘Sure, I’d love to.”  Love can be a great motivator. 

     God’s love frees you to serve, not because you must, but because you want to.  Your life belongs to Him, and it takes on a new meaning when you use it in His service.   The freedom that you have is a freedom from the slavery to sin and the Law, and that leads you to use that freedom in service to others as a joyful response to God’s love.  It is only as you invest yourself in others that you are truly free.  It is only as you give up control of what you think is yours that you are free to enjoy the blessings of being a servant of the Lord.

      Here is where the last verse of our text is very important to the whole picture and gives real meaning to the term Consecrated Stewards.  Verse 10 adds, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  What follows this blessing of God’s grace, that becomes ours in Baptism and through hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper regularly, is a life of good works, that God has prepared beforehand as the way in which we live our lives.  It often takes some training and direction to know how to live out that life of good works and you have to realize that you also have the devil, the world and your human nature trying to influence you to ignore that important part of your life.  That’s why regular use of the Word and the Sacraments, the Means of Grace, is an essential part of your life.  We teach that in our Confirmation Classes.  It is taught in Bible Classes.  It is preached from the pulpit.  It’s all part of your Christian training.  That would also explain why you would have a special emphasis like Consecrated Stewards and a special Sunday like this.  It helps you to root out all of the worldly ideas that make their way into your thinking and it reinforces the Biblical teachings about God’s grace that leads to freedom that leads to commitment and joyful service in your life.

      Commitment is a part of your life whether you realize it or not.  When you are young you probably had some ideas about what you wanted to be when you grew up.  You committed yourself to those goals and you pursued the education and training that it took to achieve your goals.  When you got married, you committed yourself to love and cherish your spouse till death parts you.  When you made major purchases you committed yourself to payments over a period of years until you paid off your loan.  You are now part of the Body of Christ and you have the opportunity to express your freedom through a joyful response to God’s love in your commitment to regularly demonstrating your love with a portion of that which God has placed in your care as a Consecrated Steward.  The Commitment process is a way of reminding you of all the blessings that God has given to you, both physical and spiritual.  It also is a way for you to think about how you will respond to those blessings.  By God’s grace, through the sacrifice of His own Son on the cross, you have been set free to serve and, as a joyful response, you are called to committing yourself and all that God has placed in your care to be a blessing to His church, to your family, to your community and to the world. 

     It’s not unusual at a time like this that people have questions or reservations about the commitment process.  Sometimes people are reluctant to commit themselves.  There is a great story from the life of Jesus that speaks to that.  It’s the story of Jesus inviting Peter to come out of the boat and walk on the water, just as Jesus was doing.  Getting out of the boat was not a matter of figuring out all of the variables about walking on water.  He didn’t calculate his weight and the wind and the depth and all the other factors.  He simply stepped out in faith.  He was actually able to step out to his surprise but as soon as he doubted and took his eyes off of Jesus, he began to sink.  Today it is your chance to step out in faith.  You begin by starting in the right place, with your Baptism and remembering who you are by God’s grace.  The Lord was with you then when you had nothing to offer.  He is with you today as you consider how you will commitment yourself to faithful stewardship of all that He has placed in your care.  He has already prepared good works for you to do.  Consider how you will carry out those good works, not to earn your salvation.  That is already yours in Christ.  Now you have the opportunity to live out the freedom you have in the Gospel, freedom to serve and freedom to grow in your faith and freedom to commit your life and all of life’s resources to serve the Lord’s purposes.   Amen.

Rev. Gerald D. Matzke

Guest Preacher

Grace Lutheran Church

Thompson, Ohio

March 23, 2014

Broken Vessel

Broken Vessel

Mark 14:1-9

     Tonight’s Gospel reading presents to us a very dramatic scene.  A woman named Mary, twelve seasoned disciples, a room filled with the fragrance of the finest perfume, a broken alabaster flask and Jesus, the Savior, dripping with the finest imported nard.  It was Holy Week.  Jesus was only a few days from being arrested, put on trial and crucified.  But this night was a night of celebration.  It wasn’t very long ago that Lazarus had been raised from the dead in this village of Bethany and now he was at the table with Jesus.  His sister Martha was helping with the serving and his sister Mary was also there.  This evening was recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John for one reason, what Mary did.  Sometime during that evening, a woman, identified by John as Mary, came to Jesus with an extraordinary gift.  She had an alabaster flask of expensive fragrant ointment called nard or spikenard.  The text tells us that it was worth more than three hundred denarii.  That would be almost a year’s wages for a common worker in those days.  The flask was made in one piece so that to open it, you would have to break it.  That’s what Mary did.  From that broken vessel she poured the fragrant ointment that was put on Jesus’ head and feet and the fragrance filled the house. 

     We are not told why Mary did this.  It could have been simply an act of worship or an act of gratitude for raising her brother from the dead or love for the Lord.  We don’t know for sure but we do know that those who witnessed this were shocked.  John tells us that Judas spoke up and criticized her, saying that this could have been sold and the money given to the poor.  John then adds that he said this because Judas had charge of the money bag and often helped himself to what was in it.  He could probably imagine all the things that he could do with over three hundred denarii.  In our money today that could have been tens of thousands of dollars.  In the minds of the disciples and others who were present this was a terrible waste of money. 

     In many ways, you can’t blame them for their practical, cost-conscious thinking.  Why not use that money for the poor or some other worthy cause.  There are always good causes that seem to need money.  There should be some other way that we could show our love to Jesus.  After all those who thought this was a giant waste of money had reason, common sense, and even Biblical mandates on their side.  They were demonstrating great fiscal responsibility and also compassion for the poor and needy.  In their minds, Mary was a misguided fool who was taking food from the mouths of starving babies by her extravagant demonstration of love or whatever she was doing. 

     There is no doubt that your human nature would have you solidly  lined up on the side of the critics of Mary.  After all, you have been taught to be responsible and play it safe and do what God wants in controlled and careful ways.  You feel that you are doing the God- pleasing thing by being reasonable and responsible and frugal.  You stand with the disciples and look for Jesus’ approval.  But to your surprise you get His rebuke. He told them to leave Mary alone. “Why do you trouble her?  She has done a beautiful thing to me.” 

     Again in your human way of thinking, this just doesn’t make sense.  Don’t criticize her?  Leave her alone?  It was a beautiful thing?  How could He say that?  She used up that whole container of precious ointment all at once.  It doesn’t seem smart to use up all you have all at once and end up with nothing left.  Isn’t it better to hold back, give what you can afford?  That might make sense but think again how this turned out.  Jesus said that Mary did a beautiful thing.  She didn’t hold back.  She gave her all.  Only giving what you can afford may win you points with your insurance company, your financial advisor and your doctor but from what we learn on this occasion, it leaves Jesus unimpressed. 

     When you think about it, there isn’t a time in Scripture where someone was commended or praised by God for playing it safe.  Whenever someone tried to play it safe, it ended with a rebuke from God.  Think of Abraham, Moses, Gideon, David and Elijah.  Jesus never had praise for people who used caution and took it easy.  The faithless servant who buried his single talent was rebuked.  The rich fool who had every future plan perfectly covered so he could eat, drink and be merry was condemned.  The lukewarm and safe church in Laodicea in Revelation was spit out.  Even the play-it-safe disciples failed Jesus when He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.  They did the reasonable thing and took off.  God is not impressed with caution.  He is not gratified when we hold back.  The disciples were wrong.  Mary did the right thing.  There was not middle ground on this matter.  It was an issue of a broken container.  It was a matter of a vessel that had been broken and now could only be used completely with nothing held back.   

     There was something more that was happening here than just the breaking of the alabaster vessel.  The vessel that won the praise of Jesus was Mary herself.  The vessel containing the fragrant ointment was an outward expression of what had taken place in the heart of Mary.  In her love for Jesus and her desire to serve and honor Him, she was holding nothing back.  Like the broken jar that had to be completely spent once it was broken, so Mary could keep nothing back in her devotion to her Lord.  She didn’t give herself half-way.  She did not do what was safe, or reasonable or convenient.  She did what she knew she had to do.  She gave herself completely and without reservation.  That is what was really happening there at the table in Bethany.  Mary was a broken vessel, pouring herself out in eager service.  Once she had been broken there was no option—she gave it all—she could do nothing else.  To everyone’s surprise, Jesus praised her because that total surrender, that complete giving, is what He wants for every one of His people!  Mary was doing it.  The disciples still didn’t understand.  They were still playing it safe and trying to figure out the best way to do the job, the least expensive, the most practical way to get it done.  They were working the angles and being reasonable.  Mary was doing what broken vessels do—they give everything.  Mary had it right.

     It’s not a comfortable conclusion to reach for people who want to practice a kind of convenient, comfortable, part-time relationship with Jesus.  This example tells us just the opposite.  Jesus praised her for her complete surrender, her nothing-held-back expression of love.  You have to confront what that means for you.  It’s clear that Jesus wants people who give it all in their service to Him, people who are broken and are pouring themselves out without limit.  Jesus calls you to a life like that.  He calls you to a life, not of careful calculating and prudent holding back, but to a life of all-out surrender.  That is what Mary did.  Does it mean that you are to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a bottle of perfume and look for someone to anoint?  No, but it does mean that it is time now to examine your life and your response to the greatest blessing you have ever received.  You have been given the gift of eternal life in heaven through Jesus.  Like Mary, you are a broken vessel because of your sin.  You have come in repentance to the foot of the cross and there you have received the forgiveness of your sin that that opens the gates of paradise.  So what are you waiting for?  What are you saving yourself and your resources for?  If Mary had waited one more week, she would have missed her chance to show her love for the Lord.  She gave herself when and where she could. 

     For most people, this is a bold step.  There is no better time than the present to stop hiding behind what is comfortable and convenient in your service to the Lord.  It is time to stop clinging to the reasonable way.  Break the vessel.  Go all out.  Let your life show what is most important to you now and for all eternity.  Don’t arrive at your funeral with unused engergies, hoarded hours and stockpiled resources.  Use them now, doing what God gives you to do.

     I’m not sure that Mary fully realized what she was doing that evening in Bethany.  She just did what she knew she had to do.  It was the right thing.  Jesus was anointed—in a sense an early embalming—in preparation for the suffering, death and burial that was only days away.  You never know what will come of your all-out surrender to the Lord.  That’s not the point.  Just do it and let God do with it what He will.  He is full of surprises.  Think about it.  Mary was the only one who got to anoint and embalm the body of her sacrificed Lord.  The women who waited until Easter morning never got the chance.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Lenten Pulpit Exchange

Lent 2014 

One Act of Obedience

One Act of Righteousness 

Romans 5:12-19

     On Wednesday of this past week we entered the season of Lent.  These six weeks of Lent are in some ways very different from other times of the church year.  They present to us a real contrast in the mood, the themes and the music.  You can see that the colors on the altar, lectern, the pulpit and our stoles have been changed to violet signifying a more somber mood.  We have gone from the joy of Christmas, the excitement of Epiphany, and the wonder of Transfiguration, to the contemplation of our sins that caused Jesus’ to suffer and die on the cross. 

     As you hear the Scripture lessons for today you also see a great contrast.  In the Old Testament lesson you hear about the fall into sin.  Adam and Eve gave in to the temptations and lies of the devil and that changed everything about their lives and their relationship with God.  In contrast to that, the Gospel lesson tells you about how Jesus resisted the temptations of the devil when He was in the wilderness preparing for His earthly ministry that would finally take Him to the cross.  When you think about those two pivotal events in human history, you can see how the disobedience of Adam and Eve brought death into the world but the obedience of Jesus brought life to fallen mankind.  St. Paul then in the Epistle lesson summarizes this in his wonderful letter to the Romans by saying that by the sin of one man, all were made sinners but one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

     As we think about that for a few moments today, may you come to a better understanding about what Jesus’ suffering and death means for your life of righteousness now.  May you be so strengthened in your faith that you are able to throw off all the worldly ideas about how you might be righteous before God and may you seek to joyfully serve Him not just now in this Lenten season but throughout your life.

     First you need to consider the consequences of the fall into sin that is described for us in the Old Testament lesson.  When Paul says that the sin of Adam brought sin into the world, you have to understand that the consequence was more than just a rash of sinful actions that spread over Adam’s family.  We are told in the next chapter about what happened to two of Adam’s offspring when Cain killed Abel in a fit of jealousy.  Of course, there were sinful actions but what is more significant is that all mankind now was afflicted with a sinful nature.  Instead of being in God’s image by being holy and completely dedicated to Him, the sinful nature spoiled that.  By their disobedience, they and all those who followed after them would be spiritually blind, in other words, they couldn’t understand and appreciate the things of God.  They would be spiritually dead.  They could not respond to the things of God.  They would also live as enemies of God.  That is the condition that all human beings would have as a part of their nature from the moment of their conception. 

     As a result, sinful acts would then flow from that sinful nature.  Jealousy, envy, hatred, murder, selfishness, and all kinds of sinful actions follow from the sinful nature that came through the sin of the first people who doubted God’s goodness and instead followed the enticement of the evil one to try and be more like God.

      As if that were not enough trouble, the sinful nature leads to being separated from God.  You would be lost forever unless God, in His mercy, would rescue you. 

     That is where Jesus’ act of righteousness becomes so important for you.  God, in His mercy, promised a Savior to Adam and Eve.  As we heard in the reading from Genesis 3, the offspring of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, the devil.  That statement is the first Gospel promise in the Bible.  God’s people lived with that promise until the promise was fulfilled when the time was right to send that Savior, God’s only Son.

     That righteousness of the Son is then the theme of the Lenten season.  The Son obeyed the Father’s will when He came down to earth to be born of a human mother.  He was true God and true Man.  As a true man, he was subject to the temptations of the devil just like all human beings are.  We see that in graphic detail in the Gospel lesson for today from Matthew’s Gospel.  The devil went after Him when His human strength was low.  He had been in the wilderness, fasting and praying for forty days.  You can imagine how physically weak He must have been.  It is often in our times of weakness that we are the most vulnerable to temptation.  The devil knows that and he takes advantage of it just like he did with Jesus.  The devil also knew who Jesus was and why He was here on the earth.  The devil was desperate to try and put a stop to the work that Jesus was going to do.  But Jesus was still true God.  He was going to obey His heavenly Father.  He used the power of God’s Word to fight back against the devil’s temptations because of His great love for you.  He obeyed His Father’s will and kept His life free from sin. 

     Most importantly for us, He also obeyed His Father’s will when it meant giving up His life on the cross as the punishment for your sins. His obedience, Paul says, leads to justification and life for all men.  Justification means that God, for Christ’s sake, declares you righteous, not because of your own merit, but because of His grace, His undeserved love for you.  That is the heart and soul the Christian faith.  That is a contrast from the ways of the world.  It is a contrast from human nature.  It is a contrast from the ways in which you lived your life as an enemy of God to the way you live as a redeemed child of God.  Paul mentions justification and life.  He gives you new life now and life forever with Him in heaven. 

     Your sins are forgiven.  That means that you no longer have to carry around the burden of guilt for past sins.  It means that you no longer have to worry that those past sins will somehow keep you out of God’s Kingdom.  That is what forgiveness means.  Your sins are washed away through the blood of Jesus.  That has a real effect on the way you live your life.  Instead of living in fear that you haven’t been good enough, you can rejoice that even though you actually haven’t been good enough, God still declares you righteous because Jesus has paid the price for you.  You have been set free to serve.  You can serve God by serving those around you.  You have opportunities to overcome the sinful, selfish nature and give evidence of the new life that you have by serving the Lord as you serve family, your church, your community and the world.  You serve, not out of guilt, but rather as a joyful response to the love that God has shown to you.  You serve, not in order to earn God’s favor, but because you have already received the blessings that come through the obedience of the One who was sent by the Father to be your substitute under the Law and on the cross.  You have new life, empowered by the Spirit.  You have been brought into the family of God through Baptism.  You have heard God’s Word that gives you the power of the Spirit and you have had the opportunity to receive the forgiveness of your sins and strength for your new life of obedience through the Lord’s Supper.  Through those Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments, you have the power to live out that new life that is yours through the obedience of Jesus. 

     The blessings of your new life do not end there.  Because you have been declared righteous, you also have the promise of life forever with the Lord in the glory of heaven.  That is the life that will never end in contrast to the life we have here on earth.  With that to look forward to, your life now has new meaning.  God’s love touches everything that you do.  You have power to resist temptation.  You have power to serve.  You have power to share your faith with those around you.  What a contrast to a life that is simply lived to serve yourself.  That’s the difference that Jesus makes because of His act of obedience.

Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

March 9, 2014

 

Wisdom Through Foolishness

Wisdom Through Foolishness
I Corinthians 3:10-23

     When you heard the Scripture readings for today, did you think that maybe you were hearing something wrong?  If you came here today with simply worldly thoughts in your head, you probably wondered what those Scripture readings were trying to say.  Most of it sounds like it is just the opposite of what you would normally think.  The first reading from Leviticus presents God’s will for His people as they live out their lives in service to Him and to their neighbors.  The Gospel lesson presents us with a portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where He talks about a couple of unwritten rules to live by that were common in His day as they related to interacting with other people.  In both cases, I’m sure what was presented raised some eyebrows when the people first heard it.  In both cases, God was speaking about fighting against the urges of our sinful human nature.  Imagine for a moment that you didn’t know much about God’s will and you heard what Moses had to say to the people.  For example, when you go into your vineyard to harvest your grapes, don’t take them all.  If some fall to the ground, leave them there.  Leave them for the poor and someone who happens to pass by on a journey.  What?  Did I hear that right?  I’m not supposed to harvest all my grapes?  That’s going to cut into my harvest.  It’s going to hurt my profit.  That sounds foolish.

     Another example:  You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people.  What?  Did I hear that right?  I’m not supposed to get even when someone does something to hurt me?  If I let him get away with it this time, he’s going to come right back and do it to me again.  That sounds foolish.

     Then you hear the Gospel lesson and it sounds like more of the same foolishness.  “If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”  What?  Did I hear that right?  Let him hit me again?  That sounds foolish.  Love your enemies?  More foolishness!  What does God expect of me?  Am I supposed to be perfect?    

     If you listened all the way to the end to both of the readings, the conclusion in the Old Testament lesson was, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  The conclusion in the Gospel lesson was, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  That pretty well answers the question.  That too may sound like foolishness because you know that you can’t be perfect.  Where is all this foolish talk leading us?  The Apostle Paul in our Epistle lesson has the answer for us and as we think about that for a few moments today, may we grow in our understanding of the true Christian life and may we be strengthened by the Holy Spirit to be able to live according to God’s will. 

     It’s helpful to know that Paul’s letter to the Corinthians was addressing some problems that the Corinthian Christians were facing.  He is writing to them to help them to understand God’s will, especially when it came to figuring out the difference between a life lived by the Spirit and a life that follows the desires of human nature.  Prior to coming to faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, many of the early Christian converts were pagans who followed other gods and lived according the unwritten laws that result from only living to satisfy their own desires.  The more that we study the will of God as He has made it known to us in His Word, the more we find that it is just the opposite of the ways of the world.  That can create some real inner conflicts as we try to do God’s will but at the same time feel compelled to follow our selfish human nature.  That should sound familiar because we all face that dilemma each day of our lives.  In many ways, we are not that much different from the early Christians who were struggling to do God’s will when their old self was still there trying to confuse things.  Cartoonists have captured this conflict when they show a character struggling with this kind of moral battle.  On one shoulder is a little angel that tells him to do the right thing and on the other shoulder is a little devil that tells him to do just the opposite.  You might find that funny but in reality, that is going on inside of you all the time.

     To help us understand all of this conflict a bit better, Paul talks first about building our faith on a solid foundation.  The solid foundation is the only one that will stand on the last day when you will be called to account.  The foundation that Jesus has laid is quite different from a foundation that is based solely on human wisdom.  The foundation that is laid in Christ rests on the most important teaching in the Christian faith.  That most important teaching is that we are justified by grace for Christ’s sake through faith.  In other words, I am  declared righteous by God by His grace, His undeserved love because of what Jesus Christ has done for me, namely that He lived a perfect life in my place and the died on the cross as the punishment for my sins.  The blessings of His suffering, death and resurrection become mine by faith, itself a gift from God, worked in me through the Holy Spirit, so that I believe and trust that Jesus Christ alone is my Savior.  That is a solid foundation, the only foundation that will stand in the final judgment.  All other foundations will crumble.  Human wisdom would rather build on a foundation that depends on my good works as a way of earning my place in heaven.  In that case, I am the one who is responsible for my salvation.  It makes sense to human thinking because that is the way everything else in the world works.  I do the right thing and I get rewarded.  Why not apply that to my place before God?   Depending on someone else sounds like foolishness.

     That is where Paul steps in with the wisdom that comes from God.  In verse 18, we hear the difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God.  Worldly wisdom is a deception.  “Let no one deceive himself.  If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.”  The warning is clear.  If you think that you have it all figured out with your human wisdom, you are really a fool.  Human wisdom looks to human achievement as the way to heaven.  In reality, it will only fall short because as Jesus said, “You must be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  Even human wisdom would have to admit that no one is perfect.  Therefore you have fallen short of God’s expectations.  You are lost.  Your human wisdom becomes folly with God. 

     What is needed is that you have to look to what you thought was foolishness to really find true wisdom.  It means believing the foolish notion that someone else would be responsible for your eternal salvation and that someone else is Jesus.  You can’t earn that place in heaven.  It is yours because God declares you righteous.  He justifies you not because you tried hard but simply out of his undeserved love for you.  He declares you righteous because the requirements for you have been satisfied by Jesus.  He then gives you the faith to believe that through the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments.  It may sound foolish to your human mind but it is the wisdom of God.  You find true wisdom through what you thought was foolishness.

     At this point it might dawn on you that there are an awful lot of people in this world who still live according to human wisdom.  They might even consider themselves religious people.  They may even try to do good things in the hope that through their good deeds they are will score enough points on God’s scorecard.  God would consider their thinking folly.  They haven’t yet heard the real wisdom that comes from above that brings true joy and peace with God.  That’s where you come in.  You know the wisdom that the world considers foolish.  You know the flaws in a foundation that is laid with human wisdom and you, in love, can help them to build on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.  Then you can come to see the place of good works in the life of a believer.  Then you can help them see how a believer responds to the blessings that we have through faith.  Then you can show them the true wisdom that rests in Christ alone.   Amen.

 

Rev. Gerald Matzke
Zion Lutheran Church
Painesville, Ohio
The 7th Sunday after Epiphany