Lenten Midweek 4: "Get Out!"

 + 4^th Lenten Midweek Service – March 30^th, 2022 +

Isaiah 48:17-22

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

In the classic Steve McQueen movie, The Great Escape, one of the soldiers held captive in a Nazi POW camp has this memorable line.

 

“It is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape. If they cannot escape, then it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them, and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability.”

 

Rescue. Escape. Freedom. These are things we long for when entrapped. Imprisoned. Or in danger.

 

In August 587 BC, Israel’s world caved in. The temple collapsed, the monarchy lay in ruins, the land became a wasteland, and all hope was dismantled and destroyed. Then a massive aftershock brought further wreckage and ruin. Seven hundred miles from home, Israel’s exiles became trapped in the prison of Babylon. The prophet Isaiah’s summons is singular, “Get out!”

 

Easier said than done. With every passing year, the Babylonian god Marduk seemed more and more powerful, while Israel’s God seemed more and more incidental. Slowly but surely, the exiles began to accommodate themselves to their new surroundings. Economic documents unearthed in Tel el Murassu on the Tigris River show that blending in with Babylon brought stunning financial success. Living comfortably in a place of destruction and death became the new way of life.

 

For many in Israel their lives in Babylon became a boiling frog syndrome. The exiles were calling their Babylonian prison the new normal. So Isaiah warns them. You’re in hot water. If you don’t get out soon, you’re gonna die!

 

God sends Isaiah to awaken Israel out of this spiritual slumber and get them out of Babylon. So he announces that Yahweh “will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations” (Isaiah 52:10). His “glory will be revealed and all flesh will see it together” (40:5). Rest assured, says Isaiah, that “those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength” (40:31), for “a bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out” (42:3). And in 51:17, and then again in 52:1 he cries out, “Wake, awake!”

 

The climax of Isaiah’s preaching comes in our text, 48:20, “Get out of Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare it with a shout of joy.” And Israel’s response? Nothing . . . nothing! They wouldn’t leave! The lights of Babylon, the sounds of Babylon, the religion of Babylon coaxed most of them into staying in Babylon!

 

That’s why throughout Isaiah 48 the prophet calls them stubborn, unyielding, headstrong, prone to idolatry, deaf, deceptive, and stubborn rebels from birth. All this because Israel refused to listen to the Gospel of their salvation. 

 

Can’t you just imagine the people responding to the prophet? “Isaiah, haven’t you heard? Babylon is the place of peace and prosperity, luxury and easy living. Why should we go back to little backwater Judah? Besides, what a hassle it would be to liquidate our assets, pack our bags, and pull up stakes just to live in a land devastated by famine and warfare. Get out of Babylon? Isaiah, have you lost your mind?”

 

Isaiah, however, is not the one who has lost his mind. It is sinful Israel that has gone insane. Staying in Babylon when YHWH promises rescue is like a thirsty person choosing to drink raw sewage instead of water from a mountain stream. 

 

God sends Isaiah to warn us as well. Our bondage to sin and death is much like Israel’s. How often we prefer and chase after Babylon. We look with longing upon the ways and desires of the world. We, like Israel, grow comfortable and complacent with our idols. Who or what do you look to for your good? Who or what do you place your trust in? Your love? Jesus was right. Where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. And so often, like Israel, our treasure is not in God’s word or ways, but in my own word, my ways, my desires. This isn’t freedom though. It’s all a trap. A boiling pot in which we are stuck. A jail in which we are imprisoned. 

 

This is why God says, “Get out of Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare it with a shout of joy.”

 

For not only did God call Isaiah to warn Israel and us, but to announce our rescue. It’s in God’s heart to call people out of darkness and into His marvelous light. God called Abraham and Sarah to get out of Haran because it was the center of moon worship. God urged Lot and his family to get out of Sodom and Gomorrah because it was the center of sexual perversion. God called Israel to get out of Egypt because it was the house of slavery. You see, at the core of Israel’s narrative is the Lord’s ongoing call for His people to get out of decay, decadence, and death. 

 

God called Israel out of exile from Babylon. And God sent His Son to lead you out of your exile in sin and death through His death and resurrection.

 

Isaiah is sent not just to warn Israel and us,  but to comfort us with good news. “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (43:25). “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist” (44:22). These great and precious promises are found, fulfilled, and come to fruition in Isaiah’s Servant, Jesus our Lord, the one crucified for us.

 

With Isaiah we rejoice that the Lord brings us rescue from death, release from captivity, redemption from our sin. Jesus leads us out of exile and into life eternal through his death and resurrection.

 

Jesus suffered and died for you. He bled for you and sweated for you. He felt the nails and the thorns for you. And because of that, Jesus comes for you in your darkness and sin. He comes to rescue, release, and free you from guilt and shame and regret.

 

And that is how we get out of Babylon and flee Chaldea and declare our Lord’s victory and rescue with shouts of joy.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Sermon for 4th Sunday in Lent: "Parable of the Gracious Father"

 + 4^th Sunday in Lent – March 27^th, 2022 +

Series C: Isaiah 12; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

We call it The Parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s a familiar story. And there is the wayward, lost, ungrateful, reckless, prodigal son. But that’s not all. There’s more to this story.

 

It’s easy to forget Jesus’ opening line of the parable. “There was a man who had two sons.” We could just as easily call it The Parable of the Two Lost Sons. For in reality, both sons are lost. The younger son loses himself in betrayal, rejection, reckless living, only to squander his inheritance. And yet, without ever leaving home, the older son is lost as well. Lost in pride, anger, jealousy, and self-righteousness. But there’s more to this story.

 

At the center of this story, at the center of these two sons’ lives, stands their abundantly gracious, loving father. A father whose love is truly unconditional, whose love is revealed in giving outrageous forgiveness for undeserving sinners.

 

That’s the setting of this, and the other parables in Luke 15. The Scribes and Pharisees were grumbling “Jesus receives sinners and eats with them.” No doubt they meant that as an insult. But it’s true. That’s exactly what Jesus did, and still does. Jesus receives sinners like you and me. And eats with us. Feeds you. Forgives you. Loves you.

 

Today, listen to this story with a different title in mind: The Parable of the Gracious Father.

 

“There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’

 

The younger son’ demand is disrespectful at best, and downright depraved at worst. Even in our culture, you receive an inheritance after someone dies. Not before. The younger son, then, is telling his father to drop dead. You’re no good to me alive. The only value you have to me is your stuff and your money. So just give me my share of the inheritance. Now. And I’ll be on my way.

 

And how does the father reply? He doesn’t reject his younger son. He doesn’t tell him to get off my lawn, and never come home. No. None of that. In the first of several shocking, unexpected reactions, the father gives the younger son exactly what he wants. Most translations say, “He divided his property.” No, it’s stronger than that. It says he “divided his life.” His livelihood. He divided his life for his sons. Between them, Jesus says. That’s right. Both sons.

 

The younger son, then, adds insult to injury and skips town; leaves his father, his family, his home, and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. Pretty soon his money ran out. A severe famine hits. And he finds himself about as far away from home both geographically and spiritually as he could get. A Jewish young man working as a servant for a gentile pig farmer. Not only that, even the unclean pigs have it better than he does. 

 

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!  I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’  And he arose and came to his father.

 

And here’s the next series of shocking, gracious actions on the part of the father. The father sees his son from a long way off. You get the feeling he would stand there on the porch at a certain time every day, waiting, watching, looking for his younger son, day after day after day. And then one day, he sees his younger son coming down the road. And what does he do? Lock the doors, turn off the lights, and pretend he’s gone? No.

 

The father runs. Rich men don’t usually run, much less in robes. It would’ve been embarrassing. Humiliating. Especially after the way his younger son treated him. But he doesn’t care. He loves his son. The father loves his son with a gut-wrenching compassion. He goes out to meet him. Embraces him. Kisses him. Signs of welcome, acceptance, love, and reconciliation. 

 

The younger son repeats his confession, at least part of it. “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 

 

The father interrupts. He goes about his shockingly, gracious ways once again. “Quickly, quickly” he tells his servants. “Bring out the best robe and clothe him. Put the family signet ring back on his finger. Sandals on this feet. And, prepare the fattened calf.” 

 

The father’s robe covers his son’s transgressions. Clothed in the father’s grace. The family signet ring was a sign of authority, authorizing the son to do business again on the father’s behalf. Sandals…servants didn’t wear sandals. Only someone in the household, part of the family wore sandals. And the fattened calf. A sacrifice. A feast of joy. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

 

The father is gracious. His love is unconditional, unmerited, unlimited, and unbounded. His grace and mercy are overwhelming, overflowing, and over abundant. And not just to his younger son. But for his older son too.

 

When the father learns that his older son is sulking and stewing in anger and jealousy and pride out in the fields, notice what the gracious father does. The father went out to his older son. Entreats him. Pleads with him.

 

How does the older son respond to his gracious father? He joins the party, right? Sadly, no. He launches into a tirade of self-righteous pity and pride. Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

 

Again, notice the father’s shocking, unexpected response to his older son. He doesn’t tell him to wise up and stop being an ungrateful little snot. No. There’s no judgment, no criticism, no rejection. There is only the father’s gracious, unflinching, unconditional love.

 

Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

 

Remember, Jesus tells this story surrounded by tax collectors, sinners, Scribes, and Pharisees. He wanted them to see themselves in this parable. He wants us to see ourselves in this story too. And what part do we play in this story? The reckless, wayward younger son, or the prideful, self-righteous older son? Truth is we’re a bit of both sons. Like the younger son we often find ourselves lost in our own sinful desires. And like the older son, we often find ourselves lost in our own self-righteousness.

 

And like both sons, we find ourselves on the receiving end of the gracious father. That’s who this parable is really about. The good and gracious Father who sends His only begotten Son to save you. 

This parable, like all of Jesus’ parables in one way or another, is about God’s outrageous forgiveness for undeserving sinners in his Son Jesus.

 

Yes, this is a story about two sons. But above all, it’s the story of God’s gracious, unconditional, unmerited, unwavering love for you in His Son, Jesus crucified and risen for you. 

 

Come, let us at and celebrate. For we who were dead are alive again in Jesus. We who were lost, are found and brought home by his cross and empty tomb. 

 

 

 In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for Lenten Midweek 2: "Marked"

 + 2^nd Lenten Midweek Service – March 16^th, 2022 +

Isaiah 44:1-5

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the baptismal liturgy you’ll hear the pastor say these words as the sign of the cross is traced upon the baptized. “Receive the sign of the cross, both upon your forehead, and upon your heart, to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.” 

 

In Holy Baptism, Jesus – who was marked in death for you – marks you as his baptized child, makes you his own. In that blessed, saving flood and washing away of sin, you are cleansed from sin, yes, and also adopted by God’s grace. You belong to him now. You are marked by the cross. 

 

In Isaiah 44, we hear something similar… “This one will write upon his hand ‘Belonging to the Lord.’” 

 

One of the ancient Near East’s most dominant narratives in the sixth century BC was the Babylonian creation epic called the Enuma Elish. The Enuma Elish narrates Marduk’s defeat over Tiamat. He cut her in two and built the universe out of her remains. Read during the annual Akitu festival, the feast reached its pinnacle with the acclamation, “Marduk is King”! 

 

Connected to the pomp and pageantry of Babylonian religion was the empire’s program of changing people’s names. Remember the names of Hannaniah, Mishael, and Azariah? You probably know them better by their names from Daniel 1:7, where the chief of the eunuchs changes their names to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Why the name change? The Babylonians marked the Judeans with a new name hoping it would entice them into worshiping the Babylonian diety, Marduk.

 

But, as we read in the Old Testament, many of the Judean exiles in Babylon would not comply. God’s called upon His People—When in Babylon, don’t live like the Babylonians. 

 

God sends his prophet Isaiah with a similar message for us. Remember that though you live in the world, you are not of the world. You are marked as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. Still, there’s no doubt that our life in Christ, marked by Christ, is one where we are called to live like salmon, constantly swimming against the current of this fallen world.

 

On a typical day in America, from the time we open the morning paper (or, scroll through the news on our tablets and phones) until we finally doze off in front of another Netflix show in the evening, we are bombarded by thousands of sound bites and enticements to be marked by a new name. To seek fulfillment, satisfaction, peace, contentment in people, places, and things of this creation, rather than in our Creator and Redeemer. 

 

And that’s the problem isn’t it. Not the earthly stuff, necessarily, but the love of that earthly stuff, the desire to live in the name of the fallen world rather than under the name of Christ that is yours. In other words, the temptation for us, as it was for Israel in exile, is to look for every good not from God’s hands, but from our own. To trust ourselves and our name rather than the holy name of Jesus. To trust in the many and various Marduk’s of this world, rather than the true and saving Name of Jesus.

 

This is why God sent his prophet Isaiah to the Judeans in exile, and to us in our exile in this fallen world. In Isaiah 40–55, the prophet takes dead aim at the Babylonian empire. Babylon is a drop in the bucket (40:12). Babylonian leaders are nothing (40:23). Babylonian gods are an empty wind (41:29). Marduk is a fantasy, a fake, a fraud, and a huge phony.

 

In contrast, the true God brings his righteousness, redemption, and restoration to his people Israel, and to you. “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God” (40:1). “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, God is doing a new thing” (43:18–19). God is stirring Cyrus to get Israel out of Babylon raising up the Suffering Servant to get Babylon out of Israel. As Isaiah goes on to declare later in 52:7: “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God is King.’ ”

 

The Lord proclaims to you, His people, that, unlike the false gods of this world, His word lasts forever (40:8). The Lord’s word does what it says. Isaiah 55:11, “So shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty.” You are marked by Christ as not “belonging to Babylon,” but “belonging to Yahweh.”

 

Throughout Scripture God marks his people in his mercy. They belong to him. In Genesis 4:15, the Lord marks Cain. In Genesis 17, the Lord gives Abraham and his offspring the covenant mark of circumcision. Deuteronomy 6:8 describes people tying God’s words on their hands and binding them on their foreheads. In his vision, the prophet Ezekiel sees the Lord command a man to use a writing kit to put His mark on the foreheads of the faithful.

 

All these marks point to the greatest mark of all, the marks of the nails and the spear in Jesus’ hands, feet, and side. As Isaiah foretold, “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man, and His form marred beyond human likeness. . . . Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. . . . We all, like sheep, have gone astray. And the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 52:14; 53:3, 6). 

 

“I gave My back to those who strike, and My cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I did not hide My face from mocking and spitting” (Isaiah 50:60). One spear, three nails, and a crown of thorns left their marks on Jesus. 

 

After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus continued to show his disciples his glorious scars, the marks of his mercy for them…for you. And because Jesus was marked on the cross as the crucified one, he marks you as one redeemed in his crucifixion. 

 

In the blessed waters of your baptism, you were, and are forever marked by Jesus. As the prophet Isaiah declares, you belong to the Lord.

 

This is how you live in the world, but not of the world. How you live as one marked by Christ. Living daily in your baptism. You belong to the Lord. In Christ you rejoice that “I am the Lord's,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord's,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”

 

Remember the water, remember the Word, and forever cherish those precious words “Receive the sign of the holy cross, both upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.”

 

 

Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ + Jesus to life everlasting. Amen. 

Sermon for Lenten Midweek 3: "Breaking Down the Gates"

 + 3^rd Lenten Midweek Service – March 23^rd, 2022 +

Isaiah 45:1-8

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

“This is what the Lord says to His messiah, to Cyrus, . . . ‘I will go before you and break down the gates of bronze.’ ” (Isaiah 45:1–2)

It was the afternoon of August 5, 2010 when the 121-year-old San José copper-gold mine in Chile, South America, caved in. Thirty-three men were trapped underneath 2,300 feet of solid rock. Seventeen days after the accident, a note written in bold red letters appeared taped to a drill bit when it was pulled to the surface after penetrating an area believed to be accessible to the trapped workers. It read simply, “We are fine in the shelter, the 33 of us.” But they were in survival mode. They ate two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk, and a morsel of peaches—every other day. They heard the voice that said, “You’re stuck and there’s no way out.”

 

After the hard work of three large international drilling rig teams, NASA, and more than a dozen multi-national corporations, and after sixty-nine days trapped underground, all thirty-three men were brought safely to the surface on October 13, 2010.

 

There are times we feel stuck as well. Perhaps not in such a dramatic way, but stuck all the same.   Stuck in traffic, stuck in a rain down pour, stuck inside. But that’s just on the surface. Deep down, we all know what it is like to be stuck in the past; stuck in relationships; stuck in a diseased and dying body; stuck in debt; stuck in a dead-end job. Stuck in our sin.

 

Israel knew what it was like to be stuck as well. In exile in Babylon, Babylon said, “You’re stuck here, with no way out.” In the sixth century BC, God’s people were surrounded by bronze gates. Everywhere the Israelite exiles went they were reminded of their exile. Ziggurats and canals. Statues of the false god Marduk. And then there were the gates, especially the now world-famous Ishtar Gate that locked them in with no way out.

 

The gates were the brain-child of Nabopolassar—the founder of the Babylonian empire—and his son Nebuchadnezzar. Hundreds and hundreds of bronze gates were erected in and around Babylon, making it the world’s most fortified city. Israel was locked in with absolutely no way out. Stuck.

 

And yet, in their exile. Behind those bronze gates. The Lord promised release from captivity. “I will raise up [Cyrus] in My righteousness . . . He will set My exiles free.” (Isaiah 45:13; cf. 44:28)

 

In 539 BC, Cyrus had to go up against Babylon and her gates. The city began bracing for an all-out battle. Inhabitants stocked their shelves with food and water to prepare for the long siege. The military was armed to the teeth.

 

But when Cyrus surrounded the city, its citizens—rather than fight to the last man—opened up the gates. Cyrus walked in and took the city with ease. God used Cyrus to set His exiled people free.

 

God sent His prophet Isaiah to declare to His people then, and to you, now, that He is the one who breaks the gates. Who gets his people un-stuck from the mire of their sin. Who promises you, as Isaiah so beautifully declares,  “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). 

When we feel buried in gloom and doom, He reminds us, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (9:2). When dryness and deadness stand in the way, the Lord turns “the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs” (35:7). When we are surrounded by obstacles, “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain” (40:4). When blindness and captivity and bondage stand in the way, God’s Servant comes to “open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (42:7).

 

When we are stuck in exile in our sin; feeling trapped in death, and held captive by the sin, death, and the devil, God sends a servant once again. Not Cyrus, like he did to the Israelites in exile in Babylon. But His very own Son. 

 

Jesus comes to break down the gates of death that lock us in. Jesus goes before is into his exile of the cross and grave, and out again in victory in his resurrection, bursting open the bars of death. Ending our exile. In His earthly life and ministry, Jesus goes about the work of opening eyes and ears, mouths and hearts. He even opens the grave. It’s all a grand preview of his greatest, most gracious work on the cross and his rising from the dead on Easter Sunday.

 

For you who so often feel trapped and stuck and dead in your trespasses and sin, Jesus is ensnared with all of your sin on the cross. Only death could not hold him. The grave could not shut him in. Jesus did not stay stuck in the tomb. No. “I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

 

In Jesus crucified and risen, you are not locked in; you are no longer a prisoner; you are not stuck with no way out. In Jesus you are free. Forgiven. Released.  And if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36). 

 

Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ + Jesus to life everlasting. Amen. 

Sermon for 3rd Sunday in Lent: "Repentance"

+ 3^rd Sunday in Lent – March 20^th, 2022 +

Series C: Ezekiel 33:7-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Growing up watching kids shows – like Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers – they’d often have a word of the day. And everything in that episode revolved around that word.

 

Well, something like that is going on in today’s readings. The prophet Ezekiel warns Israel with the word of the day, “turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

 

St. Paul writes to the church in Corinth with the word of the day, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”

 

Our Lord Jesus speaks the word of the day, in response to calamities in Galilee and Jerusalem, and again as the main theme of the parable of the fig tree. “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

 

The word of the day, the word of the Lenten season, is repentance. Everything in our readings today revolves around God’s gift and God’s work of repentance for us and in us. 

 

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 

 

What’s going on here? The best explanation seems to be that the ruthless, violent, and merciless governor, Pontius Pilate, sent his troops in and ordered a massacre while the feast of the Passover was happening. And the blood of the victims mixed with the blood of the sacrificial Passover lambs, rendering everything and everyone unclean. A violent desecration. 

 

Not only that, the crowds seem to have brought this news to Jesus seems in hopes that He would do the expected Messiah-thing, condemn Pilate and the outrageous, blasphemous, invading Romans. 

 

Jesus’ response, however, is entirely unexpected. Jesus takes the opportunity to preach from the headlines. He answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 

 

If Jesus were preaching from the headlines today it might sound like this. “Do you think that Tacoma resident found dead outside a convenience store last Monday on Portland Ave. was a worse sinner because he suffered that way? Or those four people on Mercer Street on whom the tower crane fell: do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Seattle?” 

 

No, Jesus answers. They weren’t worse sinners. But isn’t that exactly the way the world, and our sinful flesh thinks. That God is like a Chuck E Cheese arcade game. If you’re, God will reward you. If you’re bad, bad things will happen. But our old Adam digs our grave a little deeper; when we hear Jesus’ question – “were they worse sinners than all the others?” – how quickly we find ourselves thinking or saying, “Well, they must’ve done something awful to deserve that. Thank God I’m not like them.” 

 

In the face of our self-justification and excuse making, Jesus preaches repentance. No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

 

These are sobering, humbling words. Jesus draws our attention away from tragedies out there and the suffering of others, and points us to the tragedy of our own sin and of our need for repentance.

 

Jesus doesn’t draw a one to one correspondence between this sin and that tragedy. Jesus draws our attention to the fact that we live in a fallen world, of which we are a part, and to whose fallen and corrupt condition we are regularly contributing. 

 

Jesus teaches us that life’s various tragedies aren’t opportunities for finger pointing, or excuse making, or comparing, but for repentance. Jesus reminds us that before we try to fix the speck in our brother’s eye we first must remove the old growth forest in our own eyes. Jesus calls for repentance.

 

Repentance is the word of the day, the word of Lent, but also in of our daily life. Until Christ returns, or calls us home, we’re in need of repentance. Jesus is constantly calling us back to him, back to his word, back to confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness. And, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, God’s work of repentance in us is “no fun at all. It’s something much harder than eating humble pie. It means unlearning all our self-conceit and self-will…it means undergoing a kind of death” (Mere Christianity, p. 56-57). 

 

That’s the way the Scriptures talk about your life in Christ. Repentance is the daily journey of the Christian life. A daily dying to sin, repenting and confessing our sin; a daily rising again in the forgiveness Jesus won for you on the cross and given in his gifts of his word, water, body and blood. 

 

This work of repentance is also God’s gift and work for you and in you. Think about it for a moment.

  

How do you know your sins? God’s Word reveals them through His Word of Law. How do you see your sin for what it is and ask for forgiveness? The Holy Spirit convicts you. How do you return to God when all you really want to do is return to our sin? It is God who “repents” you, who turns your heart back to Him. Repentance isn’t our work we do to please God, but the work God is pleased to do in us through His Word by the Holy Spirit. 

That’s what Jesus does. He repents you. He forgives you. He turns your heart back to God. He changes your mind and gives you the mind of Christ. He waters, feeds, and nourishes you. He spreads his gifts around you like the vinedresser spreading manure around a tree.

Jesus is the gracious vinedresser who steps in to tend and care for us. He is the Mediator between us and the ax belongs at our roots. Jesus lays down his life on the tree to forgive, renew, and restore you.

God is not a God of karma, where you get what you deserve. He is the God of grace. Jesus gets what we deserved – our sin, punishment, death – and we get what we don’t deserve; Jesus’ life, resurrection, forgiveness, and salvation. That’s the best answer to that age old question of “why do bad things happen to good people?” is to remember “That only happened once, and He volunteered.” 

 

For there, in Jerusalem, Jesus stood before that same ruthless, violent, merciless Roman governor. Jesus, the innocent one becomes the victim for you. The Judge of all is judged in your place. Jesus is crucified under Pontius Pilate for you. 

 

That is how you grow in the good fruit of repentance and love for others. By living in, and receiving Christ’s mercy. Jesus plants and roots you in his cross,. And in Jesus, you are alive. You are a good tree. You bear the good fruit of repentance, the fruit of good works, the fruits of the Spirit.

 

Yes, repentance is the word of the day. But Jesus has another, greater word of the day for you as well. A word that gives us hope, comfort, and forgiveness. Mercy.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.  

Sermon for Second Sunday in Lent: "The City of Peace"

 + 2^nd Sunday in Lent – March 13^th, 2022 +

Series C: Jeremiah 26:8-15; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

Cities, like people, often have a reputation that precedes them. Sometimes it’s good. In my home state, Detroit, MI, is known as Hockeytown. Sometimes, however, a town’s reputation is not so good. You hear the name Las Vegas, and I bet the moniker, “Sin City” comes to mind. 

 

So you’d think that a city whose name is built around the Hebrew word Shalom, peace, wholeness would be a city where peace ruled the streets. Not so in Jerusalem, the city of peace.

In Jesus’ day, Jerusalem’s reputation was anything but peaceful especially if you happened to be a prophet. Just ask Jeremiah how he was treated in Jerusalem. “This man deserves the sentence of death, because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

Jerusalem’s reputation preceded her. And it was a not a good one. She had a long history of killing the prophets sent to her. For Jesus, Jerusalem is the place of his suffering and death. The place of his rejection, lamentation, and crucifixion. The place of Jesus’ divinely appointed destiny. 

 

Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ 

 

In spite of the agony and suffering that is to come. Even if that way means Jesus’ rejection, lamentation, and crucifixion…This is the way. Jesus must go to Jerusalem. 

 

Like the prophets before him, all of whom prepared the people for Jesus’ coming, who preached repentance and forgiveness, who declared God’s judgment, warning, and promises, Jesus goes to Jerusalem. And he goes to die. 

 

Like the prophets before him, Jesus goes to Jerusalem to speak to His people. Jesus is a true prophet, the true prophet. And a prophet’s job is to herald God’s Word. Jesus, of course, is that, and more. Not only is he the true prophet who speaks God’s Word perfectly, he is the prophet to whom all the OT prophets’ words point. The Scripture is fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus is the true prophet. And Jesus is the true God of the prophets. The One who sent the prophets to His people, now goes to his people to face rejection, lamentation, and crucifixion.

 

Like the prophets before him, Jesus is faithful in his duty. As the Son of God he is faithful to the Father. He journeys to Jerusalem knowing exactly what awaits him there. Jesus goes there for you. To release you from the brokenness of sin. To heal you in his new creation. To forgive you. To come into his kingdom through the cross and grave, and bring you along with him. 

 

And like the prophets before him, Jesus laments. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not.

 

In Jesus’ lament, we hear God’s heart-rending, passionate love for His people. For God desires not the death of the wicked, but that they would turn and live. 

 

In Jesus’ lament, we also hear our own lamentations. We see our own Lenten journey in Jesus’ to the cross. And that way, that journey is often one of bearing a cross, of suffering. To be a follower of Christ, to live in Christ means we will suffer too. We will suffer rejection – sometimes from family, friends, or neighbors – because of what you believe and how you live as a baptized child of God. We will suffer the cross – that may be a literal or figurative cross. Remember Jesus’ words…in this world we will have trouble.

 

And in Jesus’ lament, we also lament. We lament and cry out to God for mercy in the midst of war and bloodshed. We lament and cry out to God that life in this world, in this country, and in our homes, in our daily lives is not as it should be. Our sinful reputation precedes us as well. We lament for ourselves and others who are afflicted with doubt, despair, depression, or any other disease. We lament the suffering we see others experience; we lament our own suffering; we lament the suffering and pain we have caused others. We lament, perhaps most of all, our own sin where we have joined in rejecting and crucifying Jesus.

 

Given all of this. Given all the sin and rejection that Jesus is bearing. Given Jerusalem’s reputation as the city where the prophets go to die. Why would Jesus ever want to step foot within those walls? Why not just turn and walk away, avoid that city altogether? I know I would. But not Jesus. 

 

For the love of Jerusalem. For the love of his people. For the love of you. Jesus goes to Jerusalem. Yes, Jesus will be rejected and crucified. But this is precisely why he goes to Jerusalem. This place, this city that killed the prophets, this is the place God chose for his highest, most gracious purpose. To be the place where God and man would be reconciled. To the cross, where true peace was made by the blood of Jesus and his sacrificial death on the cross. Where all our laments are laid, at the feet of Jesus crucified. Where Jesus declares all the words of the prophets fulfilled in a word: it is finished. 

 

There in Jerusalem, outside the city walls, on the cross, Jesus took all our laments, our sorrows, our diseases, sin, and death itself and he made them all his own. That his joy, life, peace would be your own in him. in Jesus’ rejection, you are rescued. In Jesus’ crucifixion, you are redeemed. In Jesus’ death, you have life. 

 

And in Jerusalem, Jesus’ rejection, lamentation, and crucifixion give way to his resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection brings you into the new, heavenly Jerusalem. 

 

Where, as Paul reminds us, your citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

 

That is why Jesus journeys to the city that kills the prophets, to turn Jerusalem’s bad reputation into your redemption; to rescue you in his death and resurrection and bring you safely to the heavenly Jerusalem, where Jesus the Lamb is your light and life. 

 

In Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, Jerusalem finally lives up to its true name and reputation. In Jesus crucified and risen, Jerusalem becomes the city of peace. The place where God makes peace with you and for you in Jesus.

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon for Lenten Midweek 1: "Valued in God's Eyes"

 + 1^st Lenten Midweek Service – March 9^th, 2022 +

Isaiah 43:1-7

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Remember that old song, “I Only Have Eyes for You.” Since it was first written in 1934 by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, singers from Frank Sinatra to Art Garfunkel have covered it. It’s a song of personal devotion and love. 

 

The Lord has His own version, albeit a far greater version, of this golden oldie here in Isaiah 43. A song of God’s love and devotion…“you are valuable in My eyes.” 

 

The you in our text is singular, not plural. It’s you not you all. Singular you denotes a focus that is individual and intimate, particular and personal. The same specific concern for you comes in Isaiah 43:1 where God says, “I have called you by name, you are Mine.” His care is cosmic and universal, to be sure, but to emphasize the value God places on you, He uses the personal “you” singular you, twenty-five times in Isaiah 43:1–7. Over and over again it is you, you, you . . . you! “You are valuable in My eyes.”

 

When God’s people first received these words they were far away from home. They were in Babylon, and Babylon said, “You are nothing in my eyes.” Babylon was distant, aloof, cold, cruel, and calculating. The Judean exiles were nothing more than slaves and prisoners, cogs in their vast and ever-growing political machine.

 

Isaiah’s words to Israel leads us to ask an important question. Where do I find my value?

 

It is quite easy to search for and find our value in the world around us. Just turn on the TV, scroll through your social media or your favorite news source. There we see perfect people with perfect families and perfect marriages delighting in perfect jobs. And when these images summon us, what do we see? We see that we don’t measure up. You name it—we don’t have it. And we quickly become addicted to how the fallen world sees us or values us. But this is like looking at a circus funhouse mirror to see your reflection. Look into the mirrors of this fallen world long enough and we’ll soon begin to languish, lose heart, and feel worthless. As if we have no value.

 

And yet, in the face of all that, the Lord declares to you, as he did to Israel, You are valuable in My eyes.”

 

Your value comes from the Lord, who says, “You are valuable in My eyes.” It is the same you—singular, not plural. Specific, reserved, and exact. It is you! And you are incredibly valuable. The Hebrew word here, translated “valuable,” denotes significance, stature, and substance. You are prized, priceless, preferred, and precious.

 

So much of value, in this life, is based on ownership. Maybe you’ve heard that joke about the value you see your house at, what a buyer sees your home’s value, and the value the placed on it for tax purposes. 

 

But what does the Lord say in Isaiah 43. “Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth. All upon whom My name is called, and whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and whom I made.” God’s value of us, isn’t so much a matter of ownership, as it is a matter of handiwork, creation, and a unique relationship. God has created and claimed, fashioned and formed us. We are His sons and His daughters. We belong to him because he has formed us and redeemed us.

 

The other thing about value is the price someone is willing to pay for something. When we value something, say a family vacation or something special for a loved one, we are willing to pay the cost. 

 

In a similar, yet greater way, God says in Isaiah 43:4, “And I will give people in exchange for you, and nations in exchange for your life.” When Israel passed through the Red Sea, the Lord paid for it with the life of Egyptians. Now Israel is about to leave their captivity through the Persian King Cyrus and God will pay for it with the life of Babylonians. Our God is willing to lay down people’s lives for us.

 

Who is God that we would trust him? Isaiah 40:26 says that He calls every star by name. The Milky Way is 104,000 light-years across and contains over 100 billion stars. To count them one by one would take a person over 3,000 years. And yet, God calls each of them by name! This is the God who says in Isaiah 43:1, “I have redeemed you, I have called you by name,” and in verse 4, “You are valuable in My eyes.”

 

And when God declares this, you can take him at his word. For His Word is everlasting—Isaiah 40:8; His righteousness is everlasting—51:8; His love is everlasting—54:8; His covenant is everlasting—55:3. No wonder Isaiah 40:28 states, “He is the everlasting God.” This is the One who says, “You are valuable in My eyes.”

 

Who? You. Yes. You. You are valuable, cherished, of infinite worth, precious in the Lord’s sight. Where? Not in the eyes of Babylon. There we are nameless numbers and state-owned statistics. Where are we valuable? Not in our eyes. When our eyes are wide open, we see our duplicity, dishonesty, idolatry, and ongoing sin.

 

So where are we valuable? God says, “In My eyes!” To quote Luther, “Although in supreme trials you seem nothing in your own eyes and are condemned as one cast off by the world, in My eyes you are glorious. Therefore you may be vile in your own eyes, in the eyes of the world, and even in those of your brothers (as happened to us on the part of our Enthusiast brothers). Fear not. In My eyes I regard you as a precious jewel.”

 

You are valued in the Lord’s eyes when in a baptismal flood, God claimed you as His own; and on a hill called Calvary, He paid for you with His Son, Jesus. This means God has more than just eyes for you. He has hands and feet for you, nailed to a cross. He has a head for you, crowned with thorns. He has a side for you, thrust through by a spear.

 

You are valued so much so that our Lord Jesus took on your flesh, became one with you in your humanity, lived for you, went to the cross for you, suffered for you, was crucified for you, considered of no value by the world for you, laid in the grave for you, and rose again on the third day for you.

 

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.

 

And now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.