Lenten Midweek Sermon: "Scandalous Forgiveness"

+ Lenten Midweek, 2012 – Servants of the Word Pulpit Exchange +

Theme: Confession and Absolution

Title: “Our Need: Living as Saint and Sinner” (the 1^st of 5 parts)

Text: 2 Samuel 12

NOTE: As the notes above suggest, this the first in a five-part sermon series based on the 5th chief part of Luther's Small Catechism, Confession and Absolution. This Lenten sermon series is also part of a pulpit exchange with local Lutheran pastors in our area, leading up to a Catechism Convocation on April 21, 2012 on the same topic - go to www.smallcatechism.com for more information. The upside is I only have to write one sermon for the midweek services. The downside is I don't get to preach the other 4 topics. Call it a homiletical catch 22. Nevertheless, it has been a joy to participate with the brethren in this effort and we look forward to the culminating event on the 21st of April.

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

            Scandal. Coveting. Lust. Sex. Adultery. Oh, and don’t forget the cover-up. Murder, an illegitimate child and a wedding. You watch with white knuckled anticipation. What happens next? What juicy drama – don’t touch that remote!

            But this isn’t the latest episode the Real Housewives of fill in the blank city. You’re reading the Old Testament. Who needs Desperate Housewives drama when there’s plenty of it in the Bible? An adulterous tryst with Uriah’s wife – notice her name isn’t even mentioned - turns into an unplanned pregnancy. Wisteria Lane has nothing on King David. He’s got it all planned out though, doesn’t he?

            Give Uriah the soldier a weekend pass. Some free time with his wife. And the rest, as they say, the birds and the bees. Uriah goes back to war. Bathsheba is pregnant. And everyone can connect the dots.

            One problem though! Uriah won’t go home and sleep with his wife. He refuses. He sleeps on the porch. You could cut the irony with an Ammonite sword. There’s only one thing left for David to do. Order Uriah to the front line. Then pull back. Leave him high and dry. King David pulls a Tony Soprano. Offs Uriah through one of his generals.
            Then after the funeral’s over and everyone has mourned the fallen soldier, King David turns on the charm. Offers to help the poor widowed Bathsheba. Takes her into his home and makes her his wife.

            “What a magnificent king! Look at how he provides for our war widows!” Can you imagine the paparazzi snapping the couple’s first kiss and the cake cutting ceremony of Israel’s most benevolent king? What a great story. Everyone loves a royal wedding.

            The only thing better is a celebrity baby. Everyone will think that baby bump under Bathsheba’s dress is King David’s legitimate child. He wants everyone to know he’s the father…just not the real story. Ah, I love it when a plan comes together. Sounds great, huh?  No one will ever know.

            Too bad it’s a fraud. A big fat lie. Glamorous and glitzy on the outside. But full downright filthy on the inside. 2 Samuel gives us the real story: coveting, adultery, theft, murder, and idolatry. Scandal upon scandal upon scandal.

            David needed forgiveness. He made his bed, but didn’t want to lie in it. But before he could receive forgiveness he needed to know that he needed to have a need for forgiveness.

            So God sent Nathan the prophet. Nathan means gift – a rather fitting name, don’t you think? After all, David needed pastor Nathan – like a sick man needs a doctor. Like a man about to get hit by a bus needs to be shoved out of the way. David needed what we need – the gift of Confession and Absolution. This is what the Lord does. He’s in the business of working repentance and forgiving sins. That’s why he sends you pastors to confront your sin and speak God’s Word of Absolution.

            That’s the part of Confession we hear about tonight. Our need. Forgive the silly comparison, but it’s kind of like men and shopping malls – if there’s something we need; we run to it; get in and get out get on with life. Otherwise, why bother.

            So too with confession. If we knew the dire need we’d beat down our pastor’s door to absolve us. We’d high-tail it to Confession and Absolution faster than someone looking for shelter in one of those zombie apocalypse movies: “Let us in; save us for Christ’s sake.”

            That’s what Absolution is all about: salvation for Christ’s sake. A word of rescue. Absolution through from God himself, through your pastor’s mouth to your ears. That zombie business – thrilling science fiction no doubt – but it’s not all that far off from the truth. That’s more or less what David was before Nathan came to him: a living dead-man, a sinner in need of repentance, the walking dead. Lent reminds us that we were that way too. Enemies of God. Rebels. Sons of Adam. Dead men walking.

            So Nathan comes to David with a story. It’s worth repeating:

“There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had very many flocks and herds, ³ but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴

           

            Very clever that Nathan. He does what practical jokers have known for centuries; the best way to make the guy look like a complete fool is to have him play the joke on himself.

            A well-crafted parable. Who better to tell this story about sheep-stealing to than a former shepherd? No coincidence her. Nathan, the shepherd of souls comes to David, the shepherd of Israel in order to rescue this little lamb from death.

            David went to great lengths cover his guilt with fig leaves but God saw through it. And all David’s careful planning came unraveled with Nathan’s word: “You are the man.” David was angry – who wouldn’t be? The irony is that David’s righteous indignation was kindled against no one but himself. As David passed judgment on the hypothetical sheep-stealer, he uttered his own death sentence. He slammed the gavel on his own head.

            He broke the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 10^th commandments but his chief violation was the 1st: “Why have you despised the Word of the Lord and done what is evil in his sight.” David needed to hear. You need to hear Nathan’s words: “You are the man.” We can’t point the finger of judgment at David without heaping coals on our own head. “I have sinned against the Lord.” Like David, our need for confession is great…but the cross, the blood, the absolution of Jesus is greater than your sin.

            And now we’ve finally found the most scandalous part of this story. “David receives reconciliation from the Lord Himself through the spoken Word of forgiveness: “The Lord has put away your sin,” Nathan declares!  David was right. He deserved to die. And so did we But that’s not what we get.

             Are you kidding me? The Lord just up and forgives David? Forgives us too? All our wickedness? No promises to do better? No conditions? No strings attached? No turning our lives around?

            Yes, that’s right. The Lord has put away your sin. It’s gone. Paid for. Covered in Jesus’ death for you. Pastor Nathan just up and absolves poor miserable sinners. The law-breaker goes free. The wicked are let off the hook. The innocent pays for the guilty. The free man dons the shackles of your slavery.  He who knew no sin becomes sin for us. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the scarlet sins of David and you and makes them white as snow in his blood.

            The Lord has also put away your sin and buried it in his tomb. And there’s only one thing coming out of that tomb: the resurrected Lord…and your eternal life with him. Every lust, murder, gossip, theft and wickedness your of your heart; Every rejection of God’s Word – Christ has taken and put away. You are hidden from death in the flesh of Christ as Moses was tucked in the cleft of the rock.

            David’s sin is put away by David’s greater Son, Jesus. And so is yours.  David doesn’t get what he deserves. Neither do you. Neither do I. That’s what Lent; That’s what Good Friday; That‘s what Confession and Absolution is all about. Outrageous forgiveness for undeserving sinners. Even sinners as scandalous as King David.

            What a gift this sacrament is. As Luther says, we ought to be happy to run more than 100 miles to confession without coercion. Just to hear that word again: “The Lord has also put away your sin.”

            Washed away in Baptism. Drown and flooding over in the cup of Christ’s saving blood. Fed and nourished with his body. Confess your sins. Receive Absolution. Get in. Get out and Get on with life. Your sin is put away in Christ. Your pastor’s ear is the tomb where Christ buries your sin. The Word he declares in your ear drums is God’s own voice. From the mouth of the Lord, through his servant, to your ears: “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ…The Lord has also put away your sin; you shall not die.”

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

The Ass and the Lion

Lutheran Insulter. It's not only a great repository of Luther's polemic wit, something he was a skilled craftsman at. It also happens to be the latest rage of time-wasting adventures on Facebook. At least this is better than Farmville and the myriad of junk-games you get flooded with every day. As I was killing some time at lunch the other day, scrolling through Luther's delightful derision (against such ilk as Erasmus and Zwingli) I found this gem of a quote from Luther's Works, Vol. 32, Against Latomus.

(Click here to go to Lutheran Insulter; you won't be disappointed, unless your name is Erasmus of Rotterdam).

You rush forward as an ass under the pelt of a lion. (From Against Latomus, pg. 159 of Luther's Works, Vol. 32).

Not even really sure of the context of the quote...I'll save that research question for a rainy day. Unless someone who reads this wants to give a quick summary; I'd be happy to see some comments about that. But the main thing that struck me was: "How prophetic!" Clearly, Luther had no way of ever knowing what would come centuries later from the tip of another pen, that of C.S. Lewis. And I am sure (although I would love to be proven wrong on this) that Lewis had no idea about this quote when he wrote the seventh and final chapter of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, a story in which a certain ass, named Puzzle rushes forward covered with a lion's pelt at the request of the real ass, Shift the ape, all in an attempt to imitate Aslan and lead Narnians astray.

The entire story is quite a delight and I highly recommend it.  The Last Battle is probably one of the most underrated and under appreciated of the seven books, even though it is full of stunning imagery, Revelation-style hope and consolation including one of my favorite lines in all of literature: "Further up and further in!", it's a comforting book precisely because it reminds us of and points us to the one Lion who really does covers an ass like you and me, covered in the blood of the Lamb...covered by his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. For where fools rush in (like asses all of us) under the pelt of this Lion, we are not rushing forward in vain or in idiocy, but to the very life and blood of the Lion, the Lamb and our Lord, to whom Aslan really points. That is something Shift could only imitate, and poorly at that. Thankfully, in the end, even Puzzle was forgiven his "ass-ness" and so are we as Christ draws us further up and further in to the cross and through the stable door to the Emperor beyond the sea.

Lent 2 Sermon: "What's Your Name?"

+ Lent 2 – March 4^th, 2012 +
In the Name of Jesus + Amen.

             Before Father Abraham had many sons…he had one. They called him Ishmael. Power, riches and strength would all be his. But there was one problem; Ishmael was not the son promised by God to Abraham and Sarah even though they tried to matters into their own hands. Ishmael was not the child through whom God would fulfill his promise to make Abraham’s descendants rival the stars in number; nor was he the child through whom God would reveal his everlasting covenant. The Lord wasn’t done making good on His promises to Abraham.

            That’s why the Lord renames him: Abram to Abraham. One little Hebrew letter makes all the difference. Abram’s name goes from “marvelous father” to Abraham, “father of a multitude.” This was no mid-life identity crisis or stage-name. God renamed Abraham because of his promise to him. God declares his promise to Abraham again and gives him a new name. That’s how God works: name and promise go together.

            Biblical Names always mean something; they tell us who the person is; what they do. Eve = mother of all living. Ishmael = God hears. Isaac = he laughs. Abraham = father of a multitude. Even, Jesus = the Lord saves.

            Through God’s promise, Abraham lived up to his name, and so did Jesus. Jesus does what his name says. His name is important. That’s why he asks the disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” It’s an important question. How you answer it reveals a lot about who you are and what you believe in.     

            So, what’s the answer? Is Jesus a prophet? Good moral-teaching Jesus, quick with the wit and a wise pithy platitude? You don’t need Jesus for that. You can read Plato or Aristotle or watch Dr. Phil.
            Or you maybe you’re ashamed of Jesus? Embarrassed about his cross like teenagers are with their parents? Don’t want to talk about sin and death and suffering? Jesus does.
           “Who do you say that I am?” The question is just as important today as it was then. For Jesus says,  “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

            Say you’re drowning out in the middle of the ocean…do you need Michael Phelps to come and tell you to swim faster – Stroke! Stroke! Or do you need a big orange rescue helicopter? Rescue of course.

            When it comes to sin and death, heaven and hell, do you need a wise guy, a guru or a coach to tell you how to work your way into heaven?  Or do you need a Savior to pull you out of sin and death by dying in your place? Jesus couldn’t be clearer: you need rescue. And he came to rescue you.

            Whatever you think Christianity is – if it’s not about what Jesus says here; if this Son of Man, His suffering, dying and rising isn’t central - then it’s not Christianity. Sure, people will say they’re “religious” or “spiritual” or whatever. But Christianity is a spirituality of the cross, a religion where righteousness is given to you in the shed blood of Jesus. Christianity is about Christ Crucified for you. Any other Jesus is just a cheap-knock off. Don’t be fooled by labels or fads.
            Jesus didn’t come to earth to give you a manifesto for an earthly utopia; he doesn’t give you an eight-fold path, 5 pillars to follow or a list of rules to get you into heaven. He gives you a new name and a promise – just like Abraham. And he gives you a confession – just like Peter:
            “Who do you say that I am?” You are the Christ. The suffering-dying-and-rising-for-the-sin-of-the-world Christ. He goes to the cross for Abraham, for Peter and for you and for all.
            There were many blessings that God gave to Abraham and through Abraham – and many sons had Father Abraham – but none were as important as the One speaking to us in today’s Gospel. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”                  

            Jesus doesn’t do this for his own sake. Jesus is born into Abraham’s family tree in order to graft us into His. Jesus does all of this for you. Jesus doesn’t need rescue. But you do. For you were in need of a name change too; your old name - Son of Adam…rebel, sinner – has to be changed.

            Of course that doesn’t stop you from doing all that you can to cover up your guilt and shame. We may be skilled craftsmen when it comes to covering up our sin in public – even less so with those closest to us – but certainly not our Lord. The fig leaves didn’t work for Adam and Eve. And they won’t work for you either.           
            We’re a lot like Peter’s not-so-better-half: Enough of this depressing, talk…there’s a kingdom to build; no one wants a crucified Messiah, Jesus. Our old sinful flesh is a theologian of glory, power, success…what’s in it for me? We set our eyes on the things of men.
            And we ignore the things of God. Forget the suffering. Forget the cross. Forget others. Mercy to those in need? They’re not paying customers. They don’t dress, act, talk or smell like us.        
            And repentance for sinners? “Well, Pastor, you should hear what that other guy did – at least I’m not as bad off as that other sinner over there.”
            Repent. Look in the mirror. Don’t you see? We’re a lot like Peter: so bold, so sincere, so wrong…we confess our Lord’s name one minute and deny it the next.
   
Thank God the church is for hypocrites like you and me. Thank God Jesus comes to dwell among sinners. Thank God for Lent – for confession and absolution applied to individual sinners in need. Thank God for Christ Crucified. For while we were still weak – still rebels, still sinners, still hypocrites – at the right time, at the Good Friday time, Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for you. God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still denying Peters and laughing Abrahams and dead sinners, Christ died for us.
                        Abraham isn’t the only one who gets a new name. That everlasting covenant God made with Abraham in former years has come to fulfillment through Isaac to Abraham’s greatest Son and Abraham’s Lord, Jesus Christ the Crucified.

            What an amazing turn of events. The God, who makes a promise on his own life, lays down his life for you. He withholds nothing from you, not even his Son, his only Son. Jesus loses his life for your sake and in his death you live.
            The God who gave Abraham a new name takes a name for himself: Jesus – Savior – and he lives up to – or rather dies, living up to – his name. His Name is Jesus, for he saves you from your sin. And in Jesus, you get a new name too. For his name and promise always go together.
            Your name tag no longer says, “Hello my name is sinner.” Now you boast in Christ Crucified: “Hello, my name is Baptized. Holy. Saint. God’s own child.” For where Jesus’ name is placed there his promise is for you. And there you confess his name and cross before men.
            Once you’ve got Jesus’ question right – “who do you say that I am?” – there’s still one more question you can answer with the utmost certainty: “Who does Jesus say that I am?”
            You are reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. You are no longer enemies with God. You are baptized. The cross of Jesus is placed over your life. You have a new name with his promise. That’s what it means to be a disciple, a follower, a Christian – you are never without the cross of Jesus. So, confess that saving Name boldly. Boast in Christ Crucified to anyone with ears.
            For in the cross of Jesus, God is never ashamed of you.  You are his children, heirs to an everlasting covenant – the oath he swore to our father Abraham – given to you in the flesh and blood of Jesus. You are Washed in the waters of everlasting covenant. You are Absolved with the words of the everlasting covenant. You are Fed and nourished with the everlasting covenant in Jesus’ blood. You are loved. You are forgiven. You have a new name. The Lord has made good on his promise.

                        In the Name of Jesus + Amen.

Grammar Saves Lives

Your junior-high school English and Literature teacher said so. Your college professor said so. Any editor or writer (OK, well almost every writer) will tell you the same thing: Grammar is important. Words have meaning. And so does punctuation. Perhaps you've even seen the t-shirts and pictures floating around Facebook: "Grammar Saves Lives."

It's (not "its") a timeless maxim both figuratively and grammatically speaking. But something (both grammatical and theological) struck me today after the confession of sins during a shut-in visit. Grammar saves lives; this too (not "to") is a theological life-saver, a preservative. Bad grammar could (and frequently does) lead to confusion, uncertainty or worse when it comes to the manner in which the Word of God is written and spoken.

Here's what triggered my grammar police siren: "O Almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment..."

Did you catch it? It's not only the spelling of the words and the punctuation that matters, although those things are important. But the tense of the verbs also matters. Still not sure where I'm going with this? How about one word, deserved? Get it yet? Just two little letters, "ed" make a world of a difference. Past tense. The present - or indicative - would have said it this way: "deserve." And while it's true that when we sin we do deserve God's temporal and eternal wrath and punishment. However, that's not what we confess in confession. We confess in view of what Christ has done - past tense. And what he continues to do for us by his Word and Sacraments - the perfect tense, which means a verbal action completed in the past with present results, as in, "I am Baptized." It's a one-time gift of God - his verbal action in the past - that keeps on giving, daily in fact. Present and future results abound in that saving flood.

Thus, we confess: "I deserved Your temporal and eternal punishment" because that's not the last word spoken over us in the Divine Service. For what we deserved - everlasting death and condemnation - is not what we received (past), receive (present) or will receive (future) in Jesus' death for us. We come before Christ deserving nothing and yet receiving everything from him. We come as sinners without defense before a Christ who holds no condemnation - no present or eternal tense punishment for you. Jesus has taken all of that upon himself. We go from being grammatically dead and, more importantly, spiritually dead, to being alive, saved by divine grammar: the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. Jesus actively obeyed God's commands for you. Jesus passively received all of your punishment on the cross. And you are saved, no "ifs", "ands" or "buts" about it. Jesus' grammar really does save lives.

C.S. Lewis on Repentance

"Repentance is no fun at all," observes Lewis (Mere Christianity). Amen. It's like praying the third petition of the Lord's Prayer - Thy will be done.  Every time you pray it you're praying against yourself. Repentance works the same way. "Killing a part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death," says Lewis. This is what Luther calls the daily drowning of your old Adam in your Baptism. Although the cross of Christ is the most important one during Lent, he also places his cross on those who follow him. We need to hear Nathan's pronouncement: "You are the man." Fun? No, not really. But that's what we need. It's a bit like cleaning your house or your garage. It's no fun. No one really wants to do it; but once it's done you're glad you did it. It's cathartic. Confession and Absolution (among the other means of grace) is the workshop of the Holy Spirit. Through repentance and forgiveness of sins you are cleansed - not every spring when the dust gathers - but daily. Confession and Absolution...the catharsis of the Holy Spirit.


Christianity simply does not make sense until you have faced the sort of facts I have been describing. Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness. It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power - it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk. When you are sick, you will listen to the doctor. When you have realized that our position is nearly desperate you will begin to understand what the Christians are talking about. They offer an explanation of how we got into our present state of both hating goodness and loving it. They offer an explanation of how God can be this Person. They tell you how the demands of this law, which you and I cannot meet, have been met on our behalf, how God Himself becomes a man to save man from the disapproval of God. (Mere Christianity, Book I, ch. 5)


That is what causes angels in heaven to rejoice: sinners being brought to repentance. And yet repentance is never alone, something Luke and Acts consistently professes: repentance and the forgiveness of sins (also Mark 1..."repent and believe the Gospel!). They go together. The former leads to the latter. And you can't have one without the other. Just as you can't have Ash Wednesday without Good Friday and Easter Sunday...or Christ's death without the resurrection. In Christ we are brought back from the dead - that's why Confession is nothing but a return to our Baptism. Thus, in repentance...
  
He puts a little of His own love into us and that is how we love one another. When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms letters because you are forming them, We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hands while we do it. (Mere Christianity, Book II, ch. 4)


For as much as you need repentance, you need forgiveness even more. This is God's love for you in Lent (and all year round). God's love in working repentance in you. God's love for you all the more in the forgiveness of sins. Oh wondrous Love, what have you done! The Father offers up His Son (Paul Gerhardt, LSB 438). Just like Lent, through repentance and forgiveness - Confession and Absolution - Christ brings us through death to life by His own life and death and resurrection. And as much as the angels in heaven delight in repentant sinners, how much more then, does our heavenly Father rejoice in welcoming forgiven sinners back into his arms. For it was the delight and joy of the Son to reconcile the world to the Father through his blood shed on the cross. Yes, there is joy in heaven over repentance but there is even greater joy in the forgiveness of sins. 

The Crisis in Campus Ministry

 The following article is forthcoming in the Redeemer Reflections, the monthly newsletter of Redeemer Lutheran, Huntington Beach. Please keep the chapel at UCLA and ULCMN and all campus ministries in your prayers and financial support during these difficult times.

Lutherans have been on college campuses since 1517, active in Word and Sacrament ministry from the early days of the Reformation. Today, the doctrine rediscovered by Luther and the reformers – that man is justified freely by God’s grace through faith for Christ’s sake by his cross – continues to be proclaimed on college campuses. From Wittenberg to Westwood (UCLA) and throughout the world, the Church continues to declare and defend the Gospel for students, professors and communities in need.

In recent months a growing, and disturbing trend, has begun in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). The strong bridgehead our church once had onto secular campuses has begun to wane as of late. With the impending and increasing threat of financial debt and distress in district bureaucracies around the synod, many district leaders have turned to short-sighted property sales in exchange for financial relief, coming, tragically, at the expense of long standing, prominent (not to mention valuable and irreplaceable) campus ministry facilities.

First, in mid 2011, the University Lutheran Chapel at the University of Minnesota (ULCMN) was given notice that their long-time, and thriving, campus facility was going to be sold out from under them by the Minnesota South District Board of Directors. Should the sale of this invaluable property proceed, in place of sacred space dedicated to the preaching and teaching of God’s Word, a luxury dormitory will be constructed. Apparently you can put a price on Word and Sacrament ministry: $3 million dollars to give a rough estimate.

The ULCMN is home to a faithful congregation of more than fifty years, a congregation that has sent dozens of men to seminary not to mention their continued on-campus presence and outreach to a major secular university. Should it happen that this home for so many is destroyed, the wrecking ball cannot take away the Gospel from the ULCMN, her members or Christ’s Church. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, even when those gates are swung heavy at consecrated brick and mortar. And yet there is much we can do: we can pray that the property sale at ULCMN does not go through. We can pray that the MNS District would repent of their decision to sell this bastion of Good News. And we can support our campus ministries everywhere, from Minnesota to California both in prayerful and financial support.

Second, on January 11th, 2012, the Pacific Southwest District Board of Directors voted to put up for potential sale all seventeen of the district’s properties currently owned. Of those seventeen properties considered for sale, are the only three campus ministry facilities the district owns: University of California - San Diego (UCSD), University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA), and Arizona State University – Phoenix (ASU). The decision to put these properties up for sale comes as a result of the staggering debt that the Pacific Southwest District has accrued of roughly $8 million dollars. While it is clear that some of the properties will have to be sold in an attempt to reduce the existing property debt, this must not be done at the expense of existing ministry, especially our precious (and rare) campus ministry facilities. All congregations of this district ought to be concerned not only about the potential sale of active and thriving campus ministries, but also the proper stewardship of the financial responsibilities entrusted to the care of leadership in the PSW District.

The chapel at UCLA has been particularly influential here at Redeemer. Pastor Mark Jasa has – and continues to be – a dear friend of Redeemer as we work together in the mutual labor of declaring and defending the Gospel, not only at UCLA but in Huntington Beach. This, in part, has been the purpose of the ongoing Declare and Defend series at Redeemer Lutheran, HB. Through Pastor Jasa’s lectures and seminars we are better equipped to share the Gospel in our own community and we, in turn, also have the opportunity to support the work of evangelism on campus at UCLA. This is the work of the Church at her best, working together in mutual care to teach the faithful and reach the lost, caring for all as we are given opportunities in our vocation.

Now the chapel at UCLA is threatened with potential sale as well. This is cause for great concern. These brick and mortar congregations provide a physical outpost and hub for campus mission and ministry and a haven for college students facing an increasingly secular environment hostile to Christianity. UCLA is home to a congregation who serves their campus community, including a growing population of international students. The sale of this chapel – and the ones at UCSD and ASU – would signal a significant retreat of Lutheran presence on campus, at a time when Word and Sacrament ministry are needed now more than ever.

While it’s true that the Lord of heaven and earth cannot be contained in a house built by human hands, it is also true (and thankfully for our sakes) that the Lord of heaven and earth came and took on human hands and built himself a house of human flesh. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, John 1:14 says. God is a god of physical location. He loves being with his people. And he promises to locate himself specifically to bless his people (Exodus 20:24). Physical presence in the community has always been a priority – indeed, an essential and vital part – of ministering to the local community. No wonder God locates himself for us in specific places: font, altar, pulpit and lectern. These physical locations are no less important on college campuses. In fact, I would argue, they are just as important, if not more so, given the needs and demands of campus ministry in our culture and at secular universities.

Now we are in peril of losing ground in mission work for the sake of reducing debt. There is no doubt that the sale of these properties in such prime locations is irreversible and will greatly diminish our Lutheran presence on these college campuses. We as the Church can’t support campus ministry while at the same time defunding our campus ministries or selling their facilities. These campus properties were purchased and developed by the Pacific Southwest District with monies expressly set aside for the purpose of establishing a campus ministry and ought not to be set aside so quickly.

How can you help? Locally, you can support the work of UCLA and Redeemer will have the opportunity to do so in the near future. This means both prayerfully and financially. If you, or someone you know, has benefited from campus ministry, give support. This call for support rings out to include  any and all alumni of UCLA (or ULCMN for that matter), whether you attended the chapel or not. If you care about campus ministry, every dollar will help.

And campus ministry is also going on in our backyard; Pastor Schuldheisz and Pastor Jasa send time locally here at Goldenwest College once a month. You are welcome to join them anytime. Watch the bulletin for announcements about upcoming events. We can also support campus ministry in our prayers as we pray for God’s faithfulness to continue to abide with the students, professors and communities our campus congregations serve. Also, pray that the Lord would work to change the decision of the Pacific Southwest District Board of Directors so that the chapels at UCLA, UCSD and ASU would not be sold.

Make no mistake; there is a crisis in campus ministry in our Church today. But there is hope. The Lutheran Reformation that began on campus at Wittenberg with still goes on today. Today, that Good News continues to go out into the world at our campus ministry outposts. May God, the source of every good and perfect gift, grant us a full measure of wisdom as we pray for and work on behalf of the future of campus ministry in the LC-MS.

Ash Wednesday Sermon: "Lenten Treasure"

+ Ash Wednesday – February 22^nd, 2012 +

Joel 2:12-19; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-21

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

           

            Vanity of vanities says Solomon. All is vanity. Meaningless. Empty. Chasing after the wind. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? Nothing. He who dies with the most toys still dies.

            Everything that you love, everything that is a treasure to you is going to end up the same way: dust, gone. All the books l love to read, all the sporting equipment you have, all the video games you or your children play, all the cell phones we use, our homes and all our possessions, all of the money we carry around or wish we carried around — it’s all going to be Dirt. Dust. 

            That’s why Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” Because that's how it all ends up. Ashes, ashes we all fall down.

            For everything there is a season and a time for everything under heaven. There is a time to laugh, a time to heal and dance and rejoice. A time to be born and a time to rise. And that time is coming soon. But for now we are in the season of Lent. Where there is a time for mourning and weeping, a time for being broken and repentant. A time for sack cloth and ashes. A time to die. Rend your hearts, not your garments. For the sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite Spirit.

            You see, Lent really isn’t about giving up stuff –whatever it may be. Nor is it about self-improvement. You don’t need the season of Lent as an excuse to eat less chocolate, exercise more often be nicer to people or get better gas mileage. If that’s all Lent is about you don’t need Jesus.

            But if it’s sin you have, then it’s Lent you need. You need Lent because your sin is far worse than you think: that’s what that symbol of ashes and death on your forehead reminds you about.  But as good a reminder as the ashen cross is…You need more than a symbolic gesture to save you because you don’t have symbolic sins. You have real sin. We are real sinners. Our old Adam is a professional hoarder. Hell bent a treasure hunt that leads only to death.

            The season of Lent comes to strip all of that away and pour ashes on all your idols. To lay you bare before the cross in repentance so you are clothed in Christ. Remove your treasure trove of self-made deities – all those trophies in your personal hall of fame that show exactly how much you fear, love and trust in anything except God. Lent calls you to Solomon’s confession: “vanity of vanities…all that I have and all that I am apart from Christ is vanity.” Meaningless. Dust. Dirt. Dead.

            All those particular sins are only symptoms of the disease. We sin because we are sinners. A corrupt tree brings forth corrupt fruit. Its fault lies not in its being a tree but in its being corrupt. What’s wrong with us is not that we are human but that we have gone wrong, we are sinners. You are part of Adam’s family tree. Corrupt and dead as the root from where you sprouted.

            Lent reminds us that the worm wins every time. Well, almost every time. Moth consumed the cloaks that Jesus wore in mockery. Rust destroyed the spear that pierced his flesh. But there is one treasure in heaven and earth that the moth and rust cannot destroy. There is one treasure that cannot be stolen away from you by any thief, even the devil himself. There is one treasure that the dirt and dust of the grave could not hold down. The Last Enemy has been destroyed. The victory goes to Jesus and from Jesus to you. And where his treasure is, there is heart shall be also. You are his great treasure.

            And so there is a time for repentance. Not one Wednesday out of the year, but every day the Lord gives you. Daily dying, daily rising. Adam must die, Christ must rise. Return to the Lord your God. He has come to you. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not pronounce a death sentence over your head, deserved though it would be. Jesus has heard and taken upon Himself. You have a life sentence pronounced over you. Forgiven, washed, justified, sanctified, holy. What Adam has done, Christ has undone and more.

            Lent is also a time for forgiveness. Absolution. This is why our midweek services and guest pastors will focus our thoughts and meditation on Confession and Absolution as the double-edged sword of God’s Word comes to pierce our hardened hearts with repentance and to bind us together in Christ’s absolution. This Lenten season you’ll hear about the Office of the Keys, our need for confession and absolution, the sure and certain declaration that comes in the absolution both publicly and privately. Confession and absolution is God’s gift to you His people.

            Are you looking for a sign of mourning over your sin? Don’t look to your foreheads but to a better cross – the cross of Jesus. There you will see the grief and suffering your Sin caused the Son of God.

            Do you want a sign of your life and forgiveness? Trace the sign of that cross, upon your forehead and upon your heart, where God Himself marked you in Baptism as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.

            For there are two crosses on your forehead today: a cross of ash. And the cross of your Baptism. One a symbol of your death. The other the reality of your life in Christ.

            That’s the best sign of the cross you could possibly remember. Not your ashes. They’re paid for, washed away in your Baptism just like your sin. Jesus didn’t come to impose ashes on your forehead. He came to bear all your sin and death on his, in his own body. Jesus did not come to give you a death sentence, but to take yours upon Himself. Lent reminds us that your dust has become Jesus’ dust. Your dirt and filthy sin has become Jesus’. Jesus Crucified is your greatest treasure.

            While the ashes are a symbol that points you to Jesus; they’re still a symbol. Thankfully when it comes to your salvation, Jesus doesn’t use symbols. He gives you real sacraments and real forgiveness for your real sin. God actually gives the very thing he promises to you. Baptism isn’t a symbol of rebirth – it is your rebirth in Christ. The Lord’s Supper isn’t a symbolic gesture of Jesus’ forgiveness, it actually is His forgiveness. The Absolution isn’t a symbol of God’s promise; it actually is His promise declared to you: “I forgive you all your sin.” All of it – gone, buried in the dust and dirt of Christ’s tomb. All your vanity all your meaninglessness is washed away more easily than you’ll wash those ashes off your forehead tonight. Down the font they go.

            So it's OK if you want to give something up for Lent. But do it for the right reason: do it because you're reminding yourself that such a thing is not your true treasure, that it won't last forever. And it’s OK to receive the ashes or not. Either way you are Baptized and forgiven in Christ. Your sin has been washed away. And his cross over you is the only one that really matters.

            But more than all that giving up stuff, the real way to celebrate Lent is to have more Jesus. More of the true treasure! More hearing His Word. More confessing your sins and being absolved. More eating and drinking of His body and blood. More study of His Word and prayer. For in these gifts Christ piles up for you more riches that you can even imagine! And where your treasure is this Lent, there will your heart be also.

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