Author: Higher Things

Rev. Mark Buetow

St. Matthew 5:1-12

Try out for this team! All the cool kids play THIS sport. Join THIS club! It’s the one that looks best on your college applications! Come work for us! We pay above minimum wage and let you have weekends off. Come to our college! We’ll give you a scholarship and pay for your books besides! Come be a part of our company! We’ve got a health plan and retirement benefits! But best of all: Hey, be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus! You’ll be hated and persecuted and trash-talked! Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound like a benefits package. Jesus had all this great stuff to say about being a Christian: be comforted, inherit the earth, see God. That all sounds great. Except the “they’re gonna hate you and kill you” part. Seriously? Does Jesus actually WANT disciples? If so, this doesn’t seem like a very good sign-on bonus to advertise. It doesn’t seem like a very good way to attract new folks. And the older you get, as you struggle through high school and into college and life, as you face a world that really could care less that you’re a Christian, or worse, hates you for being one, it’s going to seem like the glorious things of the kingdom of God are farther and farther off and the the hassles of being a child of God are less and less worth it. Now at this point, a cheerful and happy and worldly preacher would tell you: “just hang in there. Stick it out with Jesus and everything will turn out all right.” That’s the same preaching of the world that hates you in the first place. Plug your ears to that.

No, instead realize that if it were up to you, you WOULD give up. You WOULD throw in the towel. You would say, “I don’t care how I am Coram Deo, before God, so everyone just leave me alone.” Yeah, if it were up to you. But you don’t have a Lord who stands you in front of Him, who puts you Coram Deo and says, “So what’s it gonna be?” No. You have a Lord who comes Himself to save you. You have a Lord who puts Himself before God the Father, Coram Deo on a cross for you so you can stand Coram Deo, before God, with nothing to fear. Yes, you have a Lord who washes you with His own blood in the waters of Holy Baptism and stands you Coram Deo with the whole host of His saints of every time and place who wear those same white robes of Jesus that you do. You have such a Savior who has made you a child of God and purified you and you can’t yet even imagine what you will be for all eternity in Jesus. Just behold what sort of love the Father has lavished on you in Jesus that God Himself calls you His child! You stand Coram Deo, before God, not as a prisoner, or as a slave or as one who is waiting to be accused and condemned. Nope. In Christ, you stand before God as His child. His dear, precious, holy, pure and BLESSED child. Because you stand before Him because of and in Jesus.

So blessed are you. Blessed are you Coram Deo, before God. Blessed are you, happy are you, even though the world hates you. Why? Not just because you’re going to have the kingdom of God in eternal life. No, Jesus doesn’t wait to give you good things until the Last Day. He gives you good things now. For today you will have the kingdom of God. Today you will be comforted. And be filled. And be children of God. And today you will see God. Because today, you are Coram Deo, before God, right here, right now, as He comes to us on His altar. And when He does, and when we feast upon His body and blood, here you will be truly blessed in a way the world does not and cannot know. For here you have Jesus. God Himself. Yes, to the world,  being a disciples of Jesus seems like a dumb thing. So that’s what the world thinks of you. But the world doesn’t get to say who you are and what your future is. Jesus does. And He says you are a child of God and have life now with Him and forever with Him and with all the other saints of every time and place. Blessed are you because you are Coram Deo in Jesus. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Rich Heinz

1 Peter 2:1-12

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

So how do you feel this morning, as you stand before God? Feeling pretty good about yourself? Or not so much? Are you down on yourself and say that even as His baptized child, you are alone, afraid, and a failure? Or are you feeling overly confident?

All of these sorts of feelings went through Hal Jordan’s mind. Deep down he was scared and didn’t have great trust in himself. Yet he covered it with a bold, in-your-face confidence and wild playfulness that tried to charm everyone.

So when the ring chose who would be the next Green Lantern, whom should it pick? It chose Hal. A very unlikely choice — a loser! Nothing in him that seemed worthy of being chosen.

Israel wasn’t worthy, either. God’s chosen people were small in numbers, not a major military power, not wealthy among the nations — nothing to make them an obvious selection as a “chosen nation.”

The same goes for you. Nothing in your natural self makes you chosen, royal, or holy. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

In a sense, Hal Jordan was chosen by grace, not deserving the gift. Some would argue that he had qualities deep down that the needed. But a biblical understanding of our lives reminds us that anything good and worthy of being chosen is entirely gift!

The Lord has reached out and gifted you. He transforms you from your former “loser” self, and gives you life as His new, baptized child; chosen, royal, and holy in Him. You stand before God as His redeemed, forgiven, and saintly child.

At one point in the film, Green Lantern, the entire earth is in danger from impending doom, as an evil force heads it’s way. “The Guardians” decide to cut their losses and give up on earth. But Hal stands before the Guardians, defending himself and the reasons for saving earth. He then proves himself and does it.

The Lord God has not given up on you. You do not have to stand before God defending yourself. Your dear Lord Jesus has already done that! He stood before God in your place, being your Mediator and Defender. He bore the burden of your sin, to be your Savior, and now the Father in His mercy calls and chooses you.

Yes, Jesus stood before the Father, as your substitute, purchasing and transforming you from unworthy losers into God’s chosen people. Yes, He placed His Name upon you and chose you; not by sending some dying purple alien with a ring, but in the far more miraculous moment of Baptism! Now yes, you stand before God — not defending yourselves or justifying your heroic actions. You stand before Him as He rejoices over the saving work of His Son, giving you good deeds that His Son works through you.

As fun as the story is, the film Green Lantern gets things a little backwards. The hero, Hal, is a man who is given god-like powers, and becomes the mediator and savior of the world. The reality is that Jesus Christ is true God, and has become man for you, and is your Mediator and Savior!

And now that He has saved you, purchased and won you, you are indeed “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Amen.

Rev. William Weedon

Isaiah 42:7-9; 1 Peter 2:1-12

Your mommy told you: Be nice and share. And you didn’t like it one little bit. It gave you pain as a little one to see someone else having joy with what you thought was yours. They shouldn’t have that joy. That joy is YOURS alone. And so you demanded your own back and pouted in the corner if you didn’t get it. Original sin.

How unlike us in our “that’s mine; you fork it back over. NOW” is our Jesus. With Him the joy is in sharing what’s His. You heard in today’s readings.

In Isaiah, the Lord who creates everything is the Giver. “who gives breath to the people on the earth and spirit to those who walk in it.” He created us in order to share with us what was His – Life. And we blew it. Big time. We rejected that life and ended up then prisoners in a dungeon. Nasty place, dungeons. Dark. Stinky. Deadends. But the Lord who delighted to give you breath and bring you earthly life isn’t going to leave you sitting in the dungeon. His love for you is bigger than that. He wants to share more with you than mere earthly life (even though that is also a good gift He gives). So He gives Jesus, His Son, to be a Servant to His people, One who will be light for the gentiles who live in darkness. One who will open eyes that are blinded and bring the prisoners out of those nasty dungeon chambers – out into the light.

In the old days, that was Baptism’s name: the enlightenment. It’s the moment when Jesus forks over to you everything that is His. On His cross, He took everything that was yours – all your sin, all your death – and He owned as His. Stood before the Father, Coram Deo, the biggest sinner in the world: from Adam forward. He owned it all and paid for it all. He shared what was yours. There was a cup of divine wrath, brimming to the full, and that was what you chose every time you sin. Eternal death. He took that cup from His Father’s hand that was rightfully yours to drink, and down the hatch it went. Every last bit. Till He handed it back to the Father with His “It’s finished.” But if you think salvation stops there – some sort of get out of hell free card – you have a surprise coming. It wasn’t only that He took what’s yours and drained that wrath, it was all so that He could fork over to you what is His. A chalice of overflowing blessing.

So in 1 Peter 2 – out goes the stuff He bore for you (all the malice, the fraud, the pretend religion and the refusal to share and delight in your neighbor). That’s old stuff. Dead. Left behind. He feeds you with a word – pure spiritual milk – and by it your get to grow up into salvation.

If only we had time to explore that a bit. You see, He’s given you the whole salvation. It’s all yours. And it doesn’t grow in you – you grow up into it. There’s always more gift. He’s given you everything that’s His – even after one or two eternities, you’ll still be finding more joy and gift than you can even begin to imagine. He’s got no limits on His giving – and everything that’s His is yours. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

So He’s a living stone (oh, he was rejected by men – stupid is as stupid does), but in the sight of God – coram Deo – chosen and precious! What’s His is yours – true for Him, true for you! “You like living stones are being built (you don’t build yourself – He does the work!) up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood (He a priest, you a priest!) to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Only in Jesus does God accept the sacrifice, but in Him, the Father delights in what you offer – and the only thing you have left to offer (since He took care of the sin sacrifice) is to stand before God, coram Deo, and belt out the joyous praise – and then to go out and be of service to your neighbor.

Poor world – doesn’t have a clue what it’s here for. Thinks it’s all about “he who dies with the most toys wins.” So heaping up more and more. More pleasure, more stuff. That’s life. Yawn. Or worse – thinking its all about doing enough so that God will be nice to you on the day of judgment. Fat chance with that one.

You know better. You know what you’re here for: you’ve been created by God and into you He has breathed life. People who used to live in a dungeon, but who were liberated, cannot but sing praises and glorify the One who burst open the door, broke the chains and brought them out as a totally free gift – not only freeing them from jail, but brought them to His house – said: “Make yourself at home. My daddy, your daddy. My feast, your feast. My stuff, your stuff. All yours. All free. Just because. I LIKE to share! It’s what floats my boat.”

And when we think about it all, we can’t help but stand before Him and say: “We praise you, O God, we acknowledge You to be the Lord.” So enough yaking. On your feet, people loved by God, and let’s do what He died and rose again to share with us: the joy of singing praise to Father, to Son, and to Holy Spirit – now and to the ages of ages. Amen.