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Episode 99: August 20th, 2010
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In Episode 99 of HT-Radio, Pr. Borghardt is joined by the Rev. Kim Scharff to talk about his sectional, “Living Like a Lutheran” from the Given: Utah conference. About halfway through the episode Pr. Borghardt and Sandra Ostapowich announce the dates for the 2011 Corum Deo Conferences. The final guest for this week is the Rev. Jason Braaten talking about his sectional from Given: Utah – “Contending for Life in a Pro-Choice World.”
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Salt and Light
Rev. George Borghardt
St. Matthew 5:13-16
In the name of Jesus. Amen. “You are the salt that salts the earth. You are the light that lights up the world.”
Salt. Salt goes with the sacrifices in ancient Israel. It purifies. It sanctifies, it makes holy.
Where salt, there a covenant. A testament – cut with the sacrifice of grain or bull seasoned with salt, pure and holy.
Pointing to the sacrifice of the Son of God on the Cross. Beaten, broken, snuffed out, for our righteousness, for our salvation. There the salt is in the sweat, mixed with blood, flowing down His forehead.
Salt was rubbed on the Israelite baby’s heads. The Baby was seasoned – marked as the Lord’s own.
That carried into the early baptismal rites too. The baby would have salt put on his or her tongue – tasty! Or better.. salty.
But, what a confession! In the baptismal font you were salted with His sacrifice. His death your death to sin. Your death to darkness and tasteless salt.
And here you are today, the baptized, the salted, His holy people, His kingly priests, lighting the world around you with His light. Salting it with everything that you do in this world.
You are who He says you are. His proclamation lights you up. His words salt you. Salt in all His saltiness. Light in all His brightness.
Except you know yourself to be far from salty and full of nothing but darkness. You know what you do. You’ve done it before. You’ll do it after you leave here. It horrifies you. Or that it doesn’t scare you, horrifies you more.
Darkness and about to be trampled under the foot – that’s what the Law says is waiting for you. And you try to stop, try to turn, but you just can’t get salty or become bright enough or to get out of it.
Now, there was that candle given to you in Baptism. You’ve seen it given to others. You got one too. And with the candle came the words, “Receive this burning light and live always in the light of Christ and be ever watchful for His coming”
It burned with His light. The Light who had just en-lightened you with His Cross-won forgiveness. For on Cross, His Light is snuffed out, sacrifice for your darkness. He rose and now His light will never dim. Your light too in the waters of your Baptism. Your salting too.
Born anew. Forgiven. Salted. And lit up with His life and light. Baptized. That’s you.
Now, salt that loses it’s saltiness is no use to anyone at all. Light that’s covered up in a basket doesn’t good either. Hide it under a bushel… You know the rest.
A city on a hill shines. A lamp on a lampstand gives light to the whole house. And salt, it gives flavor – Jesus flavor. His sacrifice. His forgiveness. His eternal life.
So that the world out there would see your lamp and glorify Him – not you. This hasn’t been about you at all, but about the One who brought you out of darkness into His wonderful light – your Father in Heaven.
For you aren’t salty by yourself. You aren’t a light at all. Not even a flicker. You know that.
He’s your salt. He’s your light. Given to you in His gifts. Gifts which salt you, light you, holy you, priest you, to salt, light, holy, and priest for others.
An early early early (like 100 A.D.) church Father named Ignatius, you can google Him on your phone when you get out of service, describe you and me as salted in Christ. Christ preserves us from corruption. He preserves us from sin and we are recognizable to the world by our smell. We are salted in Him.
Smells like a Lutheran? Not sweat, just Jesus. The One who was given to be sacrificed for your sins and raised for your justification. The One who is your Light. The One who is your King.
And so today, He sends you from here, given to, lit up with His light, and forgiven. His salt. His light. Shining when you aren’t even trying to shine and salting everything you do with His Cross.
That’s you when you feel salty and lighty like today at the end of a solid week of being nothing but given His salt and His light at this conference.
That’s you too – salt and light – even when you feel like salt that has lost it’s saltiness and your light seems all but extinguished.
But, His sacrifice for you on the Cross – There’s a light that no one can snuff out. A salty that will never lose it’s saltiness.
“You are the salt that salts the earth. You are the light that lights up the world.” You are the baptized.
“That in these gray and latter days, there may be those whose life is praise, each life a high doxology to Father, Son, and unto Thee.” (LSB 834, 4). INI. Amen.
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Episode 98: August 13th, 2010
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Given Good Works
Rev. Rich Heinz
Ephesians 2:1-10
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“We will watch your career with great interest,” says the newly-elected Chancellor Palpatine. You can hear the schmoozing and insincerity in his voice. And years later he declares, “Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.” He prepared situations, events, and placed the right people in the right locations at the right times to do what he devised. And Anakin and others unknowingly did the works which Palpatine prepared in advance for them to do.
Yes, the Galactic Emperor is fiction, and yes, he is evil. So Perhaps he is not the best example of this. Yet we can see that the works were not necessarily Anakin’s, or anyone else’s; they were the Emperor’s, who prepared them for others to do.
The Lord God has GIVEN you Baptism and called you by grace – out of His holy and perfect love and mercy that is completely undeserved. He has GIVEN you faith. He has GIVEN you His Gospel and His Absolution that speaks Christ into your ears and into your hearts. He has GIVEN you His Holy Supper so that Christ enters your body with forgiveness, life, and salvation.
These GIVEN things are precisely what you confess when you declare: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” The trouble is, this is where you usually cut it off. The passage you learned by heart typically stops with verse 9. But wait! There’s more!
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Hold on, Pastor. We are saved by faith alone, not by works.
You are right. Martin Luther once quipped that we are saved by faith alone, however, he said, faith is never alone. Where there is faith, the littlest thing is a good work. Washing dishes for your family, taking out the trash, defending your classmate from slander on FaceBook, these are just a few examples of good works that God has prepared in advance for you.
Although face it, are you always doing these with a pure heart and in sincere faith? Not a chance. Like Anakin serving Palpatine, you can have wrong motives. Your heart is not always in it. Even if you might have the good of someone else in mind, such as trying to save your wife from dying, in the end, so much is motivated by selfishness. You fail to be perfect in these works of love.
And teaming up with you is the old evil foe. Satan tries to give you gifts too – gifts of doubt, gifts of self-centeredness, gifts of anger, fear, and aggression. These gifts are really burdens of evil. Your flawed human nature is attracted to these gifts, and would rather pursue them with your own works than receive the free gift of salvation in Christ.
That is why God does not leave this up to you. He has reached out and redeemed you by the precious suffering and death of Jesus. He has delivered that redemption to you through His Holy Gifts of the Means of Grace.
And He does not save you on the basis of your works. He does not even demand them as a follow-up to redeeming you. Yet He produces them in your life of faith. He provides the works and the opportunities – He even provides the will to do these things that He “prepared in advance for [you] to do.”
Have no fear. God watches you with great interest, but the Lord is not scheming and not requiring good works of you. He has GIVEN them to you! He does them through you and your brothers and sisters in Christ. He even does them when you least expect it. Rejoice and be glad. This morning’s text is not some Law-requirement that you do something. No. It is a joyful declaration of the Gospel, and delivers God’s forgiveness and peace as He reminds you of the good works that He gives you, and to you.
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Reflections for August 15 to September 18
Dear Reflections Subscribers,
The next set of HT Reflections for August 15 through September 18 are now available. To download the Reflections in a printable booklet format, click here.
Thanks for your support of Higher Things!
Pastor Mark Buetow
HT Media Services
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Given God’s Grace
Rev. Joel Fritsche
Eph. 2:1-10
IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AMEN.
Complete sentences aren’t in these days. There’s facebook and texting and all kinds of abbreviations along with them. I thought learning Greek was hard. Sometimes I really have to work hard decode the texting abbreviations. Thankfully there are websites devoted to this. Years ago I thought it was fun when you typed in a sentence and had it translated into Jive or into Redneck or even into Elmer Fudd. Now you can go to transL8it.com and translate from text lingo into plain English or from English into text lingo. I have to go there sometimes to decipher assignments from my confirmands. Like I said, complete sentences aren’t in these days. You may not have verbs or even full words. BUT…
When you hear the Word of God pay attention to the verbs. Take note of the tenses: past, present, future. Take note of subjects and objects so that you know who is doing what and to whom what is being done. In Ephesians 2 in the original Greek you don’t even really get a complete sentence at the beginning of the chapter. Well, you do, but the subject doesn’t come until verse 4 and the main verb until verse 5. The English fools you a little bit and cleans all that up. But if you take it as it stands and pull out the subject, the verb and the object you have “GOD MADE US ALIVE.”
God is the doer, not you! Like the dependent clauses at the beginning of this chapter you cannot stand alone. Why not? You’re dead! Dead in your trespasses and sins! That’s what you WERE! Note the past tense, but we’ll come back to that. You were the walking dead. When you’re dead you walk the way of the world. You walk the way of the devil and evil spirits. You pursue the passions of the flesh, the desires of the body and mind. It’s all about you (that’s a capital U). And where does that put “U”? Under the wrath of God.
But that’s all in the past, right. You don’t live that way anymore, do you? Do you? Is your life all about you? Are you in it for yourself? Do you want to stand alone? Do you want to be the walking dead? Passion! Desire! We like those things! Doesn’t actually sound too bad until that wrath of God part. Did you hear the psalm we prayed? “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood firm” (Ps. 33:8-9). If that’s His creative power then imagine His destructive power. A look at God’s commandments, His Law assures you that you ARE dead. You are under His wrath. Remember the Close of the Commandments? “God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore we should fear His wrath and not do anything against them.” What do I do? I’m dead for sure!
But there’s more to stand in awe of here than God’s wrath. St. Paul would have you stand in awe of God’s saving, life-giving power, to stand in awe of God’s GRACE! That’s an acronym worth remembering! “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” No need to decode it. The Lord reveals what it’s all about. GRACE! Jesus walked the way of death in your place all the way to the cross. He became the dead man. At the cross He was the one who walked in the passions of the flesh, the desires of the body and mind. He was the child of wrath, taking the fullness of God’s wrath and anger on Himself to the point of death. “Thou camest to our hall of death, O Christ, to breathe our poisoned air , To drink for us the dark despair That strangled our reluctant breath” (LSB 834:3). God’s Son was given into death and you are given life. GRACE! You are given grace and every blessing in Him.
GIVEN! “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). And don’t forget the last verse: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Salvation is gift! Faith is gift! New life is God’s gift! And God, in His grace purposed it all for you from eternity.
The Lord is all about giving! And we’re all about being given to by the Lord. We’re all about being made alive by the Lord. You’ve been given Christ’s life in Baptism. Jesus didn’t stay dead. God raised Him from the dead, and you with Him at the font. God doesn’t leave His beloved for dead. Christ’s resurrection is yours. It means that in Him you walk a new way of life, no longer on the course of the world, no longer for yourself. “Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:15).
Remember the rest of the Close of the Commandments? “God promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore, we should also love and trust in Him and gladly do what He commands.” That’s the new life GIVEN you in Christ Jesus: GIVEN at the font, GIVEN in His absolution, GIVEN at His Table again today. There’s nothing left for you to do, no boasting, just being given to, to receive the life of Jesus and walk in it to the praise and glory of God, a life of high doxology!
Complete sentences aren’t in these days. Unfortunately neither is complete salvation. The Lord gets things done for you. God made you alive. Complete sentence. Complete salvation. In Christ there are no abbreviations or lingo to translate or decode. It’s quite simple: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AMEN.
This sermon was preached at the Matins service on Friday during Given 2010 in Logan, UT.
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Wrongness and Righteousness
Rev. Tim Pauls
Romans 1:16-25
The story goes that the London Times once sponsored an essay contest, by invitation only. The editors asked several of the best writers and thinkers of the time to answer the question, “What’s wrong with this world?” Among the contest entries was one by G. K. Chesterton, whose entry was also the shortest. It said, “Dear sirs: I am.” It was a quick, elegant commentary on original sin.
It’s also the Law from our reading this morning from Romans 1: you’re what’s wrong, and you have no excuse.
You’re what’s wrong. The Lord makes clear that you’re not nice people who do sinful things now and then. It declares that you do sinful things because you’re sinful from the get-go. The sins you do are a problem, sure: all by themselves, they’re enough for you to deserve God’s wrath. But just like nausea and headaches are symptoms of the flu, the sins that you do are only symptoms of the real problem. You’re sinful. You don’t just do wrong. You are wrong.
Furthermore, you have no excuse. It’s not just that God has revealed His wrath and power in the creation around you: if you’re sitting here, you’ve had more than a couple close encounters with the Ten Commandments in the Small Catechism, not to mention that part about Confession. You’ve gone through a few lists of how God’s Law gets broken; and if you’ve been honest at all, you’ve confessed that you’re worthy of His wrath and punishment. Furthermore, in His Word the Lord has revealed His Gospel to you, so you’ve heard that you’re set free from sin, made a righteous child of God.
So…what’s up with those sins even now? What’s up with the thoughts you’re tossing around your mind right now, be it the lust or the jealousy or the pride or the resentment, or the plotting to one-up the people you don’t like very much? What’s up with those pet sins that you think you’ve got on a leash, but you’re firmly in control, like the snarky texting or that picture you’ve got stored on your phone? What’s up with the yawns towards God’s Word or the apathy towards His Supper?
They’re all common sins of youth. And anyone else who’s got a pulse. You’re what’s wrong, and you have no excuse.
But as destructive as those sins ultimately are, they’re not the great danger that our text warns about. Of those who do not honor God, it says “they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Everybody’s got to have a god: and if you don’t honor the one true God, the one you’ve got is a fake. The Bible’s full of stories of people who carved a face on a rock, called it a name and said, “This is our god.” But a rock with a face is just a rock. It can’t provide, it can’t save and it certainly can’t raise you from the dead.
People still like false gods, though, for a simple reason: if a rock can’t tell you what to do, then you get to tell the rock what to tell you to do. And—strangely enough—a rock will usually tell you what you want to hear. That’s why people love false gods, because they’ve created a higher authority that will let them indulge in the lusts of their hearts and the dishonoring of their bodies.
Now, I haven’t seen anyone carrying a rock-god around here, but be warned: the most dangerous false god for you is a fake Jesus that you create for yourself. That’s what happens when you keep your favorite sins around and unrepented. They make your thinking futile and your heart dark until you find yourself sincerely saying, “I can keep these sins and follow Jesus, too.” Your faith gets squeezed out until, a few years down the road, you sit there facing your pastor and saying, “Oh, c’mon. We can still be Christians and live together without being married,” or “I really don’t see why I need to be coming to church to be a Christian. Jesus understands.” At that point, your jesus isn’t the One that the Bible proclaims. It’s a fake jesus who tells you what you want to hear. You didn’t create a god in the image of a bird or an animal or a creeping thing. You created a fake Jesus in the image of you: and as you approve of such sins, that makes you ashamed of the Gospel. God grant you a faithful pastor, now and then, who not only points out your sins of immorality or sloth or whatever, but the greater problem of idolatry.
For all these sins, now and then, you’re wrong and you have no excuse. You’ve got nothing to hold up to God and say, “I deserve your mercy.”
You ought to be ashamed. Not just now or then, but forever. That’s the Law of our text this morning.
Here’s the Gospel. For Jesus’ sake, God is not ashamed of you. It’s not because you’ve done such a great job of being godly and righteous, but because Jesus has. He became flesh for you, with pure heart and incorruptible body. He bore your sin and guilt to the cross and scorned its shame for your redemption. He suffered the dishonor and contempt of scourge and scorn at the hands of darkened, futile sinners. Far more than that, God unleashed His wrath for your sin upon His Son. Rather than leave you given up to the lusts of your heart and the dishonoring of your body, God gave up His Son on the cross and forsook Him instead of you. Where you exchanged the truth for the lie, Christ has swapped out your sin for His holiness, your guilt for His innocence, your defilement for His purity. For your sins of worshiping the creature, the Creator went to the cross.
All glory to Him—none to you or me. He did all this before you and I were born—even chose us before eternity, so you and I have no claim to working a part in His saving plan. But to bring these gifts to you, He joined you to that death and resurrection in your baptism. He keeps feeding you, nourishing your faith by His Word and Supper. He keeps giving, that you might be delivered from death and night to grace and light.
It is all His doing. And because Christ dwells in you, you are no longer wrong, but righteous. No longer without excuse, but full of faith. Clothed in His grace, you’re righteous and holy, for you are forgiven for all of your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
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Servant Jesus
Isaiah 42:1-9
You didn’t even ask. You didn’t even merit it. And you probably thought you could do without.
But the Lord interrupts your life. The Lord speaks up when you’d rather be talking, texting, tweeting or facebooking. He has something to say. He preaches a sermon. The old fashioned way. No Apple iPhone 4 message. A word from His mouth. And He’s in a giving mood. Always is. And the sermon? “Look here everyone! Behold, my servant! I’ve chosen Him! I’m absolutely delighted with Him! And He’s my gift – to you!”
Did you catch that? The Lord gives you – A SERVANT! How odd. God gives a Servant. His Son. Jesus. For you. A sinner.
What will you do with this gift? Take advantage of Him? Abuse or spurn the gift? Mock the gift? Would you rather not have Him interrupt your life? And so make plans to eliminate Him? What was that you said? Was it … “Crucify Him”? “Crucify Him”? That was you, wasn’t it? You handed the Roman soldiers the hammer and the nails, didn’t you? Didn’t you offer your assistance to hoist up the cross with the Servant Gift hanging on it? As He screamed in immense agony and then died?
The answer’s yes. Yes you did. And so did I. We’re responsible for hanging Servant Jesus there. You and I crucified Him!
And yet the Father who created the heavens, who spread out the earth, who gives breath to all living things, is still delighted!
With Jesus! His gift to you. Servant Jesus. Who came not to be served but TO SERVE and to give His life into death for you!
Behold a “new thing.” We don’t go to God. God comes to us. The Father’s only begotten Son is conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Immanuel – God with us. Christmas Gift Servant Jesus. To save you from your sins.
How? Good Friday. You meant it for evil. But He uses it for good. Your eternal good. He just goes ahead and does the Friday we now call “Good.” Your sin is His. He answered for it that day. All of it. He left none out. His Blood cleanses you from all sin.
Yes, that’s right. I said it. All! You name the sin. Little. Big. Or if you’d rather not – it doesn’t matter – it’s all taken care of in Servant Jesus.
Behold a “new thing.” Servant Jesus interrupted your life. Called you by the gospel! Took you by the hand, gave you His holy name, and washed you clean at the font. Comes right into your midst and sets you free from the chains of your sin and death by saying: “I forgive you. I died for you.” And then He invites you to His supper table. He speaks something very new. What had never been said before: “Bread. Eat it. My body given for you. This cup of wine. Drink it. It is the new testament in my blood. My promise – my absolute promise – that I don’t hold your sins against you.”
No wonder the Father says: “Have you seen my Servant! I chose Him. And I’m so delighted with Him!” Because Servant Jesus is His gift to you. The one and only gift of salvation. And because of Jesus – He is most pleased with you.
In the Name of Jesus.
