by The Rev. Mark Buetow
Last week, the Supreme Court of California legalized gay marriage. Homosexual men and women may now actually get a marriage license. The world pretty much welcomed this decision as a wonderful thing, allowing the “love” that exists between two men or two women to be given the same “right” of marriage that was only allowed to a man and woman before. This is a pretty sad decision because it highlights our world and society’s continual advance away from God’s Word.
But here’s the thing. All over the country churches and preachers are going to be preaching and teaching that homosexuality is against God’s order and against God’s Commandments. Well, they’re right. After all, the Book of Leviticus says plainly that “you shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman” (Leviticus 18:22). And St. Paul seems pretty clear when he includes “homosexuals” and “sodomites” among the list of those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9). So, yeah, homosexuality is clearly against the LAW of God. But so are all other sins!
While it’s true that the Law condemns this sin as it does all sins, what you won’t hear preached and taught is that homosexuality is wrong because it denies the GOSPEL. The Gospel is the “Good News” that God does not hold our sins against us on account of the obedience and death of Jesus for sinners. Part of this “Good News” is that our Lord Jesus has rescued sinners and brought them into His Church. The Church is the Bride of Christ. Just as Eve was formed from the rib taken from Adam’s side, so the Church is born from Christ’s side in water (Baptism) and Blood (the Sacrament of the Altar) when those flowed out on the day of His death. (John 19:34).
St. Paul writes these words to the Ephesians 5:25-32: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
As it turns out, marriage between one man and one woman is actually a picture and example of something much more important than what’s going on with the husband and wife. Marriage is a picture of Christ and His Church. So think about this: If a man and woman united in a lifelong union are a picture of Jesus and His Bride, what does the union of two men or two women mean? For that matter, what is pictured by a couple that is just “living together” without marriage? What is pictured by a couple who divorces for no particular reason other than they “fell out of love?”
The truth is, such unions and lifestyles are a denial of the Good News that God’s Word says is true. Either Christ gave His life for sinners and has taken the Church as His Bride or (as gay “marriage” would illustrate) the Church is on her own, married to herself or Jesus only loved and died for Himself—or something weird like that! The truth is this: Christ has given Himself into death for all sins and sinners. On the cross, Jesus took the curse of sin upon Himself. On Calvary, Jesus is the homosexual, the divorced person, the adulterer, the murder and every other sinner. That is what saves us! THAT is the Good News. And that Good News is given and earthly and physical picture to be witnessed in the blessed union of one man and one woman for life.
So, yeah, it’s not a good thing that the Court saw fit to legalize gay “marriage.” But the great sadness of this sort of thinking is not simply that it breaks God’s holy Law, but that such “marriage” denies the very thing that saves us from the Law’s damning curse: the Good News that Jesus has rescued us from our sins and made us a Bride for Himself. Well, let the world believe and do what it wants. We shall hold fast to the true Good News that declares that our Lord does not count the sins of His Bride against her, but takes her as His own precious treasure now and forever.
The current Chronicles of Narnia movie series began with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in 2005. As of May 16, 2008, Prince Caspian, the second movie, is gracing a big screen near you! As the first words in the 
One of the main themes throughout the movie is time. One year has passed for Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, but hundreds of years have passed in Narnia. One of Peter’s first lines question how long it would be before Aslan brought them back to Narnia. We continually question the timing of God in our daily lives. We question when or even if he will answer our prayers. All Christians since apostolic times have questioned when Christ will return. We get bored when He seems to come to us for too long in Pastors’ sermons. Or we even try to make bargains with God in order to have something we want happen faster. In the end God always works in His own time, just as Aslan works in His.
When we are children we are blessed with the necessary, saving faith in the waters of Baptism. As we grow up, our knowledge and understanding of God increase. We understand some things more as we study them. Relying on our own study and increased knowledge can be deadly for our faith, as trust in our own intellect or “believing in our belief” will create new idols. Yet the Holy Spirit is working on us. The faith given to us at any age is continually being strengthened through Word and Sacrament.
God always works through means. He never just does stuff “out of the blue.” He always deals with us and comes to us and blesses us through earthly things that have His Word and promises and gifts attached. One of the ways in which this is most obvious is that of mothers. Many of you are mothers. All of you have a mother. It is through your Mom that God gives you life and brings you into this world. Babies don’t just fall out of the sky. Moms have to give birth! And when you get hurt playing at the park, God doesn’t just thunder an “It’ll be OK” at you from the clouds. It is through Moms that cuts and scrapes are taken care of. When you need clothes, does God just drop you a pair of pants from the sky? No, it is through Mom’s hard at work that God provides for us our clothing and food and so on. Sometimes, of course, Moms don’t do their job. But the Lord still takes care of us with Grandmothers who take over the job of Mom. Sometimes, when Dad’s don’t do their job, Mom takes over that job, too. In any case, it is through Moms that the Lord accomplishes a whole lot in our lives. So take the time to celebrate your Mom today. But not for her own sake. Let her know that you recognize that she is the one that God Himself gives in His place to raise and care for you. And Moms, don’t just indulge that you get a day for yourself, learn and believe that you are in the place of God Himself as the one who is given for the care and nurture of your children. You see? God works through means.
But the means don’t stop there. Jesus tells His disciples that the Comforter will come and will remind them of all things that He said to them. This is fulfilled today on Pentecost when the Spirit it poured out on those Apostles. And what do they do? They preach Jesus. They speak God’s Word. Again, rushing wind and tongues of fire are all neat and exciting, but what is the end result? That through the voice of His chosen men, the Spirit speaks Christ’s Word of salvation and forgiveness to sinners. This is the Christian Church: in which the Spirit is at work through means, preaching the Gospel and giving new birth to sinners. In fact, it is by this new birth of water and the Spirit that sinners become God’s children. That is why we call the Church our Mother. It is from her womb, the font, that we are born again, born from above. Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters on the day of creation, just as He breathed into wet dirt to make man a living being, just as He came with the angel Gabriel’s Word to Mary, so the Spirit comes to us through our Mother, the church. Just as your heavenly Father gives you an earthly mother to give birth to you, comfort you and feed you, so your heavenly mother, the Church, gives birth to you by water and the Word and the Spirit. She comforts you against the nightmares of the devil with the holy words of absolution. She feeds you with the pure milk of the Word and as you grow up gives you the strong and sustaining food of Jesus body and blood. This is Pentecost, dear Christians, when the Spirit comes upon Christ’s church and by His holy gifts gives us life! You see? God works through means continually today, in His church, giving us Jesus by water, word, body and blood.
But just like the kid who gets mad at his mother and so he packs his suitcase and runs away, the world doesn’t want the Church as a Mother. The world doesn’t want God and His gifts. The world wants to make its own way and do its own thing. And so it despises Christ and His Word. Just as some people laughed at the apostles on Pentecost, so the world laughs at the Church and the preaching of Christ. It mocks the Good News that we don’t have to try to save ourselves because we have a Savior in Jesus Christ. It jokes and makes fun of those who believe their only hope and confidence is Christ and what He has done for us and gives us. Just as the child who runs away and can’t provide for itself, so the world runs from the gifts God gives through His church and starves to death apart from God’s grace. On the other hand, just like some mothers don’t want to stand in God’s place to care for their children and may even abandon them, so the world is full of churches who don’t want to stand in God’s place and give His gifts, but abuse their children by feeding them junk food all the time and not showing that they are there to give God’s gifts. These are churches in which Jesus is not to be found in His Word and Sacraments but only in hearts if you look hard enough or in a person’s outward piety or “walk” with Jesus. These churches deny that they are true spiritual mothers because all they have is self help and self-deceit and not the pure milk of God’s Word and the food of Christ’s body and blood. Beware of such preaching and teaching! Hear Christ’s promise that the Spirit comes to remind us of all that He said and did. And run from any preacher or church or religious idea that isn’t about delivering Jesus to you.
Our earthly mothers are sinners. They make mistakes. They don’t always do right by their children and they often exasperate and embarrass their kids. Yet nevertheless, the Lord commands us to “Honor your father and your mother” anyway. That is His command. Kids, you have no cause whatsoever to back talk or disagree with your parents. Your Mom is your Mom because God made her so. There is no such thing as “that’s not fair” or “you never let me” or “I hate you!” There is no place for such things. Children, if you would give your Moms a true Mother’s Day, then not just today, but every day, ask yourself, “What must I do today to put a smile on Mom’s face and to make her glad I’m her kid?” Likewise Moms, you aren’t called to be your kid’s friend or pal but their Mother. To provide for them and care for them and most of all, to show them that God works through means. To teach your kids that you stand in God’s place to provide for them. But more than that, to see that they learn to love their spiritual mother, the Church. To learn with them how God works through means. You see, if the church is our mother, then we all have much to learn as to how to treat Mom. In Christ, you have been given a heavenly Father and a spiritual mother. Rejoice in her gifts! Learn all that she does for you. And again, not for the Church’s sake, but so that you learn to glorify God the Father who has given us the Spirit that we might be reminded of all that Jesus said and did for our salvation.
Pentecost. It is the Israelite Festival of Weeks – a “week” of weeks since the Passover. Pentecost is when God was thanked for the gift of processed grain. Yet now it took on a whole new meaning.
No longer does the Holy Spirit land on your shoulder like a dove at Baptism. Nor does He enter the church nave with a rushing wind or tongues of fire or the speaking of foreign languages. Instead, He quietly brings Christ to us, and with our Lord, His saving forgiveness, life, and salvation.
The most important thing we can learn about our Lord’s Ascension is that even though He has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, He IS NOT GONE. Most people seem to think that after Jesus’ ascension, He’s not around anymore. He’s far away. Wherever the “right hand of God” is, it’s not nearby. People suppose that Jesus is gone and that they’re just sort of on their own, maybe with some help from the Spirit, until He comes back. But this is exactly what the Scriptures do NOT teach.
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” So by the preaching of the Gospel and the water and the Word, the Spirit makes disciples out of sinners in the world. And just as the world knows nothing about what the Gospel is, so also the world knows nothing about faith. When Jesus says “whoever believes,” He doesn’t mean that we have some knowledge about things He did or that we can recite some names and dates about His life. He means a trust that clings to Him and to His gifts. The Bible says that when the Lord went on high, He gave gifts to men. These are the gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation, given through the preaching of the Word, the water of the font, the words of absolution and the body and blood of the Supper. To believe means to trust that you have nothing going for you but Jesus and those gifts which give you Jesus. To a world that is dead in trespasses and sins, Jesus doesn’t just send some knowledge about a far away God, He actually delivers repentance and the forgiveness of sins through His preachers.
On this day, forty days after Easter, Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. That doesn’t mean He’s gone. It just means we don’t see Him with our eyes. But He’s right here, where His Gospel is preached, where water and the Spirit are poured, where His body and blood are given to eat and drink. And with these gifts, Jesus makes us His own, raises us from the death of sin, seats us in the heavenly places and works all things for our good until He returns again, the same way He went on this day. Jesus died for you. He rose for you. And His ascension is for you too! We have heard of His Ascension today. Now, like His disciples, who went to the Temple, praising and glorifying Jesus, we too come to His house, full of joy and to receive His good gifts in which He is right here with us again. Amen.
Once again, Higher Things is excited to announce that we are providing an opportunity for adults to visit our conferences this summer. Many people want first-hand information about our organization and our conferences. Here’s your chance to find out for yourselves!
Let’s be clear here. My husband is a pastor and I’m a writer. As a children’s author, I have one published work, “Smedley and the Sprinkle Machine.” Right now, I make a small amount on book sales, and an infinitesimal amount on royalties. I make enough to cover the cost of writing and my writing related expenses. But going in we knew that we weren’t going to be making a lot of money with our career choices. We pretty much run every paycheck right down to the wire, and have a very small amount of savings for major emergencies. But every Sunday, I sit down and write our offering check – and I do it joyfully. It doesn’t matter how low our checking account is, how close we’re cutting it, or that we don’t get paid until Tuesday. I have learned to trust God that we will not overdraw on the offering check. I also trust that somehow we will meet all of our essential expenses. And when we’ve been truly desperate, unexpected money came from somewhere. We give of our time and talents too, but on the money front, we don’t have much to give, but like the widow’s mite, it doesn’t matter in God’s eyes.
Giving shouldn’t be a competition. The point of the show is for each competitor to “Give Big or Go Home”. They are given the standard challenges, like in any reality show, and a time limit. Each person tries to give bigger than the other people. Now I’m not saying that they didn’t help people, but there was also a LOT of talk about winning, or giving more, or being better than the other competitors. “I’m the biggest giver”. “No, I’M the biggest giver.” It kind of turned my stomach.
I know the show had in mind to start a pay-it-forward revolution. A lot of people watch Oprah, and she has a lot of clout. But I found out some interesting things while working on this piece. My husband, Pastor Jeffery Grams, made a comment about Oprah’s misguided belief system – which I wasn’t aware of – and I asked him to write about what he told me, as follows:
In a recent interview she praises a quote from Eckhart Tolle’s book “A New Earth” 
Rogate, the name of this Sunday, means “pray!” or “ask!” Comes right out of the Gospel reading where our Lord says: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full!” But how often is this gracious invitation unheeded? And why? Why is it that people have such a hard time praying?
Because you see, no matter what that old fiery serpent whispers in your ear about how much God is against you, about how He only wants to deprive you of life, to destroy you, to take from you all your freedom, all your fun – the snake on the pole shows that its all a lie. And that the One you’ve been running from, hiding from, not talking to, pretending He wasn’t there even as He kept you alive – and He’s the One who loves you.
We don’t have to wait until the game of hide and seek is over and we stand before the judgment seat. We can stand before the cross itself right now and see the judgment. And the judgment is that God loves us with a love that is unfathomable, unshakeable, and that His desire for us from the beginning has always only been that we share in His eternal love, that we receive from Him the gift of a love that never ends. We can look at the cross and see the judgment of God against all sin – the eternal death that we choose for ourselves when we run from Him and try to find life in the stuff of the creation. It’s all there. All borne. All answered for. All forgiven. And life is being reached us there. Life from the cross – His body and blood, here for you. The forgiveness of sins. The embrace of the Holy One which He gives not to destroy you, but to heal you forever.
