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Higher Homilies

The Word and the Tree

Rev. Mark Buetow

One question people love to ask pastors, and maybe you’ve asked it too, is “Pastor, if God knew Adam and Eve were going to sin, why did He put the Tree of Knowledge in the garden in the first place?” Well, I’m going to tell you the answer. The reason the Lord put that tree of knowledge there in the Garden was to teach Adam and Eve that the most important gift He had for them, above all else in creation, was His Word. Everything was made by His Word. They lived by His Word. If they ignored His Word or let go of it, they would die. Which is why the devil comes and questions God’s Word. It’s why it’s such a shame when Adam, who’s standing RIGHT THERE, doesn’t rebuke the serpent with God’s Word and remind Eve of what the Lord had sad. Take away God’s Word and there’s nothing but sin and death. And what about after the Fall? What’s the most important thing? Still the Lord’s Word. Because when Adam and Eve wrecked everything, the Lord’s Word was a promise. The promise of a Savior.

You see, Adam and Eve tried to separate God’s Word from the tree. When they did that the tree was nothing for them but death and misery. So how does God save them and the world? By making sure His Word is stuck to the tree. Not the Tree of Knowledge now but the tree of the cross. Jesus, the Word-Made-Flesh is nailed to that tree because only God’s Word attached to a tree will save you from death! Just as God’s Word attached to the Tree of Knowledge would have saved Adam and Eve, so the Word nailed to the Tree of the cross saves us from our sins. And this time, there can be no failure because Jesus is the One keeping God’s Word, Himself on that tree. Jesus won’t let go of the Word. When the devil throws all those temptations at Him, Jesus throws the Word back in his face and he overcomes those temptations. Then, on the cross, there’s that really big temptation the one thief tosses out: “Save yourself and us!” And the people: “Come down from the cross!” Those are all just ways of telling Jesus, “Separate the Word from the tree!” But Jesus won’t. He can’t. If He does, you’ll be doomed. So the Word and the tree stay together. Jesus stays nailed to the cross. Unto the moment of His declaring it is finished. Unto the moment of His death. The Word and tree, forever joined for your salvation. Sure, they took Jesus down and buried Him but He arose because where the Word and tree are, life has to follow. There’s been a transformation. Where the Word and tree are now becomes for you the Tree of Life.

You don’t keep the Word and the tree together. If you could have eaten the fruit, you would have. You do every time you sin. Every time you turn away from God’s Word. When you remember what your pastor taught you in the catechism about loving God and loving your neighbor and then just shrug your shoulders and do it anyway. When the devil comes and says, “Hey, try this!” You say, “Lead the way!” That’s what sinners do. Our sin is just another way of telling God, “I want to ignore your Word attached to that tree and eat its fruit anyways because it looks delicious!” Worst of all is when people try to separate Jesus from His cross, as if our religion is something other than Jesus the Word attached to that tree to save us! That’s why Jesus won’t let the Word and tree be separated. Why He keeps them together. When Jesus attaches His Word to something, it sticks. He was attached to the tree to save you. Now He attaches His Word to the water of the font to wash away all the fruit juice of sin staining you. He attaches His Word to your pastor to speak the forgiveness of sins. He attaches His Word to bread and wine to deliver His body and blood. Do you see? The tree to which the Word Jesus was attached, the cross, gives you the fruit of life. The Words, “Father, forgive them.” Water and blood flowing from His side to font and cup. Eden. Calvary. Same Lord. Same Word. He does things the same way. No matter what you do and what happens to you, it is His Word and tree that save you. Jesus is the Word. He holds to the Word. He keeps that Word attached to the tree and in His gifts keeps His Word and promises attached to you. Now go, the opposite direction of Adam and Eve, clothed with Jesus, back into paradise forever. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

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Catechesis

David’s House

Rev. Mark Buetow

“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.” 2 Samuel 7:12-14

When I was a kid, my parents used to read me bedtime stories from a Bible storybook. I heard the main stories about Adam and Eve and Noah and Moses and King David and Jesus, but I never understood how they fit together. What does David have to do with Jesus? I suspect if you ask most Christians, they’re not sure either. But the fact is, the Old Testament is all about Jesus in a very important way. When Jesus was born, He was born in a particular time and place from a particular family line. When the eternal Son of God became man in the womb of Mary, He was choosing a particular woman from a particular family tree. That family tree, as it turns out, went all the way back to Abraham (according to Matthew’s genealogy) and all the way to Adam (according to Luke’s). And Jesus’ family tree was traced through King David.

The birth of the Son of God on Christmas means that God the Father keeps His promises. And that’s really what the Old Testament is all about. It begins with the promise of a Savior to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15) and then it tells the story about how the Lord kept that promise by choosing a particular man, Abraham, and his family to be the family in which the Savior would eventually be born (Genesis 15). Seeing the connection between Jesus and these Old Testament saints helps us to understand how the Lord unfolded all these things to bring about the birth of Jesus to save the whole world—past and present—from sin.

Jesus is often called the “Son of David,” a reference to the fact that He was born from King David’s line. If you go back and read about David in 1 and 2 Samuel, you’ll see that his life is one picture after another that points to Jesus. He was a shepherd boy. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He defeated Goliath the Philistine. Jesus defeated the devil, our giant enemy. David conquered the enemies of God’s people and established the kingdom of Israel. Jesus defeats our enemies, sin, death, and the devil by His death and resurrection.

David also wanted to build a house for God. He built himself a nice palace and then decided the Lord shouldn’t be living in a tent (the Tabernacle which was a movable tent) but in a nice house instead. But the Lord had better plans for David. He said, “No, you won’t build me a house. But I’ll build yours and it will last forever,” (the words I referenced above). What the Lord meant was, “The Savior is going to come from your ‘house,’ that is, your family. And that Savior will be an everlasting King.”

King Solomon, David’s son, did end up building a more permanent house for the Lord. It was a mighty temple in which the Lord Himself lived. Within that temple there was the Ark of the Covenant and all the sacrifices. That temple got torn down. When Israel returned from exile in Babylon, they rebuilt the temple. It wasn’t quite as big and awesome as before. Later, that temple got torn down, too. A Gentile king named Herod rebuilt it again with loads of money, making it the most impressive temple yet. That’s the temple that was there in Jesus’ day. But remember what Jesus told them? “Tear down this temple and in three days I will build it again.” But He was talking about His body.

The Romans eventually destroyed the temple Herod built. And there has not been a temple ever since. But the Lord kept His promise. He kept His promise by sending His Son in the flesh. King David’s family and the temple were pictures and foreshadowings of something greater: Jesus. Jesus the Good Shepherd. Jesus the King of Kings. Jesus the One greater than the Temple because He Himself IS the temple, the very bodily dwelling of God on earth (John 1:14).

David was from the town of Bethlehem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was born there because that’s where David was from (and so Joseph and Mary had to return to the town of their ancestors). But He was also born there because “Bethlehem” means “House of Bread” and Jesus is the Bread of Life.

The more we read and hear the Old Testament, the more the New Testament makes sense. The more we read and hear the New Testament, the more we see what the Old Testament is about. All of it is about Jesus. The Old Testament points to Him. The New Testament is the eyewitness testimony about Him and the preaching of repentance unto the forgiveness of sins in His Name. What at first seems like stories that aren’t really connected, is really a complete and consistent message: God keeps His promises. He keeps those promises in Christ, through the family of real people—in this case King David’s family.

As we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Jesus, we are seeing God keeping His promises. He kept His promises to David and Israel. He keeps His promises to you. The promise is that you have a Savior, born in the City of David, to be One even greater than David and the temple—to be the King of Kings and God-in-the-flesh, all so that you and I are now made a part of that family of God, too. David wanted to build God a house. But the Lord built a house for David and you and me—an eternal dwelling whose cornerstone is Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas!

Rev. Mark Buetow is pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in DuQuoin, Illinois and serves as the deputy and media services executive for Higher Things. He can be reached at buetowmt@gmail.com.

Categories
Catechesis

Communion is for Real

Daniel Baker

As I walked down the middle aisle of the auditorium, along with many other Lutheran youth at the Higher Things Crucified conference this last summer in Logan, Utah, I soaked in the glistening hymns being sung. I stepped down toward Pastor Mark Buetow, who served me the body of Christ saying, “Daniel, take and eat the body of Christ given for you.” Again, when I received the blood of Christ, my name was spoken, and I was given Christ’s blood, which was shed for me. How great it was to hear it proclaimed BY NAME that Christ is for me! He is real. Communion is for REAL.

For those of you who have seen the movie Heaven Is For Real, I have no doubt that the movie itself was heartwarming and encouraging in its own way. I am not using the “is for real” part of the name for any specific disregard of the movie. Rather, I am declaring that the Sacrament of the Altar, Holy Communion, should be held to at least the same standard of reality as heaven. The Lord’s Supper is a taste of heaven on earth and points to the time when Jesus comes again and we celebrate/feast with Him forever. After all, it is Jesus’ own sacrifice for us on the cross, made personal and tangible to us through His very own Body and Blood given with the bread and wine, as expressed in An Explanation of the Small Catechism, “The bread and wine in the Sacrament are Christ’s body and blood by sacramental union. By the power of His word, Christ gives His body and blood in, with, and under the consecrated (blessed) bread and wine” (An Explanation of the Small Catechism, CPH, 1991). The beauty of this is that we are not simply eating and drinking in remembrance of Christ, but that we, through Christ’s word, are forgiven of our sins by looking to His sacrifice as we eat of His Body and Blood. By our faith in Jesus, we freely receive the gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation.

Honestly, I think our non-Lutheran brothers and sisters miss out on a great deal when it comes to Communion. I have watched them look for Jesus, or try to get close to Jesus, in all the wrong places, like in the emotions they feel through music, various church programs and even through Jesus “speaking to them.” If you believe Communion is only symbolic, then it’s like closing a door in Jesus’ face when He’s coming to YOU. Think about it. Jesus took on flesh and blood for us. He became human in every way but was without sin. He created us to think and experience things in physical terms, so how good He is to us to give us the gift of His Supper—something we can taste, smell and see with our senses. It’s like when Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” So what did Jesus do? He offered Himself for Thomas to do just that. “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:25-28). Communion is for REAL.

Pastor Timothy Pauls had a great breakaway session in Logan, where he compared various teachings of Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Reformed and other Protestants. I was surprised at some of the background information, especially how it came to be that many Christians see Communion as a memorial only. He had it laid out so well and really helped me to understand the differences and appreciate what we celebrate as Lutherans. Surely non-Lutherans do partake of the Lord’s Supper, however they often serve it inconsistently and rarely, but it seems to me that what it really comes down to is the lack of value they give it. I have learned over the years and personally experienced myself that this gift from Jesus may seem like only bread and wine to most, but in reality, it is the REAL Body and Blood of Christ, the REAL sacrifice broken and shed for us, and is the REAL deal. Communion is for REAL.

Every conference I attend (Logan was my third) has magnified this reality for me. We begin and end with the Divine Service. Whenever I am blessed to receive the Body and Blood of the perfect Pascal Lamb, who was crucified for all of the sins I have and will ever commit, I get to depart in peace because I have true peace, completely confident that I have received REAL forgiveness of sins, from Christ himself. What can be more REAL than this?

Daniel Baker is a freshman at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, where he attends Peace Lutheran Church. He spends his time studying exercise science to become a physical therapist and playing soccer and has his sights set on being a CCV at the Te Deum conference next summer in Las Vegas. Feel free to contact him at dkb99@nau.edu.

Categories
Life Issues

Kick Your Conference Experience into High Gear: Be a CCV

Kaitlin Jandereski

After the last word of the last stanza from the last hymn of yet another Higher Things conference is all said and done, all of the youth attendees pack up their belongings, load their vans and head home. They get up the next morning, eat their Chex cereal, listen to some country radio, and perhaps never give a thought about the College Conference Volunteers (CCVs) who helped put the entire conference together again.

Wait, what?

Okay, I get it. We CCVs-we’re not always the coolest bunch of kids on the block. We cut in front of you in lines, we sometimes give you the wrong directions, and we wear the same shirt all conference long.

But I think if you decide to take the CCV plunge for yourself, you’ll discover that it’s an amazing experience!

Here’s why:

  • CCVs get to meet people from all different states with all different accents. (And Canadians, too, eh!)
  • Most people play Uno. CCVs play Killer Uno.
  • Pastor Buetow takes the entire staff, which includes the CCVs, for morning Starbucks runs. (If you’re from a small town like me and have never tried Starbucks before, my recommendation for you: The peach cobbler frappuccino. One word: Ahhhhh-maz-ing.)
  • Cutting in front of people in the meal lines is indeed a perk. Well, a perk for the CCVs. But we get to do it because we need to make sure we are available for whatever is coming next in the conference.
  • CCVs get to steam the banners that are used for chapel. C’mon! You know you’ve always wanted to say that you did that!
  • CCVs supervise free-time activities, like dodge ball, karaoke, Minute-to-Win-It, and the annual Higher Things talent show.
  • Even the Conference Executive, Sandra Ostapowich, wants to hang out with the CCVs! Hellooooooo late night trips to Steak ‘N’ Shake!
  • CCVs meet people who are experiencing Higher Things for the first time ever and people who are experiencing Higher Things for the fourteenth time. Yet each person they meet is freshly amazed at the pure theology delivered during the services, the classes, and the plenary sessions.
  • CCVs get to pack every.single.bag. For every.single.group. That’s a lot of bags.
  • Exhibitors are friendly and they’ll talk to CCVs when nobody else will. Actually, exhibitors will talk to anyone when no one else will. But, you get the point.
  • During announcements, Pastor Borghardt will make the CCVs jump on stage. In case you were wondering, it’s a good way to get over stage fright.
  • CCVs get to meet the Higher Things’ vicar and laugh when everybody calls him “Victor” because that’s not his real name, but everybody thinks it is.
  • CCVs might be busy all day long, but they still get to take a break, attend the church services and be fed the solid preaching of the Word from the pulpit.
  • CCVs try to be asleep by 12am (because they were working all day and they’re tired and normal people are in bed already), but they get to stay up all night talking with their other CCV friends instead.
  • CCVs get to sit with the pastors at lunch and talk theology.
  • CCVs get to lead Sandra Ostapowich and Pastor Borghardt to the first plenary session of the week. And then they get them lost and leave them wondering why the heck they even brought you on board as a CCV. (Or maybe that only happened to me. Yeah, probably just me. Uffda! Sorry, guys.)
  • CCVs get to meet hundreds of people with the same beliefs that they have. And then CCVs also give those hundreds of people directions to the buildings that they’re trying to find (and try not to get them lost)!
  • CCVs get to sell merchandise, which may or may not lead them to fall into a desire to covet ALL of the items for sale.
  • We CCVs love to laugh and we even love to laugh so hard that we really do cry. #Winning
  • Water. CCVs get to carry lots of water bottles and hand them off to the breakaway teachers.
  • If you ever wanted to dress up like a minion and run around on stage during Friday Announcements like a-well -like a minion, this is your chance! But only if you’re a CCV. PLUS, Pastor Buetow is the CCV’s very own Dr. Gru and speaks in a Russian accent to accentuate your minion experience.
  • Just like at their home congregations, CCVs have a second family within the Higher Things’ staff. The camaraderie is unparalleled!
  • Like you, CCVs leave each conference, happily drenched with the Gospel, knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Kaitlin Jandereski was a CCV for Gainesville, FL’s 2014 Higher Things’ conference and is a future deaconess. She currently lives in a small town called Bad Axe, Michigan and can be reached at jande1kb@cmich.edu.

Categories
Current Events

Peace for Ferguson that Surpasses All Understanding

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard

Despite repeated calls for peace, in the hours following the announcement that Officer Darren Wilson would not be charged in the shooting death of Michael Brown, the scene in Ferguson was anything but peaceful. Buildings burned. Looters smashed windows and grabbed what they could. Armored police patrolled the streets.

The unrest began back on August 10, the day after the shooting. What began as a peaceful protest soon turned into looting, destruction, and tense standoffs with police. For more than 3 months, peace has delicately hung in the balance as everyone awaited the decision of a grand jury as to whether the officer would be charged with criminal action.

I grew up in a town adjacent to Ferguson, and the road where many of the demonstrations have taken place was my daily route to high school. As I watch things things happening on the evening news, I can’t comprehend what would drive a person to seek justice in stealing from a local business. I don’t understand how someone thinks burning down a building is making a positive statement. But that’s just the thing about sin. Martin Luther writes in the Smalcald Articles (III.I) that original sin is such a deep corruption of human nature that no reason can understand it. The depth of our sin can only be believed by the revelation of God. We can only know how bad it really is with us from God’s Word. We don’t want to acknowledge it but the inclination, desire and ability to loot, to riot, to burn down a business, and even to shoot an unarmed man in cold blood is something that’s found in me—and in you. If you don’t think yourself capable of doing such things, you don’t have a very good grasp of human nature. The reason why peace is so precarious is precisely because of sin. We are by nature enemies of God. And if we are enemies of God, there is no hope for true and lasting peace here on earth. In the coming days and weeks and months and years, Ferguson will begin to return to normal. The damage will be cleaned and repaired. Businesses will return. But that does not yet mean that we have found peace.

Jesus says to His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). The peace of Jesus is a peace different than what the world gives. The peace of Jesus is a lasting peace, an enduring peace, a peace that calms troubled hearts. And HE gives this peace just hours before He will be executed for crimes He didn’t commit!

When Jesus suffers under Pontius Pilate, He suffers for sinners. When He dies on the cross, He dies for looters, for arsonists, for cops and criminals alike. He dies for me and for you. And His death brings peace—not just on earth, but true and lasting peace between God and man.

But true peace cannot stay buried in a grave. The first thing Jesus says to His disciples after His resurrection is, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19). Then He shows them His hands and side. Peace is with you because Jesus was crucified. Peace is with you because He bled for you. A second time He says, “Peace be with you,” and this time He follows it up with the gift of the Holy Spirit. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” says Jesus, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:22-23). This peace is yours when your sins are forgiven for the sake of the One who was crucified.

Peace for Ferguson—and for you—is not found in the absence of earthly conflict. True peace isn’t when the protesters have dispersed and the police can take off their riot gear. True peace is found in the wounds of Christ. This is a peace that surpasses all understanding. It’s a peace that no reason can grasp, but is yours by faith. It’s the only true peace for the residents of North St. Louis County, peace for Mike Brown’s family, peace for the protesters, peace for the police, and peace for you.

And this peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Ehrhard serves as the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri. He grew up Florissant, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis near Ferguson.

Categories
Catechesis

Dare to Be Lutheran: What Does This Mean?

By Rev. George F. Borghardt

Dare to be Lutheran. It’s been our motto at Higher Things from the very beginning. We even trademarked it a few years ago! We dare you to be Lutheran, to live Lutheran, to grow up Lutheran, and continue to BE Lutheran.

But isn’t that arrogant? Isn’t that closed-minded? Shouldn’t you be daring youth to be Christians? Isn’t that good enough? Do you seriously think that Lutherans are the only ones who are right? Don’t you think that this just feeds more of that “only Lutherans go to heaven” stereotype?

A Lutheran is a Christian who believes that Jesus alone saves by grace alone, received by faith alone. We know this from Scripture alone. It’s as certain as 2+2=4. No one was ever called arrogant or closed-minded for believing that 2+2=4. It’s not five. It’s not three. Those other answers are wrong.

It’s not arrogant for Lutherans to believe we’re right either. It’s absolutely true that Jesus alone saves. He alone is right. Oh, we aren’t the only people who are right. The Gospel has a way of slipping through in places you wouldn’t expect! And we should never say we are right simply because we are Lutherans or that we are right in and of ourselves. We are right by Jesus alone, by grace alone, according to Scripture alone. We confess this Gospel only by the working of the Holy Spirit in us. We don’t make ourselves right. We certainly don’t deserve to be right. We are Lutherans by grace alone.

“Daring to be just a Christian” can’t be enough because so much of Christianity today is filled with all sorts of things that aren’t really Christian at all. It’s Evangelicalism. It’s filled with grace-talk that is followed immediately by works-talk. They say contradictory stuff like, “Jesus saves you by grace alone, all you have to do is this, that, and the other thing. And once you’re saved, Jesus expects you to change, to be better, to make your salvation sure or maybe you weren’t really truly Christian in the first place after all.”

That’s not daring to be Lutheran! That’s daring to be the same old sinner you were the day you were conceived, living out your inborn, self-made religion-that’s the religion that believes what you do and don’t do will put you in God’s good graces and make Him like you. That’s no dare at all.

Jesus lived His life for you. Jesus died the death you deserve on the Cross. He now lives, and true Life is found only in Him. What you do doesn’t save you-all it can do is damn you. But He was damned for you so that in Him, you will never see hell. So dare to be different. Dare to be Lutheran.

Not every Lutheran is the same, either. There is an alphabet soup of Lutheranism out there-some of which you need to dare NOT to be. If it looks like generic Christianity, worships like generic Christianity, is centered on you and not on Jesus crucified for you…it’s not Lutheran.

What kind of Lutheran do I need to dare to be? The Christ’s-cross-alone, received-by-faith-alone from-Scripture-alone kind of Lutheran, of course! The-Lord-be-with-you and with-thy-Spirit kind. The Holy-Baptism-saves kind. The Lord’s-Supper-gives-me-Jesus’-True- Body-and-True-Blood kind. The my-pastor-forgives-my-sins kind. The Bible-is-the-authoritative-Word-of-God kind of Lutheran. Dare to be THAT kind of Lutheran.

So why is this important? I’ve not always been Lutheran. I grew up Roman Catholic. The Lord converted me my freshman year of college. I had always heard what I had to do to be saved…maybe. Only in the Lutheran church did I hear that Christ saves totally by grace alone. It changed my life.

I’m mostly grown up now. I have three kids. I don’t want them to go on the same journey I went on. I want them to grow up Lutheran. I want them to believe what we believe and to receive the comfort and peace that comes only from the pure Gospel. I want them to receive the Sacrament with me. It’s important to me; it’s a matter of life and death. I’ll bet it’s important to your parents, too.

For, if you are a Lutheran, why would you want to be anything else? If the Gospel has become clear to you that salvation and heaven and faith and life are all about Jesus’ cross alone without any merit or worthiness in you, why would you want to trade that for anything else? Why would you want to be anything else?

Dare to confess that Jesus alone saves you. Dare to believe that His salvation is by grace alone, not by what you do or don’t do. Dare to confess that Jesus is received by faith alone. Dare to base your faith only from Scripture alone.

Dare to be Lutheran!

Rev. George F. Borghardt serves as the Senior Pastor at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in McHenry, Illinois. He is the President of Higher Things. His email is revborghardt@higherthings.org.

Categories
Higher Homilies

Wimpily Weak, Imbecilicly Foolish, and Incredibly Effective

Rev. Bruce Keseman

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Jesus is a wimpy weakling. And you? You’re an imbecilic fool, if you believe in Him. That’s what first century Jews say. That’s what first century Greeks say. That’s what all humans who live on this earth now say if they simply believes what their two eyes see. Jesus is a wimpy weakling. And you’re an imbecilic fool.

“Jews want signs,” Paul tells us. Power. Impressiveness. But what could be weaker, wimpier, and less impressive than a convict drooping dead from a Roman instrument of execution? What could be weaker? How about a damned convict drooping dead from the cross. Anyone hung from a tree is under God’s curse, forsaken by the Father. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Who would be fool enough to believe in Jesus cursed by His own Father?

Aren’t you sometimes a little embarrassed telling people the details of what you really believe? If you stop for supper at a restaurant on the way home tonight, strike up a conversation with the stranger beside you in line. Say, “Hi, I believe that a spirit from outside this universe voluntarily got Himself murdered in this universe so that I can go where He came from. Oh, and I believe a woman who never had sex gave birth to that Spirit on earth so He could be human as well as a spirit.” If the guy still hasn’t called security yet, and he happens to ask you how Jesus changes your life on earth, you can tell him, “Oh, I get to bear crosses, in other words, I get to suffer for believing in Jesus.” No doubt, that’ll convince the guy he should believe, too!

Don’t you sometimes wish God had saved you by some method more palatable to modern sensibilities? Then you wouldn’t have to be so embarrassed by your faith. You ingrate! The Jesus you have isn’t good enough for you? You want an impressive Jesus. An impressive Jesus would come down from the cross. An impressive Jesus would leave you without a Savior.

The apostles wanted an impressive Jesus. The apostles are Jews. The Jews want signs, power. So when Jesus says He’s about to be glorified, the apostles have to be thinking, “Finally! Finally, He’s going to put His power on display. He’s going to do something that will make us proud.” But, nooo, Jesus says He’ll be glorified by doing what a good grain of wheat does when the farmer in your congregation plants it in the soil. Jesus will die. With all your ingratitude attached to Him, so it is no longer attached to you. And then He will come out of the soil alive. Because that’s what a good grain of wheat does.

In short, if you want to see Jesus in all His power and glory, look at Him writhing in pain on a cross. No wonder the message of the cross is offensive to Jews who want to see impressive signs of power. And, too often, to us as well.

The cross is just as offensive to Greeks who crave wisdom. Jesus’ way of salvation sounds downright foolish.

How many of you attend a congregation named “Holy Cross Lutheran Church”? Go home and repaint the sign in front of your building to say, “Holy Lethal Injection Lutheran Church.” Everybody, go home and tell your church council you want the brass cross on brass altar replaced with a beautiful brass syringe. In our church chancel, we have a lindenwood carving of Jesus on the cross. Wonder if we can get a craftsman in Italy to sculpt a lindenwood carving of Jesus in front of a firing squad instead. Next time there’s a baptism at your church, ask your pastor to make the sign of the holy electric chair both upon the forehead and upon the heart to mark that person as redeemed by Christ the executed.

Sounds absurd. But the cross is nothing else than the first century equivalent of a lethal injection, a firing squad, and an electric chair. You stake your eternity on a ridiculous claim that Christian preachers have been making and Christian believers have been believing for 2000 years: that when some first century Jew got crucified for a capital crime, He was satisfying all God’s wrath against every sin of every sinner from Adam until us.

That’s preposterous! No wonder the cross is offensive. It’s wimpily weak. And imbecilicly foolish.

Ahh, but that’s God’s weakness. And God’s foolishness.

God’s weakness is stronger than man’s strength. Jesus draws one last breath. Hangs His head. Gives up His Spirit. And in that moment of pure weakness Jesus accomplishes what all the powers of earth put together could never accomplish. He pulls you out of hell and into heaven. Tetelestai! It is finished. The weakness of the cross is God’s power to save you. That’s why we believe, no matter how weak it looks.

And the foolishness of the cross is God’s wisdom to save you.

Gather all the wisest people in the world. Ask them to solve the world’s problems. Give them a week. Give them a year. Give them a decade. They’d come up with hundreds of ideas. Some might be good ideas. But even all of their good ideas put together wouldn’t end the suffering in this world.

There’s one solution I guarantee those brilliant-mind braintrust wouldn’t think of. And neither would our puny minds. No one would suggest that God put His Son onto this planet fully intending to have Him executed. But that’s what God did. So it wasn’t cute Fluffy who got a Silence-of-the-Lambs treatment. Jesus is the Paschal Lamb sacrificed so that eternal death passes over you—precisely because that death did not pass over Him.

And no human mind would open the cupboard, see a loaf of bread and bottle of wine and think, “I know a good way for God to get His salvation to us otherwise hellbound people. He could use bread and wine. And He could, like, put in our mouths the body and blood of His Son, the same body and antivenom blood that was crucified 2000 years ago for us snakebit sinners.” That’s human silliness. But it’s divine wisdom.

When the Holy Spirit uses nothing more than a splash of water that has nothing more attached than God’s promise—and nothing less attached—a little baby who can’t do anything but scream and poop suddenly possesses wisdom that exceeds all the smartest unbelievers in history. It’s a cruciflood! She may not realize she is doing it but like still dripping-from-the-font little Ruth who grabbed her pastor’s pectoral cross and hung on for dear life, that child is clinging to Jesus’ cross by faith, even if she doesn’t realize it. And, if you think that’s impressive, with nothing more than words printed on the pages of an ordinary book that happens to say “Bible” on the front, and with nothing more than words spoken by an ordinary man like your pastor, the same Spirit keeps you clinging by faith to that cross through good times, tough times, and especially the sin-filled times of life.

Some people consider that kind of talk sacramental silliness. And if all you believe is what your eyes see, it is sacramental silliness. But we believe what God says. So to us who are being saved, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For 2000 years, our Lord has been using water, words, bread, and wine to say, “Christ crucified is for you.” I need Christ crucified. Desparately. So if that’s foolishness, I say, “Give us more foolishness!”

Sure the message of the cross is offensive. But believe it. Speak it. Rejoice in it every day of your life. It is wimpily weak, imbicilically foolish, . . . and incredibly effective. Christ Crucified is God’s power, God’s wisdom, and your salvation.

Pastor Bruce Keseman is pastor of Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church in Freeburg, IL. He preached this homily at the closing Divine Service at Crucified 2014 in Mequon, WI.

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Higher Homilies

Higher Homily: The Glory of Jesus

Rev. Aaron Fenker

John 12:20–33

Well, it’s pretty much over, isn’t it? The appointed end has come. The week is winding down. People from all over the nation and even the known world gathered together. The time is run short. Perhaps new friendships were made during that time. Maybe old friends saw each other again. There’s fun and games. Small groups enjoying the Word and fellowship, and, when it’s all over, there’s the long trip back home. It’s all come down to this. Nothing is left undone. Everything’s been packed up nicely. Well, everything except one thing: It was His time. It was high time for Him to be glorified. He had been waiting for it, but now “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” It’s the reason He’s come from the Father. It’s the reason He’s at the Passover Feast – Holy Week. He’s come to be seen in His glory. Jesus reveals Himself. He wants you to see Him this way: There! – behold Him! Crucified! He wages the glorious battle there for you. A crown becomes the Victor’s brow. There He enters His glory, He sits upon His throne, suffering, sighing, bleeding, dying, crucified for you. That’s His glory. It’s His only glory. That’s the only glory that saves you, and JESUS WANTS YOU TO SEE HIS GLORY, THAT IS, HIS BEING CRUCIFIED AND RAISED FOR YOU.

(I. It’s a glory that was seen at Calvary.)

Calvary, Golgotha, the place of the skull, is the place where this glory was seen. It had to be this way. “What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” This was His only purpose for coming. It’s why He was born. He came to manifest His glory. This was finally the time for Jesus to be glorified. Yes, “the hour has come,” for thus the Father willed it, who fashioned us with clay. It was willed from the foundation of the world, and that purpose is now being fulfilled as the Son obeyed His Father’s will, and so He says, “I have come to this hour.” His glory is come, shining forth in the sky, transfixed amidst the firmament for all to see, and it’s this glory that saves you. There we are drawn: all our sins, our curse, our death, our sickness, our pain, crucified in Him. The curse of it all!: God crucified (crowned, enthroned, dead). The glory of it all! “And I, when I am exalted, will draw all people to myself.” God crowned, enthroned, dead: so glorious that it’s too holy for even the blessed angels to behold.

He is glorified there, but glorified even yet again by the Father, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” We hear the name of glory: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” And it was a name glorified again – resurrection glory on top of crucified glory. You need this glory because no other glory can save you except Golgotha glory, crucified glory – Jesus’ glory. The glory of our last minute victories, our good grades, our high marks, our reputation among our friends can’t save us. It’s only false glory. The glory we lord over others, with whatever measure we use to judge others and put them down so that we can be king or queen of the hill. Repent! Jesus’ glory saves you “Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” The judgment of the world and devil, the judgment over our sin, which is the forgiveness of that sin, our victory over devil and world, the glory of this judgement is seen in Jesus crucified for you.

(II. It’s a glory seen in our day.)

Jesus crucified, His true glory, is seen even in our day. It was seen for the Greeks BEFORE He was crucified. They asked Philipp, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’…Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’ ” Jesus speaks of His being crucified. From Jesus’ own mouth, “Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” It’s even seen today. And it doesn’t matter where you are! Look to the preaching. You see Him crucified with your ears, just like the Greeks did that day! Jesus is portrayed there, held there for you as crucified for your sins. See your baptism: “I will draw all people to Myself.” Jesus has dragged you to His death on the cross for you. You’ve been baptized into that death and also His resurrection. See the fruit of Jesus’ cross! His death “bears much fruit.” It wasn’t just water that blossomed forth from that tree, but blood too. You not only see but receive the glory of Jesus’ body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. You’ve seen and received it here in Gainesville, and it’s a glory you see and receive from your altar at home. Jesus’ glory of cross, death, and empty tomb is seen and heard from every single Pulpit, Font, and Altar, and it’s in those places for you.

(III. It’s a glory seen on the Last Day.)

Jesus’ glory is seen in His death on the cross. His glory is seen in His resurrection. Jesus’ glory is that He has been crucified for your sins. It’s the glory He came to reveal, it’s the glory He reveals to you today and every Lord’s day, because it’s the glory that saves you! And it’s a glory we’ll see face to face in the life to come. For on that day we’ll all see that

Those dear tokens of His passion

 Still His dazzling body bears,

Cause of endless exaltation

To His ransomed worshipers.

With what rapture,

Gaze we on those glorious scars!

INI + AMEN.

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Higher Homilies

Higher Homilies: Messy Business: Exodus 12:1-14

Rev. Joel Frische

Exodus 12:1-14

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

It’s starts out so nice. Dad brings home a cute little fluffy, perfect, one year-old male lamb. It’s kind of like getting a new pet. But then just a few short days later you go “Silence of the Lambs” on it. You take that sweet little lamb, slaughter it, smear its blood on your house, roast it with fire, even its head, legs and its innards. Then you pair it with some wine, a bit of flat bread and bitter herbs and then you eat poor little fluffy. But that’s not all. If there is anything of fluffy left, you go pyromaniac on it. You incinerate it by the next morning. What starts out so nice, gets ugly really quickly.

But sin is ugly and messy. God’s judgment over sin is real. The wages of sin is death. There’s no getting around that one. It’s clear in the Old Testament just as it is in the New. Feast on the forbidden fruit like Adam and Eve, break God’s commandments, close your ears to His Word, expect to die. He’s gonna go pyromaniac on you!

But just as sin is messy business, so is salvation. You’re old enough. You’ve been taught the Christian faith. You know that God’s work in Christ for the salvation of His people isn’t some cute, fluffy story. It involves, at times, suffering, blood and gore, and yes, even brutal death. For sin to be atoned, covered up, washed away, blood must be shed, a death must take place. So it was for Israel, so it is for you. Sin requires payment, a payment you or no other sinner can make. A payment bigger than even a cute little lamb. And know this, if Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world doesn’t pay it FOR YOU, death will never pass you over.

Atonement for sin in is messy business indeed. Consider that Passover lamb. There were approximately 600,000 men, not including women and children, whom God freed from bondage in Egypt. If even half of those men had wives and children you’d have tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands of households, each with a one year-old, spotless, male lamb to be slaughtered at twilight on the 14th day of the month, roasted, eaten and the leftovers burned. But God was at work, bringing life from death. God’s people feasted on the flesh of a lamb without blemish, whose blood on the doorposts spared them from the angel of death and set them on the road to the Promised Land. Actually it foreshadowed a greater blood and a greater redemption.

The story is far bigger than that. God had something better in store for these children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, definitely something better FOR YOU. He’s got more for you than a piece of real estate in the Middle East or a plate of lamb chops. Christ is your Passover Lamb, sacrificed FOR YOU. He is the spotless Lamb of God, whose blood has purchased and freed you from the bonds of sin, death and the power of the devil. But in this Passover of old, the Lord has much to teach you about your salvation in Jesus.

When God’s people of old observed the Lord’s Passover as they prepared to depart with haste to the Promised Land, everything changed. What Yahweh, the Lord is about to do to set His people free is so huge that their entire calendar is reordered. The month of their redemption now becomes the first month in their record of time. Time is reordered according to the Lord’s salvation for His people.

And every year at this time from henceforth they were to observe this great feast to Yahweh. He commanded them to keep the feast. It was a statute, a Law. And yet this Passover feast, even generations later, bound them together with those who had gone before them. For redemption from bondage was not just for those people at that time, but for all Israel, for all time. And as huge as the Passover Feast was for God’s people of old, Jesus takes it, He fulfills it and makes something greater FOR YOU!

Jesus takes this Passover and He makes it His own. He fulfills it. He makes it a Feast for you that’s not just a memorial of his death, but a life-giving feast of redemption from eternal death. Every celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a Passover anew, death passes over you and you partake of life eternal. “This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Your Passover Lamb who was CRUCIFIED on the cross once for all for the sins of the world, for your sin, now offers Himself to you, feast after feast after feast. And as you partake of His flesh and blood He binds you with Him and with all believers in heaven and on earth.

Just as the Passover of old was so huge that it reordered the calendar, look at how Christ CRUCIFIED really does the same for you. Time is reordered. It begins with your Baptism, the 8th day, the day of a new creation. Every day is now a Sabbath rest in Jesus as your Old Adam drowns and dies and your whole life is reordered in Him. Each new church year follows the life of Christ, a journey from the manger to the cross to the empty tomb and then to the out into the church, where God’s people feast on the Lamb who was slain.

That Feast is the climax of what takes place in the Divine Service. The hymns, the liturgies, everything building up to that moment when your spotless Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world comes to you with His gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation, targeted right at you, in your mouth. And then out of your mouth comes prayer and praise that confess back to the Lord His goodness, His mercy and His love for sinners.

We even eat Christ’s Passover Feast with haste, not in the same exact way that ancient Israel did, but not that differently either. They were on the brink of the exodus, the way out of bondage, the road to the Promised Land. So they ate with haste, their sandals on their feet and their staff in their hand, ready to go. So it is for you when you feast on Christ’s body and blood. You are a stranger and pilgrim in this fallen world, on the road to a new heaven and a new earth, where the Feast of the Lamb and His bride never ends. When you partake of the foretaste of that great feast to come, you’re ready to depart, not just to go home, but to be with Christ for all eternity. Lord now let Your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your salvation.

You see, the Passover is your story, because it’s all about Christ the spotless Lamb, without blemish, sacrificed, for you. JESUS CRUCIFIED! DEATH PACIFIED! YOU JUSTIFIED, SANCTIFIED, holy in Jesus. Your paschal Lamb has set you free. Alleluia!

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

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Higher Homilies

Died and Raised in Baptism with Christ

Rev. Randy Sturzenbecher

Romans 6:1-11

I. Died and rose in Baptism with Christ

STOP THAT!! Quit it! Don’t do that anymore!! You know better than that! That’s not the way you were raised. That’s not the CCV’s telling you to be quiet before worship. That’s not Pastor Borghardt scolding you, and telling you to love your neighbor. It’s not a note here from your pastors or parents or congregations to keep you in line. This is a wonderful message of encouragement from St. Paul. We have the great privilege to be baptized into Christ Jesus. Drawn into the Kingdom of God by His grace and mercy, we are made new. But in order to be made new, the old… the old Adam… the old Eve… the old sinful nature had to die. We have been Baptized into Jesus’ death. In your Baptism, when water and God’s Word were washed over you, you died. The old sinful Adam or Eve died in the water. You might even say you were Crucified in your Baptism. Your sin, original and actual, was Crucified in your Baptism. Your death that waits open-eyed to pronounce sentence on you for your sin was Crucified and died in your Baptism. In your Baptism Christ’s death became your death. St. Paul reminds us, “We were buried with Christ by Baptism into death.” And in that death you were freed.

Sin’s curse and stain is ended in death. The contract is complete. The payment met. Sin brings death, and at death, sin is done with you. It has used you up and thrown your lifeless body into the ground to be buried. In your Baptism, you died and were buried with Christ. Jesus’ lifeless body, pierced and bloodied, was taken down from the cross and laid in the grave. Sin had done its worst, not Jesus’ sin; He was the sinless Son of God. Jesus was the lamb that was lead to slaughter as a sacrifice, a payment, a propitiation for us and all our sin. The death Jesus died was your death, for your sin. He did it willingly, lovingly, so you would never know damnation. So you would never be separated from the love of God your Father and all of His holy gifts.

And in your Baptism, just as certainly as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, you were raised to life. Your life is no longer controlled by sin and death. You were given a new nature and a new hope. Jesus, the Crucified one, did not stay in the grave. Death could not hold Him. On the third day, just as He said, He burst from the tomb. Sin, death and hell were left behind, eternally Crucified and dead.

In your Baptism you were connected to Jesus’ death. Your old Adam and Eve and sinful nature died. And as surely as Jesus rose, so you came out of the water of Baptism a new person. Satan can no longer condemn you, because your sins, all of them, have been paid for by Jesus’ death. You were given a new nature and a new name. You are a Holy, Justified, forgiven, child of God.

II. The old nature still is tempted and needs to be put to death.

But the temptations, the struggles with sin are still there. Even though the evil one can’t condemn you now that you are wearing the white robes of Christ’s righteousness, he still wants to and tries to drag you into the mud and stain your righteousness.

Temptations abound in your life for the evil one to try and pull you from Christ and make you a slave again to sin. It doesn’t matter what stage of life you are in. In our confirmation, we confessed we will hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully. But the temptation is there to think we can survive without the good and gracious gifts God gives to us. Your job, your friends, your free time…Satan continues to tempt you to think is all more important than God’s good and gracious gifts. He tempts you to think you can survive without them.

You will be tempted. You can bet on that. Some battles with Satan you will win by the power of The Holy spirit. Some battles will be long and you will fight and fight again. Some battles with sin and temptation you will lose. You will give in. Your old sinful nature will win. You will struggle with sin. You may even think that somehow God’s promises aren’t for you because you keep struggling.

STOP THAT! Quit it… Don’t do that anymore… You know better than that. That’s not how you were raised.

III. Forgiveness in confession and Absolution and God’s gifts.

You were raised with Christ in your Baptism. You were raised with Christ and He has justified you and declared you holy and forgiven. You were raised with Christ and were given faith to believe and hold firmly His promises for you. You were raised with Christ. His death became your death. His Victory and resurrection became your Victory and resurrection, and eternal hope.

A few years ago friends of ours adopted a baby girl. On the next Sunday after the adoption was complete they were gathered in front of the Baptismal font. The pastor was holding Ruth over the water and in the name of the +Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit+ Ruth was connected to Jesus death and resurrection. Right after she was baptized, while the pastor was still holding her over the life-giving water she reached up and grabbed the cross that hung down from the pastor’s neck.

We are raised with Christ in Baptism and like Ruth we cling to the cross through faith. When you find yourself struggling with sin and temptation make the sign of the cross placed upon you in your Baptism and call upon Jesus, the One who has beaten death and given that victory to you. When you are weary and broken by your failure to keep the Law, repent and live in the forgiveness Christ won for you on the cross. When you are standing at the grave of one you love, or facing your own death, remember that death could not hold Jesus. “Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death has no dominion over Him”. And because you were baptized in Christ, death has no dominion over you either. Jesus rose from the dead. He has conquered your enemies and He has given His victory to you in your Baptism. Christ was crucified and in His death you died. Christ is risen! (He has risen indeed Alleluia!) And in His resurrection from the dead you have been raised to new and eternal life with Him. Amen.

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