Sermon October 30, 2022 – Reformation

Title: God claims you and frees you!
Text: John 8:31-36

Facebook live: God claims you and frees you!

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Today we remember and celebrate the Reformation of the Church, by the former Roman Catholic Priest and Augustinian Monk, Martin Luther. We also celebrate the joy found in the freedom of the Gospel message, and continue together with the whole church to proclaim that truth to reach the lost with this same blessed good news!

Jesus tells the believing Jews in our Gospel today who had been following Him that:

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”

To be a disciple is to be a follower of Christ. One who is connected to God’s very words and who abides in them [who hears the word with the intention of following or obeying] one, who accepts and acts in accordance with the word of God.

In our Gospel reading for today Jesus tells the Jews and you and me as well:

32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Today truth can be anything you want it to be.
Truth can be defined in the world today according to our feelings.
Truth is no longer objective but subjective and defined as “My Truth.”

Many blindly follow the edict of subjective truth or fear getting cancelled.

Whether it’s the redefinition of marriage, the LBGTQ agenda, multiple genders of identification, or other societal norms that are being challenged against Natural Law and reason, the victim of this culture shift is truth and free speech has become hate-speech for many if My Truth is violated.

In the 1950’s a favorite TV show was “Father Knows Best”
Today, Father knows nothing, isn’t needed, and has been canceled.

In the 1960’s Time Magazine asked the question “Is God Dead?”
Today’s answer, “God isn’t dead - because God is me!”

But in the time of the Reformation, the freedom and liberty of the gospel is what Luther craved. It is what he searched for and why he became a monk – thinking that being locked inside the walls of a monastery, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, pilgrimages, and frequent confessions would keep him away from sin, the world and of the devil.

But sin is who we are.

Sin is the cause of a perfect creation being corrupted.
Sin askes the question, “Did God really say?”
And then Sin answer’s that question “No!”

God’s word says: 4 … “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female. Matt 19:4
Sin answers: No!
God’s word says: 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. Ex 20:3
Sin answers: No!
God’s word says: 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:13
Sin answers: No!

In Luther’s day the church took money for the forgiveness of sins. It was called buying an indulgence. Luther was tormented by sin. How could he a sinner stand before God how could he find peace?

His reformation came in the word of truth in Jesus Christ the son of God when he read in Romans 5:1:

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We need a new reformation today.
We need a return to objective truth.
We need to honor and value life at all stages.
We need repentance and forgiveness.
We need Jesus, who came to pay the price for sins of the world and set us free from this bondage of death.

33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

Martin Luther writes:

“Discipleship is not limited to what you can comprehend--it must transcend all comprehension.”

He continues:

Thus Abraham went forth from his father and not knowing (where he was going). He trusted himself to (God’s) knowledge, and cared not for his own, and thus he took the right road and came to his journey's end.

Behold, that end is the way of the cross.
That end is the way of truth.
That end is a new reformation.

Luther writes:

You cannot find it yourself, so you must let (God) lead you as though you were a blind man. (So), it is not you, no man, [no woman, no living creature, no “My Truth” no feelings] but (Christ) Himself, who instructs you by Word and Spirit in the way you should go.

Not the work which you choose, not the suffering you devise, but the road which is contrary to all that you choose to contrive or desire--that is the road you must take. To that, (Christ) calls you and me and in that - you must be my disciple.”

― Martin Luther

Saying in essence: Hear me! Listen to me! Abide in me! Follow me!

Friends the Reformation is now!

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The objective truth is that we are all bound to sin and its cravings.

We desire to do the will of our sinful nature which is in opposition to God’s will and as a result you and I fall short daily.

The world says, “Listen to me, deep down you are a really a good person!” when the truth is: deep down we are sinful.

The more you get to the core of who we are in our fallen human condition the more you see the sinfulness of man, corrupted to the core from the beginning by our first parents Adam and Eve.

But Jesus reminds His hearers: To Listen to him! Hear his word!

35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The freedom for the sinner is found only in Jesus. That was the joy that Luther found and what we celebrate in the Reformation. In Christ, true freedom from sin is possible and true liberty for we who are bound with the chains of guilt and despair is broken.

Christ has set free those who could not free themselves by his own binding.

The binding of His flesh to the cross in your place
The shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of your sin
A death worthy of a criminal for you and I who are guilty and the burial in a tomb meant for another …
In Jesus’ case … Joseph of Arimathea, for it was his tomb where Jesus was laid.

But, that tomb and that death WAS meant for you!

Jesus took your place,
He took your cross,
He took your death,
And He took your tomb and He made them what you couldn't …

Life, freedom, liberty, salvation and forgiveness
Hear the truth!

Salvation is all of God and not of man.

That is the message of the Reformation.

Luther restored the gospel truths about Christ and His merits that had been lost, covered by sin in the church and the focus on earthly rulers, once again by shinning the light of the gospel on Christ’s work, for you.

Because Jesus came to live, suffer, die and rise again for you … because of Christ and His merits … because the Son has set you free … you are free indeed!

We need to hear it again. We need it daily. We need Jesus!

May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be and abide with you now and forever.

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

Amen

Sermon October 22-23, 2022

Title: Salvation in Christ is all gift!
Text: Luke 18:9-17

Facebook live: Salvation in Christ is all gift!

17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

It has been said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
Source Unknown.

Robert Fulghum wrote in the Kansas City Times, "Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

"These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody . . . When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together." - Hugh Duncan.

17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

So, what is a child, what is faith, and - what is childlike faith?

Well, Webster says of a child: It is an unborn or recently born person; a young person especially between infancy and youth; a childlike or childish person; a person not yet of age; a son or daughter of human parents; one strongly influenced by another or by a place, or state of affairs.

And about faith Webster says: It’s a strong belief or trust in someone or something; belief in the existence of God; strong religious feelings or beliefs; a system of religious beliefs; fidelity to one's promises; sincerity of intentions; belief and trust in and loyalty to God; belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion; firm belief in something for which there is no proof; complete trust.

So, picture if you will a young child standing on the side of a pool; not yet of age to swim and having not been taught how, but being strongly influenced by dad’s call to jump and that he will catch them.

The child too has strong feelings and beliefs, that if dad misses or drops me, “I will hit the water and I’m going to sink as fast as the stones I’ve dropped in the pool at the deep end!”

But dad has promised to catch them and so they place their trust and intentions … complete trust and loyalty in dad … though there is no proof. As the child jumps, dad catches … confirming their faith in the object of their safety - the one who will not let them fall.
It is true as well with our heavenly father. As St. Paul writes in our epistle lesson for today:

18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. 2 Timothy 4:18

It is his promise.

So, where do we today place our trust?

What or in whom is the object of faith for the Christian?

Is it in our self?
Is it in our parents?
Is it in the church or religion as a whole?
Is it society and political power?
Is it strong or weak like a child?

15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

For those of you who attended Pastor Keuning’s Bible study a few weeks ago, he taught on the faith of infants. He explained that the word child in Greek can have different words to address different ages and meanings.

Paidion: a child, normally below the age of puberty
Teknion: a little child (small, a child or offspring)
Brephos: a very small child; the meaning even extends to an as-yet-unborn child or fetus.

Infants or babies can’t come to Jesus so the “they” - probable refers to their parents or responsible adults who were bringing them to Jesus. Much like we continue to bring those gifts of God given to us, those little boys and girls, who are brought as infants to the waters of Holy Baptism … where God himself marks them as his child. Or, even as those children who are brought to God’s house in the womb of their mothers as they await the time of their birth, as we will soon await the Nativity of our Lord conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary.

As we compare this part of our reading with the earlier part dealing with the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. We see the strength of the Pharisee, who standing in his own strength, might, and faith brags:

12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

In a sense saying, “God! Are you not pleased with me and all that I do and have done for you?”

He stands proudly by himself, covered in his own righteousness and he calls out so that all can hear and see just how righteous he is:

“… thank you … that I am not like other men ... extortioners, [those who get things through any way or any means that they can] unjust, [the opposite of the truthful and fair are those who are unjust. Those who give you what you don’t deserve rather than what you do deserve, adulterers, [those who defile their marriage or live contrary to what God has commanded] or, even like this tax collector. [this poor tool of the government sent to extract all that is rightfully mine, we might suppose.]

Do we at times think the same? Are we at times not also, the Pharisee who looks at ourselves against the other Christian believers that we see, thinking how pleased God is with us and our good prayers, good works, and duty that we give to God? I know I have, and maybe you have too?

Well the truth is, like the Pharisee, we can have big faith in me, myself and I.

We can see our own wisdom, reason and understanding as a greater than that of the Lord and his word – especially for a child. To give value only to those children who have already been born, [teknion in the Greek], as opposed to the [brephos] the word the Lord uses in our text for infants or even those still in the womb – like my little grandson Jackson Albert Tkac who awaits his own nativity and coming forth – though we have his picture in unbelievable clarity through the technology of an enhanced ultrasound today.

In the account of the visit of Mary to Elizabeth in Luke chapter 1:

40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby [brephos] in my womb leaped for joy.

The song we sing that most clearly shows the childlike faith that Jesus is talking about was written in the mid 1700’s by:

Henrietta L. von Hays.

I am Jesus little lamb, Ever glad at heart I am;
For my Shepherd gently guides me,
Knows my needs and well provides me,
Loves me every day the same,
Even calls me by my name.

Childlike faith clings to the savior as a child to his mother; knowing that every need is provided for them by God daily, and that he lovingly calls each one of us by name – from eternity past, in the womb, in life, and as we await death we remain his little lambs.

Day by day, at home, away, Jesus is my staff and stay.
When I hunger, Jesus feeds me,
Into pleasant pastures feeds me;
When I thirst, he bids me go
where the quiet waters flow.

Every day our childlike faith is place in him. Whether hunger or thirst, we can find the pleasant pastures of rest in him as we daily remember the quiet waters of our own baptism of forgiveness where our sins have been washed away.

Who so happy as I am, Even now the shepherd’s lamb?
And when my short life is ended,
By his angel host attended,
He shall fold me to his breast,
There within his arms to rest.

Our joy with childlike faith is in the good shepherd Jesus who will, even as our life comes to a close [Bill Wilstermann] and we look to him through the eyes of old age, comfort us all in his loving arms where we will rest with him in eternity.

Jesus says:

“Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Luke 18:16b-17

New verse  that I felt compelled to add.

I am Jesus little lamb, in my mother’s womb I am;
Christ my Shepherd knits and feeds me,
Sees me grow, he cares and leads me,
Loves me every day the same,
Always calls me by my name!

It is by God’s Grace, Mercy and Spirit that we too can receive his Kingdom with that blessed childlike [brephos] faith. May we, by that same Spirit, pray to always remain in the one true faith as a child who is Jesus’ little lamb.

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

Amen

 

 

 

Sermon October 16, 2022 Pastor Thomas Dunseth

Title: Special service Deaf ministry - Pastor Dunseth
Text: Psalm 51:15-19

Facebook live: Pastor Dunseth

 
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Sermon October 8-9, 2022 Pastor Jeffrey Keuning

Title: Pastor Jeffrey Keuning
Text: Luke 17:11-19

Facebook live: Pastor Jeffrey Keuning

17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Sermon October 1-2, 2022

Title: By faith in Christ, you are forgiven!
Text: Luke 17:1-20

Facebook live: By faith in Christ, you are forgiven!

3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

One of the most tragic events during the Reagan Presidency was the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, in which hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded as they slept. Many of us can still recall the terrible scenes as the dazed survivors worked to dig out their trapped brothers from beneath the rubble.

A few days after the tragedy, [there was an] an extraordinary story. Marine Corps Commandant Paul Kelly, visited some of the wounded survivors then in a Frankfurt, Germany, hospital. Among them was Corporal Jeffrey Lee Nashton, severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that a witness said he looked more like a machine than a man; yet he survived.

As Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and racked with pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it back to the Commandant. On the slip of paper was but two words -- “Semper Fi” the Latin motto of the Marines meaning "forever faithful." With those two simple words Nashton spoke for the millions of Americans who have sacrificed body and limb and their lives for their country -- those who have remained faithful.

J. Dobson & Gary Bauer, Children at Risk, Word, 1990, pp. 187-188.

Being faithful as followers of Christ and his Gospel also has obstacles and enemies. As Jesus says:

“Temptations to sin are sure to come,”

We all fall short in thought, word and deed - even at times allowing things, and those that we love, to become a stumbling block – separating us from the love of God and getting in the way of the gift that is Christ Jesus our Lord.

Even the little ones, those who are new to the faith, child, teen, and adult alike can have those who lead them away through their own apathy for Christ or love for the world. Jesus gives a word picture of a millstone and sea as to what awaits those who lead away from him, becoming a stumbling block where unbelief results.

We too find temptation to sin and fall away all around us.

What are your stumbling blocks?

Is it the needs or wants we have in this life?
Is it the time we spend with and on the things, we love?
Is it how we feel about the issues of the day?
Is it politics?

Temptation to sin can be very strong and affect every aspect of our day-to-day lives. We can fall away from God or fall back into a right relationship to him as God calls and directs us through his word and by faith.

I’ve had these same problems in my life over the years.

Work demanded much of my time - even working nights and weekends. As I wrestled with life and faith issues, God drew me closer to him and as I read his word, prayed to know his will and to know him better and I saw the need to be in relationship with him. It was no longer, “My will, but thy will be done!”

“No way!” I thought initially, that’s hard!”

“I have enough to do! I work long hours! I have to care for the house and yard work, and besides being the spiritual head of the family is too much for me!

But Jesus kept pursuing me through the word.

“Russ … you need to do it!” – “YOU are the one who needs to be the spiritual head of the family so pick up the matt you are sleeping on and come and follow me!”

Semper Fi! Forever faithful, to Jesus and his words!

5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Even the apostle’s faith was struggling. They’re confused and until after the resurrection won’t really understand what Jesus is saying.

6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

Faith is nothing without its object and the object of our faith must be Jesus!

So, if he needs to be the object how can we know him?

Last week from chapter 16 the cry was to send Lazarus back from the dead:

28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

In John chapter 5 Jesus says of Moses and the Prophets to the teachers of the Law:

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. John 5:39-40

Life has two aspects, that which is conceived and brought forth in this life by God’s gift of procreation, though corrupted and brought forth in sin.

And that which is recreated by God through the working of the Holy Spirit, so that the perfect original righteousness that God created us to dwell in would be recreated in us through Christ’s sacrificial work and by the working of the Holy Spirit point us to Christ unto salvation.

Because of sin and the fall some children conceived in this life are miscarried, some die of complications in pregnancy, some are born with birth defects, while others are born healthy and others - aborted at all stages of pregnancy and for any number of reasons.

What God had created perfect - has been corrupted.

In this life, we who are fortunate to have been born and live, deal with the wages of sin our whole lives. Sickness and death cover the life given to you and me by God - but a life that is broken and in bondage to sin has been corrupted.

That is where the word of God and the means of grace come in.

Through the word we hear the voice of our savior speak.

Through the means that God gives in Christ, we now come to him and are marked as his redeemed by grace through faith, washed in the waters of Holy Baptism and raised to newness of life we are his beloved children who listen to his voice.

In the Lord’s Supper, God feeds us the gift of eternal life in Christ’s true body and blood given under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith.

As we confess our sins together, God through his called and ordained servants absolves us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

Life and life eternal are both gifts of God and in his control.

We cannot have life or life eternal apart from God and his word. It is why our church and synod hold up the Bible as the word of God and stand firmly on that word and our Lutheran confessions as they rightly expound the scriptures.

Jesus says:

3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins, against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Friends, God has forgiven you in Christ your sins and desires only one path forward for we who are in Christ.

To be in his word.
To follow his word.
To cling to his word.
To trust his word.

For to hold to his word is to hold to Jesus. And to hold to Jesus is life eternal and forgiveness in his name!

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

Amen