Sermon November 26-27, 2022 1st Sunday in Advent

Title: With childlike faith there is salvation!
Text: Romans 13:11-14

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11 Besides this you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

The Advent season is upon us! The decorations are up and we are ready for the coming Christmas season. At home Monica really enjoys this time of year. We get out the trees, but me being allergic to the new cut trees, we’ve used artificial trees for years. But the ornaments make it our own as I’m sure yours do as well.

For me pre-lit is the way to go! The Nativities are placed on the shelves. I say plural because we have many - but not as many as we use to have. Here at church the Nativity is lit as well and as always, we thank Jim and Bob Klein for putting it out on the front of the church. It is a blessing.

Lights illuminate the hope we each hold dear at this time of year because the reality is, that darkness has a sinful beauty that can lure and charm us even in this time of hope, joy and celebrating.

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

In our text, Paul also speaks of a routine as we prepare for Christ, the light of the world. However, the day for which Paul encourages us to be prepared and ready is not Christmas. We don’t need to prepare for that which has already happened, but rather for the day that is still to come.

Paul is not concerned with trees, decorations, or even our sort of lights. Instead, he desires to make sure we are prepared spiritually for Christ’s second coming, just as the angels, Mary, and Joseph were for his first coming as the baby who would be the Savior of the world.

This is the day for which we prepare, the day when Christ comes in all his splendor, power, and glory, with all the heavenly angels, banishing the darkness with his victorious light.

Such anticipation is filled with the delight that God loved each and every one of us to the extent that he sent his only Son, Jesus, into this world of darkness to be our hope and light of eternal joy.

Unfortunately, too many people have become confused about God’s genuine love for us.

Quite often people believe and teach that God loves us because he has strong feelings or loving emotions toward his creation. It’s true, feelings and emotions are involved in love, but the greatest part of love is the action.

Love is an action that one does rather than what one feels. Far too many marriages dissolve in this world because individual feelings are valued more highly than the individual’s actions toward the other.

It’s commonplace for one to say that he or she doesn’t “feel” the love they once had for the other.

Imagine if God the Father decided that his love for man had changed, that he fell out of love with man after all.

Since the fall, generation after generation has turned their back and sinned against him. Or imagine Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, looking up into heaven and saying, “Father, I hate this feeling, and I don’t feel like going through all this suffering and death.”

The good news is Jesus resisted those feelings and fought back even though he prayed three times to have the cup of suffering removed. His love for us was demonstrated in action—dying on the cross—that shines and enlightens our lives as we strive to love one another as he has loved us.

For “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).

Earlier in his Letter to the Romans, Paul emphasizes that there is not one person who is righteous by his or her own merits (Rom 3:10–12). We are sinners, and by nature we love the darkness.

And so it is that Paul encourages us to put away the works that need to be hidden by darkness, such as sexual vices, drunkenness, quarreling, and jealousy:

“Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy” (v 13).

The world of darkness bears a sense of beauty that charms and lures our sinful flesh avoiding the true light.

In the verses preceding our text, Paul speaks to us about loving one another, for the entire Law of God can be summed up in one simple statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Rom 13:9

Jesus was born to pierce the darkness, and under the darkened afternoon sky on Good Friday, he did.

Jesus’ death is the ultimate glorious light of God’s love.

As sinners who have received this righteousness of Christ, purely by God’s free and loving gift, which cleanses us from all our sins and enables us to love as he has loved us. By the light of faith, we desire to follow in the way of Christ, obedient and loving, not out of fear but because of his love for us first.

“Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” v 12b.

Through God’s Law, we know our sinfulness and our inability to escape the captivity of sin’s darkness.

Through God’s grace, we know we’ve been forgiven and empowered to live in the righteous life of Christ.

Through God’s grace we are enabled to put on the armor of light so we may

love our neighbors;
live a joy-filled life;
enjoy peace in our families;
have patience with our children;
express kindness, goodness, and gentleness with those who hurt us;
and have more self-control with those who differ with us.

Through God’s grace, this armor of light is brighter and stronger than any light man can imagine.

It is the true light of Jesus Christ himself, for you!

Strengthened, daily, by the power of Christ’s Word and Sacraments to live and radiate his armor of light, adorned with his glory, we stand ready for his second and final coming.

It’s an exciting time!

“The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (v 11).

Christ is coming, and we eagerly wait in anticipation God’s peace with childlike faith in the Christ child!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen

Based on Sermon series Behold the light! Rev. Steven R. Schumacher 2018

Sermon November 19-20, 2022

Title: Christ is our Blessed Hope!
Text: Col 1:13-20

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13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Dick Hoyt might not be a name that rings a bell with you but what he did might.

Dick’s son Rick is a quadriplegic and has cerebral palsy. Together they competed in over 1000 races with Dick running and pushing his son in a specially constructed wheel chair beginning in 1977 and continuing through the 2014 Boston Marathon.

After their first race in 1977, Rick told his father,

“Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not disabled.”

With their tandem running, Dick Hoyt delivered his son Rick from the darkness of his disability to the light of an active hope in his life.

What a beautiful and inspirational story of a father’s love for his son and the joy of a life well lived in service to another.

In our epistle today Paul speaks of another Father and son. Who work together in the pursuit of a lofty goal – the redemption and forgiveness of sins.

We though are burdened with a greater disability in this life than being a quadriplegic or dealing with cerebral palsy, and that is being dead in sin and dead to God.

We have no hope to push ourselves to the finish line, though at times we think we can because we appear healthy and able on the outside - but remain dead to God and have no hope.

“I got this, I can make my way, I can carry on!” We think.

But we lay dead. Unable move or reach the starting line let alone push ourselves to the finish line. So how do we compete? How do we participate? How do we finish the race? How do we receive the crown, when we can’t even make a start?

We don’t. We can’t. So, what do we do, despair and lose hope?

No! But we have one, an advocate. One who runs the race. One to stand in for us, in a way we never could.

That one is Jesus. A son, who became like us, yet without sin.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

One who came, not to push our disabled bodies of death in a sin filled world to a finish line that too will crumble and be destroyed. But one, who in the end came to deliver us from death and deliver the kingdom and eternal life to all who simply believe and trust in the name of Jesus.

16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hope is possible in this life even while death reins because the author of life is the light of the world and in him there is no darkness.

Jesus breaks the darkness of despair because when he enters, darkness flees. This life of sin and death, blessing and curse while only wrapped up in the here and now can be transformed by the al transforming love of God. While we see success or failure through the eyes of sin as the only outcome and way in this life, God in Christ gives us a new way, new reality, new hope and a new peace in the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

In our gospel reading today, Jesus hangs convicted on this cross of death, for you and me, between two criminals.

39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

He looks for an earthly rescue and a way out of his predicament. Death remains, and death will come, and death will bring punishment for eternity with a separation from the blessed hope that God desires to give to all.

40 But the other [thief] rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”

42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 And [Jesus] said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Forgiveness given to one and rejected by another.

What an interesting exchange but what is most telling, is that God, 4 … desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim 2:4

God does not desire the death of the wicked. He does not desire that one thief come to faith and the other to destruction.

Had the other thief repented, he too would have received forgiveness on account of Christ. You are never too far away from God’s mercy and forgiveness.

It is not God’s desire to punish sinners by casting those who deserve death to their appointed fate. But because, the wrath of God has been poured out fully on his son - our Lord Jesus - by his sinless life, death in our place, and his glorious resurrection from the dead. A way has been made for you and me and for all who by faith trust in Christ’s vicarious work (his work on our behalf) and receive the kingdom too!

18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Our life as the church has many distractions. [family, work, money, time, politics] We would do well to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus – the author and perfecter of our faith – for in this life many will claim to be the way or to know the way, only to lead astray those who place their trust in a false hope, false truth or a false god.

I was texting with my friend Tim the other day, who along with his wife Mini visited here last weekend. Our discussion centered around the blessed hope that is Jesus. And as we talked, Tim commented:

Keep your eye on the ball. Make sure it’s the right ball!

As the church, we can’t have a false hope or a wrong hope. Hitting a home run in life does not keep you from an eternity in the lake of fire separated from God and all of his blessings – we can’t elect ourselves to heaven - but only by the free gift of faith in the Blessed Hope that is Jesus Christ, do we take hold of the promise and the promised rest in his blessed presence forever.

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

This weekend we celebrate the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

May we together with Christian brothers and sisters around the world renew our love for God and neighbor. Doing good and shinning the light of Christ in a world of darkness, so that those who are dead to God might see the hope and finish line in Jesus and receive life eternal in his name.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen

Sermon November 12-13, 2022

Title: You have been raised and are seated with Christ!
Text: Luke 21:5-28

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25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Abraham Lincoln wrote in proclamation for “A National Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer.” On March 30, 1863:

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power. … But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

― Abraham Lincoln

5 And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, Jesus said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Redemption requires destruction. Before something can be rebuilt it must first be destroyed. To make new again requires demolition.

As Jesus and his disciples walked through the temple, some of His disciples remarked in admiration on the Temple itself, on its various buildings, porticoes, halls, and chambers, and especially did they mention the beautiful stones, the huge marble monoliths, which formed the Corinthian columns, and the gifts that were consecrated to the Lord, the many articles of adornment which were so noticeable throughout the Temple.

P.E. Kretzmann popular commentary on the Bible Pg. 378

Jesus then tells them of the things to come:

8 And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.

Jesus warns His disciples that it is easy to be deceived into following false, messiahs and false gods. The easiest false god to follow is self and one’s own wisdom and reason. To know the true God is to know His word and to follow His teachings only.

Jesus warns of wars, trials and persecutions when He says:

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

The coming end will not be a time of joy and for His children there will be a time of persecution.

… they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. 13 This will be your opportunity to bear witness.

To speak the gospel to those who persecute you, Jesus says, is a time for witness. It is a time to proclaim the gospel. It is a time to stand for truth.

He will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict and promises that you will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and that some of you they will put to death. 17 You will be hated, he says.

He tells them of the surrounding of Jerusalem by armies and the destruction that will come:

21 “… let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, 22 for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

This will not be a good time:

For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.

24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Trial and persecution are coming.

You see it, read about and know it firsthand.

To be a Christian means you will be an offense to some as Christ was an offense.

Today the persecution is not from a fringe group in society but from the government itself. Only a short while ago Churches closed, pastors were fined and even imprisoned and followers stayed home and stayed safe – we might call it a protective hiding. Many saw it as for our own good or the good of another. We did too … at first.

Can greater persecution come to your country, your church and even your home too? We already see the beginnings of it. Sin affects us all. The sin of others can and will affect you and me. How might we react if what seems good by others is pushed upon the church as well.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor. 2:14)

Apart from faith no one can come to God or call on him as a loving Father. The cross of Christ is an offence. By faith we know that in Christ, salvation is an objective fact and that the humanistic and rational thought of the day that says that all ways lead to the heaven or that no way leads to heaven is false and must be denied.

The Blessed Hope of the Christian is in the one outside ourselves who came down from heaven Jesus Christ. You do not need to ascend to God because he humbled himself and came down for you and he will return as he has promised

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

But then:

27 they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

The fear of persecution is met with the joy of redemption. The joy of eternal life found only in Christ. This is the joy that these believers knew awaited them and that they were not abandoned … but rescued in Christ. In His death they too would find life … and find it abundantly.

The truth of trials is real but so is the rescue by Christ for all who believe.

Officiating at so many dear members funerals has brought this reality home literally for me. Here was death, close and personal but so to the eternal hope that Christ gives to you and to me.

That in Him we all who believe will spend eternity together. It is a comfort when you morn and it is a joy that will take away the tears of sadness because Christ has wiped them away and replaced them with the tears of joy in the resurrection; in reunion in heaven one day; in a forever not covered in sin and death and the devil will no longer have the power to accuse and condemn because he and death will be cast down to the pit of hell forever.

13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, Titus 2:13 ESV

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen

Sermon November 5-6, 2022 - All Saints’ Day

Title: You have been washed clean in the blood of Jesus!
Text: Rev 7:9-17

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13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

All Saint’s Day is a day where we reflect and remember the faithful departed members here at Peace and our loved ones as well who are now resting in the arms of Jesus.

I’d like to tell you about one of Peace’s sainted members, Steve Collom.

Steve started visiting here in 2016. He didn’t say much. But he and I talked a bit after church and he would stop by unannounced occasionally during the week to sit and talk about life and the Lord.

Steve was a professional musician, guitarist, and song writer in Nashville. He worked with many well-known Country artists such as Dolly Parton Ronnie Milsap, Glenn Campbell, The Kendall's and others. When Steve and I first talked and I found out he was originally from Waterford and played guitar so I asked if he had anything I could listen to. He told me to look up Gone Away a song he wrote that was recorded by the Kendall's – “The studio version, not the live version!” he said. When I told him I heard both, he said, “You’re a brave man!”

Steve wrote for the chorus:

Gone away, gone away,
All the troubles in my soul have gone away
I was lost out in the night but praise God I saw the light
And the troubles in my soul have Gone Away

Steve wouldn’t claim to be a theologian – he’d tell you, “I’m a guitar player and a song writer.” - But he is writing very theologically here.

Faith and trust in Christ don’t make the troubles in your life go away, but your eternal wellbeing is changed from being God’s enemies to God’s redeemed.

We welcomed Steve into membership here on September 9th 2018 along with the Smithson’s and Regentin’s and laid him to rest on June 28th 2019. Not along time in the history of Peace but we’ll have an eternity to catch up.

Our first reading today gives us a picture of eternity:

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Paul speaks in Ephesians 2 of our situation and also the blessed gif of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins Eph. 2:1

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, [or dead in sin] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph 2:4-6

Steve grew up in Waterford and left Waterford, and as many do – came home again.

He found our church on Elizabeth Lake Road and visited many times. I would see him walk in turn to the left and sit in the back pew on the very end. Maybe that was just Steve but I saw him as a true Lutheran.

A meme on Facebook said it so well:

Lutherans: Avoiding the front pew since 1517!

But as Lutherans we also joy with those in the Gospel reading waving our own palm branches during Holy Week and we celebrate Christ’s triumphal entry.

9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt 21:9)

Their cries of welcome led up to the cries of “Crucify Him” and the cross of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice and now these cries of death are completed in the heavenly cries of glory in the gathering of the multitude before the throne of grace who have been brought to faith in this same Jesus Christ, crying:

“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

What had been anticipated before the cross is now fulfilled.

What had been a triumphal entry for Jesus is now a triumphal fulfillment for you and me though the cross of Christ and though you - are many - you have been adopted into God’s family and are now His child, a child of His own choosing.

That is the good news for you and me as well. God knows you as His child. Though born in sin and death awaits us all, we are made new, washed clean and adopted into Christ family by the working of his Holy Spirit.

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Being brought to faith in Baptism makes you part of this great number from every nation and from all tribes and peoples and languages. And that was the good news for those early believers too. They knew that this Jesus who had died on the cross was the same one taken up to heaven was the same Jesus who said:

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Steve Collom had an earthly hero.

Chet Atkins, the great guitarist from Nashville, had many years ago added three letters to his name. He saw that many people with advanced degrees listed such degrees as MBA or PhD after their name. So, in 1988 with the release of his 55th studio album he bestowed upon himself the honorary degree of CGP – Certified Guitar Player.

Over the years Chet gave the honor of CGP to players he deemed worthy.

Though Steve never mentioned it, I’m sure Chet would have given him that honor.

Steve’s earthly remains rest less than 2 miles from our church in Waterford Center Cemetery on Pontiac Lake Rd. When I was looking up the cemetery it had a picture of his headstone. It read:

World’s Ok-Est guitar player
Steve Donald Collom
Beloved, Son – Brother - Father

15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

At Steve’s funeral I played “I’m But A Stranger Here” and would like to share verse one with you now.

Dear Saints … Heaven is you home!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!

Amen