4-26-2017

Good Morning All,

            John 19:30;”When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit”.

    “It is finished!”  Have you ever used this phrase?  How did you use it?  Was it in exasperation and frustration?  Sometimes this is the way a despondent couple responds as they watch their marriage crumble, or a parent when the problem child has to be bailed out of jail for the fourth time.  We feel the weight of the world crushing in on us.  We see no answer; we see no hope so we just throw up our hands and walk away.  We are beaten, battered, bloodied and defeated by all that we face.

    Perhaps you exclaimed this as a big project has been completed.  You feel the exhilaration of getting it done.  It is over; I can enjoy the fruits of my labor.  All the work is done and it is all downhill from here; I can coast to the end.  I’ve felt this each time I finish a class.  The load of the class is lifted and I can breathe easier, for a couple of weeks anyway.  Maybe you feel that when the harvest is done, or when the graduation ceremony is done and the guests have all gone home.

     Most people would probably evenly divide into these two camps when they look at the words of Jesus, “It is finished!”  Some see it as Jesus the man finally being broken and just giving up on life.  It is finished; I am broken, beaten, defeated.  At least that is how the devil wants you to see it.  “Jesus died, get over it” The world and the devil will scoff at us and continually try to cast doubt into our lives.

      Others will see this as the victory whoop of Jesus.  It is finally over; I am out of here.  This job is done never to worry about it again.  The same response a graduate might have, “school’s out no more books no more teacher’s dirty looks.” Yet this isn’t quite right either.  We are missing the important part of this phrase.

    It is finished.  It is complete, concluded, paid off.  This is a better way to hear this.  It is paid off.  The debt of sin which we owe is concluded; it has been paid off!  What a wondrous gift!!  What a phrase to hear; imagine going into your lender to try and figure out a way to pay off a debt that you can’t pay only to hear him say,” It has been paid off!”  How would you react?  How would you feel?  We would probably jump for joy and hug whoever was standing there.  It is finished; your debt is gone.  It is finished; we no longer have to fear God’s wrath and punishment.  It is finished; we can come before the throne of grace and receive the blessings which God has for us.  It is finished; we can come to the Altar and be fed and nourished by his precious body and blood.  It is finished; thanks be to God!!

Dearest Father, in your wondrous mercy our debt of sin is paid.  We give you thanks and honor and praise for this amazing gift.  Keep us in your precious arms and hold us tight to you.  Guard us and protect us from the devil’s darts.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret 

4-25-2017

   Good Morning All,
      2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

       I remember watching reruns of “Married with Children”.  I actually thought a lot of it was funny.  It satirized American life to the point of incredible exaggeration.  If you watched closely, you probably have known someone who matches one or more of the characters portrayed.  I must admit that I laughed the hardest at poor Al Bundy.  Looking at his present life and at his future life, he was so discouraged by those two prospects that he lived in the glory of his past. 

     Al “I scored four touchdowns in one game for Polk High” Bundy lives in the past glory of his high school days.  He often reminisces about his past greatness; at times, he relives them in an attempt to either prove he had potential or to correct some past error.  He is always living in the past because he sees it as superior to his life either today or tomorrow.  To him, yesterday is far better than today.

    Do we live like that?  Do we look at the past and think that it is superior?  It rarely is.  We usually look at the past through “sentimental” tinted glasses.  We want the past to be better because it is what we create it to be.  We can make our past as pretty as we want.  Unfortunately we sometimes miss the truth about what was missing in our life and continue to miss out on God’s blessings. 

   Sometimes we look at the past and think we have to live there because we can’t see any way out of it.  This can be the most painful of all.  Sometimes we look at our past and think that there is no way that anyone, God included, can love a person like that.  Perhaps you were alcohol or drug dependent and thus were completely non-dependable.  Perhaps you treated someone cruelly and now continue to punish yourself for the past failures.  Sometimes we think the past is all we deserve.

    The wonderful thing is that God does not want you to live in the past.  He wants you to live in his present grace and, eventually, in his glory.  In order to accomplish this, God made you a new creation, cleansed with the blood of Jesus.  Our slate is clean because of what Christ has done for us.  We live in his grace heading toward his glory; it is full steam ahead and we need not look back.  If you feel that you are being pulled back, look at what it is, repent of the sin, try to make amends if possible and then let it go.  God has forgiven this sin and looks at the new you and not the old you.  You should do the same.

Gracious God, you have made me new so that I may live before you in perfection.  By being new, I can stand in your holy presence and live in your merciful kingdom.  Help those who are stuck in the past.  Bring them to the knowledge of your wonderful forgiveness.  Heal their pain and keep them safe from all the devil’s attacks.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

4-24-2017

Good Morning All,

         Micah 4:6; “In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted;”    

     I remember watching a movie about the Civil War a few years ago.  I don’t remember the name or even the general plot line.  I just remember one scene in the movie where they showed a bucolic scene of sunlight dancing through the leaves of the trees filled with birds and there was a hedge lined road with a rabbit hopping along the road.  Then came the line of soldiers, but not the regular army, these were the maimed, the wounded, those who had lost an arm or a leg or were blind and were heading home from the war.  The contrast of the beauty of the day and the scenery was shattered by the tattered bodies trying to go home.

    In many ways, this image can haunt us often.  When you watch the news you see the bodies of blown up soldiers returning home.  You see communities destroyed by fire or storm.  You see unimaginable events, indescribable pain and hopeless remorse.  We see the lame and those who have been driven away.

    Many times we are those who are lame or driven away.  The cares of this world, the pain of broken relationships, the fear of tomorrow, can cause us to feel like we have had limbs ripped from us.  There is something that is missing in our lives and we feel the effect of it every day.

    Sometimes these events can have the effect on us where we look aimlessly into the distance, not at anything in particular, but with that vacant, lost look of someone who has lost everything.  We have the look of someone who has no hope.  You see that look often.  There is that picture of an Okie farm wife from the Great Depression that really sums up the pain of an entire generation with that vacant hopelessness.  That look is on many people’s faces today as well.

    The problem is that too often we look for hope, for truth, for comfort, for our sense of security in all the wrong places and just like the soldier who steps on a landmine; we are blown back, blown away and blown apart.  Our sin destroys us to our very core down to our very being.  We are lost; left to limp our way back to what we think and hope is home.

    Into this mess, God comes with his words of comfort, his words of promise, and his words of hope.  God comes to rescue you and me from all that the world has done to us, from all that we have done to ourselves.  Jesus came to proclaim the good news of reconciliation.  Jesus came to proclaim the good news of forgiveness of sins.  Jesus came to pay the debt that you and I cannot. 

    Through our Baptism, God calls us, the lame, the blind, those who were driven away, back into his family.  We are called back to live in his saving grace under his watchful eye, safe in his loving arms.  In that day we are assembled in His grace waiting for the final day when we will be ultimately assembled before the throne of heavenly glory.  

Dear Father of all grace, your mercies are new to us every day.  Heal us, your wounded and broken people with your wondrous love.  Give us hope and give us courage to withstand the devil’s attacks and keep us safely in your arms.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret              

4-23-2017

Good Morning All,

      Ephesians 2:8-9; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

  “Anfechtung.”  No, you don’t respond “Bless you.”  This is a German word that describes much of Martin Luther’s life.  It doesn’t have a real good English translation.  Some tries include “tribulations”, “temptations”, “trials”, “afflictions”; but these don’t do a lot of justice to the word.  When used to describe Luther, many are surprised that it includes the whole concept of self-doubt or unworthiness.

    Most people would think that Luther, the monk who made the pope blink, would have nerves of steel.  Yet Luther was a man of trials, tribulations, self-doubt, “anfechtung”.  This is what really propelled the Reformation.  Luther just didn’t believe that all the prayers he said, the good works he did, the Scripture reading he did, the alms he gave to the poor; none of this was enough to satisfy God’s judgment against sin.  So Luther spent much of his early life in “anfechtung”  It wasn’t until the Spirit moved him as he read verses like the one we use today, and others like it, that Luther finally grasped what the Bible really told him; you aren’t ever good enough, we are only saved because God is a God of love.

    Often times, maybe most times, we are plagued by this self-doubt, this “anfechtung”.  There are many times I have sat with someone who expresses this self-doubt.  They look at their life and think that they aren’t good enough for what they have so God will surely look to extract some form of punishment.  “My life is so good right now I am afraid of what will happen tomorrow.”  We think that God’s blessings are in some way, shape or form dependent upon our behavior or action.

     If things are going bad, we work harder at being good.  We read the Bible more; we try and impress God maybe by going to church more or putting more in the collection plate.  We see our situation as God punishing us so we try to get on God’s “good side.”  Or we look at our life and see how God has blessed us and we think “when will it all come to an end?”  “When will my bad deeds catch up to me?”  “Anfechtung” is at work.

    In many ways Luther never got past these self-doubts, even at his death.  But one of Luther’s greatest offerings to us was this simple view “We are all beggars before God.”  All we have is from God.  We can take comfort in this because when “anfechtung” kicks in, we know all depends upon God.  Our actions do not influence our salvation; God took care of it through Jesus and then gave it to us, out of love, through the faith that he gives us.  So we cling, by faith, to God’s promise.  We will still experience this self-doubt but we can and should always cling to the God who loves us so much that he died for us to pay the cost.  So as you live your life, know that bad times are just that; bad times: the result of a sinful world.  Also know that good times are not dependent upon how you act but simply upon the good and gracious nature of our God.  So the next time you “anfechtung” remember by grace you are saved.  This is what our hope rests upon.

Gracious Father, your love even overcomes my self-doubts.  When I think I am unworthy, I know that you sustain me with your mercy.  Give me the faith to hold onto you and your grace.  Please be with those who are feeling great amounts of self-doubt and guide them with your love back to the certainty of hope in you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret