11-17-2022

Good Morning All,

     Matthew 16:5; “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”

     Some of you remember the Beatles.  They were/are one of the biggest bands in the history of rock and roll music.  When the band broke up, it was quite the spectacle.  There were many theories as to why the broke up; drug use, creative differences, differences in management thought and the like.  The most common reason for the breakup was believed to be because of the relationship between John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  Yoko Ono and John Lennon took a path of unique events like spiritualisms, drugs, etc.  Many of the fans of the band would call radio stations and claim that “Yoko, you’re splitting up the band!”  After years of working together, the band split up because of the influence of a single person. 

    In our verse, Jesus is warning his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees.  The little influences which can infect the teaching of truth and the wellbeing of the Church, which can lead it in a way or direction that it is not supposed to go.  These little, seemingly, meaningless comments or actions can cause harm.  He is warning them about the little influences which can destroy “the group” the amazing thing is that it never takes much leaven (yeast) to work this way.

    We see the “leaven of the Pharisees” often, unfortunately, we don’t recognize it.  It occurs every time and any time that we allow sin to harm the body of Christ.  It can occur in ways that we don’t see at the time. Perhaps a person has an idea for a service project or a worship experience, but it gets voted down.  Are we hurt because our idea didn’t fly?  Were we one of those who shot the idea down because deep down we were jealous?  Do we let little comments come from our mouths which are little cuts into another person, slicing them down to size a little at a time?  Do we refuse to admit that we are wrong and simply dig our heels in?  Do we let the idea of control and power rule our thoughts?  Are we easily offended by the slightest comment or action?

    These are a few ways that the “leaven of the Pharisees” can infect the Body of Christ, causing us to battle with each other rather than place all our efforts into the service of Jesus.  The disciples fought this same leaven, as the too wondered about who was the greatest; the struggle is as old as the Bible and will continue until Christ returns; the cost of working with sinful men.  We must be on guard at all times against this leaven.  We must be careful to make sure that when we look or listen; we do so with faith, trusting in God to lead his Church.  In the explanation to the eighth commandment, we are told to “put the best construction on everything;” giving all a chance to aid the body of Christ in its growth and expansion in the task of bringing Christ message of redeeming love to all.            

 Father of mercy, remove the leaven in my life.  Bring me closer to you.  Help me to see that all can work together to serve you.  We all have many gifts or talents which, when shared bring glory to you and aid to our neighbor.  Give us that unity to grow in you.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

11-16-2022

Good Morning All,

     Deuteronomy 8:18; “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”

     “and so confirms his covenant;’ now there’s a phrase you don’t hear too often.  We don’t use the idea of a covenant anymore.  We might be tempted to replace it with the concept of a contract but even that falls short.  In the ancient world “covenant” was the closest, holiest, most solemn, and most indissoluble compact conceivable.  To break a covenant was to bring about your own death and destruction.  Most of our contracts today have some form of “escape clause” in them.  But a covenant is much higher, more sacred, and never able to be broken.

    In the ancient world, there were two basic types of covenants.  The first was one between equals like when two kings make a peace treaty and a covenant to maintain it.  This is where the daughter marrying the king comes in.  This is why Solomon had so many wives; it was part of the covenant.  The second type is far more important to us.  It is the type when a lower person like a prince or even lower would make a covenant with the king.  This type of covenant kept the lower guy safe but at the will of the king.  This covenant would often have the lower ranked person walk through the halves of sacrificed animals toward the king as a sign of “this is what will happen to me if I don’t keep my part of the deal.”  All the burden lies on the lower person, no of the responsibility lies with the king.

    The second type of covenant is the one which we have with God.  The only thing is God is the lower ranked member.  The covenant which God made with Abram was one where the entire burden is on God not on Abram.  (You can read this in Gen. 15: 7-21.)  This shows us that the motive for God to make this kind of covenant was purely his love and mercy which he feels and shows to us.  It is not fear but love for you and for me.  This is why God showers us with all his blessing.  He loves us, protects us and desires to show us his love.

     Note that the covenants God made with man were ultimately made to fulfill His gracious purpose to redeem man from the penalty, power, and presence of sin. The final covenant which God made with man was the new covenant which is Christ Jesus.  This is what Jesus meant when he told the disciples that the Lord’s Supper was the “new covenant.”   This relies on nothing at all from man but everything entirely from God.  We only have to trust it and then we trust it with the faith which God gives us.

     Yet today, too often, we fail to see that God is indeed keeping his covenant with his people.  He always shows us a way through our trials and adversities.  He always grants us the grace to meet those challenges.  God never said that adversity would not happen; he only promised to keep us safe through it.  That is part of the covenant as well.  We are blessed by God to be a blessing to the world.  God goes with us all the way.

Father of all good gifts, we praise you for the river of grace which flows over us with such depth that we cannot ever measure it.  We are not worthy, yet you continue to send us these great gifts.  Keep us mindful of your blessings and use us to be a blessing to those around us.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret  

11-15-2022

Good Morning All,

        1 Cor. 4:1; “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”

     There are some types of people who really can drive us nuts.  One type of person is the guy at work or on a board who thinks that he is the smartest guy there.  He thinks that he has all the answers, his jokes are always funny, and his opinion is enough to settle any type of discussion.  He’s the kind of guy who you can almost hear him end each statement that he makes with,” I have spoken, the issue is settled.”  That guy thinks he knows it all and gets real upset when it is blatantly obvious when he doesn’t.  This guy has a very bloated opinion of himself and his value.  The only thing worse than trying to work with that one guy; is trying to work with 2 or 3 of them.  That is where Paul finds himself when he writes this first letter to the Corinthians.    

    Paul spends the three chapters before this condemning the divisions within the Church at Corinth.  Some of the members thought that what they said was what was to go.  And the phrase members (with an “s”) is important.  There was the equivalent of political parties lobbying for control within the church.  So, Paul uses a different tactic in chapter 4.  He calls himself a servant of Christ.  That sounds pretty good.  We should be regarded as servants of Christ.  That sounds nice enough, even gives us a little sense of pride in our place in life.  Unfortunately, if we read it that way, we miss the whole point that Paul makes.

    Here is a case where our English misses the real point.  Paul actually calls himself an “under oarsman.”  This was the galley slave who rode on the big Roman warships.  There were three levels of oarsmen.  The bottom level was where the under oarsmen would be lashed to their rowing stations.  You can only imagine the conditions here.  No real good ventilation, there were no bathroom breaks for the slaves and the food and water would have been suspect.  So, all the human waste, the vomit, etc. would have washed down from the top two decks onto these “under oarsmen.”  It is as low on the power totem pole as you get, and Paul calls himself one of these.

    Here Paul is clearly pointing out to the Corinthians that what they bring to the table when it comes to their salvation is complete garbage.  All our righteousness is from God.  All that we have or possess is a gift from God.  The Good News of our salvation through Christ is given to us and Christ, in his mercy and grace, has raised us from this under oarsman to be a steward.  A steward was the most trusted household slave.  He took care of the family business while the owner was away.  He was entrusted with the power to make deals, to buy and to sell just like the owner.  We went from totally nothing to being the most trusted servants of Christ given the mysteries of God, the Gospel, and the sacraments, which the world sees as foolish, but we know to be true.  We don’t fully understand how these mysteries work but we know that they do. 

    So, Paul tells us, “see that you do not inflate your own worth but look to Christ Jesus as your only hope of salvation, trusting in his promise and blessed with his mysteries to have, to hold and to share with others in faith.  We are cleansed by the blood of Christ to be his stewards entrusted to do his work until he returns.

Father in heaven, keep us humble as we look at the blessings which we receive from you.  Lead us to see that it is your great love that sustains us and not our knowledge, skill, or wisdom.  Lead us to share those great mysteries of faith with all that we meet.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, Amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret

11-14-2022

Good Morning All,

        John 1:29; “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

     “Look out!!;” “look where you are going.;” “are you even looking?”  Some very common phrases which we use and hear every day.  There is a greater emphasis on “looking” then there used to be.  We had the recent tragedy where the young man, supposedly, caused an accident which killed a man because he was “texting” while he was driving.  Of course, us old fogeys lament about these crazy kids while we read the paper or drink our coffee or put on our make up or whatever we do while we are driving.  We don’t look as well as we should. 

     I can look all over my office and never find the book that I want.  I can look all over the basement for a tool that I was using.  I can look all over for the place where someone lives.  I can look a lot and never see what it is I am looking for.  There are lots of reasons for this.  I have a cluttered office.  I am not sure where the tool I want is anyway.  Who really asks for directions?

     In our verse, John the Baptist knew who he was looking for.  He was looking for the Messiah, the Anointed One.  With a whole crowd of people around him, John pointed and yelled “Look (Behold), the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  That probably got everyone’s attention.  Many thought, John the Baptist was the Messiah; but John makes it very clear, “Look, the Lamb of God.”

    We can almost sense the second part of this line.  John starts with “Look, the Lamb of God;” he could have finished with “Don’t look away or anywhere else!!”  When you have the Savior in your sight, don’t look away.  The Book of Hebrews tells us to “Focus your eyes upon Jesus.” always have the Savior in your line of sight to be sure of where you are going.

     But it is really easy to lose sight of Jesus; we do it a lot.  Perhaps our lives are too cluttered with “stuff;” the worries and the challenges, the temptations and the desires of this world can cause us to not see what we are looking for.  Maybe it has been so long since you looked that you forgot where to look and now you don’t want to ask for help.  All these and more, the devil wants to toss in your line of sight so that it is difficult to see Jesus.  We all know the saying,” out of sight, out of mind;” the devil wants that to occur in your life.  He wants Jesus out of your sight so that he can lead you astray.  This is part of the reason that attending worship service is so valuable; Jesus uses this time to help correct your vision and to help us to remember to look to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, more importantly, he takes away your sin and mine and gives to us the blessing of salvation through it.  So, look to Jesus, whether in times of trouble or times of success; keep Him as your one true focus.

 Father of all mercies, your grace flows over us like a raging river.  We can never see the height or depth of your love.  Forgive us when we look elsewhere for our hope.  Keep us in your sight and hold us close to you that we may always see you clearly and look to you, the fount of all our hope, for all our good gifts and blessings.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

 God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

11-13-2022

Good Morning All,

  Jeremiah 17:14; “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.”

    I was listening to a radio program where the host was interviewing a recovering addict.  That is how he referred to himself as “recovering;” he said,” The beast is never far away.”  As I listened, in my cynical judgmental fashion, I thought he really has a way with words.  Yet I kept listening and his story got more intriguing.  He had tried to defeat his addiction many times and many times he failed.  He was addicted to cocaine for over 26 years and with his family’s encouragement and demands; he went through 8 different rehab stints.  None of them lasted longer than 9 months before he was back using cocaine.

    The interviewer asked him how he finally won.  The man’s answer was refreshing.  He told her that he didn’t win but that Jesus won for him.  He told her that until he accepted Jesus as his personal savior (not exactly a Lutheran phrase but it was his phrase) his battle with the beast was always won by the beast but Jesus is stronger than the beast.  The interviewer was a little shocked and taken aback but continued on with the interview.  Then he ended the interview with an observation that intrigued me and really flustered the gal interviewing him.  He said, “we are all addicts; we all have destructive beasts within us which we can never defeat on our own.  As long as we battle them by our power we will lose, we need something else to win; for me it is Jesus Christ.”

     We are all addicts; Paul said we are all sinners.  Yet I really like how he phrased the idea that we are all “addicts.”  We all have those sins which just seem so hard to shake.  We maybe aren’t addicted to drugs or even to many other sins but there is always one or two which seem to really pull us down.  The early Church used to speak of the seven deadly sins, wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony, as the fallen human tendency toward sin.  If we look at this list; it pretty much gets to all our issues.  In today’s world we may have some subsets that have appeared given our technology and current style of living but for the most part we can find our self in this list. 

     There are a lot of things that can be said about this list but one thing I hope we all take away from this is that we are ALL in this list.  You might be a one sin and I might be at another, but we are all sinners and thus we should not judge others for where we think they sit in the list.  I may think that one person is greedy, or another is lustful yet if I am envious of my neighbor; I am no different than they are. 

    So, what do we do?  First, we see life as Jeremiah does, “Heal me, O lord, and I shall be healed, save me and I will be saved.”  Jesus is our only true salvation and our only way to defeat our addictions, our sins.  So, we struggle on as recovering addicts, fighting the beast within, our sinful nature.  When we can, we should, with God’s love as our motive, help our fellow believer fight his addiction as well.  With Christ, we are all in this together, offering each other comfort, hope and consolation because of Christ’s free gift to us.  We are all recovering addicts and we need each other’s prayers and support. 

Divine God, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.   A prayer of St. Francis.

God’s Peace,

 Pastor Bret  

11-12-2022

Good Morning All,

Gen 12:7; “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. “

      So, do you build altars to the Lord in places where you experience a blessing from God?  I would wager probably not.  But it is an interesting concept.  We find this happening often in the Old Testament, especially in Genesis.  It was to serve as a reminder of God’s mercy or grace being shown to his children on that spot.  This way, it was a marked place so that whenever Abram or his family passed by this spot, they would remember God’s mercy. 

    The State of South Dakota, and other states, put up signs where traffic fatalities occur in order to remind us to be watchful, safe drivers.  It reminds of the dangers on the road and that, as the driver, you are to be alert at all times.  We see them erect monuments and memorials at places where there is great loss of life, like the World Trade Center or the federal building in Oklahoma City.  We mark places of tragedy but why don’t we mark a place where we experience God’s grace?  If a storm, like last night, destroys a house but no one inside is harmed; why isn’t that a time to mark God’s grace?  Buildings can be rebuilt; personal belongings can be replaced but we cannot restore life; why isn’t that marked as a place of God’s mercy?

     Isn’t it true, that too often, we refuse to see God’s grace because we only see the small picture?  Too often we are like the elderly grandmother who was walking with her only grandson on the beach.  Suddenly a huge wave came and washed the little boy into the sea.  The grandmother fell to her knees and began to sob uncontrollable crying out her prayers,” God please rescue my one and only grandson.  I will never ask for anything else if You would only bring him back to me.”   Suddenly, out of the sea, there appear a couple of dolphins and they are carrying the little boy back to the shore and the dolphins come so close to the shore that the boy can walk to his grandmother.  The grandmother grabs the little boy and hugs him and begins to kiss him all the while sobbing that she was afraid that he was lost forever.  After a couple of minutes, the grandmother holds the little boy at arm’s length and looks him over to see if he is alright.  She pauses, looks to heaven, and says,” He had a hat!”

     God mercies are so great that we often miss how great they are.  Too often we only see that the hat is gone; we don’t see the little boy standing there in front of us.  So, we complain that our knees ache when we get out of bed.  But we can get out of bed; we have a bed to get out of; we have a voice to complain about our knees; we have someone who will listen to us complain about our knees.  We can eat breakfast; we have a home to live in.  Why don’t we build an altar to the Lord?  It could remind us of the mercy that God has shown to us. 

     Part of the reason is because the devil and our sinful nature don’t want us to.  We are less likely to be separated from God when we recognize his mercy.  If we were to build an altar every time God shows us mercy; that’s all we would get done.  Even in times of storms and destruction, God is there to protect us.  Things can be replaced; God’s love is present even when we don’t see it.

    We don’t really have to build altars to the Lord, but we do need to remember all the great mercies that we receive every single day.  We need to see his grace and not the missing hat.  We need to be a thankful people who recognize God's blessings.  Then we need to be a loving people who shares those blessings with those around us.

 Gracious Father, your mercies flow over us like a raging river.  We are inundated by the love that you give us.  Lead us to be a thankful people who see your mercies.  Lead us to be a loving people so that we will share these mercies with those who are in need of your mercy.  As you have showered us lead us to shower others with your abundant mercy.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret       

11-11-2022

Good Morning All,

     1 Peter 5:7; “casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

   The fishing verse: this is how we help the Sunday School and confirmation class try to remember this verse.  Cast all your anxieties.  When we think of casting it is usually along the line of the way a fly fisherman casts his lightweight fly onto the stream trying to trick the trout into biting it or maybe the bass fisherman who casts into the lake to catch a bass or two.  The only problem with this image is that, at least on TV, it is easy.  It only takes a little flick of the wrist and the bait, and the hook go sailing into the water at the exact spot that the fisherman wants it.  But the image that the Bible wants us to see is a little different.

     There are a few ways to look at this.  First, we can see it as casting as in casting those big fishing nets which the fishermen who do it for a job use.  In Jesus’ day, that was back breaking work.  The nets were heavy and casting and pulling them in all night took all the energy one could muster.  The second way is to think of casting out some refuse or garbage.  Think of having cleaned up an area of dirt and sweeping it onto a plastic garbage bag, tying the bag up and then casting or throwing the bag into the dumpster.  A third way is to think of gathering up your possessions in a bag and then throwing the bag over your mule or donkey and having the donkey carry the load. 

    The idea is that the burdens of our life; we do not have to carry them all by ourselves.  God is there to carry the load for us all because He loves.  Sometimes we think a little too simplistically with this.  We think that nothing in our life will ever cause us pain because we have cast our troubles to God.  Then when we face the pain of death of a loved one, illness, job loss, relationship failures, etc; we blame God.

     However, God shows his love and care for us in some ways that, if we trust in Him, to face the challenges of life.  We will face these challenges, but we do not have to fear or be anxious about them.  First, God gives us the courage to face our trials head on and not try and run away.  We know that God is with us and will see us through.  Second, he gives us some wisdom or understanding about the challenge.  He will help us to see that through this trial, God is molding us and shaping us into the disciple that He wants us to be and that he is drawing us into a closer relationship with Him.  The third thing God does for us is to give us strength to face our challenges.  Some of you have faced incredible challenges these past couple of years, the death of loved ones, health concerns for you or a loved one, fickle weather, financial ups and downs just to name a few.  Yet God has given you the strength to continue on, usually day by day to start, but to continue on your journey.

     Finally, and most importantly, God gives us the faith to trust in Him to take care of it all especially the parts that we just cannot handle.  God sends his Spirit of comfort arriving in the hands of those around us who love us and are God’s hands at those times when we need a hand to hold or a shoulder to lean on or cry on.  God cares for you so don’t carry the burden all by yourself, cast your anxieties on him for he cares for you.

 Father of grace, your loving kindness lifts us up every day.  You guard us through your love to protect us as your dear children.  When I feel pain or fear, send your Spirit to me that I may know comfort and rest.  When those around me feel pain and distress, use me as your hands to comfort them with your love.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret