Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 10:1-15

Matthew 10:1-15

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. Hey, everyone, we're finishing up our sermon series on raising children in the faith this week, and I've chosen Matthew chapter 10, verses one through 15 as the Gospel reading for Sunday, October 15, it goes like this. And he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the 12 apostles are these first Simon, who is called Peter and Andrew, his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent out instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and proclaim as you go saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons, received without paying, give without pay, acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or to tunics, or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it, and stay there until you depart. As you entered, the house greeted, and if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace returned to you. And if anyone will not receive you, or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet, when you leave the house, that house or town, truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. Here is the reading. So our reading begins with Jesus calling the 12 disciples and it lists out who they are. Simon, Andrew, James, John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddeus, Simon, Judas. And Jesus takes them all out. And he sends them out to the the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, as an interesting note, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, to the disciples to only go to the house of Israel, and he changes that, finally, at the very end, when he says, go make disciples of all nations, not just the house of Israel, but all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son in the Holy Spirit. Now, Jesus sends them out, and he gives them a task, proclaim, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons. So what he's doing is he's telling the disciples at that time, to do the same things that Jesus has been doing. Jesus has been proclaiming the kingdom of God, and healing, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, casting out demons. The idea is Jesus here is training them for the ministry, by having them do the things that he's doing. So the disciples have been with him for a while. And then he says, Now, you go, you've seen me work, you go do it. It's an interesting way of teaching people, right. You teach them they follow along, they hear the master doing it, and then they're supposed to mimic him, go out and do the thing. Now for the disciples, at that moment, he sends them out without any any preparations, without any any extra supplies, no bags, no belts, no extra coppers or silver or gold or anything like that. When they go out, they're supposed to rely on the hospitality of strangers. They get to a town they proclaim the kingdom of heaven is at hand and someone is supposed to take them in, as he says, For the laborer deserves his food. If they find no one who in the town who was willing to take them in, is supposed to take the dust and shake it off their feet as judgment against them. Now the reason I chose this one when we're talking about raising children in the faith is it shows a good example of the way Jesus brought up his disciples in this pattern that he was trying to teach them that he walked with them. He taught them He gave them knowledge, they watched him work, and then at some point They had, he decided to give them some practice. And later on, we'll see them come back and they debrief over it and they talk about it. This is a thing that that we need to do as congregations and as families trying to raise Christians in the faith is that there becomes a time when it's less about Bible study and about gaining knowledge. But we also need to help them practice it, especially as they as they transition from being children into almost adults, there's a time where they have to start taking more and more responsibility and do more and more things for themselves. And one of the things that I think the church has really struggled with, is thinking about how do we transition children into being adults in an appropriate way? Sometimes I think it's almost like they hit a teen and they're like, Fine, you've graduated now go out and be adults, you're ready for it, right? And they go, wait, wait, Yesterday, you were still emailing my dad to ask permission for me to go on events. It's an interesting thing that we have to think about is this transition. It's like, do we just sort of drop them into adulthood? Or is there a better way? And I think churches need to think through that. Just like Jesus thought through this, this growth in this practice, before they actually were sent out into all nations. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: James 2:14-26

James 2:14-26

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're finishing up our series on raising children in the faith with the third sermon in our series. So I chose readings that are a little different. The reading for this upcoming Sunday, October 15, for the Epistle reading is from James chapter two, verses 14 through 26. It reads, what good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body? What good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one you do? Well, even the belief, demons believe and shutter Do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar, you see that faith was active along with his works. And faith was completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way, was not also Rahab, the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead. So also, faith apart from works is dead. Here is the reading. This is a tough one for us, Lutherans, brothers and sisters in Christ. faith apart from works is dead. Let's take a look. So he begins with a question. What happens if your faith does not have works? And it goes, What good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If her brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them Go in peace be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body? What good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. I think this is a fascinating look at what it means to have faith. I think for for many of us, Faith seems to be having an idea in our heads or a warm feeling in our hearts. And that kind of faith isn't really a faithfulness so much as just sort of having an inkling about Jesus. But James is doing here is he's saying faith leads to works. And if you don't see the works, maybe we have to ask some questions about the faith. So the example he uses is if a member of the congregation a brother or sister doesn't have food, what does faith do? Does faith say? I'll pray for you? Or does faith say I'll help you? Well, hopefully it actually says both. And what James is saying is that a faithful Christian who's filled with faith in Christ will then go out and give someone who is hungry or cold, warmth, or food. So faith all by itself? Well, it's hard to see. So he says later, but someone will say you have faith and I have work. Show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works. What does that mean? Well, what I think he's doing is again, the works show in the life of a Christian is evidence of their faith. He wants you to go out and be like, point to my faith. Can we do that? Can we point to faith? I'm not sure. But we can point to things that are evidence, things by the works that we do, that faith genuinely leads towards. And that's what I think it means when it says faith without works is dead, is that a Christian who has faith will lead towards the works that are good towards good works towards our brothers and sisters in Christ towards the world and towards God. God, do these works save us? Well, you also see he has like, you have faith. And I have works. Like works apart from faith don't mean anything either. Right. And so the key component is faith that leads to works. Now one of the real challenges is when he goes through this, this big thing about Abraham being justified by works, he says in verse 21, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered up his son Isaac on the altar, you see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. So here is showing a bit of a of an example how Abraham's faith was lived out, by actually trusting in God, Abraham, his faith, he trusted God, which meant then, that he did the work of offering up Isaac on the altar. He believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead, who was willing to offer him as a sacrifice, which means that the faith he had had a chance to be lived out in his works. And similarly, Rahab, the prostitute, when the spies came in, she knew who the God of Israel was. And she knew that he was coming on the march. And she was, well, she knew that he was going to win. And so her knowledge, her faith, was completed. By doing works. From her faith came the act of trusting God, to protect her when the armies came. It's an interesting way of seeing how faith produces the works that that God calls on us to do. Now, what's interesting is when I talk in our Bible studies, and I talk with members about what it means to be justified by grace through faith on account of Christ, and that our works don't save us. I almost always get someone from the group who will raise their hands and say, But Pastor, we have to do works, right. And I go absolutely, Christians, that our faith causes us to do works, they're the natural result of works. And so it flows out of us into the world. What's funny is then when I turn us around, and we start to do the faith without works is dead thing. And people tend to get a little nervous, because when we say things like, well, you know, the historic church would excommunicate people who didn't go to church once a year. We don't do that. I mean, that's pushing it a little far for us, but saying, maybe if you are despising preaching in His Word, and not coming to the church and not receiving Communion and not asking for the sacraments, maybe that is a demonstration about where our faith is. Faith without works is dead. And I think that's where we're going with this. This passage from James, is that when we have faith, we see the works in action. And so faith without works is dead. And James says, show me your faith, you can't see it, right? No, we when we we live out our faith, that faith shows the world and shows goes out into the world in works. You know, I had a professor at an college actually, who talked about this relationship. You said that when you when you look at a car, and it's running, you can't actually see the engine running. What do you do? Well, you listen, and you can hear the engine rumbling. And you can see smoke coming out of the back. Well, hopefully not too much smoke, hopefully just a little smoke. So you know, the engine is running. And that's kind of how this faith and works thing is going on. So that sometimes we see the things that we do and that's the sign of the faith that's in us. And that's I think what James is getting at here. Well, that's it for us today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 91

Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
    nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
    and see the recompense of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
    the Most High, who is my refuge—
no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
    no plague come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
    the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
    I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble;
    I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation.

Everyone I apologize for the recording quality. I'm recording this from home. I'm a little sick, so I don't have my normal equipment from my office. We're continuing the sermon series from about raising children in the faith. This one is from Psalm 91. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings, you will find refuge His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noon day. 1000 may fall at your side 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place the Most High who is my refuge. No evil shall befall you. No plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. on their hands, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the after the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot because he holds fast to me in love. I will deliver him I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him with long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Here ends the reading. Psalm 91 is a Psalm of trust. It is a psalm that describes how God is a refuge and a fortress, that he is there in times of difficulty and trouble. The thing about Psalm 91, though, is that it is not a promise that everything will go well. But simply a promise that we can trust in God in difficult times. We begin He who dwells in the shelter of the Most tide will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Now we know that we can trust in God, our refuge and our fortress. He has promised that in Jesus Christ that we have protection, not just from the evil things of the world, but from sin, death and the devil itself. And so the next few verses list all of the things that God will save the boss from the snare of the fowler deadly pestilence or disease, that God covers us with his his wings, and he is a shield and buckler. These are all examples of the difficulties that an ancient Israelite would have would have faced and examples of things that God protects against. No, of course we know. Sometimes deadly pestilence does get people. Sometimes God's protection doesn't seem like it's there. But we know that God is with us. Because Jesus came and died for us an entered into death so that we can rise with him on the last day. And so 1000 As it says in verse seven 1000 may fall at your side 10,000 at your right hand, but we know that death is not the end. The God is coming, that Jesus Christ will save us and raise us to everlasting life. continues in verse nine, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place the Most High who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you know plague come near your tent, free will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. on their hands, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the after the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Similarly, what we see here is another example of all the dangers that God commands His angels to guard us He commands His power to protect us. Not from the day to day dangers of this world, but from death itself. Because it doesn't matter if the lions eat us, or the ad or poison us, poisons us. Doesn't matter if cancer gets us or if we are blown up in a terrorist attack. What matters is that Jesus Christ is coming to raise us from the dead and he shall holds he continues this in the last few verses where God says, because he holds fast to me in love. I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. What a great promise for us who wait for Christ to return. Even in the midst of difficulties and terrible news all over the world. We know that God will be with us and save us. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Joshua 4:1-7

Joshua 4:1-7

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation.

Everyone sorry for the delay in getting this episode out. I was sick yesterday, still a little under the weather. So you'll notice a difference in the recording quality. Please forgive me for that. This week, we're finishing up the sermon series on raising children in the faith. So the readings are a little different from the lectionary. The reading that I've chosen for the Old Testament for this upcoming Sunday comes from Joshua chapter four, verses one through seven. When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, take 12 men from the people, each from each tribe, a man and commend them saying, take 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan. And from the very place where the priest feet stood firmly, bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight. Then Joshua called the 12 men from the people of Israel whom he had appointed a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you, then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel, a memorial forever. Here ends the reading. This reading follows up on an important story in the history of Israel. Just before this, Joshua and the people were on the far side of the Jordan. And God instructed the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant and walk into the Jordan River. And where they did this, the Jordan River would stop and pile up on where the the ark was, and everything underneath it would be dry. So the people of Israel crossed into the Jordan River, very similar to the way that they crossed the Red Sea when Moses was around. Now, this time, God has a plan with Joshua, to help the people of Israel. Remember, they didn't do a great job of remembering what God had done when they crossed the Red Sea, or with the manna, or with the quail or anything like that. They just kept fighting against God. So what God tells Joshua to do is pick up 12 stones. And he says, pass on before the ark of the Lord your God in the midst of the Jordan and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, this may be a sign among you, when your children asked in time to come, what did these stones mean to you, then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. The idea behind these stones is that they would take them out and pile them up and make it into a monument that would remind God's people about the event that happened. And God anticipates something here, he anticipates the children going by and seeing these these stones and going, Huh, that's weird. stones don't pile up like that all on their own. What's going on here? And it would be an opportunity for the congregation of Israel, whether the parents or others to say, Do you remember the story? Do you remember what God did for us? This is a way to incorporate the history of God's promises into the life of Israel. And we as a congregation have a number of ways that we do that. We incorporate the history of God's work through our divine service, through reading and speaking about God. And it's the entire congregations efforts along in partnership with the parents to help pass this on and tell these stories. And so, Joshua, and God set up this memorial for all time, that these stones will then be there to remind God's people of his work and his promises. And what a great way to incorporate that into the life of Israel as a physical reminder of what God has done and how he promised to to bring salvation to God's people by bringing them into the Promised Land. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Gathering In His Name: Worshiping as God's Family

Mark 10:13-16

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

We are today continuing in a sermon series on raising children in the faith. This is a three sermon series. Last week we talked about how important it is that the biblical role of introducing the faith and sustaining the faith is for parents, that parents are the primary person who teaches the faith to their children's. The habits and actions of home life, are the ways that we really, they really see what it means to be a Christian. Today, we are talking about the importance of having children and in fact, having everyone in the divine surface. And next week, we're going to talk about how a congregation and parents can partner together to help train a living faith in the lives of those children. Today, as we begin this, I'd like to read from Mark chapter 10. People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these, I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God, like a little child will never enter it. And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them, and bless them. Today, as we consider this idea that children belong just as much in the divine servants as adults, we're going to take a look at it in a few ways. First, we're going to talk about the theology of the divine service, and why all of us should be here. Next, we'll talk about some of the practical reasons. Finally, we'll look at some objections. And last, we'll look at ways that we as a congregation can support parents who bring their children here. The beginning, is the theology of what happens here in worship, as we gather together. Now that theology is contained in a phrase that Lutherans have used to talk about worship, called the divine service. And we call it that, because in the divine service, God comes down from heaven, in a special way, and serves us through His grace. We see that in a number of ways. We see it in the confession and absolution, where you confess your sins. And then the pastor forgives your sins, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not just magic words, not just something wishing nice to the Holy Spirit actually is delivered through them to forgive your sin. In Holy Communion, Jesus Christ comes down. In a way he does not come down any other time. It is special. It is unique. Well, God is everywhere. While Christ is everywhere, he only comes in his body and his blood for you, in the divine service. In the word to hear, we have a special moment where all God's people gathered together to hear not just a Bible reading, though, that's important. But also it applied to the life of a congregation, applied to the adults, applied to the children, applied to the people whose memories are fading, whose eyes aren't working to everyone of all different kinds of abilities. In the divine service, all of God's people gathered together around his word, and Sacraments to receive His grace. And what a great joy that is, that we can be here where God says that He is where God gives you salvation, where he delivers his grace to you. And Jesus says, Let the children come to Me. And what's interesting about the story that I just read is that it's in the middle of Jesus's teaching. Right beforehand, he's talking to the Pharisees and right afterwards, there's a little teaching with the crowds, and there's all this stuff going on. And when mothers bring their babies to Jesus, the disciples are like, No, back off. Adults are doing important things. Jesus is teaching. One of the things we get right About this passage is later when Jesus says you have to receive it like a little child. We often say that it's because the children are loving or trusting, or something like that. That's not what's going on here. In the ancient world, children were the least important members of society. Babies, especially because most of them would die before they reached age five children that were to be neither seen nor heard. Adults are the important ones, especially the elders. And that disciples, in any other circumstance, any other teacher would be like, What are you doing bringing these kids here? Jesus is far too important for that. But Jesus says, the lowliest among us, receive His grace. And the most humble among us, must receive His mercy. And isn't that how God's grace works, not just with children, but all of us, that those who come to God with a proud heart he turns away. But when we come to him with repentance, when we come with need, when we say I am not strong, I am too weak, I can't do it God, Jesus Christ comes with His grace and His mercy, and gives you salvation. This is what he does with children. This is what he does. And all of God's people gather together at this special moment where God says, I am here. That is why we bring children here. But there are some practical reasons as well. One, goes back to Proverbs, Chapter 22, verse six, or Solomon writes, train a child in the way he should go. And then when he was old, it will not depart from it. Pretty good wisdom, right. And when you take children out of worship, when you train them not to go to church, you're training them not to go to church, right? When you say, church is not for you, go do something else. You're teaching them that that is their place to be. That that is where they are to go. That they are not welcomed with the adults, they should be with the kids. And if you teach them that they might believe you. Which is a shame, isn't it? We want to be a place that loves them, a place that cares about them, that welcomes them into the body of Christ as equal members. Because they are not the lowest of us. They are just one of us, you children. You are equal members in the body of Christ, not to be tossed out, not to be neglected not to hide away. One of us, full members of the Church fully saved fully in need of God's grace, the same way we are. To train them not to come to church, they will not come to church. The next thing is what you have to ask a question. What happens when they graduate from children's church, they have spent all of this time many years of their life, playing games, reading a story doing crafts, and they love it. It's fun, it's great. And then one day later, they're not allowed to go back anymore. You pull them from their community, from everything they know from their people, from their teacher. And then you plop them into the church. And they go, I don't want to be here. I want to be where the toys are. I want to be where the books are. I want to see Miss Kathleen again. And she does a wonderful job with the kids. But all of a sudden you're taking away their community and their life and plopping them in a bunch of strangers. They don't know the songs, they don't know when to stand, they don't know what to do. I've seen it happen over and over and over again. They're not learning how to be one of us, in our life, and in our church. And one of the things that the divine service does is it passes on our culture and our habits and our practices. Now you might think these kids are too young, there is no way they can pay attention to that. There is no way they can they can get anything out of this.

I'm going to tell you a story. In my first Church in Chicago, I was invited over to a family's house. It was two parents and they had a young boy, he must have been four years old at the time, really young, one of those boys ran around active, barely paid attention. You could see it. I understood it was amazing. When I got there. I walk in the door, Kristen and I are there and he sees me. And immediately he runs to the bathroom and he grabs his white robe, pulls it over, ties around his waist, runs into his dad's closet and grabs a tie, draped it over his neck, like a stole. And then we spent the next 30 minutes doing a mini divine service. He preached the way a four year old can it was, I forget what he said. He handed us crackers and juice. That's how kids pick things up, right? They may not pay attention, they may be doodling they may be moving around, but they can hear. They're not deaf. They can see. And this kid knew exactly what was going on. He knew exactly what happens. The Word of God is proclaimed. And Christ comes to you in his body and blood. I wish adults knew that as well as that kid did, right. And he didn't catch it because somebody taught it to him. He caught it because he was in church. And he saw me do it. And he understood what God is doing. We don't give our kids enough credit, that even when they're squirming or drawing or playing, they still hear and they still see they get a lot out of coming to church. Another another objection is that children are too loud and too distracting. And they can be right. Children can be loud. Children can be distracting. That was the objection that the disciples had, I think, when they were bringing the babies to Jesus just don't get in the way. something important is happening here. I agree something important is happening in the divine surface for the adults and for the kids. And they deserve to be able to hear it too. But even more than that, what do we do as a congregation when someone gets distracting? Do we kick them out? Should I point to Kathleen every time she opens up a hard candy in the beginning of my sermon and be like, Excuse me, ma'am. I told her I was going to tell that story. Don't worry, she gave me permission. Do we give our ushers a red card and a yellow card for noise? Of course not. We've got people who are neurodivergent. We have people who don't shut off their phones. We have people who sometimes say things when they shouldn't. But you know what happens in a family. We welcome all of God's people into this place. That's part of the unity that we have in Jesus Christ, that He binds us together as one. With all our problems with all our distractions with all our weirdness. We wouldn't kick them out just because they're different. We wouldn't kick someone out because they have autism. We welcome. Another objection is that children should be in a more developmentally appropriate setting something that is more on their level. And I agree with you. That is why I'm a fan of the liturgy. When we do the liturgy, a lot of the church service is memorizable. We do the same songs every Sunday with other hymns. But we have pieces that we do every single Sunday. And little kids love repetition. Just asked someone who was raising a girl in the middle of the frozen era. How many times did they watch that? How many times did people watch Finding Nemo? Kids love repetition. And they can memorize it and put the word of God that is part of our liturgy in their hearts. But also, we do have a wonderful time when children can come and be You know, the developmentally appropriate setting. It's called Sunday school. Right now it happens at nine o'clock right before our worship service. Kathleen is there with an excellent lesson. She works with the kids, parents, you can drop your kids off there and have an hour free. No kids, it's great. And they can read a story from the Bible and play the games and do the crafts. And it's awesome. And then they come here and hear the Word of God as well. It's a great way to put together both the lessons that they need to hear with Bible knowledge, as well as the divine service where they get God's grace that we do here. Now I get it. Parents, this is tough. When you have a kid who's squirmy. When you have a kid who doesn't pay attention, maybe who's loud, and you go, Oh, my gosh, they are going to embarrass me so much. It's tough. I get that. But St. Peter, and First Peter, chapter three says this, if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. And sometimes working with kids that are unruly, is suffering, right? Every parent knows that. But it's wholly suffering. Because what you're doing is bringing kids here to hear God's word, so that they can know that we love them, and that Jesus loves them. But they're not to be cast out. But one of us. So what can we do as a congregation to support parents? First, I think we should love the noise. I think we should love the squirms. One of my favorite moments as a pastor here was when I went to the the choir concert right before Christmas, we had a choir concert. My very first year I had been here, oh, it must have been two weeks. And one of the moms from 2911 brought her little son to the concert. And I get up and I'm in front of the congregation giving my greeting and he goes faster. And he races on the middle of the aisle and I pick them up and put them on my hip. And we just keep going. How much fun was that? The same thing during my sermon in the middle. I preached for like 15 minutes with a kid. Hallelujah. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't it great? When we gather them together among us and make them one. The sound of moving kids the action, all of that it's the sound of a living church. It's the sound of of hope of a new generation of joy. I love it. And I think we should too. Another thing we can do is to make parents feel welcome. Make their kids feel welcome. You guys are a loving church. I know what you guys do a great job welcoming and smiling. This isn't a problem, I think. But it's something that we have to be active about. Because sometimes we give a look when a kid makes a noise we should maybe think about because parents are pretty sensitive about that. A look misunderstood or misinterpreted can go and cut pretty deep. The other thing I think we can do is offer to help. Now, I know that there are lots and lots of grandmothers in here who would love nothing more than to sit with a kid once in a while to be able to help and distract and manage so that maybe mom or dad can take a break and listen to the sermon. And the parents if you want that. Let me know. We've got dozens of grandmas who would be joyful, and being able to help that out. And I'm sure we can find someone to do that. God wants all his children to come. He wants everyone to gather together in the divine service. And it's a central part of making a Christian whether they are super young, or super old. It's because here God comes to us with his means of grace binds us together as a people and gives us life. We should welcome the children, all of them. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Mark 10:13-16

Mark 10:13-16

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're continuing our sermon series on raising children in the faith. So the Gospel reading that is chosen for Sunday, October 8, comes from Mark chapter 10, verses 13 through 16. And they were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, Let the children come to Me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child shall not enter it. And when he took them in his arms and bless them, laying his hands on them, Here ends the reading. Before we get into the actual tax, let's take a look at what's going on. Jesus has just gone to the region of Judea, beyond the Jordan and a crowd gathers. And so he begins to teach them. During that teaching, Pharisees come up and they asked him a question. And they talk about whether it's lawful to divorce a wife and Jesus weighs in on this question. And in the middle of all this, some women bring up children to Jesus, that He might touch them, and the disciples are mad. Now we get this idea that the disciples were mad, and we get a little confused. Why would they be upset that Jesus is blessing children? Well consider the situation. Jesus is talking with the Pharisees, and he's teaching the crowds. And these people are bringing these babies up to Jesus. They can't talk, they can't learn. They can't do anything. They're not worth Jesus's time. What is going on? No, no, no, no, no. Jesus has got important things to do with important people. They're just going to distract. But Jesus is indignant. He says, Let the children come to Me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child shall not enter it. We must understand this pretty frequently. Much of the time, we think the idea of being like a child is this simple, trusting faith, like a child trusts their parents. But that's not the way the ancient world would have seen that. In the ancient world, your value to society grew as you aged. When you were a baby, or a young child, you are worth just about nothing. I mean, I'm sure your parents, the parents loved them, and wanted their kids to grow and all of that. But out in society, kids were neither to be seen nor heard. They were to be out of the way. They were the lowest of the low, ignored until they had something to contribute to society until they became adults. And so Jesus isn't saying received the kingdom like a trusting and loving child. He's saying the kingdom of heaven belongs to the lowly, to the least, to the people who are distracting and should be out of the way that maybe the adults don't want in the room because they're noisy and playful, and they make sounds and get in the way when adults are talking. Jesus thinks is important that the lowliest get it. And I think as we consider what it means to be blessed by Jesus, we need to consider what it means to have people in our congregation who are not like adults, the children, the neurodivergent, the people who can't read, maybe have have troubles controlling the volume of their voices or whether they talk or the sounds that they make, or the smells that they have. The people that often we would think, well, maybe they just shouldn't be around distracting us from the sermon. Jesus wants the lowest, the children, to come to Him and be blessed by Him. And where does that happen? It happens in the divine service, as the whole body of Christ gathers where Jesus is to receive his blessing. That's it for our gospel reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42-47

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're doing something a little different. We're continuing our sermon series on raising children in the faith. So I've chosen a different reading for the Epistle reading for October 8. It comes from Acts chapter two, verses 42 through 47. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers, and all came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who are being saved. He rents the reading. This is an interesting passage that I think most people misunderstand. When you look at this passage, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. What we often see are disjointed pieces, like they devoted themselves to the teaching. And later on to getting together and hanging out. Some of them would have dinner, and then others would pray. And there are all sorts of different things. Luke has this interesting theme that he runs through the Gospel of Luke as well as into the book of Acts. That is this idea of table fellowship. And the Gospel of Luke table fellowship is something that happens with Jesus, there's Jesus comes to be with them. He teaches the people they eat, and they're in His presence. And it continues building and building all the way through the book of Luke until you get to the very end, when Jesus appears to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And so Jesus appears to these disciples, it's after he has died and risen from the dead. And they don't know what's him. So he teaches them how the old the whole Old Testament focuses on him and leads to his death and resurrection, to save the world. They don't recognize him. And so they go on and on until they get to the end. They Jesus pretends that he wants to go on and they invite Him in. And it isn't until they he blesses the bread and breaks it that they finally realize who he is, and then he vanishes. And they say that they recognized him in the breaking of bread. What this means is that this prayer for this fellowship, of the breaking of the bread, this table fellowship, is actually part of the pattern of worship that the church began with. And that's what Acts 242 is all about devoting themselves to what you would do in the divine service. It's the apostles teaching, which is what we do in the beginning, the fellowship, communion, the congregation, breaking up bread, and the prayers. Now many translations don't call it the prayers they say and to prayer. The difference there is that it's talking about something, a communal prayer, rather than individual prayer. Luke is describing worship. They devoted themselves to hearing God's word to teaching about Jesus fellowshipping together, receiving Holy Communion and praying together in God's name. And this gathering of believers, all of the believers, top to bottom, oldest to youngest leads to all the wonders and signs and amazing things. And they continue to do this as part of the regular habit of the church. And that is what's going on in Acts 242. Luke is setting up the pattern of worship that the apostle set down of all of God's people gathering together to receive this great gift. That's it for our reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 121

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
    the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
    he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
    your going out and your coming in
    from this time forth and forevermore.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're doing something different. We're continuing our series on raising children in the faith, which means that we've departed from the lectionary. So the psalm that I've chosen for Sunday, October 8, is Psalm 121. I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth, He will not let your foot be moved. He who helps you will not slumber, Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night, the Lord will keep you from all evil, he will keep your life the Lord will keep you're going out. And you're coming in from this time forth, and forevermore. Here hence the reading. This Psalm is the beginning of a section called about is titled A Song of a sense, as in going up. The idea is that there's a whole set of psalms that the people of Israel would sing or pray as they were heading up to Jerusalem for the great feasts. They would do this several times of year as required by God's law to come to Jerusalem, where the temple is to offer the appropriate sacrifices, to do the appropriate celebrations, and to be in God's presence for that required Festival. It's also something you could sing every time you were heading up to Jerusalem. It's a song of a sense, because Jerusalem, the trip was always upward, you always go up to Jerusalem. And so you can imagine you are down beneath Jerusalem. And you read these words, I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth, and you're looking up at the city of Jerusalem, where the temple was, where God said that he was in a special way, his presence in the middle of that city. It goes through a number of promises, though, that God will give to his people. And the point of this psalm is to prepare people who are coming into God's presence, who are making the journey to where God is, and reminding them why they go and they worship that God. As we consider what we do in worship, it's very similar. We look up, up not to a city on a hill, we look up our altar space, to where God promised to be in a special way through His Word and Sacraments, through the proclamation of the gospel, and through his body and blood of Holy Communion. And God promises to be there in a very special way, in a way that he isn't in other places. Not in your homes, not out in fields, not at work. He is there with his grace through the means of grace in his word, and his sacraments. And so all of these promises that he will not let your food your foot be moved, that he is your keeper and your shade, that He the Lord will keep you from all evil. He will keep your life. We turn to the divine service where God comes to us on Sunday mornings to give us His grace. That is why we go to church. It's this song of a sense where God comes down to us. That's it for Psalm 121. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Proverbs 22:6

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go;
    even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're departing from the lectionary readings, and we're looking at raising children in the faith. And so the Old Testament reading I chose for this Sunday is Proverbs chapter 22, verse six, it's very short, it goes, Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. This is a well known proverb from the book of Proverbs. Like many proverbs, it's an idea of wisdom. It talks about the way the world works. And we know how this works, right? My parents raised me to be a sci fi nut. Every night, we watched some Star Trek The Next Generation, and we got so interested in it, and so good at it in the reruns that we would have competitions to see who could guess the plot of the show first, as we'd entered into it. And it was really exciting if we did it during the star date, Captain flog beginning of the show. And it really set me up to be a sci fi not my whole life. Now, I love it all. All the Sci Fi, spaceships, laser swords, explosions, gotta love it. And I think this is the idea behind proverbs 22, verse six. When you get a child in the habit of doing something more likely than not, when that child grows up, they will not depart from that habit. And this is true for the faith. If we do it pretty seriously. You train a child in following the Christian faith, and that child will grow up in it. And when they're old, the hope and the prayer is that they will not depart from it. But many Christian parents, they decide, oh, we will train the child to go to church every once in a while. And then go, why is my child not a Christian will train the child to see that everything comes first, except for Jesus. And if you've got time left over, then we'll do the things of the church, then we'll pray, then we'll read God's word, then we'll attend divine service. Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. We realize the things that we do are the things that our children learn about. And if you teach them to ignore the habits of the faith, if you teach them that everything else comes first. They'll learn that if we teach them that God comes first, that the salvation of Jesus Christ is more important than all other things. That prayer and the habits of faith come before all of the things. They will learn that and grow in that too. Of course, we know that the Holy Spirit is the one who is truly in charge of whether a child claims the faith or not. But it is a parent's responsibility to make sure that those habits are put into practice as much as possible. That's the end of our proverbs 22. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What We Owe Each Other, Sermon from September 10th, 2023

Romans 13:1-10

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Grace, mercy and peace be yours this day from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. It seems almost fitting that I should be here on this Sunday to be talking about this text. Because this is the world I live in every single day, this balancing act between the civil world and the religious world. See, in Lutheran side of the house, we have this distinction about the two kingdoms. And I love it. In fact, as an active duty Navy chaplain, that distinction alone helps us very well to be able to put on the different hats at the appropriate times, depending on which Kingdom we're living and working in. Now, are we always living and working in both at the same time, no matter who you are? Absolutely. But it's a little bit more pronounced if you live, work and breathe in the federal system, state system, any sort of government system, and it becomes a little bit more unique. So what are the two kingdoms that Martin Luther started putting out? Well, what he says is you have two kingdoms, and how God rules the world. You have the left hand kingdom, which, for you guys, you're looking at me, it's right, but it's my left, you have the left hand kingdom over here, which deals in the civil realm. And it is ruled by the law. It's ruled by rules, that things happen, and then punishments occur according to whatever that thing is. Luther goes on to say there's also the right hand to kingdom over here, where God is ruling through his church, through Christ. And it is ruled by the gospel. Not something that says you've broken the rule, and now you must pay. It's the one that says, I forgive you, all your sins. This reading from Romans 13, highlights this kingdom. And Martin Luther actually used this text very exclusively to talk about one of his writings that he put out there, which was, Can soldiers to be saved. Because it says, Don't murder don't kill. And this was troubling to Him, and to many, many people, can we who are ordered to go to war, to go and kill, can they be saved. And he uses this text to highlight that there is a distinction with the authority given to a government and an individual, to the government is given this authority appointed by God for the protection of its people, in order to be able to have peace, prosperity in the land in the world, whatever it may be. And in the last 50 years, 6070, the world has gotten a whole lot smaller, in terms of how governments and everything interacts. Which makes this side a whole lot more difficult. But what he highlights here, what Paul is highlighting in Romans, is that the institution of the government is a good thing for the sake of its people, and that we should follow our leaders. The context for which Paul is writing, it's not a great time. He's writing to the church that is in Rome, but who's the big powerhouse at the time? Who's ruling the world? Caesar who is Roman. And they didn't particularly like Christians, in fact, in just a few decades, would be the time when the Jewish temple is destroyed by the government. The Christians are dispersed throughout the world. And even Nero would be lighting his highways with burning Christians. It's not a good time, because they didn't have the things that we have the ability to believe, as you see fit. It was hard. And yet, Paul says these words to the church. He said As obey the authorities if you're doing good, nothing's gonna come to you. No authority will punish you for doing good. And later on in a different buy a book even goes and even if they do punish you for doing good, do it anyway. Do good in the world. But here he's highlighting, there's only a threat to those who are trying to do evil. When we talk about this side of the house, I found that there's really two ways that law order all of this stuff that is ruled by this kingdom is done. It's done either by power, or it's held by what I'll throw out there called contractual lism. I'll explain that in just a second. Power, I think we understand. Power is the thing that so many people have in so many are, so few people have. And so many people want. Power is the thing that allows me to control what you do. And whether we want to admit it or not, our positions in this life, do hold certain power. Look at me up here right now, right? We're in the robe and the stalls and everything, there is a certain power associated with being a pastor, especially if you're a loved pastor, when I was still acting in the civilian churches, My People loved me. So whenever I put something forward, would anyone ever tell me no? No, they don't necessarily tell you no. There's power, there's a thority. In these, if we're looking at the civil realm, there is power in those positions, and the power has to hold law in order. On the more local level, the thing that I was talking about with contractual ism is actually a philosophy put out by a man named Scanlon. And what if you've ever seen the show the good place it was on a few years ago, this is one of those topics, they were talking about how we determine what is good, what is morally right and wrong. This is one of those things. And what contractual ism says is, a group of people comes together and they say, like a contract. This is what we agreed to be right and wrong. I think this is how most of our everyday lives go either through the power struggles from those that have power and those that don't have power, or through the common contracts that we interact with each other. But if you notice where I'm standing, when I talk about all of this, I'm in the left hand kingdom right now. When Paul talks about this, I think he's giving good advice to the church so that they can continue living long as they can healthy lives, while still being the church. But he's talking about the righteousness of being good people in this world. He moves on to a different thing. Towards the end of the verses. He says all of that stuff, is how you should interact. But he moves over here and says, however, for you in the church, the way you're live should be directed. Do that stuff. But don't forget, this is the governing factor here. The debt that you owe to each other, and to people everywhere, is that of love. When we look to how power can be used, it's often the ones who have no power to do anything about it. That are the ones that are hurt, that are taken advantage of. We come over here in the side of the church and we can look over there and say that's not the way it ought to be. When the poor, the marginalized, the whomever are taken advantage because of power. It shouldn't be it our governing factor for us is that of love. The love for the neighbor, even if it's at our own expense, because what goes on over here is that power, contractual ism. All of that stuff is looking to what serves me For the best.

Coming over here, love doesn't ask about what is best for me. In fact, it's most of the time, not good for me. Love asks what's good for you? What's good for that person who is hurting, who is struggling? How can I love them in the face of such darkness. We do this and why Paul puts us forward on this side of the house. Because we have a greater story being told. This is the exact love, we see on the cross. The love that comes down and says, you have nothing to offer me. And so I will give you everything. I love you not because you're a sinner. I love you because you need me. And I need to help you. That's the love of Christ for you that has been in each and every one of your lives. And why Paul argues for a different way of life for the Church. We love not because we get anything out of it. But because that person in front of me is deserving, and worthy of love. When the whole world beats them down, they need to know that someone cares. And the cool thing about this whole thing that that Luthor put forward is that it's not just two separate, they're both going on at the same time. But who is the middle person? Or how do you bridge these two things together? It's through you. You get to bring in your jobs in your volunteering, whatever you're doing school, you get to bring love across the line over here. Even if you don't speak about Christ, even you don't do anything religious, you carry the love over to show that you care about people, as people. That's why I love my job so much. I don't think I actually lived in the real world until I joined the military. I think I lived a very sheltered life if I'm being honest. And it wasn't until I started joining the military and having conversations with people who are talking about horrible things that were going on in their lives. Before they even turned 18 things I couldn't even imagine happening to fellow human beings. They're living every day of their lives. And when we have those conversations, it's that opportunity to show the love that in the midst of abuse in the midst of pain, uncertainty, divorce, any of that stuff. I love you. And I don't hold any of that stuff against you. That's the beauty of living in both of these kingdoms that Luther put forward. And that what Paul wants for us. You get to be a light to people that are hurting that know no other way. And you can say you have maybe never heard this before. So let me tell you this right now. I love you. Not because you give me something not because you bring something to the table, but simply because you're here with me. And I love you. Let's figure out this life together. That's the beauty of the debt that we owe to one another being love. You get welcomed into some of the best and worst circumstances of people's lives. And they don't do that to everyone. We don't open our stories to everyone but showing that you care. That opens the door to show someone that very same love that we've been shown here. That's the beauty of love. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Planting the Seed: Nurturing Faith in the Hearts of Children. Sermon for October 1st, 2023

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we are taking a break from the normal lectionary readings that we do during the church here to pause on a sermon series. Today is the first one of three Sundays, where we are going to look at the theme of raising children in the face. This is something that our youth ministry worker and I Kathleen have been talking about for a while. And so we're going to take an examination of this both to help parents who are doing that, as well as our congregation, think about what it means as we begin our strategic planning process. Over the course of this sermon series, I'm going to do three sermons. The first one is today, it's about parents and the role of parents in raising their children in the faith. Next Sunday, we'll be talking about the importance of having children in worship. And the final one is how the partnership of parents and the church can work together to grow and active and living faith in children as they practice that faith out in the world. Now, before we get to this, we have to ask the question, what is the purpose of raising children in the faith? That might seem like a silly question, right? But before you can say, this is how we do it, you have to say, what's the goal? Is the goal, to grow a big ministry? Is the goal to have lots of fun? Or is the goal to have a child grow up, live and die in the face? We have to remember that, for the Christian Church, the project of a child in the congregation begins with baptism, and doesn't end for hopefully, 9095, maybe 120 years, right. And that for men like me, when I come and greet an infant, and welcome them into the Church of God, the projects that has been begun that day, I will not see its end. The hope is that I die long before they do. And we will have to hand this on to someone else. And so what we want is a child who grows fully committed to Jesus Christ, and the sacraments of the church through their whole life. We asked this question, when we welcomed in new members. The same question we asked whenever we have a confirmation ceremony, it is this Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and church, and to suffer all even death, rather than fall away from it. And they say, I do so intend, with the help of God. This was our goal. That they can be constant in the word and Sacraments, where Jesus Christ comes to them strengthens their faith, deliver salvation, and confirms them in that faith all the way up until their end, so that when he returns, they will rise on the last day. And with that goal in mind, we think not just about what we're doing now, but what that will lead to as they grow the habits and things that they need, so that they can remain faithful their entire life. This begins with parents. The biblical role of passing on their faith begins with the life of a parent. Because the pastor cannot barge into your house, knock down the door and throw water at them, to get them baptized. As much as I would like to. Parents, bring them to church, establish their worship, attendance, build the foundation and the patterns of habits that begin at home. This is why Deuteronomy chapter six gives that instructions parents are it says, You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. But I think it's even more beautiful when we look at the example of what Jesus's parents did for him. Mary and Joseph as they raised him We get this beautiful example of a child, 12 years old who goes to the temple. And he knows so much about God's words that the teachers there are amazed. Now, I do have to admit they had a bit of an advantage, their son was the Son of God. But at the same time, the only way he could know those things, is if Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to their local synagogue, talked about God's word at home, taught him how to read something that not everybody learned in those days. This joyful gift that Jesus's parents brought to the Son of God, is the same joyful gift that we asked parents to do with their own children. Speak the word of God, and by that power of the Word of God, deliver faith, and establish the habits that lead to faithful adult Christians. That's the job of parents. And if you're here, I probably don't have to convince you that that's your job. Most people who are here like yes, I would love to have my children in the faith. Yes, I would love our children's ministry to establish these patterns and help parents be equipped for this work. Because we know the joy that Christ gives us. He gives us eternal life by His death and resurrection. He promises that I will begin this project with you parents will see them on the last day when they are raised from the dead, will be face to face with Christ as he returns. So what do we need to do? How does this work? A faith centered household has two elements. First, is that there is a pattern of life in the parents, that shows how important the Christian faith is. And second, there is a living interaction with the Word of God in the home. Both of these things are important, because the Christian faith is not just doctrines and insight is also something that is caught by the example of the parents. I, myself, have to give thanks to God, because of my own father, and my mother. I couldn't ask for better parents. I am the man I am today. Because of their example in the face, I cannot be more thankful than I possibly am now for what they have done for me. And I think their example is where I learned what most of what I know about. You see, my parents were the ones who raised me in the faith. And they had an example of devotion of their own, that their faith was a living faith in my household. One of the ways that I could see this was in our living room, my parents were both avid readers, and we had two recliner chairs for them. And you know, they they've had the chairs, there was the table with the books and the magazines, it was always a pile things that they wanted to read. But no matter how many books changed, or how many magazines shifted around, there was always one book that never left was the Bible. And I would see them on a regular basis, sitting quietly reading their bible on their own. You have no idea how important that is. For child justice see that they do what they tell you to do. Simply get to watch the parents live a living thing. You have no idea because I remember it to this day. Seeing my parents doing this on a regular basis. Parents also set a pattern for us of daily prayer habits was important for us to do this. They took time out of their day to make sure we would always come together as a family and pray happens before meals. We ate breakfast and dinner together every single day and we would always pray our prayer Come Lord Jesus VR guests, you know that one right? was important. We never missed it. The same thing happened in the evening right before bed. The whole family gathered together. When when we were really young. My brother and I were in bunk beds. So that was easy. And we did our evening prayer

They showed by this that no matter what we did, no matter where we were, whether we were out eating or at home, this life of faith was important that we could pause everything that we were doing, and we would pray to them. We also did things like during the season at home, my parents placed one of those Advent wreaths with the four candles in the middle of our dinner table. And every single night before dinner, we would say our prayers, and then we liked the appropriate number of candles. And it was a big deal, which brother got to light the candles. You have no idea how many fights there were no, I get to light the candle. But it was a big deal in our family, especially on Sunday nights, when we let the next can. And we can be ready one more week, before Easter, or Christmas, sorry. These are the things that I remember. But I know there's much more. I my memory only goes back to when I was you know, not too small. But like that. If you're interested in figuring out ways that you can establish these in your home, we have a staff member Kathleen, with all sorts of resources, we can talk about to be able to establish these habits and bring the Word of God and prayer into your life can talk to me as well. One of the other things that my parents taught me was devotion to hearing God's word, as they would discuss it with me as well. They were always willing to talk about the faith, talk about Jesus Christ, and mentioned how much they trusted in His mercy, and His grace in their own. As an example of this. They also were involved in the church, my home church where I grew up, I think my father was the president of the congregation more years than he was not. You know, people like that. And they made an emphasis of showing how important it is to be involved. Now, I don't say these things to say, to shame anyone, or to make you feel guilty. But simply as an example of the amazing grace that God gave me by giving me parents who did this, so I could be the man I am today. I can't be thankful enough for what they did. What they did is they exposed me how much they trusted in God. And just showed by their words and actions that this faith that they lived in was real, and true. The most important thing they did for me, was bringing me to church. Now my mother was an organist very often, which meant that my dad was a single parent during the worship service with two boys who ran every time you set them down. Very frequently, they would tell me stories of going to stores, they would set us down and we would go the opposite direction. And yet, we never missed a Sunday. As I grew older, I joined all the sports. I was in every sport you could think of. And in a small town a guy as short as me I could play basketball wouldn't happen anywhere else. We were in basketball leagues that had tournaments every single Sunday. And no matter what my teams always knew, we played on Sunday morning, Jim and David wouldn't be there didn't matter. I can count on two fingers. The number of times we missed for a sport. What it meant was that my family made sure I heard the word of God that I heard a sermon that I could receive Holy Communion when I was old enough. And that this was more important than basketball tournaments than letting down my friends than teams than anything else. This was the center of our lives. And it's what made me who I am. They were upfront with my coaches as soon as I joined they knew not available Sunday morning. And it turned out okay. This is how important it is for us to be faithful as parents to show them exactly what it means to be faithful to God. As it says in the Bible, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world forfeits his soul. Now, after all of this talk about what parents can do examples from my family, I think it is always wise to remember what the role of the Holy Spirit. Parents, no matter how hard you try, you cannot plant faith in a child's heart. You cannot punch your hands in there and drop the word of God. It just doesn't work. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. Which means that just like everyone else, you can't control it. You do your best. You do everything you can, and trust the spirit to do the rest. So this isn't a step by step guaranteed way to make your children faithful. It is simply best practices, to give them as much encounter with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God through the means of grace as you can and show them by your life and faith. That this is the way to live. The rest is up to God. And we know so much so that even men like Samuel the prophet Samuel, when his children became judges over the land of Israel, they did not follow through. It happened and yet, God gives us the task nonetheless. To pass this pastors faith on using the habits and practices of the church. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Luke 2:39-52

Luke 2:39-52

And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. Hey, everyone, this week, we're doing something a little different. This Sunday is the beginning of a sermon series on raising children in the faith. So the readings I've selected are a little different from the lectionary. The Gospel reading for Sunday, October 1 is Luke chapter two, verses 39 through 52. And when they had performed everything, according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. And now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning the boy, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, his parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group, they went a day's journey. But when they began to search for him among their relatives, and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days, they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us? So? Behold, your father, and I had been searching for you in great distress? And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house. And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God. And man, Here ends the reading. Now, the beginning of this reading covers up a story that we didn't include in the reading, because it's quite long, it says, And when they had performed everything, according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. So the story that happens before this is when there's two things, first, Joseph and Mary have Jesus circumcised. And then after 40 days, they go to the temple to offer a sacrifice for the firstborn. Now, this is Joseph and Mary's responsibility to raise Jesus in the faith. And I think it's fascinating to think about, that these things are happening as part of Jesus's fulfilling the law of Moses for us, so that we don't have to. And yet it happens when Jesus is a baby, unable to do it himself. God relies on Mary and Joseph, to bring about the salvation of the world, by fulfilling the law with Jesus. How amazing is that? So they continue, and the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Now, we know that children learn how do they learn, not on their own, but from their mother and their father in their homes, especially when there isn't a public school system or a system of education like we have it today. And Jesus would have been raised by his family to understand the word of God. And the next story is a fantastic example of that of how parents raised Jesus to understand the faith. I'm just going to point out this piece. It says, After three days, they found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. Now, I guess I do have to say that perhaps Mary and Joseph had a slight advantage in raising Jesus in the faith as he was the son of God himself. But this does show that somebody had been teaching Jesus. He had to learn how to read, he had to be pointed to the Scriptures. He had to have it heard and proclaimed in the synagogue, and he had to be brought to Jerusalem. These are the things that his mother and his father did. Not the Father in heaven, but Mary and Joseph. And we see them being faithful parents raising children in the faith, as the Son of God, Jesus himself and they offer us a good example of what mothers and fathers do when they offer the Word of God to their children that's it for today we'll see you on Sunday bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Ephesians 6:1-4

Ephesians 6:1-4

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. Hey, everyone, this Sunday, we're doing something a little different. We're starting a sermon series on raising children in the faith. So the readings are not the same as the lectionary readings. The Epistle reading that I've chosen for Sunday, October 1 is Ephesians, chapter six verses one through four. It reads, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land. Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Here ends the reading Ephesians chapter six is in the middle of a long section where it talks about different duties for different groups of people, husbands, wives, children, fathers. And this section really focuses in on the instruction between parents and children. So it begins with children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is write, Honor your father and your mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. So the first thing he says goes out to the to the Children, obey your parents, Honor your father and mother. This is of course the fourth commandment by the Lutheran numbering from the 10 commandments. And so what is saying is children God wants you to listen to your parents as they raise you. Now, this is not just a command to children. A Honor your father and mother is a commandment that suggests that fathers and mothers should be honorable, that the things that they tell their children are right and good and true. And the heart of that is raising children in the faith so that they can grow up in the Christian faith and have eternal life. In St. Paul points out this promise, it says that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Now, the interesting thing about this idea of living long in the land is not the idea that if people listen to their parents, life goes better. The idea is if you listen to faithful parents, ancient Israel, you will keep the covenant. And God will not kick the people of Israel out of the promised land. Because that's the thing that was going on. There is not that the if they listened to their parents that live a happy and full life. But God had said in the covenant of the commandments, that he would keep them forever in the land if they followed his covenant, but kick them out if they did not. Hear, here's a promise that is not about a full life, but about salvation and God's promises. And for us when when faithful children listen to faithful parents, it means that they will live long, not in a in a land or a country, but in eternal life. When God returns and raises them from the dead, that continues, fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Now Roman fathers had a great deal of power over their children. In fact, children owned nothing in the household of Rome, and the fathers, the head of the household, owned everything, all land, all money, all everything. And they could tell their children to do what ever they wanted. And if you go back long enough, in Roman times, fathers could even kill their children without repercussion. Not Not so in Paul's era, but this is still part of the history and tradition of Rome. So he's saying, Don't do don't be cruel. Instead, show the kind of love that an honorable father and mother would give by bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Discipline is the behavior. So it would be like doing the spiritual practices, service, love and care. And the instruction is the teaching, understanding God's word, hearing it and learning it and knowing it. And that's what God gives to parents to raise their children in the faith through the discipline and instruction of the Lord. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 78:1-8

Psalm 78:1-8

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
    incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will utter dark sayings from of old,
things that we have heard and known,
    that our fathers have told us.
We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.

He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children,
that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
    so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
    but keep his commandments;
and that they should not be like their fathers,
    a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
    whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. Hey, everyone, this Sunday, we're starting something new, a sermon series about raising children in the faith over the next three Sundays. So our readings will be a little different from the normal lectionary. The psalm I've chosen for this upcoming Sunday is Psalm 78, verses one through eight. Give ear, oh my people to my teaching, incline your ears to the words of my mouth, I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation, the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony and Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commands our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers are stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. Here ends the reading. This Psalm is an interesting Psalm that talks about the way that God passes on the faith from generation to generation. It begins by talking about the words of God going out into the world, and how they should not be hidden from the next generation. It says, We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation, the glorious deeds of the Lord and His might, and the wonders that he has done. This is the role of every Christian congregation and every Christian parent, is that we are to talk about the glorious and wonderful deeds of God for the psalmist. This was the salvation that they accomplished in bringing them out of Egypt, out of slavery, and making them into people and plopping them into the Promised Land. And for Christians, it is about the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and His Promise to come again to judge the living and the dead and bring about the resurrection. The funny thing about this is that the message of the gospel does not go on on its own. It always requires people to do it. And so it says, He commanded our fathers to teach their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God. God has set up a system where the the Word of God is always passed down through people. Primarily it happens through parents as they work with their their kids in their home, also through the church as we gather around our Sunday gatherings around Word and Sacrament. But it requires that people constantly speak to the next generation, always calling to bring them up. And what it wants to avoid is what often happens that a generation is stubborn. It says that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. The Psalmist I think has in mind all of the different generations that went through Israel that didn't turn to God. You can think about the people when they were wandering in the wilderness when Moses brought them to the promised land. And they sent spies into Israel to see if they could take it. And they didn't trust God enough to go in and conquer the promised land. You can think about them while they're wandering in the desert. And God is providing them with mana, and they are constantly complaining and he has to constantly remind them how much they need him. You can think about the book of Judges how every 40 or 60 years or so a new judge has to arise because the people were were unfaithful and went after false gods. And over and over and over again, this pattern happens. And I think we're surprised to see when this pattern happens in our day today. That has the word of God is going out perhaps in a more lackluster way. We're surprised when the new generation doesn't, doesn't follow. Seems like that has been the way that our church have done that all the way up until recently. And we need to be considerate that we need to teach the next generation. We need to be intentional about it. That's the end of our reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Deuteronomy 6:4-15

Deuteronomy 6:4-15

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This coming Sunday, we're starting something new, a sermon series on raising children in the faith. So all of these readings aren't part of our normal lectionary. Over the next three Sundays, we'll be talking about how parents and congregations can work together to raise children in their faith. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, October 1, is going to be Deuteronomy, chapter six, verses four through 15. Here we go. Here, O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is One, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk, by the way, and he went when you lie down, and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. And when you eat and are full, then take care, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God, You shall fear Him you shall serve by his name you shall swear you shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God, lets the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from the face of the earth. Here is the reading. The Book of Deuteronomy is a little bit like Moses, his last words to Israel before they cross over into the promised land. And one of the things he gives them is the command, the Shema, the hero, Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is One, you shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and all your might. This is kind of a confession of Israel, the Lord is One, love him with all that you are. But what's interesting is that Moses has an eye towards the future in the book of Deuteronomy, he knows what the Israelites are like, and that he, they will go across into the promised land, and they will experience plenty and wonder and all these great things. And then they will be like they always were, they'll turn to other gods. So he gives them a hint of what to do, to help make sure that the next generation does not forget God. He says, You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk, by the way, and when you lie down. And when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. What he's saying is he's giving this image of the Word of God being everywhere in the life of the family, and of the children. The idea is that God's people would constantly be talking about him in their day to day activities. This was specifically so that when they would go into the Promised Land, they would remember who God is. Now, for us, we are not in this same situation, we don't have a promised land to go to, like Israel did. But I think the advice of Moses is good for families today. We should talk about God, we should talk about his word about his gifts about all the things that he does for us, every single day, it should be so present in our lives, that it's like it's taped to our forehead, and written on our walls and on the doorposts of our house and on the backs of our hands. Perhaps the best way to do this is to have a regular ritual of family devotions. So that you can constantly be in prayer as a family and reading God's Word together. Now Moses continues when he talks about what will happen when they go into the Promised Land. He says, then when the Lord your God brings you into the land, he swore to your fathers, etc, etc. He offers them this this idea that there will be cities They did not build. And it says houses full of all good things that you did not fill cisterns that you did not dig, et cetera, et cetera. This is, well, the blessings that we have in Christ are not houses that we didn't build, but a salvation that we didn't earn, that Jesus provided this amazing blessing for us. And that he will complete it on the day that he returns and raises us to new life when we live in a perfect world. But what Moses knows about Israel is that when they go, and they eat, and they are satisfied and happy, they will forget that they need God. He says, is the Lord your God, You shall fear Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear you shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people who are around you. For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God lets the anger of the Lord be kindled against you. And we have to remember that in our families, all sorts of things tend to creep into our lives to be take the place of God from the first place in our life. We have to remember God is a jealous God. He is judgment, there is judgment for the people who turned from him. Let's keep him first in our families, and our lives. That's it for the reading today. Hopefully, we'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Doing Good Works: Sermon for Sunday, September 3rd

Romans 12:9-21

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Back in June, we began a sermon series on the book of Romans. And Paul has been, we've been walking through what Paul has to say over this time. It begins with a message about the grace of God, that we are saved not by following God's law. We're saved by grace, through faith on account of Christ, and that no human being can ever please God by doing anything. Then it moves to the question that obviously follows that, if we're saved by grace, what do we do with our behavior? Right? Can we do whatever we feel like? Paul says, No. He tells us that in our baptisms, we died with Christ and rose with him, so that we have a new life, a new nature in Christ, so that we can walk in, in love forever. That section ends in Romans chapter eight, where St. Paul declares the amazing promises of God, that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not even death itself. So it leads to another question. If nothing can separate us from God's promises through Jesus, what do we do with God's chosen people from the Old Testament? The Jews? Paul's answer for that is that the faith has always been passed down by the word of God, that people have always taken it up of their own, that there is no genetic relationship to the faith, even in Judaism. And so, we get to Romans chapter 12, where St. Paul calls the Christian church, a body, bound together by the body and blood of Jesus, bound together in love created by him, both here in this place, with this union that we have, and with all Christians all over the world. And so he says, Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast, to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. outdo one another in showing honor. His words go on. As he sort of mentioned, it's kind of like a grab bag of good things that Christians should be doing. There's a whole lot there. And if we wanted to be here all day, I could talk about each and every one of them. Good thing we have all day, right? You don't mind a four or five hour sermon. Someone out there wanted I like it. Now, instead of nailing down each and every one of these, what I like to do is talk about the love of God at work. Because I see the love of God at work in lots of different people. I don't think I as a pastor have to point my finger at you and say, be loving. Why? Because the love of God comes to you through Christ. And the power of the Holy Spirit makes you want to love. That is simply how God's grace works. It is not something I have to threaten you for. It's not something I have to shake my fist and pound on the podium, like some old school German preacher. This is what happens when Jesus Christ comes to his people. He puts love in your hearts and makes you like him. And it's what I see all around us. Paul explains it in Romans six. When he says we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Being connected to Christ by baptism, united with Him in His death and resurrection means that you have his love. Second Corinthians chapter five that says something similar. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake, died and was raised To make it short, we could say what John says, We love because he first loved us. And so today, what I'd like to do is encourage you to live out that love by talking about the many stories of God's love in action that I've seen in this congregation over the last. What is it 19 months that I've been here now, still pretty new. So I probably have missed a few. The first I'd like to talk about is the love that Kristin and I feel here. I have to admit, I have never felt loved and supported, like I do in this congregation. You might I might be struggling here. It began, the moment we got here, Christian and I spent three or I forget how many days driving across country from Chicago all the way to California. We went along the southern route, so we got to see a whole lot of flat. My parents drove the giant U haul truck. Kristin and I drove our itty bitty car with a bike on the back. And we got here and 20 or so people were standing in our driveway. We were here ready to unload that giant truck. And we're like, okay, it's gonna take a few hours, we can do it. Sweaty, hot. Here we go. And it took 20 minutes. In fact, it was they unloaded so fast that I didn't get a chance to tell them where all the stuff went. They were it was too much. You didn't do that? Because you knew us. You didn't do that. Because you thought Kristen was so amazing. You did it because you love God. Because you love his word. Because you were happy to have a pastor. Even more importantly for us, was what Warren Did you remember Warren Goodrich? Well, maybe you do. Maybe you don't some of you knew him well. I live in his house, or what was his house. And when he died, he donated a whole ton of money to the congregation that allowed us to continue living in California. Without him, that would have been a big question mark. And without you putting up just a little extra money to make that happen. That would have been a question mark for us. And the love and support that we felt. And the investment that you made in us is overwhelming. And you did it not because you think I'm amazing. You didn't do it. Because Kristen is an awesome triathlon coach. You did it because you love Jesus. Because you care about his word, and you want it to be proclaimed to you. That's what the Holy Spirit does. And a group of people in a congregation. I see it also in the many people who make our congregation function. Like I said, I've only been here just short, just shy of two years. So I might not know all of the amazing things that people do. And I'm, I'm going to do some listing here, which means I'm going to miss someone. But know that there's a lot of people who work behind the scenes to make our congregation function. A lot of people who show up during the week. Nobody knows they're here. And they do a number of things. The gardeners who trim away every Wednesday morning and I go up and I try to distract them by talking about all sorts of other things. And they hand me their their grass clippings and their stuff to go in my compost pile. There's our sound people who sit in the back and you don't see them. But make sure that you can hear every Sunday. The people who come in on Wednesdays to put together the slideshows that you see are people who change the lightbulbs. Count the offerings rehearse in our ensembles. People who write notes and answer emails, or even just the prayer list. The Board of Directors the board of elders are quilters. We never see them. When we put out our prayer quilts. They're not standing behind the table going look at me, right

There are so many people who make our congregation function who work without thanks. And we can only gather here together today because they are all behind the scenes making it happen. sharing the love of Jesus. And it's joyful, and wonderful. And here's what happens when Christ comes with His Holy Spirit, to work in the hearts of God's people. So that they do it with joy. Not out of compulsion. Another story, we had a funeral here not too long ago. As sad as it was, I looked and I saw something joyful in that. I've done many funerals back in Chicago for elderly people. Usually what happens is you get just this small group of family, you know, the kids and a couple of grandkids, about 20 people in the pews. Often quite sad, actually. Pretty rare where I come from, for congregation members to come to funerals like that. Which is why it's so amazing when I came here, and I saw a pretty packed house. I saw people who hadn't seen him in a while, but loved him nonetheless, who came here to remember our dearly departed loved one, and support the family. This is what happens when Jesus Christ binds his people together as a body when they come together in love, when the body of blood of Jesus Christ that we take together makes us one. We show that kind of love and support. And it's joyful. And it's wonderful. And I give thanks to God, but you're a congregation that does that. One of the reasons that I decided to come here is another example of the joy and the love of God at work. It's the moms at 2911. But those of you who might not know or need a reminder, 2911 is a maternity home that welcomes in moms who need housing, and all sorts of help during it through their pregnancy and beyond. And this congregation offered up the house that's on our property as a place for them. It was the Blue House and then the White House and now it's the maternity home. Right. One of the reasons that convinced me that this was the place to be was that you had done that, that you had offered up that house for almost nothing as a place to care for women, so that they can make the choice to keep their babies alive. So that they could raise their babies in the faith. And even better was what happens on these Wednesday nights when all those moms come in for our soup and suffer our soup and supper worship services. You know, we all have during Advent and Lent, soup and supper and we do a worship service. And the moms come in with all their babies and the noise and it's just great. It's it's so wonderful. And all of a sudden, there are 20 different grandmas who want to pass around baby Asher. Right? You remember baby Asher? cutest little baby on the planet. Right? There was one story one night when Asher was getting passed around, Mom was off eating pass around and one of the other kids little Jason was running around interacting with everybody. And he saw baby Asher in the wrong person's hands. Like this wasn't his mom, and he goes, he's not yours.

But there's so much joy and love welcoming strangers into that congregation. There's so much joy in seeing people passing around babies, welcoming children into our congregation, welcoming the noise and the buzz and all the things that come with it. Because they too, are part of the body of Christ. Because they too are one with us. And you did it with strangers. What a joy. These are the things that Christ does by the power of His Holy Spirit. What he does when he gathers His people around his body and blood, what he does when he he fills us with the spirit and gives us His love. And I think these are the things that can encourage us as we continue to keep going following this path of love St. Paul says Let love be genuine. outdo one another in showing honor. Love one another with brotherly affection. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Perspective: Sermon for Sunday, September 24th, 2023

Matthew 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Grace, mercy and peace be yours this morning from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

So our sermon title is all about perspective. And a little personal story is that perspective matters, especially when you're in church. When I was growing up, I only ever saw the church from down there. And I remember sitting in the pews, listening to our pastors, one of them was very exuberant. In fact, when I would start falling asleep, he always seemed to know when he needed to scream, and scare me away. But sitting down there is very different than coming up here. And the perspective is very different, because of how I'm seeing everything. Because I'm so used to looking at things from one viewpoint. When I was at my congregation, when I was still, in the civilian side of the house, I actually made my congregation do this, I'm not gonna make you do this. But it was to help people be a little bit uncomfortable and to shift their perspective by asking everyone to stand up and switch sides of the church. I already heard some Oh, noes. I'm not gonna make you do that. But it's uncomfortable because we have where we sit, we have what we do. We have where we go on a weekly, daily hourly basis, we have our routines. And so when I made them stand up and switch sides, one of the very first things I heard the moment they sat down was I don't like this. Well, yeah, it's uncomfortable. It's not what you're used to. But the thing about perspective is that perspective is actually shaped by the habits we do, but more specifically, by how we think. There's a term in psychology, and I'm not formally trained in psychology, I'm trained as a pastor. But I've done a lot of reading on psychology, how the brain works, talked with a lot of different counselors, and interesting thing that has come out in recent years in the world of counseling, is that the words we use impact the reality around us. It's called neuroplasticity. And what it focuses on is that our brains, actually based off of the way we interact with the world, the language we use, our brain gets wired to react a certain way. Because as smart as our brains are, it has so much information that it has to try and process that it's looking for shortcuts. So when we use language in the interpretation of reality around us, it creates Oh, danger, I need to react in this way. So, Lion sitting there, or maybe just I'm nervous and scared. My brain reacts the same way, because it's created this pathway that ties the words we use with the action we do. So when I say the language we use creates the reality around us. I don't mean like God, when He says, Let there be if only let there be a million dollars, let there be no war let there be. And it would be nice to know, this use of language, actually, is to help shape shape, our perspective and how we interact in this reality. The cool thing about neuroplasticity is that you can change that pathway. And you do so by changing the language you use. So if I think I'm worthless, I'm no good. How am I going to interact in this world? It's like I'm worthless. Like I can't do anything, right? If I think and use the language of I am loved, I am worthy. From a Christian side, I am forgiven. And how does that shape how we interact in this world? I asked you this morning to think about the language you use to describe yourself. I dare say in many of my interactions with people, the language we use to describe ourself is very, very bad.

And that we kind of fall in that I'm not good enough.

I'm worthless. I I'm just not up to par, I can't do anything, right. There's nothing ever good. That's important that we address that. Because from a Christian side, that's not how God views us. And I often ask people, if you were to hear someone saying those things out loud to another person, those very thoughts that you're having in your own head, if you were to hear someone say that to someone else, what would your reaction be? And they'd be, I'd be upset. Because how dare they say that to another person? To which I always reply, so why are you saying that to yourself? From a Christian side, I say it like this. That's not how God views you. That is not the story of Christianity at all. It's the story of Christianity of Christ is the one that comes into the broken world into the people who are hurting and struggling, who think they have absolutely nothing to offer. And he says, I am making you my own, you are now my child you are loved and cared for. And the whole point of the cross is to shift our perspective. To shift first and foremost, how we view ourselves. That's the thing of love, that we've been going over these last three weeks, is that love isn't about me. First and foremost. It's about the love of Christ for you, to help shift who you are. And then what that does, is it shifts the perspective to what we talked about last week, is that it's no longer about me. It's about others. So the language you use in describing yourself is very, very important in this journey we have in the Christian faith, because how you view yourself is also going to impact how you view other people. How do I view people in this building? First and foremost? How do I view people when I step outside these doors? How do I view people? When I'm driving on the five?

For me, it's usually with anger. But how do I view people that are not me? If I don't think I'm very good, I very well may not think other people are either.

But what if that perspective, perspective shifts? What if we see ourselves the way Christ sees us the way God the Father sees us through Christ as one who is worthy of dignity, respect, love, care, all of these things are no merit of our own. We know that it's a free free gift given to us by Christ. How does that shift our perspective to those outside the store? I'm going to say it shifts dramatically. When we come to today's text, that's the shift that Jesus is trying to highlight in how the Kingdom of Heaven functions completely differently. In my world, and many of you are from the military as well, military backgrounds, but in my world, a lot of it has to do with how do we get promoted? How do I make myself look good? How do I keep progressing more and more and more and more and more? And it gets all about me? That's what these workers were thinking. It's a very rational thought, right? So the story is, this master goes out at six in the morning, and he hire some workers and he goes, Hey, I need some people to go out of my field and do some work. I'm going to give you all a denarius. We're going to work a 12 hour day, normal, excuse me, normal pay, you get a full day's wage. You go work and they say, sounds good. I want to eat today. So they go out and they work for him. And then the master goes back to those town yard and it's now nine o'clock, 12 o'clock, three o'clock, and he does this over and over and says hey, I need more people to work. And finally it's five o'clock in the evening. Almost time you Know the bell is about to ring time to go home, get your wages go enjoy time with your family. And so he goes out into the square one more. And there's these guys still standing there. And he goes, Why are you just being here? Why haven't you done anything all day and goes, nobody wants to hire us. We have nowhere to go. And it looks like we're not going to have our day's wage. So we can't go get food, we can't do these things for our family. And he goes, Listen, go out there to I'm hiring you. So the rational thought process, when he starts paying these workers that only worked an hour, the denarius is that oh, my gosh, I finally get more. Because they work there all day. And the perspective that these workers have, is that they deserve more because they've done more, because they've endured more. What's their reaction? When they get paid the exact same wage? As the people that worked one hour? You gotta be kidding me. You made me equal with them. I've been out here, I've got a sunburn now. I'm dehydrated. And I don't, this is totally unfair. But the whole point was, their perspective was that I need more. What the master brings forward is that I am generous. That's the perspective shift, are we who are Christians here, who have this message. It's not about us in this very kind of consumer mindset about getting more getting more getting more. It's about who the master is, and what he gives freely to everyone. That He is Generous, to the point where everything that he gives is more than enough. And that highlights a danger or a caution that Jesus wants to highlight, which is don't make it about you shortly after this part, and it closes with. The first will be last and the last will be first. Well, shortly after this just a few more verses, it talks about James and John and the request that was made to Jesus that was said, Hey, can we be on your left and right hand we want to be in positions of authority and power. And the disciples get irritated at them and start yelling at them not because what they asked was wrong, but because they didn't think of it first. That's why they get upset. And Jesus says, You don't know what you're asking. It's not about being first. It's about what is given to others. Our perspective, and the language we use shows how we view this. How do we view this message of Christ? Do we view it as one that is for me? Or do we view it as one? That's for us? For you? That's the beauty of this message. Is that the language that is shifted, as we start to be shown more and more of who we are in Christ, that this love is first and foremost for you. And then for others that are not me. It shifts how we interact with people. So as you go forward looking at this, where is our perspective? What is our orientation?

What are we looking for? Where are we oriented as an individual? And as a group? Where do we want to go? And then the big fun stuff comes? How do we get there.

But in all of this, what Jesus is highlighting is the kingdom of heaven does not work like the rest of the world. It's not about being the greatest not being about being the strongest, not about being the most popular with whatever. It's about the message of forgiveness, and maybe even some suffering for the sake of that. But what has he done for us? And so our perspective is always oriented on the cross, and how we view ourselves and others. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 20:1-16

Matthew 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, September 24, is from Matthew chapter 20. verses one through 16. For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard, and going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And to them, he said, You go into the vineyard too. And whatever is right, I will give you so they went going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the 11th hour he went out and found other standing. And he said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day? They said to Him, because no one has hired us. He said to them, Go, you go into the vineyard to and when evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first and when those hired about the 11th hour came, and each of them received a denarius. Now, when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house saying these last own worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day in the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Do you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go, I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity so the last will be first. And the first last hearings, the reading. This is quite the story that runs contrary to everything that human beings generally believe in about fairness, in in life. The Master goes out and he hires people. And he says, I will pay you one denarius a day that's a pretty standard wage for a worker, one denarius. And then he hires several people throughout the day. This is right away in the morning, and then at the sixth hour, and the ninth hour and the 11th hour and the 11th hour would have been right about at the end of the workday, just before the end. And so people are working various amounts of time. And he doesn't hire them hourly, he hires them by the day. When they line up to get paid, which is how you would do it. At the end of the day, if you hired day laborers, you hire them for the day, and then you pay them for the day. In fact, the Old Testament talks a lot about withholding the wages of workers and not paying them on time as a terrible thing. So you pay them out at the end of the day, and we get this variation. It says and when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received in a denarius. I think we can understand those workers frustration, right? They work the whole day, and they get paid a denarius and someone who shows up and does just a couple of hours works also gets paid a denarius Come on. That's not how it's supposed to work. We are supposed to get paid at the appropriate sum for the right amount of work. We who got here first should have been paid more. When they grumble, the master says, I am doing the you know wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go, am I not allowed to choose to do what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity that's really a reminder that what we perceive as fairness is not always actually fair. They contracted to work for one denarius a day and they got what they contracted for. The people also, it doesn't really reflect on their contract what others get, right. So there really is no reason to complain. They agreed to work for a denarius. They got to denarius doesn't matter what God decides to do or the master decides to do with others. Now, what we see here is that Jesus compares this to the kingdom of heaven and When he does parables like this, the master is always God of some way. And so God is gathering workers into his vineyard. vineyard is often image for Israel or for the world. He says he's got people in the vineyard, and they're working. Some people work various amounts, but they all get the same reward. And this is true for us in the kingdom of God. People who've been Christians their entire life who've been devoted, who've been baptized as children and stayed in the church and have always done what is right, we receive the same reward, the same gift of God, as people who are dying on their deathbed and are baptized and converted. We're all in Christ, everything is the same. When we see that, sometimes we get well, we get a little upset, right? That someone in our congregation is treated with the same amount of, of respect, and honor. No matter how often they've been to church, no matter how, how long they've served the gospel. It's all the same. And sometimes we're like, wait a second, I have been in this congregation for years and years and years, and this person is new. Or I have been on this served in this committee, I have done all of these things. And these new people are trying to do whatever we have to remember, all of us are equal in the body of Christ, all of us received the same reward, because none of us have actually deserved it. It's given to us by grace in Jesus Christ. And so Jesus here is reminding us that there is no first or last in Christ, but all are the same. And we all receive the same reward. That's it for this reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Philippians 1:12-14, 19-30

Philippians 1:12-14, 19-30

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, September 24, comes from Philippians chapter one, verses 12 through 14. And then verses 19 through 30. It reads, I want you to no brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard, and to all the rest, that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. And then it skipped ahead. For I know that through your prayers, and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out from my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet, which I shall choose, I cannot tell, I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith. So that in me, you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So that whether I come and see you, or am absent, I may hear a view that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now here that I still have Here ends the reading. St. Paul is writing this in a time when he is imprisoned. He is we're not exactly sure what portion of this life part of his life it is. St. Paul was likely imprisoned twice, once is recorded in the story of Acts when he is put in jail and then set in the prison for three years. And then he appeals to Caesar and he goes to Rome. And it's likely that he made it their appeal to Caesar and was released. And then again later on when he was murdered, he would have been imprisoned and arrested. We don't know exactly which one this is, if I were to guess it is likely to me that this is the the first imprisonment, because he talks about that it's likely he will get out and head off and visit the Philippians again. So Paul is in prison, in chains for the gospel because of his proclamation. And he starts like this. I want you to know brothers, that what has happened to me has really to serve to advance the gospel. So it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard, and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. So he is saying much like Joseph, that this imprisonment, this bad thing that has happened, has brought about some kind of good. The guards know that this imprisonment is because of Christ. And so they hear about it as he is in prison. He also continues, and most of the brothers having become confident and Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. This is something that the church has always focused on is we tell the stories of the martyrs. They've always encouraged us by their example, to be bold in the face of persecution. So stories like St. Paul's, but also stories of the martyrs throughout the history of the church are good reminders to encourage us that as we face similar or even less difficult circumstances, we can be bold just like they were. He continues, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This will turn out for my deliverance, for it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now, as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by my life or death. This follows the way the early church often talked about what would happen when they were imprisoned and headed on their way to trial, that they didn't want to be ashamed. But they wanted to prove to be a Christian. And by that they meant that when they stood on trial, they would remain faithful, deliver in faith, the message of the gospel, and suffer the consequences, whatever it would be. Now, it's likely if this is this first imprisonment, the Paul would be let go. But here he still is assured or wants to be assured that he will remain faithful when he stands on trial. Then he says, For me to live is Christ and today's game, if I am to live in the flesh, that will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. So he's saying there's a division, it would be wonderful to be with Christ, and to be out of this veil of tears and to suffer no more and not have to deal with the the persecutions and imprisonments. And Paul's lists of suffering goes on and on beatings, stoning, and eventually death. But he says that while we are here, we have a purpose. And that purpose is to serve Paul's purpose particularly, is to preach the gospel to the Philippians, and others, and helps us to see that our purpose is service for our neighbor. Because the good works that we do, the things that God calls us to do, aren't because God needs our service and our works, but because our neighbor does. St. Paul knows the same thing that the proclamation of the gospel doesn't make God any more powerful or any stronger. But it does bring the message of Jesus Christ to people who need to hear it. And then we'll skip ahead just a little bit. He says, Only let your man or of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So whether I come and see you or an absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. St. Paul is doing two things here, one, he is saying that they need to be as one body, one mind, standing side by side with each other. This is an image of the congregation working together in unity, for the good of the gospel against the opponents who would persecute them. That's the other part is that this side by side, this togetherness is a united front against the persecutors. And we always have to remember that there is this. There's unity that we have in Christ that guides us. And this unity makes it possible for us to stand together against a sinful world and share the message of Jesus Christ skips ahead, and he says, For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had. And now here that I still have it's interesting success word has been granted to you almost like a gift. One of the things that the church often talks about in his history is the gift of suffering with Jesus, that we are counted worthy to be like Christ and share in His suffering and this is part of the gift. And I think St. Paul is talking about, it's granted to us to participate with Christ in his sufferings. That's the end of our reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 27:1-9

Psalm 27:1-9

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
    of whom shall I be afraid?

When evildoers assail me
    to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
    it is they who stumble and fall.

Though an army encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
    yet I will be confident.

One thing have I asked of the Lord,
    that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire in his temple.

For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me!
You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
    Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
    O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
    O God of my salvation!

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, September 24, is Psalm 27, verses one through nine. This is a Psalm of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes It is day who stumble and fall, though in army and camp against me, my heart shall not fear, the war arise against me yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple, for he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble, he will conceal me under the cover of his tent, he will lift me high upon a rock, and now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Here, oh, Lord, when I cry aloud, Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek My face. My heart says to you, your face Lord, do I seek I not your face from me? Turn not your servant away in anger, Oh, you who have been my help. Cast me not off. forsake me not, oh God of my salvation. Here ends the reading. This is a pretty famous Psalm, The Lord is my light. And my salvation reminds me of a song that I would sing with with kids in in the chapel. You're my light and my salvation, I won't be afraid. You're the stronghold of my life by you all things were made, I'm not gonna sing the whole thing. Don't worry. It big begins with a note of competence. You are my salvation, you are my stronghold. There is nothing that I can fear. And it continues, listing a number of things when evildoers assail me. adverset adversaries when an army wore all of these things, I will be confident. David is saying that no matter what is going against him, he can be confident in God's promise. And David had it in a very specific way. When Samuel came to David and anointed him as the next king. That was sort of like, David, you're immortal until you become king. Like if David really, truly believed that promise. When he went up against Goliath, he didn't have to worry because God had promised that he would become king. When David went out to battle, he went out into war, all the time before he became king. He had no fear because God was the stronghold of his life. This also can be true for us, though it's not quite in the same way. We don't have the promise that we're going to be king so that we can't die until that happens. But we do know that our life is safe in the stronghold of our Savior, because he lived and died for us and then rose from the dead to give us eternal life. So our life is safe with Christ in heaven. And St. Paul tells us that in Ephesians, that we are our life is in Christ who is seated at the right hand of God, it continues. One thing I've asked the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell on the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Now, David is writing this before that temple is actually built, though he did write psalms in preparation for when that temple was being built. He says that he wants to be in the house of the Lord. We have to remember that the temple was a special place where God put His presence in a way that he didn't place His presence elsewhere. same thing was true for the tabernacle, which is where were the moveable temple before they built the permanent one, right? God placed his presence there. And so if you're going into the house of the Lord, you're going to where God's presence is in a special way. This isn't a metaphorical entering into His presence, or a ritual that he did to make him feel the presence of God. He was literally walking into the temple, literally going to the tabernacle where God promised his presence would be. And we have to remember that that when we're applying this, it is different for us because we don't have a physical building where God says His presence is, but we do have where God promises to be present in a similar way, through the holy body and blood of Jesus Christ. Right? God comes down and places himself Jesus Christ places himself in the bread and the line in a way that he does not anywhere else. So when we gather for the divine service, we hear Christ's word, we receive His Body and Blood, we are in the house of the Lord, in a way that is different from the rest of our time. David continues with with more confidence that God he will hide me in a shelter, he enemies are taken out. And then we get this last section it says, Here, oh, Lord, when I cry aloud, Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said seek My face. My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek hide not your face from me, turn out your servant away and anger, Oh, you who have been my help, Cast me not off. forsake me not, Oh, God of my salvation. This is the sincere desire of David, to seek God's face. Not Not literally, but his face meant his presence, right. Which is again, for David, going to the temple, offering appropriate worship and sacrifice and prayer. We have to remember, the temple was a special place of God's presence. This is not a spiritual discipline, to feel the presence of God. And many Christians today, when they see this, they say, Ah, I have to seek the face of God. And to do that I have to do all sorts of particular things. I have to pray in a certain way I have to devote certain amounts of time I have to do all of this stuff, to show that I am seeking God's face. And it's not really true. That's not how it works. God's face God's presence is located where he promises it to be. And for us, when we gather together on Sunday, around his word, and Sacraments, God says I am, there were two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them, or when we have Holy Communion, the body of Christ is there and then the angels and archangels, and all the company of Heaven gathered together to be in that place in Christ. We don't have to, we don't have to do anything to seek God's face. God is where he promises to be. And that is there in the divine service. And all of the confidence that we have can come from this amazing gift of just being where Christ says, I am here. This is my body. This is my blood. So we don't have to struggle. We don't have to work hard to seek God's face. It's just be there and receive from God, his amazing blessings. That's all I have for the reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai