Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 The Epistle Reading for November 12th, 2023

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

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, November 12, is First Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 through 18. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this, we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not proceed those who have fallen asleep, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, and with a voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore, encourage one another with these words urines the reading this passage from First Thessalonians is a teaching that St. Paul gives to the Thessalonians. Whenever you read Thessalonians, you should remember that St. Paul had a very short time with them before he was driven away. I think it was about one week. And so you can imagine it's very short time he goes in he preaches a whole bunch of people are converted by the miracles in the work that he does. And then the persecutors chase him out. Can you imagine being a brand new baby Christian, and you've only had a teacher for a week? What kinds of things might you believe and not know about? And so Thessalonians is all all about correcting some misunderstandings and encouraging them to remain faithful and their baby Christian state. And this one is all about informing them about what happens when Jesus returned. This was also the passage that I'm going to preach on. And this Sunday, I'll talk a little bit about the rapture and why this is not consistent with Lutheran theology. But we won't dive into that so much today. Instead, we're just going to take a look at what St. Paul says specifically, he says, We do not want you to be uninformed brothers about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do, who have no hope. St. Paul's using a fingering figure of speech, when he uses the word asleep. What he means is dead. But they're asleep in Christ, because Christ will come back and wake them up. Pretty great, right? So he says you don't grieve, like others do because they have no hope. We Christians, we still grieve, but not as people without hope. We have the hope knowing that Christ will come again and raise them from the dead. He continues, for since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him, those who have fallen asleep. So the pattern for resurrection is the same pattern that Jesus had. Because Jesus died and rose again, all who are in Christ will who die will rise again as well. Jesus will wake up the sleepers. Paul continues. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not proceed those who have fallen asleep. So St. Paul is saying that when Jesus returns, the dead will rise first, as it continues, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. So, St. Paul is giving us a clear image of what will happen on the day Jesus returns, He will descend from heaven with a cry of command, a voice of an archangel, and the sound of a trumpet. You're not going to miss that. Jesus coming down from heaven, his voice crying out calling up the dead, with a voice of an archangel in the sound of a trumpet, this is going to be a big deal. Then the dead rise first. Ball continues, then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So the dead will rise first. And then God will gather all who are alive who are with the Lord. up with him in the cloud. St. Paul also reminds us in First Corinthians chapter 15. What happens with us who are alive is that our bodies will change, that the perishable body will put on the imperishable, and the mortal body would put on immortality, and death will be swallowed up in victory. So the Thessalonians were worried about this and St. Paul gives them a clear teaching, that when Jesus returns, you're not going to miss it is not going to be a secret. He will raise the dead, we will all be caught up with him and be with Him forever. And he finished his out saying, Therefore encourage one another with these words. And that's what we've been doing the Christian church ever since then, we encourage one another with the promise of Christ that on the day he returns, we will be with Him forever. That's it for today. See you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 70 The Psalm for November 12th, 2023

Psalm 70

Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
    O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let them be put to shame and confusion
    who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!
Let them turn back because of their shame
    who say, “Aha, Aha!”

May all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you!
May those who love your salvation
    say evermore, “God is great!”
But I am poor and needy;
    hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
    O Lord, do not delay!

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, November 12, is Psalm 70. Make haste, oh god to Deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let them turn back because of their shame who say, aha, aha. May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say evermore, God is great. But I am poor and needy. Hasten to me, Oh, God, you are my help and my deliverer. Oh, Lord, do not delay. Here ends the reading. This psalm begins with a passage that is part of our evening and morning prayer services in in mountains, the the song at the beginning goes, make haste, oh, God to deliver me. And the congregation responds, make haste to help me Oh, lord. It's a part of the chanting responses for that. The idea is that we call on God to come to us and save us. And isn't that part of the church's cry all the time? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly make haste to save us. The Psalmist goes on, and says, Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt, let them turn back because of their shame, who say, aha, aha. David, the author of this is calling on God, to turn away the people who are his enemies. Back in the old testament, David as the anointed king of Israel, the Chosen One of God, his real life, human enemies were also the enemies of God because they were fighting against God's kingdom and God's King. We in the New Testament don't typically think about our enemies, as human beings, they are more like sin, death, and the devil. Even those human beings who fight against the church can be turned into friends, by the power of the Holy Spirit's, they hear the gospel and turn to faith in Jesus Christ. And so here, as we look at this, we say, maybe we're not supposed to put to shame people. But this is turning away the forces of sin, death and the devil. And Colossians talks about putting the sin and the demons to open mockery, when Jesus was nailed to the cross, destroying the power of death forever. And so we look at that. And we see we see that here. I think the passage where it says, let them turn back because of their shame, who say, aha, aha, it's a little confusing, like, what? What is a Ha ha, mean, right? This is kind of the mockery part again, a Ha ha, is we discover someone in their in their vulnerability, and we laugh. And that's what David is talking about. In this next piece, there's a transition. David goes from calling on God to defend him from the people who seek his life, to now turning towards the people who love God. May all who seek who rejoice and be glad, and you may those who love your salvation say evermore God is great. So it's a desire for all of God's people to turn to God and rejoice in Him in all circumstances. To say, God is great. And we know why God is great is because of his salvation. Because He sent Jesus Christ to die for us to give us life that lasts forever. Another transition happens where David says, have have everybody rejoice in you, oh, God, but me. I'm poor and needy. Come to me, Oh, God, hasten to me. You are my help and deliver, oh, Lord, do not delay. And isn't that the cry of the Christian? We who are poor and needy in our sin, who look at a world filled with brokenness and our hearts filled with disaster and guilt, and we say, Oh, God, please, come and save me. The burden of this world is so great in the pain that we face so difficult. And even when we have moments of joy and respite, we know all of that will pass away. A Tomorrow will be another difficult day and it will always come. This is why we pray for Jesus to come in return to descend from the heavens with power in mind, and to cleanse this world from all sin from death and the power of the devil. And give us joy forever. That's all we have today. See you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Amos 5:18-24 Old Testament Reading for November 12th, 2023

Amos 5:18-24

Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!
    Why would you have the day of the Lord?
It is darkness, and not light,
    as if a man fled from a lion,
    and a bear met him,
or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
    and a serpent bit him.
Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,
    and gloom with no brightness in it?

“I hate, I despise your feasts,
    and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
    I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
    to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters,
    and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

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 Old Testament reading for Sunday, November 12, is Amos, chapter five, verses 18 through 24. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord, why would you have the day of the Lord. It is darkness and not light, as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him or went into a house and leaned his hand against the wall. And a serpent bit him is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light and gloom with no brightness in it. I hate I despise your feast, and I take no delight in your solemn assembly. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs to the melody of your hearts, I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. Here ends the reading. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord says the prophet Amos. It is darkness and not light. To understand this, we have to look back and see this phrase, The Day of the Lord. The day of the Lord was the idea of God coming down to visit his people. And usually the idea was that it would save them. And so ancient Israel believed that God was their local God, the God of their people, a lot like the pagan gods around them is like every town had a god and every people had a God that would protect them. And they sort of fit God in with all the other pagan gods in the pantheon. Which is why often they would end up worshipping ball and Ashra and the true God, and sort of fit all of this together as if he was just one of the many. And so the day of the Lord was supposed to be a day when God would come and save his people and protect them. But when he is just one of the many gods that's not how God works. God, sometimes his visitation is judgment. Sometimes his visitation is destruction. And we would see that many, many years after Amos prophesize when the Babylonians would come in and tear down the walls of Jerusalem and destroy the temple. That's the day of the Lord coming with his judgment, that darkness and not light. And so Amos gives us this idea of the day of the Lord the day visiting his people, which for Israel would have been a day of destruction because they were being unfaithful. And that's the image that he says, it's as if you fled from a lion and ran into a bear, as if you get into the safety of your house and under the wall bytes a serpent. It is darkness, judgment. When God comes to a sinful people, he brings destruction. Later, he goes, I hate I despise your feasts. And I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. It continues to go on and talk about the burnt offerings and grain offerings and peace offerings and all the sacrifices and the songs and the harps. Why Does God hate these things? He hates them not because those things are bad in particular, but because they do not come from people who are worshipping God correctly. In the Old Testament, throughout all this time, every time that the Bible would talk about bringing in false gods into the temple courts, or even into the holy place, and the Holy of Holies itself. It's not saying that the people left the true God to go worship false gods, saying they incorporated false worship into the worship of the true God. And so they were trying to act as if God was just like any one of the pagan gods. And in that system, the way you got a God to be on your side was that you offered sacrifices, the sacrifices were almost like bribes, that you would send up to God so that he would protect you. And this pagan system lasted not just through ancient Israel, but it was also the system for Rome, is that if you worship to God, that God would protect your city and your people. If you worship to God that God would provide fertility for the land and crops and such. And so it was an exchange. The idea was you bribe God to protect you, and take care of you. And that is not how the true God works. God had commanded these feasts, the feasts of the Old Testament and the solemn assemblies, he commanded burnt offerings and grain offerings, but he commanded them not as a thing that was designed to get him good things and make him happy. But the feasts, the sacrifices were for the people in their true worship of Him. And so what they were doing was they were simply worshiping God falsely, as if he were a, a, one of the many false pagan gods. It sort of was an exchange, like their works, their offerings, their all their things were given to God in exchange for his gifts. We often think about God that way. I think we think about our worship, our prayers, our devotion, sometimes is all about, if I do these things for God, he does good things for me. Sometimes it's not that explicit, sometimes it's just, well, I'm a good person, God must love me. All good people go to heaven when they die, right? If I know the name of Jesus, I may not receive His gifts in worship, I may not trust in Him. But you know, I've got these Inklings about Jesus, and I've got good feelings about him. All that's just showing our works before God, and saying to God, look how great I am. Perhaps God's judgment, the day he returns will be darkness and not light. For those because the day of Christ's return, is also a day of judgment, and not just resurrection and joy. For those who do not follow Jesus, who are not receiving His grace and filled with the Holy Spirit, it is a day of judgment and destruction. And Amos tells that same thing, not just for Jerusalem, but also for all of us Christians, many 1000 years later, that when the Lord comes, it is not just joy, there will also be destruction and judgment. And we need to be prepared for that. And we do this by worshiping the true God and serving him only and receiving his grace through His Word and Sacraments. And Amos points us to the the severity, and the seriousness of our need to receive these things in the divine service. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

When He Appears: Sermon on 1 John 3:1-3 for Sunday, November 5th

1 John 3:1-3

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we're celebrating All Saints Day and our readings throughout throughout the day have pointed to all sorts of things that point to the the beauty of God's salvation, and the the eternity of what he has done for us. All Saints Day has a long history. It begins with the very first Christian martyrs. The when the church was gathering together and beginning to worship, very quickly, Christians were killed for the faith. And so what they started to do was they would celebrate and remember the anniversary of that debt day. So they would remember each saint in local places, in honor of their sacrifice of being called a murderer or a witness for the faith. Eventually, congregations started to exchange remembrance dates. And it wasn't very long before there were far more than 365 murders. You can imagine that having a new worship service every single day for every single murder would pile up very quickly. So the church decided that they were going to celebrate a calendar of martyrs and saints, and then pile up all the rest on a single day. Today, well, actually November 1, we're celebrating it today on Sunday. Now, this was just the saints, the murders, and those who were canonized in the church, they quickly moved to having another celebration for all the Christians who have gone on in the faith called All Souls Day, which is November 2. Now we in the Lutheran church, we don't really recognize a distinction between the saints that are on our calendar, and the saints that are not, since we are all holy and perfect in Christ, there is no extra special merit to those who we call, add that little title saint in the front of. And so today on No, well, November 5, as we remember, November 1, we remember all those Christians who have died in the faith, who've passed on into into Heaven, to be with their Savior, and await the day that he returns. And our readings point us to all of those things, point us to the reality of the promise of Christ, that those who have gone before us in the faith are with him, and the hope that we have as Christians while we to wait for that day. Today, I am looking at the Epistle reading from First John chapter three. And what it teaches is an important concept in the Christian Church, which theologians call the now. And the not yet. The now and the not yet. What we mean by that is that God has given us a gift in Jesus Christ, eternal life through our Savior. And we have it both now. And also not yet. Which is fun, right? How can you have something now and also not yet? Like if I have a book, I can read it now. And if I don't have it, I haven't not yet. But I can't do both. Right. Even if I order something on Amazon, and I technically own it, it still takes at least two days to get here. And so it's just not yet. But God has delivered us a promise that is both now. And not yet. We have the gift of God through our Savior, Jesus Christ of eternal life. He came he died for us. And he has given us His Holy Spirit, so that we can believe in him and receive that salvation by faith. And yet at the same time, it has not yet been fully fulfilled. We're still waiting for something. The promise is not yet as well. So we can say yes, we have eternal life now. And yet, also, not now. We are waiting for something more. And that's what I'd like to explore as we look at this passage from First John, chapter three. Let's dig in. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so We are. This is part of the now piece of the promise that we are called children of God, not just called children of God, we are actually children of God. And we know this because everyone who is baptized has been adopted by God, through Jesus Christ. It begins with the story of Jesus's baptism. When he goes into the Jordan River, the father looks down on him and says, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And then it goes to the words that St. Paul gives us about our baptism. When he says, Do you not know that all who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into his death. We were buried with them. Therefore, 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. What that means is that in our baptisms, we joined with Christ, to die with him and to rise with him. Only a few chapters later, St. Paul tells us that we have this spirit of adoption as sons where he says, But you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him, in order that we may be glorified with Him. Similarily he says something like that in Galatians, chapter three, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, at put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. God has made you, his children, by baptism, by being adopted into the family through Jesus Christ. And this is the great love of God, that he came down to come to you. And that you don't have to wonder how Jesus's death and resurrection applies to you. It was put on you with water, and the word. You are children of God. And you have that right now. By the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, the next passage that John writes, gives us a reasonable question. He says, The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. He anticipates the question we might have. And it's pretty clear that question is, wait a second, if I am a son of God, adopted into his family, and God is all powerful, almighty, creator of heaven and earth, if he can speak reality into existence, if his son can walk on water and calm waves and create bread out of nothing. Why does life sometimes bad? Shouldn't we be on top of the world? Shouldn't the children of the Almighty king of creation have everything we want? Well, this is what he says. The reason why the world does not know us, it is that it did not know Him. That is it did not know Jesus. It's very simple. By being adopted into the family of God, we are adopted to be like Christ. And we have to remember what that story is like. Jesus took up across. He carried it as far as he could until his broken body could no longer lifted anymore, and someone else had to do it. And he went to the top of the hill. He was nailed there. And then he died. That was the ultimate rejection of the Son of God, all powerful, almighty Jesus Christ. That's what we're adopted into. we're adopted into a life of following our Savior. And it looks just like Jesus's

We are fortunate that we are unlikely to face that kind of suffering and death. We're unlikely to face the whippings and the beatings and the nailing to a tree. But still, the world does not know us. That's actually something to rejoice in. It's something to rejoice in when we're counted worthy to be rejected by others, just like our Savior was because it means we're in good company, right? When the apostles in the beginning of Acts were first arrested and beaten and released, they rejoice for being counted worthy of suffering for the name of Jesus. And so we too, can rejoice in that. Because our suffering is not just random pain. But following in the footsteps of our Savior. John continues, Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be, has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. Now, John gives us hope. And knowing that the story of Jesus didn't end on the cross, you know, he went to the cross, and he was nailed there, and he died. And then they took him down, and they put him in the tomb. And by his own almighty power, he came back from the dead. Death could not hold him. And he came up. And all of his glory was revealed. This Jesus who was once hungry, who once got tired, who, who was broken and beaten and dead could now do amazing things that he never did while he was alive. While he was in his humble part of his ministry, he would disappear and reappear in places. He would walk through doors and appear to His disciples. Jesus appeared in all his glory at that moment. And what John is reminding us is that he is coming to appear again. He says, We are God's children now, just like Jesus rejected by the world, fit in a world filled with suffering. And on the day that he appears, we will be like Him. John is helping us imagine that there are two realities stacked on top of each other. In this fallen world, we have the reality that we see. It's the reality of sin and death and sadness, a reality where there's sometimes suffering and sometimes joy. And then we have another reality, the resurrected reality, the promise that God has given us through the sun Jesus Christ, this is our true identity. This is who God has made us by the power of the Spirit in our baptism, and both of them are layered on top of each other, existing simultaneously in the same space. And what happens when Jesus appears, the old will just go away. And all that will remain is who God has made us in our baptism. We will appear as he appears, we will rejoice in his salvation and fully received the gift that is promised. We have this now. And yet, the old is still on top of it. When the not yet comes when Jesus returns that will be gone. And everything will be perfect. As it says in our reading from Revelation, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. That is the vision of the hope that we have. That under the day Jesus returns. He will give us fully this promise. But what it also means is that we have that now. We are not waiting for eternal life. Eternal life is here with us just in a hidden way. On that day when he returns everything will be be revealed. Everything will be perfect. And even better. It will be revealed not just for the US who are here today, but also for all the Christians who have gone before us, all of the people who are up in heaven around the throne of the Lamb, waiting for the day of the return, they will rise from the dead, and they will appear as he is, and be like him just as we will. Whether it is tomorrow, or 1000 years from now, all Christians will return and rise from the dead, all Christians who are baptized into the sonship, to be children of God.

John continues, and everyone who thus hopes in him, purifies himself, as he is pure. So if we are children of God, if we have this eternal life and salvation Now, John says, well, let's live in it. Right? If you have been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, just as Christ was, if you are united with Christ in His death, and resurrection, and made pure as children of God, let's live it just as Jesus did. were empowered to do that through the Word and the sacraments. And yet, it's difficult under the weight of this fallen world. That's why we're here to encourage one another to live in the purity that God has made us to live in the good works that God has created for us. As we leave this place, and go out into the world, to love and serve, and care, and the purity and perfection that God has given us, until we pass into the church that waits in heaven for Christ's return. This is the doctrine that we have heard the now and the not yet that we are God's children now and yet, the fullness of that promise has not yet been revealed. And our challenge is to live as God's children now, while we wait for the not yet when the perfection will come. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Guest Podcast: Christian Combatives with Paladin Actual and Pater Veritas

Pastor Huenink was a guest on Christian Combatives with two other LCMS pastors who go by Paladin Actual and Pater Veritas. They talk about Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast from Matthew 22. Check out the Christian Combatives podcast on Youtube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 4:1-12, the Gospel for All Saints Day

Matthew 5:1-12

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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 All Saints Day which we are celebrating on November 5, comes from Matthew chapter five, verses one through 12. It reads, seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Bless there are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Bless it, are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil falsely against you on my account? Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Here ends the reading. This passage is sometimes called the Beatitudes, because in Latin blessed it is beatitude. And so it's all about the blessings that God is giving. The funny thing about Jesus's blessings that he's saying here is that blessings are all about being in a place that is not always seemed so bless it. Alright, he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. And we go, wow, the people who are lonely and crushed who who don't have that, like spiritual joy and exuberance. He's saying the people who are crushed in their spirit are blessed. Same for those who mourn. We don't usually think about being blessed. When we mourn, or the meek. Now Meek is often seemed as someone who's like humble, but humble and attitude. This really isn't humble in attitude. It's a condition of being lowly. And so bless it or the lowliest of society. And bless it are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. You know, it's kind of good to hunger and thirst for righteousness. But if you hunger and thirst for something that means you are not filled with it. Right? Bless it are those who are lacking righteousness? We don't usually think of those as a blessing estate. We also often those who are high and mighty, those who are rich and powerful, aren't always the ones who are merciful or pure in heart or peacemakers. There's often don't seem like blessing estates. But it's especially true for those who are persecuted. Right? Bless it, are you those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. And then finally, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely, on my account? Rejoice and be glad Jesus says. The interesting thing about Matthew chapter five and these Beatitudes is that he gives a blessing state, for people who are lowly in this life. Because when Christ comes when he returns, in the future state, we will be raised up. There's a turning of God's people, to say that the blessing of God is not found in the way the world sees power, and joy, enriches and happiness and love and all of these things. Blessing is found in Christ. And so in Christ, those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn those who are meek, we will have the great joy on the day he returns. And what I love about placing Matthew chapter five, in with Revelation Chapter Seven, in our readings for All Saints Day, is they give us the both sides of this image is on earth. The Christian Church is lowly. We're sinners in a broken world, and we're meek, we mourn or poor in spirit. In Heaven, or on the day when Christ returns, we will be gathered around Jesus Christ. The revelation gives us the image around the lamb on the throne. We are robes we be washed in the blood of the Lamb and we will rejoice with him. Math gives us the hope for now. Revelation gives us the image of the future, the joy in Christ. And so pairing these two together you get to see the burden that we carry now, and the hope that we have for the future. The pain of life now, that we can rejoice and in even rejoice when when people revile us and are angry at us, because of Christ. We can rejoice because what we have is an eternity with Christ. Wash our robes washed in the blood of the lamb to live forever with Him. That's it for our readings today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 John 3:1-3, the Epistle for All Saints Day

1 John 3:1-3

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

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 All Saints Day which we are celebrating on Sunday, November 5, is from First John chapter three, verses one through three. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are, the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in him, purifies himself as he is pure. Here hence the reading. This passage from First John chapter three is really dense in wonderful theology. So we're going to take a look at it verse by verse, let's begin with the first one. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are. This passage tells us about the great love that we have through our, our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we have been adopted as children of God in our baptisms, that when God shows us he does said the same words that he said to his son, Jesus Christ, you are my beloved son with you, I am well pleased. And John reminds us that this, this choosing that God has done making us children of God is not something that happens in the future in eternal life in heaven or anything like that. It happens now, God has already given us this love in Jesus, the next verse, the reason why the world does not know us, is that it did not know Him. So John makes a transition here, he says, We are God's children. Why are we treated so poorly? Sometimes? Why are God's people not on top in everything? Why don't we always have great lives full of riches and happiness and wealth? It's very simple. The world does not know us. And he said, Well, wait a second, the world doesn't know us. How could it not know us? We are children of the God of all creation. Well, the world did not know Jesus. Right? The world rejected Jesus. He came preaching God's word, healing the people casting out demons doing everything right. And yet, the world rejected him and sent him to a cross to die there. The world doesn't know us, because it didn't know Jesus. John continues, Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be, has not yet appeared. So while we are God's children now, we also have a promise that we are something more than what we see in our flesh and blood. What we will be, has not yet appeared. This gives us the idea of well, sometimes what theologians call the now and the not yet. We are God's children now. And yet it's in a hidden way. Underneath the sinful flesh and blood that we have right now. There is a child of God in all its perfection, and yet it has not been fully manifest. It has not fully made known. We are waiting for the not yet of God's promises. And so he continues, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. So the not yet is when he that is Jesus when Jesus appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. St. Paul calls Jesus's resurrection, the first fruits of those who come from the dead. And what that means is, is that Jesus is the beginning of the resurrection, so that he can be one of many brothers. So when Jesus returns we'll see him coming on the clouds with power and glory. We know that we who are God's people, will change and be like Him. Jesus will call the people out of their graves and their their lowly bodies that have have died and decayed will be transformed to be like his perfect body. And those of us who are alive our our living bodies that are lowly in a different way not decayed, but you know, injured and hurt and it will be transformed to be like his perfect body. On that day, the not yet will be now. And we hope in that promise, we hope that when we see Jesus, He will change us like that. And that is our sure and certain hope. And yet we live now, in the not yet God's promises is given to us. We have this this, we're children of God in a hidden way. And we hold on to the the gift that Jesus gives us. And so Jesus says, and everyone who thus hopes in him, purifies himself as he is pure. So all of us who have this hope, who look forward to the day of the resurrection, the day when Jesus returns, and reveals us as the perfect and pure children of God, we are purified, as He is pure. And God has given us certain and true means to do this through his means of grace. And he gives us baptism, Holy Communion, the proclamation of the Word, and confession and absolution. And I think John, In First John, he talks a lot about sending and receiving forgiveness. We say these words in church every Sunday, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then we do the confession and absolution. And that is how God purifies us through his means of grace. When we say when the pastor says, I forgive your sins in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. This is how we maintain our hope, through the means of grace that God has given us. Well, that's it for this passage. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 149, the Psalm for All Saints Day

Psalm 149

Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise in the assembly of the godly!
Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
    let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
Let them praise his name with dancing,
    making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
    he adorns the humble with salvation.
Let the godly exult in glory;
    let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their throats
    and two-edged swords in their hands,
to execute vengeance on the nations
    and punishments on the peoples,
to bind their kings with chains
    and their nobles with fetters of iron,
to execute on them the judgment written!
    This is honor for all his godly ones.
Praise 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. The Psalm For All Saints Day is Psalm 149.

Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly. Let Israel be glad in his maker. Let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre, for the Lord takes pleasure in his people, He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exalt in glory, Let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written. This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord.

This Psalm is a little bit of a challenge for us in the American church. It begins with things that we're fine with. Praise the Lord, Sing to the Lord, a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly. The new song is something that happens a lot in the Psalms talking about praising God for something new that he has done. Now many people when they say that they sing, sing to the Lord, a new song, they think, contemporary worship versus traditional worship. What it's really talking about is singing about the new thing that God has done, the new salvation he has brought to his people.

It continues, let Israel be glad in his maker, let the children of Zion rejoice in their king, Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and liar. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with salvation.

This is us saying let's praise God, praise God with all our instruments with all our singing, because God takes pleasure in his people. And we know he does that because he has sent His Son Jesus to die for us. And all who are baptized into him, have received the robe of Christ's righteousness, and he has pleasure in us. Because he said to his son, you are my beloved son with you, I am well pleased.

The psalm continues, and it moves into a different sort of a different kind of idea. Let the godly exalted glory, Let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands. What, wait a second God, swords. Now you have to look back at the history of ancient Israel. Back when the Psalms were written, The kingdom of God had borders, and it had armies. And God punished the people of his kingdom with invasion. And he protected them with soldiers. And so defending the kingdom of God was not a metaphorical thing. It is sometimes the thing that you did with swords look at the story of Gideon, how they destroyed all of the Moabites when, when battle happened that was defending God's kingdom, or how King David conquered all of these areas from the Philistines. This is God's work defending his kingdom. It's a little different today. But this image gives us a question right, especially as it goes on, where it says to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute on them the judgment written. This is honor for all his godly ones.

This continues the idea of of God's people having a military in the Old Testament to defend themselves and go after the nations that oppressed them.

We have to ask ourselves in the church, who is our enemy?

Who are the ones that God fights against? Now?

On a spiritual level, we definitely say that this is not human beings. The Christian Church is not called to go out with two edged swords in their hands to execute vengeance on the nations.

God has already fought for us and he's defeated our true enemy, sin, death and the devil. And he did it when he went to the cross Jesus Christ to die for us, as Colossians tells us that he nailed the our sins the cross and made a mockery

of the devil, as we consider that though, we also have to consider that many Christians find that there are human beings working on the side of Satan to oppress the church. It's a big challenge to separate these two. The Christians in facing a hostile Rome, like it describes in the book of Revelation sees a challenge right there. As Christians are dragged into the arena, and the Romans are shouting kill the atheists, which is what they called us.

Often the Christians would respond, you're judging us now. You will be judged on the last day. And we see that judgment in the Psalm as well. Not a two edged swords in our hand, but a calling on God to come and judge the whole world and give justice to his people and take out all the forces of sin, death and the devil. And on All Saints Day, what we do is we celebrate the communion of saints that we have and look forward with joy and hope for the day that God returns to bring his judgment to Earth. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Revelation 7:2-17 The First Reading for All Saints Day

Revelation 7:2-17

Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

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

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

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 first reading for All Saints Day comes from Revelation chapter seven, verses two through 17. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God. And he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, Do not harm the earth, or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of the sealed 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad, 12,000 from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Isa car 12,000. From the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, Who are these clothed in white robes? And from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know, and he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation, they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence, They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Here ends the reading. This first reading is from Revelation, and it's for the readings for All Saints Day, All Saints Day is a day when we remember all the Christians who have gone before us all those who have died and the faith, which is why we have this reading about all nations gathered around the throne. I think the first thing that is interesting and possibly confusing, is the number of people who are sealed. And being from the tribes of Israel, we see this number of 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. And then it goes on to say 12,000 from each tribe Judah Rubin, gab, Asher, Naphtali, Manasa, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. We have to remember that in the book of Revelation, it's something called apocalyptic literature. And so the numbers and ideas and images and visions we see all represent other things. In the Bible, the number 12 is the number of wholeness or fullness. And so we get this 12,000, which is the number 12 times 1000 from each tribe, which means we get 12 times 12,000, or 144,000. And so it's not just it's not a number, that is to say, only 144,000 are saved, but something very simple and wonderful. The whole fullness of God's people. It's the full number 12 times 12,000, which is the full number times 1000 To make the full number, a massive, complete everything number of all of God's people who've been gathered together around the throne. And we see again that they come from every nation as it were beads. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, and from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And so on All Saints Day, we celebrate that God gathers all his glorious people together around the lamb, from every nation, that these are all people in history, every nation, tribe, language and people. And to reminds us that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not about the your ethnic origin, or skin color or anything like that. It is all about the gospel. And it breaks through all of these barriers to gather us around the throne of the Lamb, and addresses us in white robes of Christ's righteousness. And everybody sings and shouts, they say Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Later on, we see one of the elders go up to the author, John, and it asked him a question, Who are these clothed in white robes? And from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The Great Tribulation, well, that's life. These are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation, we are all facing the Great Tribulation, the challenges and difficulties of facing a world filled with sin, death, and the devil. And all of us who have been baptized into Christ had been baptized into our Savior, which means that we have washed our robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. Jesus has come to save us. And so all of our loved ones who have died in the faith that we remember on this All Saints Day, all of them go on before us and have made it out of the Great Tribulation, they stand around the throne of God, and they wait for the day that Jesus will return. And that is what this final song ends up pointing us to. It says, Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them in his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. And he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Now, many of you know that I came from northern Wisconsin, and I didn't really understand the biblical allusions to the sun being scorching until I moved to California. Out there we get we get clouds, it must be like 300 300 days a year, it feels like sometimes. And so when the sun comes out, we love it and we go out and we bask in it, we enjoy it. And if, if you're going to be out there all day, you start to put on sunscreen, but here in California, the sun is out to kill you. Like I put on sunscreen every single day. And I think that's what I'm thinking of when we we see this, this look forward to the day that Christ returns. And it's not just the sun, but there's no hunger, no thirst, no scorching heat. And God will lead us to springs of living water and wipe away every tear from every eye. Both those who are in heaven around the throne of the lamb right now and we who's who are waiting for his return. Know that that is what's coming when Jesus returns on the last day. That's it for this reading. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Just and the One Who Justifies. A Sermon for October 29th, 2023

Romans 3:19-31

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we're celebrating Reformation Day. It's the celebration not of nailing a particular bullet thing on a bulletin board. It's not really the celebration of a man, Martin Luther, or even all of the historical events that happened during those days. Reformation celebration is a celebration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that from Martin Luther and the work that he did, a church grew, that is so focused on being saved by grace through faith on account of Christ, that that is the center of our work, that God's great gift of salvation through Jesus is the very center of all of our theology and practice. And the readings today are chosen to reflect that. Today, we're going to take a look at what St. Paul writes in Romans chapter three, about God and His justice, I think is very interesting about this passage is the passage where he writes, so that he God might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. We may be used to hearing that phrase, but I think it's, it's interesting, because how does one be both just and a justifier? It's an important question, because in many times, times in places this, these things are opposites. So let's ask, what does it mean to be just? What does it mean to uphold justice? Now we have a justice system that includes the idea of being just right. We have officers, police officers who go out into the world who are charged with enforcing the law. In a perfect world, a police officer is there to help the victims of crimes and to arrest or punish the guilty, right? They are there to protect the innocent, and get the bad guy that is justice. The innocent are safe, the guilty or imprisoned. our court system is also charged with being just and the outcome should be the same. The guilty punished, the innocent, protected. I think that is what justice means. And God is just for God to be the perfect, almighty Holy God that he is he must also have perfect justice so that the guilty are punished, and the innocent freed. And St. Paul reminds us of what that means for human beings. He says. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. This is God's justice. When we look at what God demands of every human being, he demands innocence, total and perfect innocence. When we look at his law, and all the things He commands us to do, we can only say that we have failed at that. Because God demands perfection. And we have a very simple phrase that reminds us. Nobody's Perfect, right? And we all know it. Because each and every one of us feels guilt for the things that we have done. And God's perfect justice is very simple. Each and every one of us must be perfect, as he is perfect. And if we are not, then we are guilty. We deserve nothing but wrath and punishment, Death and Hell. And it goes all the way back to the very beginning when God gave a single command to Adam and Eve, do not eat of this tree and the first thing they did was eat it, of course, kind of reminds a parent of having a young child, doesn't it? First thing you do is say, Don't do that, and they do it immediately. Except in that case, the parents are much nicer than a truly just God would be a truly just God just gives us the punishment, Death, and Hell. And that is what we deserve. That is why St. Paul says every mouth may be stopped. Because when we are presented with our sin, we simply have nothing to say, No excuse counts. No justification gets in the way. We are sinners, and we deserve punishment. Now God also wants to be the one who justifies the justifier. That means someone who gives excuses for the guilty, right? We justify ourselves all day long. Don't wait. We know that we do bad behavior that there are times when we do things, we make mistakes. And all the time, we have excuses. I come up with excuses why I didn't clean up after myself after I cook. I'm tired. I didn't want to. Yeah, that's a really good one, right? That just grunting. It doesn't mean that I get to get rid of my mistakes. Because I just give an excuse. I'm just trying to get out of what I'm supposed to do. That's justifying. Now sometimes in our world, when we justify ourselves, we have a good excuse. If you are on the road, going 90 miles an hour, and a police officer pulls you over. And it's because the baby is coming out. That might be a good excuse. Right? If you are going 90 miles down the road, and the police officer pulls you and pulls you over and you say I was a little late. Not so good excuse. God wants to be the one who justifies who gives an excuse, who allows the guilty to go free as it says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift. What that means, then is sinners are given righteousness as a gift. The guilty are freed, the guilty or not punished. Not only that, the unrighteous are called righteous as if they are innocent, as if they are perfect. The real question is, how can God then be just as we confess that he is a perfect judge who has the holy standard that Nan can live up to? And also someone who justifies the sinner as a gift? How can God give that to someone without work? Without making up for it without doing anything? These things would seem impossible, in fact, but God does it through his son Jesus Christ, by sending His Son to die on the cross for us, he gives grace to the guilty. This is what it says. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

There are a couple of words in that that are really important for understanding how this works. The first one is a one we might know pretty well. Redemption. This is an economic term. Sometimes you would redeem some thing with a coupon, right? You, you redeem a coupon by turning it in and you get 25 cents off a can of whatever, right? Redemption is also a word that we would use in ransom. you redeem someone when you buy them out of a condition. One of the ways they would use this in ancient Rome is if someone is in slavery, and you bought them, to free them, you would say they are redeemed from slavery. And here, Paul says that this gift of grace is through the redemption of Jesus Christ. Jesus buys us out of our guilty condition, by the amazing sacrifice of His blood on the cross. He spends the most precious thing that has ever been made the perfect blood of the Son of God sacrificed on the cross for you and me, to give in exchange for us. So that we can be freed so we can be treated as innocent. We are redeemed by Jesus Christ. The other word is propitiation. Now, this one is one that we don't normally hear. In fact, when we get to it in the Bible, I always have to pause and say, Have you heard this one before? Everybody says, No. It propitiation is a sacrifice that pleases a God. Now, if you use this term in in the pagan gods around the area, they would offer these things as a sacrifice, and the smells of it would please the gods up in heaven, and it would feed them and their worship. And it's a similar idea, not the smell, but a similar idea that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ appeases God's wrath. And it does, because the perfect justice of God requires that someone be punished for guilt, that when the guilty sin, there must be consequences. And what happens is that that wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ who took on himself the sin of the whole world. So that with that sacrifice, God's wrath could be vented on Jesus in our place. And his sacrifice becomes the propitiation for us. So that God no longer punishes us, no longer condemns us, but gives us His grace. In this way, God's justice can be expended it can be fulfilled, God can be truly just because he punishes the guilty in the form of Jesus Christ, who took on our guilt. And God can also be gracious and loving, and be the one who justifies all of those who believe. Because Jesus spent his blood for you, to save you from your guilty condition. And the amazing sacrifice of Jesus Christ, with the just God and the justifying God helps us to see exactly what our position is. What it means to be a Christian who believes we are saved by grace. St. Paul says, then what becomes of our boasting, it is excluded by what kind of law by law of works, no, but by the law of faith, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the law. This is an important piece of what it means to be saved by grace through faith on account of Christ, that we can never boast in who we are. We Christians, we can never say that we are good, because we are Christians. We can never say that we are better than anyone else. Or look at what we do and say, Look how amazing I am. Because we're all in the same position. We all stand before God and we hear what the law says and our mouths are stopped because we're sinners, and nothing we can do could change that. Our prayers don't make us holy. Our habits don't make us holy. Our offerings don't make us better. The times we give to charity don't make us more more wonderful. Because none of these things could ever outweigh the sin that we have. And so there is no boasting. We simply say, over and over. I am a poor, miserable sinner. But then we can know that with confidence, we are still saved, because we're not justified by our actions, or by our prayers or our giving or our volunteering or anything else that we do. We're justified by Jesus who delivers us salvation through faith. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: John 8:31-36

John 8:31-36

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

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

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 reformation Sunday, October 29 2023, comes from John chapter eight, verses 31 through 36. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered him, We are the offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, you will become free? Jesus answered them. Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the sun remains forever. So if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. Here ends the reading. Jesus begins with a plain statement. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. So if we listen to Jesus, and we study and hear and remain abide, dwell in His Word, we will be His disciples. And then that leads to a result. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So if we abide in Christ's word, Christ's word fills us and we live in it. And if we dwell in it, then we will know the truth about the world. And the truth will set us free. What is that truth about the world, that we live in a dark world that can only be saved by the light of Christ, that the forces of sin are always calling towards us, calling us away from God, all we have to do remain with him, we will be His disciples and we will be saved. Now this brings about a response in the Jews who believed in him because that's who Jesus is talking to, not not strangers. But the Jews who were following him. They say, We are the offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you can say you will become free? I can imagine American saying something similar, where the freest country in the whole world, how can you say you will become free, we don't have tyrants, we don't have anybody who's in charge, we are ruled by the people. Both of them are making a claim. They say, Abraham is our Father, and we've always been free with him. We've never been slaved by Romans or anybody else. We're not owned by anyone. We can't become more free than we are. And Americans might reply, we have political freedom. We can make decisions and do things without asking for a tyrant to rule over us. How can we become free? What they're missing is the spiritual freedom that Jesus offers them. And he goes on to say, Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin, is a slave to sin. Yikes. Sometimes the idea of freedom that we have in our hearts is actually the freedom to sin. Like, we don't want to be oppressed by the desire to do good. We want to be free to do evil. Ah, the oppression of wanting to do good, right? When we practice in when we practice evil, we're a slave to it. And so much of our hearts and our desires, it's like that. And Jesus says something about what happens when you're a slave. He says, The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the sun sets you free, you will be free. Indeed. A slave is not a member of the household. But the Sun is. And if the sun sets us free and welcomes us into the house, we're part of God's household. We who are who were once slaves to sin, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, if you receive Him through His Word and Sacraments, He sets us free. And we will be truly free free not just like in a political sense in America or free like the children of Abraham sense that the Jews are talking about, but truly free from the most enslaving thing of all our slavery to sin. And Jesus sets us free from that. What a great passage. That's it for day. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Romans 3:19-28

Romans 3:19-28

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

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 reformation Sunday, October 29 2023, comes from Romans chapter three, verses 19 through 28. It reads, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins, it was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus, then what becomes of our boasting, it is excluded by what kind of law by a law of works, no, but by the law of faith, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. here since the reading. This is all about the law and the gospel of fantastic division about the way God speaks to us that Lutherans are at the heart of the way we speak about God's work among us is dividing what the law can do, and what the gospel can do. And St. Paul begins with something about the law. He says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So here we see what God's law is. God's law is the demand that he makes on all human beings to be obedient to His Well, now is this isn't so much demand that is like, tyrant, up in Heavens shouting, you will obey me. It's more about being the people that God created us to be like, he has a purpose for each of us, for all of us, for all of humanity, and we're all to live up to it. And when we fall short, we are falling short of his law. And so when we see the law, then this thing that God calls us to be he says, We must be to be perfect, to be holy to be His people. The only thing it does is point out our sin, as St. Paul says, Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So when we look at the 10 commandments, we say to ourselves, whoa, I am not a good person. Because when God says You shall not murder, he also says to me, murder is not just killing someone, but God calls me to love to love with my whole heart, that makes me a sinner. And so when the law speaks, it's perfect demands on our obedience, it means that every mouth is stopped. That is, before the law, no one can boast about our holiness. Everyone is a sinner, and everyone is held accountable to God. Now, if this were the only thing that God said, we'd all be lost and condemned to hell. But God has a righteousness that is apart from the law. He says that the law and prophets bear witness to it. It is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. So what he's saying there is that the Old Testament has a witness of a righteousness that does not come from God's demands, but comes through Jesus Christ. For all who believe Paul writes, For there is no distinction, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So everyone is a sinner. Everyone falls short. No one does anything that is good. And this is a thing Christians must always remember. And as we look at the world, and we say, Whoa, the world is so crazy, they do so much bad stuff. We must always say to ourselves We are sinners, we cannot boast. We cannot stand and look at the world and say, You sinners, we're sinners to. The only difference between them and us is that we have received this gift of grace through Jesus Christ, through the redemption that he offers us as a gift. While continues, it is in Jesus Christ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. We got to know what that propitiation is, propitiation is a word that talks about a sacrifice that pleases God. And so this propitiation is an offering made to God, so that that he would be pleased for with us because of it. And we receive this this good pleasure that had God has this God's grace, by faith. Paul continues, this was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins, it was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. One of the questions we think about with with this grace that God gives, is that it actually sounds really unjust. I mean, people will think you've been a horrible human, your whole life, you your murderer, drug dealer, all sorts of terrible things, you do the worst of the worst, awful, awful, awful person. And then on your deathbed, you turn and you say, I repent, you receive baptism, and all of a sudden you're in and people go, how is that even remotely fair, that is just terrible. Like people follow God their whole lives, and then turn away at the end. And there. You can do whatever you want your whole life, and then repent at the end and you're in. Well, here's the thing. The The idea here is that God is both just, and the justifier, which means that God actually has to punish sin. And he also wants to justify sinners. And so what we do is we say, the punishment that goes out for sin that was put on Jesus, as this propitiation, the sacrifice to be received by faith, which means that what God does in Jesus Christ is not offer or just a, like a free out for anyone, just so all you have to do is this easy flip of the switch, what it is, the divine Son of God sacrificed himself, for human beings, the infinite God of creation, died, so that every human being could be offered the gift of salvation. That means that it is not a little thing, to turn and receive Christ by faith. What it means is that when we receive this gift of faith, we are all of a sudden given the infinite sacrifice of Jesus. So God can be both just and the justifier just in that he punishes sin on Christ, and justifier for the one who has faith in Jesus. Paul finishes up, then what becomes more boasting is excluded. That means we can't boast. Christian Christians are not good, because we are good. Christians are good because we have Jesus. We're just as bad sinners as anyone else. Everything that is good in us is Christ. What a great way to end the our chapter today. That's it. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 46

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
    God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Come, behold the works of the Lord,
    how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

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 reformation Sunday is Psalm 46. It reads, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way. though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river who streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High, God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved. God will help her win morning Dawn's the nation's rage, the kingdoms totter, he utters His voice, the earth melts, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth, He makes or cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress here ends the reading. Psalm 46, is a famous one for the Reformation, because it's the foundation for that him a mighty fortress is our God, you know how it goes. My tea for trust is our God, our trusty shield. And when Luther freely writes a summary of this psalm, in that him it's a wonderful hymn about God's strength. And this Psalm is a wonderful psalm about the strength of God and how He protects his people. Let's dive into it. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way though the mountains be wrought moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, the mountains tremble added swelling. So this begins with an image of God being a refuge, a help in times of difficulty. And it then moves into the cataclysm of being thrown into the sea. For the ancient people with the sea was one of the most dangerous places you could be. I mean, it's still pretty dangerous, even with all our technology, far more dangerous than the land could ever be. But the sea for ancient people being out it was the very definition of chaos. And so God is a refuge and strength in the midst of the worst kind of chaos, chaos that is unbridled and raging, that can tear down mountains that can move away the shore that can make terrible things happen. And yet God is a refuge and strength, even if the mountains tremble at the chaos of the world around us. God is our refuge and strength, even when chaos is all around us, not just because God is powerful, but because he sent Jesus Christ to die for us. That's how we know he's a refuge. That's how we know he is a strength. Let's move on to the next section. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God the holy habitation of the Most High, God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved, God will help her win morning, Don's the river that makes GLAAD the City of God. The idea here is that ancient ancient fortresses cities needed a water supply in case of attack. And you needed a water supply if you were besieged so that you could live right if you had no water, you'd have to store it, and eventually you will die off. One of the great stories is Hezekiah tunnel for Jerusalem, where there was a siege coming. So Hezekiah digs a tunnel to move the river and a reservoir into the city of Jerusalem so they can have water rather than make it available for the enemy to block off. When we consider our own city of God the church, there is a river that makes us glad to its holy baptism. St. John actually in Revelation talks about our river being at the heart of New Jerusalem and how it it makes the city overjoyed. And that river is at the heart of every Christian. When we were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. God fills us with Christ. Psalm 40 Six continues. The nation's raged the kingdoms totter. he utters His voice, the earth melts, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. We return to this idea of chaos, nation's rage kingdoms totter, and then Goddard utters His voice and the earth mouths. What a powerful God that we have, that he can use his voice to bring about chaos and end it. And then it says, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress, the Lord of hosts, god of armies. God is powerful and protects us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Now you have to consider who that God of Jacob is, why would they use that phrase, the God of Jacob? Well, Jacob was part of that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they weren't great people. I mean, you look at the history of that news is Jacob. He begins his life by stealing his brother's birthright and tricking his father into blessing him. And then he runs off, and he ends up working to marry this girl, and he marries the wrong girl. And then he has to work more to marry another girl. And then he ends up doing this weird thing with Esau, and he parades, his whole family ahead of them, and then falls down before Esau. And then right before that he wrestles with God, until the God finally blesses him and he won't let him go. And we get this idea of Israel. He wrestles with God being the name of the children of Israel, the nation of Israel, throughout the Old Testament. And it's the God of that guy, the guy who was weird and stole a blessing. He's the God of Jacob, which I think is great, because we're a people who often wrestles with God, we certainly don't line up behind him and do everything correctly. And yet, that God is our fortress through Jesus Christ. The last passages, talks about all the desolations that God brings, he makes war, see, see breaks the bow and shatters the spear. God is powerful. He destroys the weapons of war. And he says to us, be still and know that I'm I am God. Now, so many people use that phrase to say, here's what you're supposed to do is you're just supposed to wait and listen for God's voice. Be still and know that I am God and you'll hear it. That's not what that means. Be still and know that I am God. When wars are going on around you. When the sea is inter is erupting, and foam and the chaos of the world is shattering. We have one defense, Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth. What does that mean? God will be make himself famous by protecting his people. All we have to do is wait. God is in charge. He is our fortress. He is with us. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Revelation 14:6-7

Revelation 14:6-7

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

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 first reading for reformation Sunday is from Revelation Chapter 14, verses six through seven, it reads, Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and the springs of water. Here ends the reading. This reading is the reading for reformation Sunday, and it takes place of the Old Testament reading, you'll notice that revelation is not in the Old Testament, but it's one of the traditional readings that we use during rebel during the Reformation text. It begins with an angel flying overhead and it says with an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth. I'm sure this reading is chosen because of that eternal Gospel passage that Martin Luther out of the Reformation, renewed the idea of the gospel that we are saved by grace through faith on account of Christ without works, and that it was a message for every nation and tribe and language and people. The idea is, of course, is that this gospel is for all people, a free gift of grace through Jesus Christ. This comes in the middle of a passage where the 144,000 are gathered together before the living creatures, and everyone is gathering together the fullness of God's people, and what are they gathered around Christ and His gospel, the message of salvation. And that's what we are celebrating on Reformation Day. And it says with a loud voice, Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven, earth, the sea and the springs of water. And we say, how do we worship that God? How do we truly do what he wants us to do is to hear the gospel, receive His sacraments and believe in Him, so that when he comes we will be counted among his people. That's it for our reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What Is God's? Sermon for October 22nd, 2023

Matthew 22:15-22

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Matthew 22 is our text. And it starts with a fascinating, ironic seeing Pharisees and Herodians working together. How did that happen? Guys from political parties in opposite spectrums, theological enemies are joining forces, the Herodians word the supporters of the Roman Empire, the Pharisees were a strong opposition to Rome. Then these guys hate each other. They see pretty much everything in religion and society from different perspectives. But here, there's theming. Together, what is making them to do that? They want to put an end in Jesus, they came up with a meal trap. Jesus enemies, they have been trying through other questions before and they will try again, in the sequence. But now, the trap is about politics. They wanted to know what side is Jesus? And what's your favorite political position? Jesus? What's your ideology? I don't even need to say to you how controversial this conversation was.

And still is today?

How much this subject leaves people on the edge? In preaching about it is not easy. I wish I had a different text. I really do. I will proceed cautious than trying to explain what's going on here. There are two main points, if you will, there is a question. And there is an answer. Let's work through this structure. The question, it is right, to pay taxes to Caesar. Have you ever thought about it? What's behind this? What kind of question is this? What they really wanted to know? What is the trap behind the question? Now, one thing that helps us to understand is to see what kind of taxes they are talking about here. Because there were a lot of taxes back then. And the question is about one in a specific, the Imperial tax in the amount of money wasn't too high. But it was symbolic. It was the text paid to Rome, to have the benefit of being a colony. He was the text Rome charge every year to the places that they control. It was like we conquer you. But we will not kill you. We will not destroy everything in everyone. But that's gonna cost you IR B. We know from the history that when this tax was imposed by Rome, to Judea into that area, there was a big insurrection led by a guy called Judas Galilean. You and he did three things. He called everyone not to pay the tax. Second, He cleansed the temple of traders. And three, he said, From now on, we will only obey elap God to be our king will begin the kingdom of God. What happened to him? He was captured. It executed 25 years earlier than this story. And now what's happening? Here comes a guy Jesus. And he comes speaking about the Kingdom of God. Teaching throughout the country that the kingdom of God has arrived second, he cleans the temple. He expels the merchants and he caught the attention. People are intriguing what's happening here. We will have a new insurrection. A lot of people thought so. But there was one thing missing. He talks about the kingdom. He cleaned the temple. What was missing to characterize the revolution of 25 years ago? Yep. Call for a tax boycott. You see, the question goes deeper than just caught in Jesus to one side or the other. It's not just about attacking Jesus popularity. The question behind it is right to pay taxes to Caesars is Jesus? Are you a new revolutionary? In here's the trap. If Jesus says, No, don't pay tax, he will be calling for a revolt just like Judas did 25 years ago, he would be given the green light to the Jews to begin an armed revolution. And the Herodians would immediately report him to the authorities with a supposedly legitimate accusation. And the rebellion will be a nickel plated. And perhaps Jesus would be killed or arrested, before fulfilling his mission in Jesus would become none as only a political martyr, a second Judas Galilean, his work would have been this one more who rose again, the Empire. Now, if Jesus says yes, just go and pay the tax, then everyone who heard him teaching about the Kingdom of God wouldn't conclude his talk was just baloney. Why? Because Jesus could not talk in the first century about a kingdom of God, from a purely spiritual point of view, like something private, avoiding any social or political implication. Why is that? It is kind of difficult for us to understand, because in a way, we're all fruit of the Enlightenment. John Locke and Immanuel Kant, people who a few centuries ago, began to defend the thesis that religion and spirituality are matters of private life. That we should read the Bible, pray, come to church, thinking that Christ only wants to live inside here. He just wants to forgive us and take us to the heaven someday, that our faith in Jesus only serves to calm our consciences or to deal with feelings in has nothing to do with our everyday life, our social and relational life, our professional and political life and public life. When, when that's the case, we don't understand the trap Jesus was in for some today, it kind of would be completely okay for Jesus to say just, you know, I brought the kingdom of God to you come to church on Sunday, in whatever you do with the rest of your week, with your ethical decisions, with your priorities, with your relationships, with your multiple colleagues in your vocations with your money, none of that matters to God, keep God only in your heart, pray from time to time in whatever you do with the rest of your life is up to you. I am not sure if you are tempted to feel that way to think like that. The problem is that if Jesus said in the first century to that people who clung to promises and callings of a kingdom of God, they were much more real and concrete than just God in my heart. If Jesus said that to them, they would see the disconnection between him in the Old Testament and between him and himself in his words, because when he showed up and preached his first sermon, he said, I am the one who Isaiah has announced it. I am the one who came down from heaven to preach the good Gospel to the poor, to bring freedom to the captives, to give food to the, to the hungry, to be the God of the widows and the orphans to heal the sick. Do we understand? If Jesus who have been announcing the kingdom of God, if He now just says it is, it is right to pay taxes to says it? Oh, yeah, sure. Oh, stop doing, keep your heads down. Just pay the tax without any questioning. Keep God in your heart and be satisfied to be a law abiding citizen, enjoying your inner peace. If Jesus said that His followers wouldn't live him. Because this preaching don't match the kingdom of God. The God promise, he would lose credibility. And if he says Don't, don't pay it, don't pay a Texas QB hunt by Rome, and becomes a political prisoner, just like that. That is the drama behind the question. Are you? Or are you not the Messiah? Who will bring the to kingdom of God? That was the question. Let's work on the answer. Now. This is the situation in which Christ finds himself in his response is incredible. Interesting. When politics

when politicians in general, when they hear a controversial question, a question for which there was no prior narrative construction, no rehearsal with the team of advisors. What do they do? They avoid, right? They don't respond. They change focus, and we are disappointed, because we're expecting an answer. But Jesus, trappers were not disappointed. On the contrary, after Jesus entered, they marveled because not only Jesus did not avoid answering, but he said something that was so profound in the wreck in clear at the same time, render to Caesars the things that are Caesar's, and to God, the things there are gods in this answer, just like the question has more elements than we might notice, at first glance, and the best way to analyze is to think about this answer. And notice what Jesus is rejecting, with that answer. What is he benign? With those words, Jesus was cornered. He heard a question in now, in response, he will refuse a couple of things. First, with his answers, Jesus rejects a simplistic point of view, about politics and culture in our life in the world. The question is quite obvious. They wanted a simple answer, yes or no. To pay, you're not to pay one side or the other. Which party? Are you in? Are you going to join the Herodians, supporting Rome? Or the Pharisees against Rome? And in that sense, Jesus answer is disappointing. Because the answer give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God that things are God's to that question about our relationship to the state, our relationship to the Empire, our relationship to the politics, our relationship to the Texas was not a yes or no answer. But yes, no. It's not this or that. But this, in that both M. Jesus gives notice a balanced answer of nuances. On the one hand, he resisted what is on the court. On the other hand, he accepted. They wanted to know which side Jesus is, whether he's right or left in he refuses to see the situation in those terms.

He resists simplistic politics Next,

he resists polarized politics, we could say, the Gospel may not fit 100% into this, for that agenda, an implication

for us about this,

we should today, be careful to co opt Jesus into the agenda of one side, we can surely say, this value. This proposal seems to be in tune with the principles and values of God and Jesus in the gospel. But we should be cautious on saying, Jesus is on my side. I stand on the platform of Jesus. Anyone who does not vote like I do. I don't consider a Christian. I don't know. Jesus is inviting us with his answer to see the complexity of some things, to resist the temptation of oversimplify social and cultural and political matters. That's the first point of Jesus, he's refusing that simplistic answer to every question. Some questions. Sure. There is a yes or no. But not every question. Remember, brothers and sisters, the gift of the Holy Spirit, which one pastor, the gift of moderation, exercise moderation, on conversations about stuff happening in the world? Because sometimes they are not simple. Because maybe sometimes our brothers or our friends or our family members, maybe the little ones in faith, we're starting to walk with Jesus. Maybe they need patient, maybe they need a fraternal conversation, maybe because they don't know a lot of things yet, maybe because we may be wrong in this question, that's why Jesus is teaching first of all, humility, and moderation in these things. Don't be a mother zealot, how the zealot resolves their questions, they count, they cancel. They explore things. We don't need to be on the fence. We don't need to be always in a central position. Not necessarily. We can have our strong opinions about things. But whatever you find yourself, find yourself using moderation. Second thing on Jesus response, he resists both political admission and political idolatry. How so? I explained the details on the text, don't lose that. Jesus begin his answer asking for something. You see it. He asked for what a particularly coin to pay that specific Imperial text. It was a denarius. We know that currency. There are some examples in museums around the world. They are silver, and they have an icon printed in them. And Jesus then asks, Who is imaging is on the denarius? You have the emoji. And the scription, Jesus asked for the inscription to Tiberius Caesar, Son of God, Augustus, maximum pontiff, high priest. Jesus takes out a coin that says that the Roman Emperor is king, Son of God, in high priest. Jesus asks for this coin, and he's asked about the image and says, Give it to him. What's his pay him taxes? Not necessarily. It's not what he's saying. He said, Give to him. What his kids and to God, what is God's? Well, what is or what was Caesar's, so to speak. That which has his image, which is coins. There he is. They were minted from his wealth. Give Caesar whatever has his image printed on it. And we're talking about coins. We're talking about money. Now, give to God Whatever has his

image printed in it,and what has God's image printed in it? You

to Caesar the coin to God, all of it yourself entirely. It's Jesus way of saying, pay the tax, okay? Now, total commitment, total Alliance, your entire life, no way that belongs to God and only God. Until that time, Jesus in one way or the other by force, or rhetorically all human governments had asserted that they were representing God on earth, that they have divine authority to be unquestionable, God chose us we are Gods every empire said that. And therefore we have the authority. No one can speak against us. No one can stand against us. Jesus is saying No way. Don't you dare to give to Caesar or any other ruler, this kind of covenant, give him the things with his image imprinted on it, give him the coin. But don't give you your wedding ring. Don't idolize

your ruler.

Another detail the verb Jesus used. They asked if they should pay. Caesar, the verb to pay is to give a gift. Jesus respond with another verb, a slightly different meaning. Jesus talks about not giving a gift but giving something back, giving back what whatever he gives to you. It's giving good government, give it back. If the government is unfair, resist, go to the streets, go to the polls, open your mouth vote reported in the proper way, of course, but call out the government when they are doing something wrong. Make no mistake, there is something you can and should give to Caesar. That scenarios there is political involvement, participation, contribution, but we cannot give him the same things if he exceeds his limit and becomes a beast of the revelation. If he ultimately is demands towards our total Alliance. Are uncritical support, there are situations we have the responsibility to stand against it. become a citizen of the kingdom of God has this political social involvement in the sense, as sinners, we're all part of the problem. But as Christians, we are all part of the solution. We don't want to be an zealot who is revolting. But we don't want to be an s sin. Don't run to the desert running away from the problem and leaving everything behind. Let's not become a lineated or distracted by things. But find out where is our place, our vocation, that God has placed us with our gifts and responsibilities and experiences in society. So we cannot say that Jesus was a political agitator. If he was one, he would have taken the advantage of that opportunity and call for rebellion. But we cannot say that Jesus advocates for a completely spiritual kingdom without any political social engagement without any participation or criticism, because by publicly declaring that no one should give Caesar His covenant. In his idolatry. Jesus is declaring that the government it's not supposed to be our God in so we can question if the government needs to be questioned, but we can and should support if the government needs our support. With this answer gives to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's Jesus was saying, on the one hand, I am not a politician. On the other hand, I'm credible, engaged in the life of the world. On the one hand, I don't have a government platform, at least not a detailed one. On the other hand, I do have a kingdom platform, because I am a king, not a king, like all of the other kings. Because my kingdom is dealing with the real poverty, with the real suffering, with the real injustice and the real disease with real conflict with real evil. I will bring peace and reconciliation with God, with others and with yourself. Life, abundant life, real, eternal life. There were two kings in this story, a king without a coin. In on the coin, another king. One had all the coins in the world, both claimed to be the Son of God, the high priest, the savior of humanity. But look how different they are. One King Caesar is doing his thing through conquest and colonization, and killing and by force. The other King, Jesus, do not conquer, do not colonize. He converts by love. And this one, Jesus, thy kingdom doesn't come to replace Caesar. He says, I am better than Caesar. I am different. My work is to solve yours and the world's problems, one by one, each in their own time. And I'm going to start by solving the biggest problem of all, the monster that lives inside all of you. Your sin. And I will do that. Not with a sword, nor with power, nor with the crease. I will do it with a sacrifice with a donation. My life, my blood in ransom from all of you. I will die for you. Without any coin, without any penny. Without a political party supporting me. Without a legion of fans supporting me. I will die empty, naked, totally offered to you. A king without a coin. A king who came to give, to serve to wash feet to die for us. That's your king.

That's our King. Give to him. What is yes, he deserves it.

It's not a coin. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 22:15-22

Matthew 22:15-22

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

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, October 22, comes from Matthew chapter 22, verses 15 through 22. It reads, then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle Jesus in his words, and they sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you're not swayed by appearances. Tell us then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus aware of their malice said, why put me to the test, you hypocrites, show me the coin for the tax. And they bought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this, they said, Caesars, then he said to them, therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are gods. When they heard it, they marveled, and they left him and went away. He runs the reading. So a reading begins with a plot. And it's a plot that's quite interesting. What we see is the Pharisees and the Herodians. Team up to go against Jesus. Now, you know that this is a big deal. What you get is, on one side are the hardcore Jewish legal lists the people who are leaders of the religious parts of of God's people, they are upfront, they are hardcore, and pretty likely against the idea that there would be this this king who is not a son of David on the throne, a king who was propped up by the Romans, and that King's name was, you guessed it, Herod who the Herodians support. So the Herodians were the people who are on the side of King Herod. And so you get together, the Pharisees, one team, who often fight against the Herodians on the other team, and they all join up to put Jesus in a bind. So they begin by buttering them up. Teacher, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully. And you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. What a great way to start a conversation. There's sort of like back and trying to back Jesus into a corner, like oh, yeah, you are always wise and truthful. And you would never try to get out of a difficult situation by evading the question, Jesus, here's the here's some buttering up for you. And some of its true, Jesus is certainly wise and he would not try to evade questions. He's not swayed by appearances is what this means. Jesus did not bow to authority, but just because other people liked it. And he did not shy away from people just because other people disliked them. And now they get the question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? This is what they think they think they've got him. On one hand, Jesus, if he says, Yes, you have to pay taxes to Caesar it means that he is supporting the, the Romans, and he is on the side of the Herodians. And all of the people, the Israelite nationalists, the people who are about the Kingdom of God and the throne of David, all of those people, they want to throw off the Roman oppressors, and Jesus has just made them mad. Now, on the other hand, you could say, I side with Israel, it is not lawful, we need to throw off the oppressors. And then the Herodians get mad, and the Romans get mad. And all of a sudden, he is a true usurper, who is trying to take away the Romans and fight against them. Jesus will become a criminal. So what they're thinking is, no matter how you ask, answer this question, Is it lawful? Yes. Is it lawful? No. No matter what you do, Jesus is stuck between someone. But he sees their trick. He says, show me the coin for the tax. They bring him a denarius, and he says, Whose likeness and inscription is this? So if you looked at a coin, the tax the denarius, Caesars face was stamped on that. And so they say, Caesars, and he replies, therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's I do love that sometimes we do the we hold on to the old just because it's traditional render. It's not like we're making soap here. It means give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God. And this is where Jesus establishes the separation between church and state, right? No, not at all. You see, what Jesus is doing is he's making a joke. Jewish people now, even if, if Caesar's image is on this, this coin, it still doesn't belong to him. If you give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Caesar gets nothing. If you give to God, the things that are God's God gets everything. And we have to remember that when we use the image and likeness is who are we Christians made in the image of we are created in the image of God. And then we are stamped into the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Which means that everything that we are is Christ, everything that we are is God. So Jesus isn't coming down on the separation of church and state here. What he's doing is he's showing how awful these Pharisees are, and reminding us that we all belong to God in everything we do, whether it's paying taxes or the rest of our lives. This is Jesus showing his wisdom and his power. And it's helping us to see that we are made in God's image following a Savior who was formed us after him as well. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

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, October 22, comes from First Thessalonians chapter one, verses one through 10. It reads, Paul Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, and God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Grace to You, and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith, and labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in Word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, for you receive the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in a Kea, for not only as the word of the Lord sounded forth from you, and Macedonia and new Kea, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Here ends the reading. Paul and the others Silvanus. And Timothy, begin this letter, the way they normally begin letters, it begins with the people who are writing it. So we know Paul Silvanus, and Timothy are writing it. And then it mentions the the addresses the people that are hearing the letter, the church of the Thessalonians. And it's it mentions they are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul continues on where he says, We give thanks to God always for you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers. This is another regular facet of Paul's letters is that he begins by telling them how he gives thanks to God for them in in their prayers. And it reveals individual things for each individual letter. And I think for Paul, he's looking at the at what's coming up to show something about the Thessalonians. He says, remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, for so he's pointing to their steadfastness, we'll get to that in just a little bit. Now, he continues, for you know, brothers loved by God that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in Word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. Now, this forces us to go back and say, Well, what do we know about Paul's visit a visit to the town of Thessalonica. Well, we can go to Acts chapter 17, and see it, Paul, and others go to Thessalonica. And they begin doing their thing. It says, and Paul went in as was his custom and on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. Now, what happens then is some are persuaded and some are not.

But the Jews get jealous. And what they do is they start a raffle and they form a mob, and they start trying to go after Paul and Silas and all of the people who are there, now they sneak away. But the Thessalonian Christians who have only had Paul and Silas there for three weeks, get the worst of it. And they find this man named Jason that Paul and Silas had been staying with, and they beat him up and arrest him and do all sorts of bad things to him. And then Paul and Silas, scoot out and head off to the town of Berea after that. Now, what I want you to think about as we consider this letter, then, is that Paul and Silas had gone to Thessalonica for only three weeks before they were forced out. And so they've got all of these brand new Christians. Like super brand new Christians, and yet somehow, the power of God was at work among them to withstand this kind of immediate and powerful persecution. And I really think that's what it means when it says the Holy Spirit, in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Now very often coming in the Holy Spirit and power means that there were miracles accompanying it. And I think that that may have been the case Paul and Silas certainly were known to have bring miracles along with them. But what greater miracle could there be than Baby Christian brand new to the faith, with standing this kind of torment and persecution, when their leaders are gone? Praise God for their amazing faithfulness. And Paul continues to say things like that, he says, and you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you receive the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in a Kea. So, he says that they proved to be a certain kind of person. And then that is associated then with the other, the people of Thessalonica, receiving affliction as well. And so I think this, this idea is we proved to be people who are willing to suffer for the faith. And then you became imitators of us, you Thessalonians that, and then, by imitating us imitated the sufferings of our Savior. And that's really what Christian aspires to, when we face suffering for the sake of Christ, is what we see is meaning in that is that we are living in the wounds of Jesus, living the affliction of Jesus. And so, with their their young faith, they became examples for everyone. And because of their bravery, because of their steadfastness, even in the face of not knowing anything about the gospel, only a few weeks, they became an example for everyone in Macedonia, and a Kea. And what a joy that is right, to see how it is not knowledge alone, that makes a Christian a lesson. Paul and Silas and Timothy and all those people who are out and about doing their thing they could preach they could teach. But the powerful lesson that came out of Thessalonica was not the word of God or the the miracles or a doctrinal treatise. It was the fact that when God came by the power of the gospel to these people, they stood up to persecution right off the bat, and remain faithful to Christ, even to torture and death. And what an example that can be for us, as we wait as St. Paul says, To for the true the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to the calm and the Thessalonians. They turned from their false idols to serve the true and living God who will save us on the last day. And we do the same. We turn to the true and living God, who is coming Jesus Christ, who will come with the clouds in great power and might raise us from the dead and deliver all the wicked unfaithful into eternal condemnation. That's the end of our reading. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 96:1-13

Psalm 96:1-13

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
    tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
    he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
    strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth!

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
    Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
    he will judge the peoples with equity.”

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
    let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
    let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
    before the Lord, for he comes,
    for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
    and the peoples in his faithfulness.

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, October 22, is Psalm 96. Oh Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord bless his name. Tell him his salvation from day to day. declare His glory among the nations is marvelous works among all the peoples. For Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are worthless idols. But the Lord made the heavens, splendor and majesty are before him. strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD or families of the peoples of Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength, Ascribe to the LORD the glory, do his name, bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness trembled before him all the earth, say among the nations, The Lord reigns, yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved, he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exalt, and everything in it, then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth, He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. Here ends the reading. The Zone begins, oh, Sing to the Lord, a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth. Now often when people see this in the Psalms, they see this passage Sing to the Lord a new song as a call to sing new kinds of worship songs. But if you look at the Bible, the places where it says Sing to the Lord, a new song, it does this when when God does a new kind of thing in his salvation history. And so we see this parallel being done in the book of Isaiah before our the reading that we had, for the Old Testament for this same Sunday is a couple of chapters before Isaiah 45. Isaiah says to sing to the Lord, a new song, about the salvation that God is going to deliver through Cyrus and we see coming up that Cyrus is going to save Israel. And that calls for a new song because it's a renewed salvation event, thing to the Lord, a new song. That means when God does something new, we sing in a new way about that. And that can be using the old songs, but also new using new songs, especially we can see that in the salvation we have through Jesus Christ is that all things become new. And we have come up with so many new songs and new ways of talking about Jesus since the day he ascended into heaven. It continues, Sing to the Lord bless his name, tell of His salvation from day to day, declare His glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. One of the great ideas about singing these new songs, these these new salvations is to share the message that God is truly the one who's in charge, that our God is God and not all the worthless idols as a talks about. One of the reasons Isaiah pointed us to Cyrus was to show Cyrus and the rest of the world, that it is truly God and God alone, the one the father of Jesus Christ and and the one with the Holy Spirit. He is the only one who has control who has power. Everything else is worthless. And so this the song that we're singing extols the majesty of the only God who has power to save. The next section begin to this Ascribe to the LORD or families of the peoples Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength, describe to the Lord the glory, do his name, bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness, tremble before him, all the earth. When we sing our song, what do we do? We Ascribe to the LORD the glory to his name. Now, one of the ways that the Lutheran Church has always dealt with the praises of God is that we praise God not for his qualities, but for the things he does. And so if you Look through our hymnody we don't do so much like praising God for being all powerful or a mortal or wise or anything like that. Most of our praising comes by repeating the things he did does for us through Jesus. And so we praise the Father, we praise the sun was praised the spirit for the work they do, which not only gives us the ability to sing about what God has done for us, but it also norms our praise, so that it molded and reflects, and even teaches us why we love God so much. Because we don't love God because he's all powerful. We don't respond with joy to God, because he's mighty, or eternal. We respond with joy to God because He sent His Son Jesus Christ. And that's why we worship. That's why we praise. And so our praise in our singing is constantly about the work that God does for us. So that we can we can do our praise by reflecting what God has already given us. And that leads us into the next section where it says, say among the nations, The Lord reigns, yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved, he will judge the peoples with equity. The kingdom of God, is a big piece of what Jesus came to bring when he he comes in the Gospel of Matthew and Mark and Luke, after his baptism, he goes around preaching the kingdom of God is at hand. And that's what it means. The Lord reigns. Or if you're translating directly, Yahweh reigns. It means that God is in charge. He is the king over all creation. And we can rejoice in that, as it says, Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it. Let the field exalt, and everything in it, then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord for he comes. For He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. This, this closes with some prayer, prayer and praise. But it also talks about God's judgment. Earlier it says he judges the people with equity, and he judges in righteousness later and with faithfulness. What this means is that God judges with impartiality. One of the pain points of the prophets is that God blamed the judges and the kings, for judging people based on bribes is that the widows and the orphans were taken advantage of the wealthy got the justice because they could give money to the judges. And that was not equity, that was not faithfulness. We have to be careful that when we look at this we don't see is God has a preferential option for the poor because he doesn't do that either. He judges people based on his standards, and that alone, the rich, the poor, the wise, the foolish, all are equal before God and they are judged equally before he the standard of Him who is the King of all creation. And for us who are Christians, we rejoice that we are judged not based on what we have done, but on the faithfulness of Christ and His actions for us. That's the end of our reading for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Isaiah 45:1-7

Isaiah 45:1-7

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
    whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
    and to loose the belts of kings,
to open doors before him
    that gates may not be closed:
“I will go before you
    and level the exalted places,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
    and cut through the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness
    and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
For the sake of my servant Jacob,
    and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
    I name you, though you do not know me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
    besides me there is no God;
    I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun
    and from the west, that there is none besides me;
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and create calamity;
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

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 Old Testament reading for Sunday, October 22, comes from Isaiah chapter 45, verses one through seven. Thus says the Lord to His anointed to Cyrus whose right hand I have scratched, to subdue nations before him, and to loosen the belt of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed, I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces, the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name, for the sake of my servant, Jacob and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, there is no other. beside me there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the West, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord. And there is no other, I form light and create darkness, I make well being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. Here ends the reading. Isaiah is calling out to a guy named Cyrus, it says, Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped. If you know about Isaiah, Isaiah spends much of his time looking forward from the eighth century BC, round 740 BC, to the days of the Babylonian exile. And then even farther on when Cyrus the Great King of the Persian Empire, sends the Jews back to Jerusalem. And so Isaiah has predicted that someone would come in destroy the city of Jerusalem and take them off into captivity. And that happened in 598, B C ish. It's during that time that they do all sorts of stuff to destroy the city. And Isaiah is looking ahead to that. And but he's even more specific here, where he says even beyond that, he's going to call out the very guy who is going to send Israel back, that is to Cyrus, the great king of Persia. Notice what Isaiah says that the Lord is saying, he calls Cyrus God's anointed, and says, whose right hand I had grasped. The idea of anointed means Messiah chosen one, the same word they would have used for Jesus, the same word chosen for any any king who would have been anointed to lead God's people are the judges of the Old Testament. This time, it's going to a pagan king, who is going to be born hundreds of years later. Interestingly, the whose right hand I have grasped reflects a tradition that the Persian kings would grab the hand of Marduk, the god of Babylon, and that hand would then guide the king during this time. Here God is saying that he is the one who has grasped Cyrus's right hand, and he's going to do it to do all sorts of terrible things to the world, sued new nations lose the belt of Kings destroy stuff, Cyrus is going to have all of this amazing success. Destroy doors of bronze breakthrough bars of iron, he gets the treasures and secret places all of that is going to happen, and why it's for Israel. He chooses Cyrus for the good of his people. says, For the sake of my servant, Jacob, and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name. And we see what happens is that when Cyrus does come to power in the Babylonian Empire, he allows the Jewish people to go home and helps to fund rebuilding their temple and rebuilding the walls. And so the city of Jerusalem becomes a new and a vibrant city by the time Jesus is born. And it's all because of this guy named Cyrus. What this offers for us Christians today is an interesting view of how God works through history is that God chose Cyrus, a pagan king, someone who didn't know him who didn't understand who who never called upon him. And he used this king, as, as a tool to free Israel and bring them to the promised land. And God still arranges all of history today, to point all of us to the end, to the day when Jesus our king will return and raise us from the dead. All of history is moving towards that point, and God arranges it all for the good of his church. So we can trust in Him knowing that God predicted hundreds of years before a king would come. His name was written in the Bible. And Isaiah was recognized as a prophet because of this. And we too can see this pattern working out that God uses the the people of this world for the good of the church, and bringing us to the resurrection on the last day. God truly is powerful, that he can use all of these people for the good of the church. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Growing in Grace: Nurturing Active Faith in Children

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.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. These past three weeks, we have been doing a sermon series on raising children in the faith. Today is the third Sunday in our three week series. The first one was called planting the seed nurturing faith in the hearts of children. And we talked about the role of parents as the primary person for raising a child in the faith, how the Christian faith is passed on as parents talk about who Jesus is, establish patterns in the home and share that with their children. And that no amount of work that a congregation can do can really overcome the challenges of that. Parents are the primary people who begin this life in faith. Last week, we did a sermon called gathering in the name. And it discussed how the role of the worship service, the divine service is central to the life of every Christian, from the youngest to the oldest, because it's here that God comes to us, as a body, delivers his word and Sacraments and empowers us by the Holy Spirit, that every Christian, no matter how young or old, belongs in the divine service, to receive from God, His grace, and mercy. And today, we are talking about how parents and a congregation can come together to help them raise their children in the faith and make that faith a living an active faith through their lives as they grow into adulthood. And as we do that, I think it's good always to back up one step. And remember, what is the goal of a children's ministry? Or a youth ministry? What is the goal of the ministry that we do together to help these parents? And it is very simple. We ask every confirmation student in fact, we ask our new members to come into the congregation as well this question, do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession? That is the confession of the Lutheran Church in this confession and church and to suffer all even death rather than fall away from it? That's our goal. The goal of a children's ministry is the same as the goal of an adult ministry to grow adult lifelong Lutherans who are faithful to their savior, Jesus Christ, who returned to their their church, to receive the Word and the sacraments, be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and live lives of service wherever they go. Now, that may mean, they remain here for their entire lives, it may mean that we send them off, they head out to college or jobs or anything. And that we transfer them on to other Lutheran congregations where they continue in their life of faith. The goal is to make them faithful Christians their entire lives. And the only way that can happen is through the power of the word and the sacraments. The same way it happens with the adults, because the Holy Spirit comes to you, the same way to them, as they gather together, hear the word partake of God's grace, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit. But as we consider what that means for our children, as they as they grow from very young children all the way up until adulthood, we understand that very often this means they get approached in ways that are different than adults do. As we help these children understand their faith and grow in their ability to live it out. We have to ask, what does a congregation do in partnership with their parents? And I think it falls under two broad themes. The first of them is one that every I think most churches do. Training and understanding the doctrines and the content of the faith. What that means is, we teach them the word of God, plain and simple. They learn Bible stories. They hear from the from God's word, they understand the themes and the arc of the plot of the Bible. And as much of that as also, what it means for them. But the grace of God has been applied to them in their baptisms, and that they can continue to receive it every Sunday here in worship. But we also have an opportunity as a congregation, to encourage children of all ages from very young all the way up to just before adults for active service. And leaving out of that faith. Because active participation in the work of a congregation is also part of training and growing, and understanding what the faith means. Because faith is not just something that is in our heads, or in our hearts. Faith is something that produces works. And to understand what that means we have to teach children to do it. The same way we have to teach adults to be living and active in their service. And so congregation's job, is to help everyone grow in this ability, by giving them opportunities to build connections with each other, to do things of service acts of good works. And that's one of the reasons why I chose the Epistle reading for today from James, is to remind us that faith is not just something that is internal. but faith is something that produces works, that when the Holy Spirit works in us and builds us up and changes us to be like Christ, the evidence shows in your life. faith produces works. A long time ago, a professor of mine used this analogy to help us understand what James is trying to say. He was a kind of a car guy. And so he had like model teas that he owned. And back when he was a young pastor, the way he would greet people in his new town, very small town, they'd move in, he drove up his Model T to their house. Instant conversation starter, right? And what he said is, how do you know a car is running? The look? Can you go inside and see the flames? Do you look at the gas as it pumped into the cylinders? And go Oh, yes, I can see that. There's the fire. There's the pistons. You have to look at external things to understand. Unless you're willing to open up the entire engine as it burns fuel, kind of dangerous. You have to ask, Do I hear the sound? Do I see the smoke. That is how I know a car is running. And very often, what we do is we see faith that produces works is a way of expressing the faith that is inside us. As we can see that God is changing us and molding us to live in the world. And so faith without works, as James says, is dead. So our job is to help Christians understand what the faith is, and live that out in our lives. For us, I think we do a good job on training the knowledge of the faith. We have lots and lots of programs for our children, the children can be involved in our Sunday School meets for a whole hour right during my Bible study time, or all of our kids can come in and get an hour of lessons and hear God's word and do activities and talk together. It's a great way of understanding and growing in the faith. as they age out of elementary school, our confirmation classes, we have two years of training for one hour a week. The first year is a year of understanding the entire story of the Bible. The idea is that rather than teaching individual stories, we teach them how they all piece together as you go from Genesis all the way through Revelation as we prepare for the day that Jesus returns. And then the second year is understanding the Catechism that Martin Luther wrote, that gives us the basic doctrines and teachings and habits that set the Lutheran church apart from the Protestant churches around us to help us understand that God comes to us through these sacraments to justify us and give us the Holy Spirit.

We do these things. And these are part of of how we do this. And in that, in that Information class, we also learn from our songs as well. We lately have started singing this hymn called these are the holy 10 commands. You heard that one? No it? Did you know that Martin Luther wrote a hymn to help people memorize the 10 commandments. Isn't that kind of cool? That's great. It helps us do these things. But they're not done after confirmation. We also have a youth group that meets every Sunday, after our worship services, for our teenagers, all the way up through high school. These are all great ways that we have for training and the knowledge of the faith classes, helping them understand who Jesus is, what he does for us how he works. They are there to help us. Let these these students encounter God's word, receive the Holy Spirit, ask questions on their own, so that they can begin to understand and grow in their faith, almost independently of their family, especially as they as they begin entering into these middle school and high school years, becomes more important for them to do that on their own as they transition into adulthood. These cannot replace what you do at home, parents, but they do help. And they're a big piece of, of the life of the congregation. Where our congregation and I think many of our congregations need work, is incorporating children into the life and ministry that we do, how we take them as they as they grow, and we give them knowledge and classes and we help them. And I think we do a great job with that. It's as they age out of these elementary school years. How do we incorporate them with relationships with adults in the congregation, into the life and service of the church. That's an important piece of training. An important piece of, of developing an active and living faith is actually living it out. Jesus did that with His disciples. In Matthew chapter 10. We see Jesus sends out his 12 disciples, he had spent a whole lot of time teaching them preaching with them. Jesus went out and heal the sick, and he cast out demons and he did all this cool stuff. And then he said, now it's time for you to practice. You sent them out into the world. And while Matthew chapter 10, isn't a manual for training, it does offer us some help to understand that the faith is not just in our heads, but active in our lives. How can we, as a congregation, enable children and youth to serve alongside us to build relationships between people so that they can feel included not just as children of parents, but as equal members of the Body of Christ? We are currently going through a process of understanding and trying to figure out where we're going some strategic planning. And I think this is a big piece of what we need to think about. How do we incorporate these people into our lives? And personally, I am especially concerned about that transition from late elementary age in through confirmation. Historically, confirmation has been a time of teaching and training, where they hear the word of God and they think about it and then we stand them up in front of the congregation, we ask them a bunch of very serious questions like, well, you suffer all even death rather than fall away from the Lutheran Church in Christ. And the idea is, it's supposed to be a rite of passage, almost like you're stepping into adulthood in the faith. But we do this with 14 year olds. And in our society, you don't step into an adulthood when you're 14. And so it's almost like they go through this big ritual, two years of preparation, they stand up, they put on the robes, they do that thing. And then they go back to being the same as they were before. And I wonder what can we do to make that not the case? To take children who've gone through our confirmation, who are growing in their independence and treat them as slightly more independent, encourage them to interact in our congregation in ways that are unique to that person. So they can live out the Holy Spirit's work in their life. Where it becomes difficult, is what happens as they, as they begin to grow as they gain through high school, and eventually they turn 18. If we don't offer them a way to transition from childhood to adulthood, all of a sudden they become 18. And we say that's not for you, no more youth group have a great life. You go, Oh, now you're an adult, you've graduated Great. What do you do? We can use that time, as a way to grow in the faith to transition into more and more adult like responsibilities. So that when they turn 18, it is not like, what do I do now. But there's a clear path into our congregation as a full adult member. There are lots of ways we need to think about how we do this. I don't have all the answers. I'm just some guy up in front. You guys know your congregation, you know us much better than I do. Most of you have been here longer than me. And so you can think through how does this work here in this place? How can we as God's people love and help and build relationships with the young children, the older children and the high schoolers and incorporate them into our lives? But we do need to think about it. How can we build these organic relationships, to build up the faith that has been passed down to us? How can we tie them to the congregation through these person to person relationships where the word of God can be shared? And support can be given? How can we encourage faithful actions? One of the things that I've I've done historically as a pastor is that when people leave my congregation to go off to school somewhere, I will sit down with them, and walk through their options of where to go for church nearby. I think it's a great way for them to think through this. And I want to talk about one student who really typifies how a congregation can take a young adult and embrace them and build these kinds of relationships. It's this young boy named Nathan. He went off to school in Michigan, and I called up the nearest congregation and I said, Hey, I've got this Lutheran student, great kid. I want him to come to your church he wants to come to Can you get him there? First Sunday, he was there. Some old lady shows up at his door and says, given you a ride to church, that's how it starts, right? Faith in Action, God's love going out. He already had a friend in that congregation. He gets in the car, she gives him a ride every Sunday. He gets there. Not too long later, I see a photo of him carrying the processional cross into the sanctuary. The new guy, college student, he's got the robe on with the cross and he's walking in and everybody sees him. He's involved. He's doing stuff. You never missed a Sunday, at least as far as he told me. You know, what do you say to your pastor? But we can think about that sort of thing, as a way that congregations gather together people into their midst and build these ties that the Holy Spirit uses to bind them to the Word and Sacrament. And it's something we need to think about. How can we do that as our children grow? How can we do that as our youth transition into high school and adulthood? How can we build these relationships that then live out what we teach them every Sunday? In Jesus name, Amen.