Eyewitnesses - the best witnesses

Last night as my dear, sweet wife and I ate dinner, I thought some music might be nice.  On to the CD player went a disc from guitarist Lawrence Juber.  He is an amazing talent and his skill on the acoustic is the equal of anyone.  As we listened to the disc I began to reflect on the time I saw him in concert.

A couple of years ago my friend, Dan, and I went over to the Musical Instruments Museum to see Juber in concert.  I thought it would be a treat to watch him play.  But I was interested in going for another reason.  I was hoping he might give some insight about what it’s like to work with Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.

Juber was part of the final Wings group before McCartney broke up the band. Juber was an eyewitness to McCartney’s genius. He stood shoulder to shoulder with the former Beatle on stage.  They spent countless hours in the recording studio working on songs.  I was hoping he would tell a story about recording a particular song or offer an insight into McCartney's personality.  After all, Juber was there.  He saw, spoke to and worked with Paul McCartney!  Who better to learn about Sir Paul than from an eyewitness?

It's that same kind of reasoning that enables us to put our confidence in the Bible.  The men whom the Holy Spirit directed to write about Jesus and the growth of the church were eyewitness to all that had happened.  Or in the case of Luke, much of his Gospel and also Acts, comes from those who were there and witnessed the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, the birth of the church and the growth of the early church.

Think about the eyewitness testimony regarding the resurrection.  The apostle John (John 21:24); the 11 apostles (Acts 1:3); Peter (Acts 10:39-41); hundreds of people (including the apostle Paul) all saw the resurrected Christ.

The resurrection is absolutely essential to the Christian faith.  Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:17: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we, too, are dead.

Praise God that we never need to doubt the truth of the resurrection.  We have the word of those who saw and spoke with and ate with the resurrected Christ.  Our sins have been paid for.  We have been redeemed from sin, death and hell.  Satan cannot frighten us with His doubts and lies.  Jesus lives! The victory's won! 

Do you realize that each Sunday is a weekly celebration of Easter?  Give thanks to Jesus that we no longer remain in our sins.  God has forgiven them and forgotten them (Hebrews 8:12).  Jesus is alive! We have the proof of many eyewitnesses...in this case, the best witnesses!

Prayer is not a waste of time

Peter Marshall, the great Presbyterian minister and U.S. Senate Chaplain, once began a Senate session with these words: O Lord, forgive us for thinking that prayer is a waste of time, and help us to see that without prayer our work is a waste of time.

Johnny Cash's imaginary friend

Once, when his daughter, Tara, asked if he ever had an imaginary friend, singer Johnny Cash responded like this: "Yes," he told her.  "Sometimes I am two people.  Johnny is the nice one.  Cash causes all the trouble.  They fight."  (from "The Man Named Cash" by Steve Turner, page 17)

Probably without knowing it, Cash was expressing good Lutheran theology, namely that we are Simul justus et peccator - Simultaneously justified and a sinner.

To be "justified" is to be declared "not guilty."  In God's courtroom, God declares you and me and all who believe "not guilty" for the sake of Jesus who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin and to give us His righteousness which makes us clean and whole before God the Father.  

Still, we know that in this life we sin.  We think evil thoughts...say evil things...do evil stuff.  Like David, we too can say: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  (Psalm 51:3)

It seems like such a contradiction, right? If I'm a sinner, then how can I be a saint?

That's where the power of the Gospel comes in.

It is God's good news of forgiveness and salvation through faith in Christ that God justifies the sinner.  Christ makes us righteous.  Through repentance and faith, we are made new in Christ.  The Holy Spirit, working through the means of grace, gives us a new mind and heart, one that does the will of God because of Jesus.  

Still, we struggle.  We see that old, sinful nature rear its ugly head constantly.  As Johnny Cash said, "They fight."  That's why our baptism is so important.  At the baptismal font, we were buried with Christ in His death.  Our old Adam, our sinful nature must die.  Then, with Christ, we were raised to new life.  Now we are free to live - free to love God and to love our neighbor.  We don't have to work at or earn God's favor or blessing.  We have already been declared "not guilty."  We can now live the new life in Christ that we've received through the grace of God.

I understand this Simul justus et peccator stuff.  George is the nice one.  Spicer causes all the trouble.  Luther got it.  Johnny Cash got it too.

Let this be another day that you live in the new life you received at your baptism.  For the sake of Jesus, you are justified before God - "not guilty" of sin and freed from the sentence of eternal death.  Eternal life is yours - through Christ!

And tell that imaginary friend of yours to take the day off!

At Home With Jesus

I have been thinking about a few friends of mine who have had to bury their adult children.  I can’t even begin to imagine the depth of the pain and heartache such a life event causes for parents.  But Gerald Oosterveen, in his book, "Too Early Frost," points to where there is hope in the midst of pain and grief:

Parents are not supposed to bury their children.  The old are not supposed to stand beside the graves of the young.  It is unnatural.  One is not prepared for it.  The death of a child tears apart a family like the uprooting of one plant out of a cluster that have been allowed to grow together in one pot.  It cannot be done.  All those roots become so intertwined over the years that nothing short of violence can separate them.  And it leaves all the plants stunted...

Oh yes, we mourn...But we have hope - bright hope for tomorrow, when all who trust in Jesus Christ as Savior will move beyond pain and grief forever because we shall be forever with the Lord.  And it is not just some pipe dream, some opium to stupefy and mislead hurting people.  It is real, because Christ is real, because in our past there is a blood-stained cross on which the Prince of Glory died.  Because of that bloody, pain-filled past we have hope when all things are made new and death shall be no more, nor grief, nor crying.

In a little cemetery in a small out-of-the-way town there is a tiny marker.  It bears only three lines:
1961-1970
GERARD RICHARD OOSTERVEEN
"At Home with Jesus"

Of the three lines, the last line is the only one that really matters.

"At Home with Jesus."  When I think of those in my life who have died, like my Mother and Father and Father-in Law, family and good friends and those who I've had the opportunity to serve as pastor and shepherd, the only line that really matters and the only line that can comfort sorrowing hearts is that they are at home with Jesus.

A beloved hymn begins with the words, “I’m but a stranger here, heaven in my home.”  Heaven – where Jesus has prepared a place that we can call “home”…heaven, where our homes will not contain a single box of Kleenex because tears are a thing of the past…heaven, where our homes come without a mortgage, because Christ paid for our way in through His shed blood at the cross.

At home with Jesus - let that line, that thought, be your comfort today as you think about and give thanks for those you loved who were loved by Jesus even more and now rest in His gentle and nail-scarred hands.

Grace - there's more than enough for you!

I have always loved the story of God's grace to the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings 17.  Her situation is so desperate that she tells Elijah that she can't fix him even a small loaf of bread; she has just enough for herself and her son.  It is their "last supper," so to speak.  But then, the Word of the Lord comes to her and God promises: The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.  (vs. 14)

The widow trusted God's Word and promise; she did as she was asked.  And until the drought ended and the rain again fell on the land, the widow had all she needed for herself and her son and Elijah, too.

In reading the story, one of the questions that I mused on was, "What's it like to have such a promise made and miracle happen in the life of a person, a desperate person like the widow?" But then I realized that I know what it's like.

Every Sunday in worship the church gathers and God blesses us with His grace.  He promises to come and abundantly bless us and He does.  Never have we run out of the Word of God.  Never have we run out of God's absolution and forgiveness.  Never have we run out of the Lord's body and blood in the sacrament.  God blesses us generously and then we come back the following Sunday and He gives even more!

Sometimes I feel like the widow.  I, too, am desperate.  I come with an impoverished soul.  I need to hear that God forgives all the stuff that I feel so badly about - my disobedience, my selfishness, my cold heart.  I need to hear God's promises and be reminded that if I were the only person in the world, He'd still keep those promises - for me.  I need to hear that in the Holy Meal I meet my Lord and Savior is the most amazing way this side of heaven.  When I leave worship I am filled, forgiven and refreshed.

And then, there's next week.  There will be even more - grace upon grace.  You, me and the widow - richly blessed and cared for by a gracious and generous God. 

A thought about Easter

Easter is our promised future, present now in Jesus.

Glenn Nielsen, from "Lutheran Forum," Winter 2012, page 31

Sermon illustrations

A fellow I used to work with years ago is always sending me stories and jokes that he thinks would make good sermon illustrations.  But I haven't found any that I thought would be suitable.  Here's an example:

An elderly man was dying in his bed.  In death's agony, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies wafting up the stairs.

He gathered his remaining strength and lifted himself up out of bed.  He slowly made his way out of the bedroom and down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands.  With labored breath he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen.

Were it not for death's agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven: there, spread out upon newspapers on the kitchen table was literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies.  Was it heaven or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left his world a happy man? Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture.

He reached out to the edge of the table and took one of the cookies, bursting with dozens of chocolate chips.  A glass of cold milk would have made this would have made this moment perfect, but the old man couldn't wait.  His parched lips parted; the wondrous taste of the cookie was already in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life.  The aged and withered hand was bringing the cooking to his mouth when suddenly it was smacked with a spatula by his wife.

"Stay out of those," she said, "they're for the funeral!"