church

This church seems cool. The pastor was an evangelical attending Dallas Theological Seminary (Biola Pipeline). One day in a class on the Early church fathers he realized that there was something to the liturgy and the historic faith.

Whatzupwitu?

This is the best music video ever.

Matt 20 sermon

6AM, enroute to marking subversive religious materials for delivery to Poland and Slovakia, I passed a baseball field and noticed four ducks huddled on the pitcher's mound as if in conference over what pitch to throw next.

When gathering together the mail to deliver, I choose the skinny rubberbands. There were many drops of rain. I saw a bunny under a car. It was hiding. There were two ducks in the fountain. I said, "Hello, ducks." They did not regard me.
There was thunder and it went boom. then I played catch and it was 10 o clock.

"Everybody has won and all must have prizes."

-The Dodo Bird, on Matthew 20:1-16

things I do.

I am done with school. The P fell off my keyboard. We went to Shakespeare in the Park, a Greek Festival, we saw Star Trek, I am reading a Bill Bryson book, We ate at PF Chang's, I am working a lot at the post office, I got Merrill shoes, we are getting rid of a bunch of clothes, I am writing a sermon on Matthew 20:1-16. I am preaching a Mt Olive when we come out to LA, We housesat and walked a dog and picked up its droppings, we are going to michigan for 4th of July, we are planning our trip to europe, Uk and all that.

We just sang hymns to candlelight.

Lord Jesus Christ,
My God and Lord, my God and Lord,
In death Thy comfort still afford.

another project

This is my critique of EP Sanders and NT Wright's scholarship ("New Perspective on Paul"), which attacks the doctrine of Justification.

summer time.

I'm done with classes on Friday; a few more papers and finals and sermons. word.

Rapture Zombie Militia

I just found out that Lutherans aren't going to get raptured. That means I will have to form a Rapture Zombie Militia to take out everyone that gets the Mark of the Beast.

Here's my new project

Here's a paper I'm writing

The promise and the presence

Imagine if before the baseball season started, the Cubs promised the city of Chicago that they would win the World Series that season and not only that but they even took a victory lap though downtown to celebrate the upcoming championship. It would be ridiculous. You have to actually play the games. Who cares about their promise? Without the actual victory in hand, it would look like they were just foolishly wandering through the streets of Chicago.

The Hebrews knew a quite a bit about restless wandering. They had spent 40 years wandering in the desert. Now in our text for today, God has led them into the promised land to the city of Jericho. God told Joshua, “See! I have delivered the city into your hands.” God then instructed the people to march in a circle around the city, a victory lap before the battle was even fought. Joshua and the people trusted this promise of God and they trusted that God was really present with them in the ark of the coventant as they paraded around the city. What is the difference between wandering aimlessly and a taking a victory lap?– God’s Promise and His Presence.

From the outside the Hebrews may look a lot like the Cubs walking through Chicago. If you did not believe that God was present with the Hebrews or if you did not have faith that God would keep His promises, then the circles around the city would seem foolish. But God’s promise connected to His presence turns walking around in circles into a victory lap.

Sometimes we can feel like we are foolish, like we are just wandering through our Christian life. The junk of life weighs us down. We wake up, wander around the house, and right then, early in the morning, all those thoughts stream in ‘I’ve got to write this, read this, go here, remember that.” Then there’s all the other stuff: finances, family, friends, regrets, guilt, shame. We think, “What am I going to do? How am I going to get through all this” “Exactly, what battle has been won? I have lots of debt, an unknown and uncertain future. I am in no mood for a victory lap.” We end up wandering though life, we just try to keep those feet moving, putting one foot after the other. While we indeed have many legitimate problems and concerns, our focus usually turns to ourself rather than God. The Hebrews did not defeat Jericho by their magnificent execution of walking in circles. It was God’s grace alone. His presence and his promise secured the victory.

God has assured you of final victory through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Sin, death and the devil have been defeated. Your sins are forgiven. You will live forever with Christ. God promises us, like Joshua, “Look! The enemy is conquered!” We have God’s presence even more than the Hebrews did. We eat the body of our Lord and drink his blood for the forgiveness of sins. He is really present. He gives us his Holy Spirit, to guard and keep us. The battle is won.

It’s easy to wander from the path God has given us. We can think, “God did amazing things in the bible but what about now?” Is not the battle won every time God’s snatches a baby from the clutches of Satan though Holy Baptism. Are not sins conquered through Christ who truly with us in the Lord’s Supper? As Joshua and the Hebrews clung to God’s promise in faith, we too cling to these promises pf God in faith. The promise that he will rescue us from sin, death and the devil. The promose that God is present with us and fights for us. We get out of out pew, go up to the rail, kneel, receive the body and blood, then go back to our pew. This is our victory lap. The battle has been won, for US through Christ.

This victory does not make sense. It doesn’t seem like a victory. We want to give ourselves a bigger role in the battle plan. But, the battle is done. It is finished. It is all over. God has won. Christ’s death on the cross dealt the decisive blow. There is nothing we can add to supplement the death of God. Maybe it doesn’t make sense, but God is out to shame the wisdom of the world. It has nothing to do with our intellect. The victory springs from the promise of God. He gives us faith to trust his promises. So we keep on moving through life, we put one foot after the other. We just keep on walking. Not because we are wandering aimlessly, but because we have been promised victory through Christ’s death on the cross. What is the difference between wandering aimlessly and a taking a victory lap?– Christ’s Presence and His Promise for you. The victory is certain.
Amen.

A Mother's Day prayer

I led worship in the Divine Service this morning and prayed this prayer:

"Heavenly Father, on this day that our country sets aside to honor mothers, we thank you especially for the gift of Christian mothers. Bless them always. Give them grace ever to set a good example to their households. Make them constantly mindful that their children are a sacred trust from heaven. Hold your protecting hand over them and give them strength for every task, courage for every trial and trust in You that will daily grow stronger."

Thunder

and lightning? Yes, it is.
Hang me up dry.

The dying days of early May

3 weeks to go. My last day of classes in on Ascension Day. I don;t know if that means anything but it should. I am looking forward to the tigers coming to St Louis in June. Cable means baseball. Every night there is baseball. I've been catching a few innings here and there.

I am doing a big project on Pentecostals. My head is spinning.

I also watched a video about how you need to have 2.3 kids or muslims will take over the world. I don't know where they got their info from, but, I don't know, people don't care anymore. The jig is up. A lot of Muslims care about their religion, why should we be surprised if they have 8 kids and teach them all about the koran and the pillars of Islam? We ("America") do not care about Christianity any more. People figure, "Why pretend to be Christian if you aren't?" At least it's more honest than the pews being full of unbelievers. It's hard to see anything that can put a stop to the nosedive of Christianity in Western culture and the skyrocket of Islam. I'm clinically diagnosed as near-sighted though so cut me some slack. Africa and Asia are doing pretty good with their Jesus stuff. If only, here in America, we could make Him cooler. Tie him to some causes or something - eco-friendly jesus, anti war jesus, yadda yadda.

-

It's amazing that we live as if sin is not something that will damn us to hell. Judas spent 3 years with Jesus. And he betrayed him. Who are we?

It's amazing that we live as if the presence of Christ is a distant memory. God is present with us always. All the time. Right now, as I am typing Christ is present with me. I remember the Word, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" and the Spirit comes to me and you as you read that. It is shameful how much I under estimate God's presence.

It's like we've all set up shop here. Like we've bought into the world's way of doing things. Which is usually sinful. Are we ashamed to claim Christ? Are we enamored with the trash of the world because Christ seems too abstract?

Goodness, we have no idea what if means to be "in the world but not of the world."
Lord, have mercy upon us! And if a continual plea for mercy were on my lips from now to my dying day, it would not be sufficient. That is, without Your grace.

O, Lord open my lips. And my mouth will declare your praise.
Make haste, O God, to deliver me. Make haste to help me, O Lord.

Jesus is our Good Shepherd, we shall not want.

Fourth Sunday After Easter
John 10:11-18 - Ezekiel 34 - Ps 23

In the name of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Amen.

I could be wrong, but I am going to assume that we do not have any shepherds here in church today. For most of us, our experience with shepherds is limited to setting up little shepherd figures in a Nativity Scene. And Sheep? I am pretty sure that none of you have any sheep grazing in your back yard. For many of us, the extent of our contact with a sheep is wearing a wool sweater or eating lamb chops.

But for the people living in Palestine in the first century, sheep and shepherds were apart of everyday life. Many people earned their living tending sheep. Not only that, but Moses and David, two of the greatest leaders in Israel’s history had been shepherds. So the people of Jesus’ day would know that a “shepherd” also means one who guards, protects, and leads. And in fact, here in our gospel text in John 10, the leaders or “shepherds” of Israel - the Pharisees - were listening in as Jesus spoke.

We notice in the beginning of the Gospel text that Jesus makes a distinction between two people - the Good Shepherd and the hired hand. First, we will look at the hired hand. Jesus says in verses 12 and 13: He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

What stands out about the hired hand is that he cares nothing for the sheep. He will collect his paycheck, but when trouble arises, he is out of there. His prime concern is for himself and what he can get out the situation. He thinks, “What’s in it for me?”

When Jesus spoke of these hired hands or “false shepherds”, it may have brought to his hearers’ minds the word of the prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 34, God speaks against the false leaders of Israel. It reads:
“Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? With force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts.”

The false shepherds in Ezekiel are like the hired hands that Jesus speaks of. Their concern is for themselves. They do not take care for the sheep that God has placed in their hands. They have the attitude of “It’s all about me.” They do not see anything but themselves. God has established them as leaders, but they seek their own advantage. The Pharisees - these leaders that Jesus was talking to - would have known that Jesus was speaking about them; giving a word of rebuke to these “spiritual leaders” of Israel.

The hired hand that Jesus spoke of and the Pharisees that Jesus spoke to cared first about themselves. They were more interested in what they could get than what they could give.

Now this is a problem that we all have.

I think of myself way more often than I would like to admit. When I look in the mirror, I see a hired hand that does not care for the things God has placed into my hands: money, time, possessions, thoughts, friends, and family. It is convicting when we think about how we treat what God has placed in our care. We are too often first concerned with ourselves.

Our work is a gift from God. Yet we treat our work as an obligation rather than an opportunity to serve God where he has placed us. What about our “free time?” Even that phrase “free time” implies that time is “mine.” All that we have is a gift from God, yet we continually seek to find what we can gain rather than what we can give. We don’t spend our money wisely. We don’t have minds focused on God. We don’t need to think too long before we realize that we fail in our roles as workers, as students, as sons and daughters, as fathers and mothers. We all seem to resemble the hired hands that Jesus speaks of.

If we truly were just hired hands, we would deserve to suffer the punishment of the shepherd because of our mismanagement. But I have good news for you. We are not hired hands. We are sheep. That may not sound like good news. Yes, a sheep is not the smartest of animals. It is prone to wander. But we are indeed the sheep that Jesus mentions in this gospel lesson and it is wonderful news for this means that we are cared for and provided for, because we are sheep that belong to the Good Shepherd.

We will now look at the other person described by Jesus - this good shepherd that we sheep belong too. The people of Jesus’ day would have known of a true shepherd, a good shepherd. David writes in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” God was seen as a shepherd. And also in the passage in Ezekiel that speaks of the false shepherds, it also speaks of a true shepherd that would come. It says” And I (The Lord) will set up over them one shepherd…and he shall feed them and be their shepherd.

That one shepherd did come, for Jesus says in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd.” This word “good” has the sense of perfect. Not only is Jesus a shepherd but also he is the perfect shepherd. He is good beyond the best thing that we could ever imagine. Unlike the hired hand, Jesus cares for us sheep so much that he laid down his life for us. Instead of receiving judgement for our wanderings, we receive blessings on account of the Good Shepherd. “All we like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Jesus, our Good shepherd, the iniquity of us all.”

When we are tempted to have the “me-first attitude” of a hired hand, think of the sufferings of our Good Shepherd. I paraphrase the following from a section in the book “The Quest for Holiness”: “When you have a bad day or feel sick, think about how small it is compared to the crown of thorns and the nails of Christ. When you are feeling unsatisfied with your responsibilities remember how Christ was bound up and made a prisoner, how he submitted to the will of his oppressors. If you feel pride in your accomplishments, see how our Lord was mocked and ridiculed. If lust attacks you, think about how the flesh of Christ was scourged and pierced. If hatred, envy and revenge come upon you think how Christ with tears in his eyes prayed for you and all his enemies when he could have easily avenged himself.”

We may not know much about sheep and shepherds, but the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for us, knows us and he knows what we need more than we will ever know. We may never be satisfied on our own, but in Christ, we will never be in want. In this life we may be restless and tired, tired of our job, tired of our responsibilities, tired of all the struggles, but Jesus restores our soul. As a shepherd leads his sheep to grass to eat and to water to drink, Christ leads us to His church and gives us his own body to eat and his own blood to drink to restore our souls through the forgiveness of sins.

We have no need to fear, whether a wolf comes to attack or whether we walk through a dark valley and feel death all around us. We cry out to our Good Shepherd. He rescues us from every evil – from sin, from death, from the devil, from our own sinful natures - and he will take us safely from this valley of sorrow to himself in heaven.

How do we know? How are we sure that the Good Shepherd will protect us? Verse 4 of our Hymn of the Day tells us: “In death’s dark vale I fear no ill / With thee, dear Lord, beside me / Thy rod and staff my comfort still / Thy cross before to guide me.”

Jesus did not carry a staff, but a cross as he willingly suffered death for you. In his death, He defeated sin and rescued you from destruction. You are forgiven of all your sins. You are forgiven of our your selfish desires, of all your wandering. The voice of the Good Shepherd comes to you today by the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not just speak to you whatever we desire; we speak to you the Words of the Good Shepherd. You hear His voice through the Words of Absolution - “You are forgiven.” His voice comes to you now through his Holy Scripture and you will hear the Voice of the Good Shepherd as you come to the rail to “take and eat his body” and to “take and drink his blood” for the forgiveness of sins.

We are in the Easter Season and celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, so we know that while the Good Shepherd laid down his life for us sheep, that that is not the end of the story. Jesus says in verses 17 and 18: For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

In Jesus’ resurrection, He conquered death, once and for all. We do not need to fear the valley of the shadow of death for the cross of Christ comforts us. Since our Good Shepherd Jesus has the victory over death, we, his sheep, also have victory and we have the promise that the goodness and mercy of Christ will follow us all the days of our life.

We also have God’s promise of Eternal life with him. We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We are no hired hands, but we are sheep who gladly follow Jesus, our Good Shepherd. We shall never be in want.

I close with the benediction from Hebrews chapter 13:
“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”