Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons

By Religion & Spirituality Christianity

Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons episodes

April 18, 2025 250418 Sermon on how our enemies of sin and death are defeated (Good Friday) April 18, 2025
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
Jesus said, “Whoever would save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me will save it.”
Back home on the farm it was not uncommon for kittens to be
born around this time of year. The momma cats liked the hay mow of our barn.
The old bales of hay and straw provided nooks and crannies for secluded little
dens. We kids liked to find these newborn kittens and tame them. The kittens
were terrified at first. Their fur would be sticking out and their claws
extended, but eventually they would trust you. You could tell when your job was
done when the kitten would start to purr while lying on your lap.
The image I would like to bring to your mind is perhaps one
you’ve experienced. Sometimes these kittens would be a few weeks old before we
would find them. Kittens grow up quickly. These older kittens would want to run
away, but if they couldn’t, they would fight back. They were still quite
helpless, but they wanted you to believe they were far from helpless. They
would puff out their fur, arch their backs, growl, and make that weird spitting
sound with their mouths as they would strike out with their paws.
This was quite intimidating. The kittens were quite
harmless, but they made me think twice. It was 99% bluffing. If the kitten were
facing a real enemy, all this play-acting would be futile. All the enemy would
need to do is snatch the kitten up in its jaws, and that would be the end of
that.
Human beings can be like those bluffing kittens when it
comes to things that are stronger than us. Sin is much stronger than us. I wish
we could always and easily tell sin to take a hike, but sin often gets the
better of us. Our guilt is stronger than us. We accumulated so much guilt by our
evil deeds. The devil is stronger. Death is stronger. We are quite helpless. We
are like kittens.
However, it is not uncommon to think we can somehow defeat
these enemies. If we bristle out our fur, arch our backs, and strike out, maybe
we’ll be left alone. With sin and guilt, for example, the most common strategy
is simply to forget about them. As time passes, the pangs of conscience lessen,
but does forgetfulness really make our sin go away? Does shutting our eyes or
pulling the blanket over our heads make the monster go away?
Another strategy for dealing with sin and guilt is to fight
back. Maybe God’s commandments are old fashioned or impractical. Maybe you
couldn’t live the life that you want to live and still keep God’s commandments.
God wants us to be happy, doesn’t he? “Live and let live” is great advice for a
certain kind of peaceable life. However does this make sin and guilt go away?
Maybe our conscience is soothed for yet another day, but the enemy remains.
The strategies regarding death can be similar. Nothing is
more common than ignoring death. Put it out of mind so that you can more fully
embrace whatever good might be coming your way. This sounds like good advice, and
maybe it has its place, but does it make death go away?
Or maybe instead of taking death seriously we can celebrate life.
Hopefully the person in question is good enough so that we can celebrate. Hopefully
they didn’t commit any gross sins—at least not publicly. Hopefully they were
only guilty of the common and respectable sins that church people commit.
Otherwise it might feel strange to celebrate. But, in any case, what does it
matter? It is all for nothing. Even with all this bragging and story telling the
person remains quite dead. A few short decades later, they will be quite forgotten.
In all our dealings with these forces we are like
defenseless kittens. We do what we can. We put on a show. But nothing can
really be done. It’s all play-acting. It’s all bluffing. Our very real enemies have
us in their jaws whether we make a fuss or not.
I think this might help us better understand a statement of
Jesus’s that can be quite enigmatic otherwise. He said on one occasion: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but however loses
his life on account of me will save it.” We might think that we have no
other choice than to playact and to bluff. We have to cope somehow. But if we
commit ourselves to these strategies for dealing with these very real enemies,
then we will have a very different savior in our minds than Jesus—and what a
pathetic Savior it is too. A kitten pretending to be a tiger? By trying to save
our own life we will lose it.
But what is the alternative? The alternative is to believe
in Jesus. However, this belief will be under the cross. That means we will be
in unfavorable conditions and will suffer loss. As Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but however loses
his life on account of me will save it.” We must lose our life with
Jesus. What does that mean? It means that we allow whatever nasty enemies who
have invaded our comfy little den to bite and devour us, while believing, at
the same time, that they will not be triumphant. Though they do their worst—though
they have me in their jaws—I will prevail because my God is for me and not
against me. God will save me when the time is right even if I should end up in
their gullet, in the belly of a large fish, or in a den of lions.
Let’s apply this to the enemies we’ve already talked about. There
are a lot of ways to cope with sin, but Jesus is the only one way to be victorious.
Repent and believe the good news that Jesus is the Savior of sinners. But even
when we have done this, sin remains a powerful enemy. I wish that we Christians
could become so strong that we could always tell sin to take a hike, but we
aren’t. Seasoned Christians know that the devil has very good aim with his
poisoned arrows. He can find the gap in our armor so that we fall into sin
quite against our will.
Our situation with death is very similar. Try as we might,
we can’t avoid it. This is true for Christians and non-Christians alike. We all
die. The difference with Christians is that we believe Jesus when he says: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me
will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never
die.” The first part of that statement is clear enough. We believe that
even if we should die, yet we will live because we will be resurrected. But
what about the second part when he says, “Whoever lives
and believes in me will never die?” The apostles died. Christians for
two thousand years have died. Did none of those live and believe in him?
No. They were believers. And they didn’t die—not really.
They died in the belief that this slight momentary affliction of death would
last but a little while; salvation comes with the morning. Sometimes the New
Testament calls death a sleep. When we go to sleep at night we do not fall
asleep with horror. We know that the morning is coming. Not only will we wake
up, but we will even feel refreshed and energized. So it is with those who die
with faith in Jesus, the resurrection and the life.
Unfortunately, those who really will die are like foolish
kittens who think that they can save themselves by playacting. They think they
can stave off death or come to terms with it. They think memories or
celebrations can make the person live on in some sense. This posturing and fuss
and bother are as insubstantial as smoke. They don’t know how strong their
enemy is. Imagine the horror the kitten feels when their show doesn’t work, but
they find themselves in the jaws nonetheless. That is death.
I understand perfectly why people do playacting. It can seem
like the only recourse we’ve got. It can seem defeatist to admit anything is
stronger than us. We are told always to fight, and for good reason. We don’t
want to be in those jaws. Playacting is a way to convince ourselves that we
need not be in those jaws. The kitten is desperate not to be picked up because
it doesn’t know what might happen. One thing is sure: it will lose control.
In order to be a Christian we must lose control, so to
speak. We must put ourselves and our futures into the hands of a God who has
told us that he has our best interests in mind even as we are going through
painful or scary circumstances. And this is not like a fairy tale where the
enemy is no more and can no longer hurt us. It will be like that in heaven, but
not until then. The apostles said this plainly. They said, “It is only through many hardships that we will enter the
kingdom of God.” We kittens have many enemies and their teeth are sharp.
However, we have hope! Even if we should die, yet shall we live, and declare
the praises of the Lord.
On Good Friday it is fitting to think about our enemies such
as sin and death, which are more powerful than we are. Good Friday and Easter show
us that Jesus is more powerful than sin and death. However, Jesus saves in a
very special way. He doesn’t ignore sin and death. He doesn’t go around them.
He doesn’t go over them or under them. He goes through them. The jaws clamped
on him, just as they clamp on us. However, what looked like defeat, proved to
be victory.
The same thing is true for us Christians. We cannot get rid
of sin. We cannot avoid death. We go through these things. They bite and gnash
with dreadful effects, but even while they are doing their worst, we believe
that we will be victorious and they will be defeated. Jesus will
see to that.
Jesus said, “Whoever would save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me will save it.”
Amen.

17 min
April 13, 2025 250413 Sermon on Jesus's Peace (Palm Sunday) April 13, 2025
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
When we use the word “peace” we often think of calmness,
tranquility, the lack of fighting. There are different ways to achieve such a
condition. For example, a graveyard is quite peaceful in its own way. Even
though there are many people in close proximity, there is little fighting. There
is also little love, little joy, but there is a kind of stillness and calmness.
Another way calmness can be achieved is through the
establishment of such severe law and order that everyone becomes too scared to
step out of line. Totalitarian governments come up with punishments and displays
of power that intimidate the people they rule over. Almost all of the great
empires of history have used these tactics.
The Roman government, for example, once crushed a slave
revolt and sent a powerful message afterwards. They crucified 6,000 captured slaves
along the Appian Way. For 120 miles one person after another hung there dead on
crosses. The message was clear: Don’t mess with those in power. It worked. People
were frightened. There was a kind of peace.
This is one way you could understand the events of Holy Week
that we have entered into today with Palm Sunday. The Jewish leaders wanted a
kind of peace. Jesus had been disturbing their peace. So they solved a problem.
Jesus had been getting too popular. He had raised Lazarus from the dead. Upon
entering Jerusalem he went to the temple and made quite a scene. He flipped
over tables and let animals loose. The Jewish leaders wanted to know who had
given him such authority.
Jesus was obviously out of control. He needed to be dealt
with. The usual measures of getting dirt on someone wouldn’t work with him. Nor
could they turn the people against him. The people loved him more than they
loved the Jewish leaders. There was only one sensible course to take, and they
took it. They arrested him in the middle of the night. They immediately convicted
him in their kangaroo court. They applied pressure to Pontius Pilate. By the
time the people of Jerusalem were hardly finished with their breakfast Jesus
was already nailed to the cross! It was already too late. Efficiency like that
would make any dictator tip his beret with respect.
For some of us, though, this kind of thing really makes our
blood boil. It was so unjust! The leaders were supposed to be the best of the
people, but in fact they were the worst. They were vain. They were vindictive.
They were cowards. They purposely engaged Jesus in an unfair fight. They didn’t
dispute with him in the open. It was all arranged behind closed doors. Their
dirty deeds were done with the cover of darkness. Some of us might like to take
our clubs and swords and give them a taste of their own medicine.
This might have been how Peter felt. We’ve been studying
Peter in our Adult Bible Study. When the Jewish leaders came to arrest Jesus in
the middle of the night, Peter took out his sword and cut off the right ear of
the high priest’s servant. I can’t help it: a part of me says, “Hurray for
Peter!” At least one of those scoundrels felt a little pain! But that sets me
at odds with Jesus himself.
Perhaps you remember how Jesus rebuked Peter. He told him to
put away his sword. He said, “Shall I not drink the cup
the Father has given me to drink?” He also said, “All who take the sword shall perish by the sword.”
Indeed, that is how it goes. History tells this story over
and over. The story goes like this: The oppressors oppress until those they
oppresse rise up and take away their power. But without fail, those who were
formerly oppressed, when it’s their turn, also oppress whomever they can take
advantage of. They, then, become the target until one day a knife is found
sticking out of their backs. The situation is always unstable because hatred is
just below the surface. Power is maintained only with the utmost vigilance.
Knowing that they hate you, you must strike first, before they strike you. It’s
kill or be killed. “Whoever takes the sword, perishes
by the sword.”
The best peace to be hoped for is the peace of the
graveyard. If all goes well you eliminate your opponents before they eliminate
you. Then you live happily ever after. That was the Jewish leaders’ theory of
peace, and they dealt with Jesus accordingly.
However, this theory did not originate with them. It is much
older. It goes back all the way to the gray mists of the earliest recorded
history. The first human being born in the natural way was named Cain. He had a
brother named Abel. One day Cain became annoyed with his brother Abel. Abel was
disturbing his peace. So Cain bashed his head in, and reestablished the peace.
Problem solved. No more Abel; no more annoyance. He lived happily ever after… Except
he didn’t. Maybe you remember the story. He thought that he would live happily
ever after, but in fact he was haunted for the rest of his life by the dirty
deeds he did in secret. This is some kind of peace, but it leaves much to be
desired.
Is there another kind of peace? Most do not believe so.
Jesus says, “Broad is the gate and easy is the way that
leads to destruction, and many enter thereby. Narrow is the gate and hard is
the way that leads to eternal life, and few there are who find it.” Most
people believe what simply comes naturally to all of us: We will be better off
if we are in control. We will be richer if we take what someone else has. We
will be happier if we eliminate those who annoy us. Kill or be killed. This
world is made up of winners and losers. See to it that you are like the Jewish
leaders, who obviously won, instead of like Jesus, who obviously lost.
But did he? That is the question! This is why the
resurrection is so important. If Jesus rose from the dead, then he was right
and his ways are best. If he did not rise from the dead, then the Jewish
leaders were right. The message would be: Let no scruples get in the way of
your ambitions. If Abel didn’t want to get killed, he should have killed Cain
before Cain killed him. If Jesus didn’t want to get arrested and killed, he
should have dismissed Judas long ago, armed his supporters, and stormed the
chief priest’s palace. The strategy is not hard to understand. Do whatever is
beneficial to you, and don’t do whatever might be beneficial to others.
What is hard to understand and to learn is Jesus’s peace. To
learn Jesus’s peace you have to change your mind, which is what the word
“repent” means. You have to think so differently that the Bible speaks of this
change as being born again, or that we must be crucified with Christ and raised
with him. So much must change that it is beyond our powers. Faith is a miracle
worked by the Holy Spirit. But what comes at the end is worth it. What comes at
the end is peace.
Jesus spoke about this peace in those chapters in John that
we talked about during our midweek series. Jesus said, “In me you have peace. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart:
I have overcome the world.” Again, Jesus said, “Peace
I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to
you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Those
are words of quiet confidence. Although he knows that is death is but hours
away, he is not like a drowning rat, desperate to survive. Jesus said, “You trust in God. Trust also in me.”
Trust in Jesus because his resurrection happened. The
resurrection and judgment that is coming at the end of this world is real too. This
is what all those who live only for their own ambitions deliberately ignore. The
resurrection is coming! When that happens, those who appeared to have won will
lose. Those who appeared to have lost will win. “The
first shall be last, and the last shall be first. There is nothing that is secret
that won’t be revealed, and there is nothing that is hidden that won’t be
exposed.” These are clear teachings of Jesus.
Now if you are like me, then you probably have your own
dirty deeds done in darkness, the exposure of which would bring about intense embarrassment
or perhaps even fear. To you I say, “Do not be afraid so long as your peace is
in Jesus.” Your peace in Jesus will be stronger than your sins. Jesus’s
righteousness speaks louder than our failings.
But don’t go on thinking that your dirty deeds of darkness
will get you ahead in life. They won’t. They harm you; they don’t bless you.
Even if you managed to gain the whole world by unrighteousness, the time would
come when you would regret it—even if you somehow managed to make it into
heaven. Change your mind; change your ways. Light, truth, life, and all other
good things come from Jesus. Repent and believe the good news that Jesus has
overcome the world, and his peace will reign forever and ever!

16 min
February 23, 2025 250223 Sermon on the goodness of God's commands leading us to repentance (Epiphany 7) February 23, 2025
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
Our church is known for holding to certain standards that
other churches may not emphasize as strongly. We take seriously the sixth
commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” This
commandment has many applications. We believe that marriage, as the one-flesh
union instituted by God, is a lifelong covenant between husband and wife. To go
against this is sin. Adultery is sinful. Divorce, when contrary to God’s
design, is sinful. Fornication is sinful. Living together is sinful. We call
for repentance in these areas because unrepentant sin separates us from God,
and we cannot, in good conscience, allow members to continue in sin without
addressing it.
We also teach that same-sex sexual relationships are
contrary to God’s order. Those who experience same-sex attraction are called to
deny themselves, repent, and follow Jesus, just as all of us are called to deny
our sinful desires and follow him. This is not easy, but it is the path of
discipleship.
Additionally, we care deeply about the third commandment:
“We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word,
but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” This is why, in April, our congregational
assembly will vote on a policy requiring members to partake in communion at
least four times a year. If members are absent without explanation or
communication, they will eventually be removed.
These standards may seem strict, but they exist for a good
reason: to help one another get to heaven. If a congregation isn’t focused on
this, it has lost its way. Repentance is essential for true faith. Without it,
we remain alienated from God’s commands and promises.
However, holding firm to these standards can create a
dangerous mentality. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “As long as I
follow these rules, I’m good.” Or what’s worse: “I easily follow these rules, what’s
wrong with them?” I’m good; they’re bad. This is self-righteousness—a deadly
spiritual condition.
This was the Pharisees’ problem in Jesus’s day. They
meticulously followed certain rules—washing their hands a certain way,
observing the Sabbath with extreme care—but they ignored weightier matters like
justice, mercy, and faith. Jesus accused them of “straining
out gnats while swallowing camels.” They were so focused on the things
that they wanted to emphasize—things, by the way, that they were already doing—that
they were unaware of how recklessly they were breaking God’s commandments in
other ways.
Throughout the Gospels it is clear that the Pharisees were
annoyed with Jesus. In the end, they hated him so much that they got him killed.
Why did they hate him so much? It was because he pointed out those things they didn’t
want to have pointed out. He showed them their hypocrisy. They saw themselves
as the “good people,” unlike the “sinners” they looked down upon. They didn’t
fornicate, commit adultery, or skip church. Jesus shattered their self-image. He
showed them that they were just as sinful as those people they loved to despise,
if not more so, because they ignored the deeper commands of God while
pridefully clinging to their own self-righteousness.
We’re no different. None of us like to be told we’re wrong.
If someone criticizes me, my first reaction is defensiveness. I might think, “Well,
you’re not perfect either!” or “I’m not wrong—you are!” It’s rare, to say the
least, to immediately respond with, “You’re right. I was wrong.” Yet, if or when
we should come to that point, it’s exceedingly good for the soul. It’s the
beginning of trying to live in the truth—however painful that might be—instead
of covering our tracks with lies.
This brings us to Jesus’s commands in Gospel reading today.
His words are challenging, even offensive to our natural instincts. I suspect
that there were all kinds of reactions among you. Maybe some of you didn’t hear
his words at all because you were zoned out. Maybe you heard them and thought,
“That sounds weird. I’m not smart enough to understand that.” Maybe you heard
them, and then purposely put them out of mind.
Let me remind you of what Jesus said: “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those
who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you.” When have you had
affection for the one who was trying to make your life miserable? When did you
do something nice to the person who gives you dirty looks?
But we’re not done yet. Unfortunately, it gets much worse—practically
ridiculous: “To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer
the other also, and from one who takes away your outer garment, do not withhold
your inner garment either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who
takes away your goods do not demand them back.”
This is where a person could get upset. How could Jesus make
such awful commands? “Give to everyone who begs?”
Most of those people are crooks and drug addicts! And we are to sit idly by or
even forfeit our goods to scoundrels? Once they’ve taken our stuff, we
shouldn’t demand it back? Let us shunt aside these ridiculous things, lest they
should see the light of day!
And yet, of course, even while I react this way, I’m still
one of the good ones. I go to church, don’t I? The failure to do—the failure to
even try!—Jesus’s commands doesn’t make me a bad person. If he wanted me to
follow them, he should have made better commands!
I don’t think there is any other way to handle these
commands—at least not at first—if we are to really wrestle with them. The easy
way to deal with them is simply to ignore them or somehow explain them away as not
being applicable. But if we are to take Jesus’s commands seriously, I think
they have to make us upset. We really, really don’t want to follow these
commands.
Notice how this puts us in the same position as those people
with whom I started—the people who might be looked down upon. Those who struggle
with God’s commands regarding marriage, divorce, or relationships have their
reasons, just as we have our reasons for resisting Jesus’s call to love our
enemies or give generously. We all pick and choose which commands we follow
based on what feels reasonable or convenient to us.
The ray of hope comes, when, God willing, we start to come
to our senses and think: “God’s commands are not bad, like I originally
thought, but rather good.”
Instead of mocking Jesus’s commands, what if we were to
realize that being merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful is a good thing?
To be faithful to one’s spouse unto death—for better, for worse, for richer,
for poorer, in sickness, and in health—is honorable and sacred. God’s Law is not
bad or foolish. It is holy, righteous, and good. For that very reason it
exposes us as sinners. It exposes our pride, self-centeredness, and unwillingness
to suffer. But this exposure is not meant only to shame us—it’s meant to heal
us. To be exposed as inadequate is painful and embarrassing, but it’s part of
the cure.
John the Baptist and Jesus had a very simple message that is
just as applicable today: “Repent, and believe the Gospel.”
First of all, with “repent,” if you find
yourself resisting God’s commands—whether about marriage, generosity, or loving
your enemies—I encourage you to pause and ask yourself why. What if our
resistance is not because of some defectiveness of the commands, but because of
the hardness of our hearts? What if God is calling us to something deeper,
something more beautiful than we can imagine?
That, indeed, is just what he is doing. He is calling us out
of our hypocrisy, fakery, being judgmental, covering our tracks with lies, so
that we may come into his grace and his truth. When we come to Jesus we don’t
need to pretend to be good people anymore. We can confess our sins, and God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Already in the midst of being
exposed as evil, we can and should fully embrace God’s acceptance of us in
Jesus, knowing that his grace extends on an on. The difficulty—the seeming
impossibility—of keeping God’s commands reveal our need for God’s grace. We
cannot do these things by our own strength or willpower. But we surely will not
do these things if we’ve made up our mind beforehand that we don’t need to do them
or won’t do them.
Believe—have faith—in God’s promise to transform us, not
because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us.
As we repent and believe the Gospel, do not be afraid. Be very courageous! God, who has begun a good work in you, will bring it to
completion on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

17 min
February 09, 2025 250209 Sermon on Peter becoming a disciple of Jesus (Epiphany 5) February 9, 2025
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
Jesus chose twelve men to be his apostles. With about half
of those we hardly know anything more than their names. With the rest, we know
a bit more, but not too much. The Gospels tell us primarily about Jesus, not his
disciples. The disciple we know the most about is Peter, who is also called
Simon. Our Gospel reading tells us more about him.
Our reading begins by telling us about a crowd who was pressing
in on Jesus, eager to hear him. They were so packed together, it was as if they
were laying on him—their interest was that intense! But where was Peter? Not in
the crowd. He was down the shore, cleaning his nets. Why? It wasn’t because he
hated Jesus. The reason might be hinted at later in the reading: he had worked
all night and caught nothing. Fishing was his livelihood—no fish meant no food,
no income, no way to pay the bills. He had to get ready to try again.
Maybe you’ve been there—stuck in a job you don’t like,
grinding through mundane tasks. It’s exhausting. It’s depressing. A person
might wonder how to escape.
One of the most plausible solutions for no longer needing to
work is money. If you get enough money you could retire early. Move to a beach
somewhere. But maybe that goal is out of reach for you. Instead you might just
dream about having a nice little nest egg. If only I had a little more, I would
have to live hand to mouth. These thoughts make sense. Money can do a lot!
Maybe Peter had thoughts like that while he was bending over
his nets, cleaning them out for the millionth time. If only he wouldn’t have to
work so hard. If only he could get ahead.
What is interesting about Peter is that if those were his goals,
then Jesus made them come true, but then Peter left all of that behind. When
Jesus drove the fish into the nets, Peter had never had a bigger catch. The
boats were so full they began to sink. So many fish! So much money! But instead
of celebrating, and instead of investing, he left it all behind. It says, “When they had brought their boats to land, they left
everything and followed Jesus.”
I would like to consider what happened to Peter. Why did he
leave that bonanza behind to follow Jesus? But before we begin to answer that,
I think it is helpful to point out how difficult the answer will be for us to
take seriously. We have been trained since infancy that money and power are the
most important and useful things in life. Therefore we have some commands that
we live by, according to that principle: Do what is best for you. Seek your own
advantage. The more you can get for yourself, the better. These are taken to be
the basic facts of life, and only a fool or a fanatic would live otherwise.
That is probably how most of us took Peter’s actions today when we heard them.
We thought, perhaps unconsciously: “That has nothing to do with me. I am not an
apostle. Peter is some strange sort of person that I am under no obligation to
imitate.” That is not true, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus.
Jesus says in another place, “Whoever
finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will keep
it for eternal life.” This verse is a good way to understand what took
place with Peter. Maybe he had been dreaming about boat-fulls of fish that make
him rich. If he made enough money, maybe he could start a franchise. Then other
people could do all the work, and he could cash all the checks. That’s not what
happened. If Peter had dreams like that, he left them behind for something
better.
But was it better? That is the question. Should you or
should you not be a follower of Jesus? Is it better to deny yourself, to take
up your cross, and follow Jesus, or is it better to indulge yourself, avoid all
trouble and suffering, and chase your own dreams?
When Peter left behind the many thousands of dollars worth
of fish to follow Jesus he was rejecting a way of life that many assume to be
the best life possible. Many assume that there is nothing higher or better than
chasing after your own success. Peter, in contrast, put himself completely in
the hands of Jesus with his kingdom. He became a disciple, which means, “student”
or “follower.”
The life that ensued for Peter wasn’t filled with wealth or prestige,
but God did give him each day his daily bread. God gave him a good conscience
through the forgiveness of sins. He was given the hope of seeing the glory of
God in heaven. On the other hand, Peter faced suffering, embarrassment, and
failure. He wept bitterly, was criticized, imprisoned, and, according to
tradition, crucified upside down.
Was this life better than the self-seeking life he left
behind at the beach? Absolutely! Already it was far more honorable, plus there
is the resurrection from the dead. Let us not discount the importance of the
resurrection. Paul says that were there is no resurrection from the dead, then
we Christians are to be pitied above all people. If there were no resurrection,
then perhaps it would make sense to live in the way that is so common among us,
where the highest goals in life are merely to maximize pleasure and minimize
pain. On the other hand, however, if there is a resurrection from the dead,
then it is foolish not to live under Christ in his kingdom. Otherwise we
will find ourselves to have been on the wrong side.
It is safe to say that we live in a time and among a people
who do not take the resurrection seriously. We are thoroughly earthly minded. Our
culture values profit, growth, and success above everything else. We are taught
to be completely self-obsessed. The mantra most of us live by is: “If it isn’t
good for me, then I’m not doing it.” That is a pathetic and ultimately
unsatisfying way to live.
Jesus’s ways are better. Jesus teaches us to live outside of
ourselves in God. God is righteous and just. He loves life. He cares for the
poor and hurting. He reaches out to people who are regarded as untouchable and
unclean. He is not threatened by bluster and intimidation. He loves what is
right. To be is to enter into this realm of God. What he likes we are to like.
What he hates we are to hate. What he speaks we are to speak. And this is where
disciples get into trouble. There has never been a shortage of people who think
that they can dictate whatever they want to have happen, and they will punish whoever
gets in their way. The disciples of Jesus get in their way, and this causes
trouble.
Peter along with almost all of the other apostles would be put
to death for continuing to testify to Jesus and Jesus’s ways when powerful
people told them to stop. Christians’ willingness to die for the sake of Christ
can be puzzling because people’s default understanding is that this life is
everything. Why needlessly suffer?
But Christians believe in Christ’s kingdom that will result
in the resurrection. That is the glory we must strive after, otherwise it won’t
seem as though the sacrifices are worth it. It is always easier to leave the
devil be, to leave evil alone, to allow this world to rot with all of its
corruption instead of fighting, but that is what you have been called to do.
You have been called to follow Jesus.
Where should you go? You need not go anywhere necessarily. There
is no shortage of evil or corruption all around us. There is a great deal of
evil within us, with our sinful flesh, that we can fight against. Peter could
have been a disciple of Jesus within his livelihood of being a fisherman if
Jesus hadn’t specifically called him to be an apostle. There are temptations
and evil particular to being a fisherman and businessman that Christians are
called to fight against and correct. All of us, no matter what our callings in
life are, have temptations and sins and corruption that are particular to our
situation. It is easy, of course, not to care. You will have fewer troubles if
you only care about yourself. But that is not the point of life.
God revealed the point of life to Peter. It is to follow
Jesus the Christ. He is at work in his kingdom fighting against the devil, the
world, and our own sinful nature. The Holy Spirit is writing God’s Law on the
hearts of Christians. The world is getting ready for the resurrection from the
dead, and we all, as Christians, have our part. We are all members of the body
of Christ. Therefore, this life that we have been called into as followers of
Jesus is not a hobby, or a way to pass the time. Nor is it senseless or
foolish. Nothing is more serious and practical.
Let God’s kingdom come. Let his will be done. Amen.

16 min
January 26, 2025 250126 Sermon on Jesus being believed or rejected (Epiphany 3) January 26, 2025
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript;
I’d like to begin today by setting the scene for our Gospel
reading. It is from Luke chapter 4, so this is towards the beginning of the
story of Jesus. Not long before our reading Jesus was anointed with water and
the Holy Spirit when he was baptized. Then he went out into the wilderness to
be tempted by the devil. With our reading today he has come back to Galilee and
Nazareth, which is his hometown.
Thus our reading today is a report of what was happening
early on. People were just beginning to hear and know about Jesus. This was
because of what Jesus himself was saying and doing. However, Jesus is not
always believed in and accepted. At the end of our reading, the people of
Nazareth wanted to throw him off a cliff.
In the sermon today I’d like to look more closely at Jesus’s
sermon, which was based on a section of Isaiah. We will see how Jesus’s sermon
was applicable to the people at Jesus’s time as well as being applicable to
ourselves. Then I’d like to consider how and why Jesus was rejected. This,
also, I think you will see, is applicable to us.
So, let’s take up the main point of Jesus’s sermon. Here is a
portion of what he read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”
When Jesus was finished reading he said, “Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus was saying that
this prophecy was about him.
Let’s look more closely at this prophecy. It says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” We know that the
Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism. It says,
“Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to
the poor.” This is a good, general statement about what Jesus does. The
word “anointed” is the meaning of the word
“Christ.” Jesus is the anointed one. The reason why he has been anointed is “to proclaim good news to the poor.” “Good news” is the meaning of the word “Gospel.” Thus
we have a couple short statements that well describe Jesus: He is the anointed
one, the Christ. He proclaims the Gospel, good news, to the poor.
Good news is always welcome to the poor. Poverty is a major
hindrance to the enjoyment of life. It prevents people from doing what they
would otherwise like to do. People might not be able to buy what they want
because they are poor. People might be able to go to the doctor because they
are poor. If it gets really bad, people might not be able to buy food. Poverty
is the lack of power to do what you want.
Throughout the Gospels you can read about how Jesus helped
people who didn’t have the resources to help themselves. People came to him who
were in the grips of evil spirits. The evil spirits made them miserable, but
they lacked the power to get them out. People came to Jesus who were sick with
various diseases. If any of you have had diseases that don’t go away, you know
how tiring and frustrating that can be. Helplessness in the face of a disease
that is stronger than you can be very frightening. It might mean the death of
you. Jesus helped people like that.
Let me pause for a moment to point out that Jesus continues
to have good news for the poor. This has not stopped, nor has it been lessened from
the reports of Jesus’s miracles that we hear about in the Gospels. A lot of
people assume that since miracles like that aren’t very common, Jesus must no
longer be at work, or that his work is strictly spiritual and therefore
somewhat unreal. The truth is that Jesus’s work after the resurrection is
stronger and more profound than anything he did before. The works Jesus does
and will do are greater.
Let me give you a few examples. Jesus forgives sins. Maybe
you have grown cold to that idea, but maybe I can refresh it for you by a
simple question: What are you able to do to make up for the evil you have done?
There’s nothing. You are powerless. You are poor. The good news that is
proclaimed to the poor is that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.
Or how about those diseases? How about that progressive
onset of death that we call getting old? How about death itself? What can you
do in the face of these things? Our options are severely limited, even with all
our medical advances. The good news is that by his death Jesus defeated the
power of death, and by his resurrection he opened the kingdom of heaven to all
believers.
Let me give you one more healing that I am especially
looking forward to. What can be done with our evil minds and souls? What can be
done with our anger? What can be done with our dirty minds, our coveting, meanness,
sadness, apathy, coldness towards life, and a host of other evils? We are
bombarded with commercials for various drugs, some of which might help
somewhat, but they can’t ever get to the core. The resurrection means healing
not only for our bodies, but also our minds and souls. Believing in Jesus is
trusting him to do things that otherwise seem impossible.
So, to get back to our text: After he finished reading from
Isaiah Jesus said, “I’m the fulfillment of what you heard. I preach good news
to the poor. I set people free from unbreakable chains.” And, as it turns out,
the people were quite receptive. “How interesting!” they said. “He speaks so
well! Maybe I’ll sign up for his newsletter. It’s especially surprising since one
of our own. He’s Joseph’s son, is he not?”
This is the point at which everything changed in the story.
The change is so abrupt that it’s easy to miss. Everything was going fine, the
people were enjoying Jesus, but then Jesus said some more stuff and they were
no longer pleased. They started to push and shove him towards the brow of a
cliff. What happened?
It's Jesus’s fault really. Jesus turned on them. After they started
talking about him as the mere son of Joseph, Jesus knew that they would
eventually be dissatisfied with him, and he told them so. Others—foreigners—would
believe in him, but they would be left out in the cold. He brought up a couple
Old Testament examples with the prophets Elijah and Elisha through whom God did
miracles to foreigners, but not to his own people. This was what upset his
hearers in his hometown. If he would have just left them be with their lukewarm
admiration, they wouldn’t have had such a violent reaction—at least not at that
point. Jesus got pushy, and they didn’t like that.
This is not uncommon. There are several examples in the
Bible where people responded to the Gospel by saying, “How interesting. I would
not be opposed to hearing more about that in the future.” However, the message
that Jesus preaches is not just a pleasant way to pass the time or to be part
of a community. Jesus’s message is “Repent, and believe
the Gospel.” Another way of saying the same thing is: “Change your ways,
change your mind, believe the good news that Jesus preaches to the powerless
poor.” That is an all or nothing proposition. Either you will change your mind
or you won’t. Either Jesus will have all of you, or you will reject him.
Jesus speaks this way in other places as well. It always
make us nervous, because we are afraid to commit completely and totally. So,
for example, Jesus says: “Whoever loves father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me
is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his
life for my sake will find it.” That is being “all in” on Jesus. It is
difficult and scary, but it makes sense if you think about it.
Jesus is the difference between total bliss and freedom on
the one hand or total sadness and imprisonment on the other. Either Jesus sets
you from all your enemies—even those that you thought were impossible to
overcome. Or you are still stuck—powerless and impoverished—in the face of
things much mightier than you. It makes sense that this must be an all or
nothing kind of thing.
Jesus is not like an insurance policy that you stick in the
filing cabinet until you have to use it. Jesus is Christ the king who is at
work with the Gospel and sacraments. He is converting one soul at a time by the
power of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of his kingdom is to destroy all the evil
works of the devil. You don’t fight wars with insurance policies. Wars involve
total commitment.
The people at Nazareth refused to be completely serious
about Jesus. They thought he was interesting. They thought he was a good
speaker. They would have told you that they were on his side! But they quit
being on his side when he told them that their lukewarm approval wouldn’t cut
it. Eventually their lukewarm approval would turn to criticism, because then it
is only a matter of time before Jesus says or does something that doesn’t meet
their complete approval.
It is easy to apply this to ourselves. We are not unlike
those Nazarenes! None of us, including myself, are comfortable “losing our lives” as Jesus puts it. None of us are as
eager as we should be to take up our cross and follow him. It is much easier to
believe that merely being a fan of Jesus is good enough. And, if you think
about it, how convenient! We can feel good about being a fan without having to
live as a soldier of the cross, denying ourselves.
But this fakery only makes sense if there is no real war
going on. There is a war. Jesus is our king. He is fighting against the devil
and all evil, including the evil that is found in us, his Christians. The
nature of the situation requires us always to repent and believe the Gospel. Repent
and go “all in” with Jesus. You will not be disappointed!

18 min
January 12, 2025 250112 Sermon against cynicism for Christ's kingdom (The Baptism of our Lord) January 12, 2025
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
Donald J. Trump will begin his term as president at noon,
January 20th. Have you been planning for what will happen January 21st?
Have you been making lists, getting everything ready, rehearsing what you will
do for the day after the inauguration? Probably not. I haven’t either. I don’t
think a lot will change with our new president. It isn’t really about him. I’m
cynical about what elected officials can do in general. The people who hold the
reins of power—the people who are massively wealthy, who can write the checks—won’t
let too much change, unless it is to their own benefit. Things will probably
keep going on like they have for a long time. I am not expecting any massive
changes.
What about Christ’s kingdom? Is our attitude the same there
as well? Our festival today is somewhat like Jesus’s inauguration as the
Christ. Jesus’s baptism marks the beginning of his great words and deeds that
are recorded in the Gospels. Immediately after his baptism Jesus was very busy.
He was tempted by the devil, swamped by sick and demon possessed people,
teaching in the synagogues, doing one miracle after another. Things looked like
they were changing for the better, but then Jesus was arrested, crucified and
died. That was when the cynicism began in earnest. Folks had wondered whether
Jesus might have been the Christ, but he couldn’t have been since he died.
That was the end of the road for the vast number of people
who had once believed in Jesus. At one point there had been many thousands who
were interested in Jesus being made king by force, but any hope of that was
gone when everyone could see him hanging dead on the cross.
Even after Easter the picture didn’t improve very much as
far as the disciples were concerned. John chapter 21 seems to indicate that the
disciples went back to their old livelihood of fishing. Acts chapter 1 tells us
that the number of believers in Jerusalem was only about 120. That is a far cry
from many thousands. Even with the great day of Pentecost, when 3,000 repented
and were baptized—that was less than the feeding of the 5,000, or the feeding
of the 4,000.
Cynicism is a way to protect yourself from being
disappointed. Cynicism is when you don’t get your hopes up. Having your hopes
dashed is painful. The higher the hopes, the more intense the desire, the worse
the pain. To prevent getting hurt you can check yourself out. Things will stay
the same. Why bother? Just go gentle into that good night.
This is a way to insulate yourself from pain. Disappointments
will not hit you as sharply. But there is a terrible cost. With cynicism things
will, at best, stay the same, but more likely get worse. If you won’t get
involved, if you won’t change your ways, if you won’t hope for change, then
nothing is going to change. It is forfeiting to the powers that be.
This defeatist attitude is disastrous in all areas of life,
but it is especially devastating for faith in Christ’s kingdom. If we would not
have hope in Christ, then we are left with how things are. Paul calls these the
elementary principles of this world, to which we are enslaved. We are enslaved
to the devil. We are enslaved to our desires. We are enslaved to pursuing mere
self-interest. Our chains have been put on by ourselves, which are our fears
and insecurities, our dread of pain and suffering.
How differently the bible speaks about Christ’s kingdom! Paul
says: “For freedom Christ has set you free!” The
Gospels speak of Christ “proclaiming liberty to the prisoners!”
And indeed, Jesus set people free from all kinds of disabilities and ailments
in the Gospels. The people loved that! We slaves love to get a little taste of
freedom. But a lot of people thought that that kind of thing was over and done
with when Jesus died, and even when he rose. The risen and ascended Christ
remains at work in his kingdom, but a lot of people would like it better if he
would do those old sorts of things that helped people along in their pursuit of
their own self-interest.
But here is what we should realize: the work of Christ in
his kingdom is not less after his death and resurrection, it is more. The work
of Christ with his death and his resurrection, the baptism with which he
baptizes, and the body and blood that he distributes is more. It’s deeper. It
gets to the root. The root is evil itself, and Jesus reverses it. The seemingly
invincible powers of sin, death, profit, power, and all the rest are not
invincible. Jesus promises a reckoning for the powers that be who so often oppress
and steal and murder and seemingly get away with it. They will be burned with
an unquenchable fire. Everything will be turned upside down. The first will be
last and the last will be first. John baptized with water; Jesus baptizes with
the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Whatever hopes we might have about Christ’s kingdom, they
are inevitably inadequate. You want to be healed of an ailment, a defect, old
age, and son. You want to be the man that you should be. You want to be the
woman that you should be. “For freedom Christ has set
you free!” These things and more are yours. If they are not already
fixed somewhat in this life by the healing work of the Holy Spirit, then they
will be completely fixed by the resurrection. The goodness of the resurrection
is more than we can imagine. Paul says, “No eye has
seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of the heart of
man what God has prepared for those who love him.” Even if you try to
imagine what Jesus’s kingdom will be like, you’re going to fall short. What
comes to pass will be greater.
Cynicism, therefore, is incompatible with Christianity.
Cynicism is managing your hopes so that you won’t get hurt when they inevitably
don’t come to pass. If you are managing your hopes for Christ’s kingdom, you
are simply being an unbeliever. If you believe that Jesus can’t or won’t help
you, then you are an unbeliever.
Unbelief is by no means uncommon, even among those who would
like to consider themselves to be Jesus’s disciples. We see that all the time
in the Bible. We see that in particular with the Gospels’ accounts of the
resurrection. Even the closest of Jesus’s disciples lost their faith when Jesus
died, and they were slow to believe after the resurrection. They were flesh and
blood, just like us, with all our hiccups and insecurities. However, we cannot
let our doubts and insecurities interfere with what is plainly testified.
Jesus’s kingdom is glorious, even if we lack the faith to believe.
Jesus’s kingdom is glorious among us. Let us not doubt that
either. Whenever anyone comes to believe that the seemingly invincible powers
are not invincible because Jesus is greater—that is a miracle worked by the
Holy Spirit. Whenever anyone remains in the faith—that is an ongoing miracle of
the Holy Spirit. These believers will one day be caught up together with the
Lord in the clouds for an adventure that is too great for words to describe.
It does not please me, therefore, when I hear something that
is quite common among us. It is quite common for people to comment on how large
or small a gathering is—and usually it is how much smaller the gathering is
these days. This strikes me as largely missing the point. It would like the
people in Jesus’s day who could have scoffed at the smaller number who gathered
after the resurrection. I could imagine that some of them must have said: “Do
you remember how many people there were at the feeding of the five thousand or
the four thousand? The attendance these days is greatly reduced.”
Christ’s kingdom is not about crowds or impressing those who
have the ability to count. Christ’s kingdom is about setting people free and changing
hearts and minds. This is always an individual affair. Each individual either
remains enslaved in their unbelief or they are set free through faith in Jesus.
Whenever a sinner repents, the angels rejoice, and we should too. The kingdom
of God remains at work. It is glorious, but the glory is only apparent to those
who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.
So as we consider the inauguration, so to speak, of Christ’s
kingdom with Jesus’s baptism, we should cast away cynical thoughts. Cynicism is
not very attractive or useful in general, but it is particularly inappropriate
when it comes to Christ’s kingdom. Our problem is not that we have too low of thoughts
and hopes and dreams. Our problem is that we do not think as grandly as we must
if we are beginning to understand Christ’s kingdom. We are too earthly minded.
Therefore, I’d like to close with a passage that speaks to
this. In Colossians chapter three Paul says: “If you
have been raised with Christ, then seek the things that are above, where Christ
is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above,
not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden
with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.”
When Christ appears, you will appear with him in glory. That
is more than enough for anyone who is hungry for that which is good.

17 min
January 03, 2025 241231 Sermon for New Year's Eve
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
I have been a pastor for many years now, but this is the
first New Year’s Eve service I have ever preached for. In Iowa neither of my
congregations had services on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. If memory
serves, I attended a New Year’s Eve service when I was a kid. However, my
childhood congregation more often had New Year’s Day services. New Year’s Day
is eight days after Christmas, which means that the focus is on the
circumcision and naming of Jesus.
So tonight is the first time I’ve every preached for a New
Year’s Eve service. As I considered the texts that you heard tonight, I was
struck by how differently the Bible teaches compared to what is customary with
the New Year. For example, New Year’s Eve is a well-known party night. A lot of
people get drunk on New Year’s Eve.
Jesus says in our Gospel reading: “Stay
dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting
for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the
door to him at once when he comes and knocks.” Imagine Jesus coming to
find people soddenly drunk. How can they open the door when he knocks? Losing
yourself in food, drink, drugs, and other pleasures is an agreeable way to pass
the time. It’s not nonsensical. It’s a way to cope, to forget the troubles of
life, and to receive some comfort. It’s understandable, but how differently our
Lord Jesus speaks in our reading tonight!
Another thing we associate with the New Year are New Year’s
resolutions. It’s a time to set goals, make plans, and fix what we don’t like. If
we believe in ourselves and don’t give up, we can achieve our dreams.
Compare this to our Old Testament reading. God says to his
people: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in
quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” We do not naturally
believe that returning and resting will do anything good for us. We do not
believe that quietness and trust are our strength. We believe in ourselves. All
that’s needed is to be sufficiently motivated. If only we could stay
sufficiently motivated, then all our New Year’s dreams would come true, and we
would be outstanding.
All of our readings tonight would have us look to someone
else besides what we customarily look to for betterment. How can 2025 be better
than 2024? Our readings encourage us to believe more firmly in God.
This has to do with the first table of the Law, the first
three of the Ten Commandments. You should have no other gods. You should fear,
love, and trust in God above all other things. You should not believe in other
things, no matter how useful those other things might appear to be.
The second commandment is that you should not misuse the
name of the Lord your God. Instead of misusing God’s name, you should use it
well. God’s name is used well by calling upon it in every trouble, praying,
praising, and giving thanks. But in order for anyone to use God’s name rightly,
that person must believe that it will work. The reason why we do not pray like
we should is because we do not believe like we should. We do not worship God
the way we should is because we do not believe in him the way we should. Unfortunately,
we believe that we can be better blessed spending our time and energy pursuing
other things.
So how can we believe in God more firmly? There is only one
way to do that. We must hear the Word of God that tells us about him. The Word
of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is living and active. It produces
faith. Therefore, as the catechism teaches about the third commandment, we
should not despise God’s Word, or assume that we already know it sufficiently
well. If that were true—if you knew it well enough already—then your prayers
would be much more fervent than they are currently. We should gladly hear and
learn God’s Word so that we know God better, so that we believe in him more
confidently, and so that we can better speak to him with our prayers and
praises.
The first three of the Ten Commandments have to do with our
spiritual health. God spoke these commandments for our good, for our benefit. It
is good for us to believe in God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind,
because he is the only God. The other things that we treat like gods will
disappoint us in the end, even if, in the meantime, we manage to get some
pleasure or comfort from them.
We should be prepared, not just for 2025, not just for some
small, momentary, change in our fortunes, but for meeting our Maker. We’ve made
it to the end of 2024. What if 2025 is the last year in which we will live?
What if 2025 is the year that gets chiseled onto our gravestone? What if 2025
is the year that Jesus comes back? Jesus said in our reading: “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
We must be prepared to meet to God.
To meet God well there is no substitute for believing what
he has said. If you managed to climb all the mountains of the world,
accumulated all the wealth, all the knowledge—whatever you could possibly
accomplish—none of that can ever do what taking to heart what God has said will
do.
And the good news is that what God has said is good. He has revealed
that he is for us, and not against us. Paul says in our epistle reading, “If God is for us, then who can be against us? He who did not
spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things?”
Paul is using sound logic. God is for you. How do you know
that? Because you are so awesome, cool, healthy, and what not? No. You know
that because he gave his Son, Jesus, to be your Savior. God’s good will towards
you doesn’t depend on you. He is the one who acts. He is the one who saves. God’s
Word teaches that your confidence should be completely in him. Even if you
should end up with troubles, poverty, shame, or danger, Jesus remains the
Savior. Even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, your Good
Shepherd is with you. He will take you where you need to go.
In conclusion, God’s Word gives us the opportunity to
reorient ourselves. Instead of looking for happiness in any number of things,
look to God instead. There is nothing like God. There is no help like God’s
help. Listen to what his Word says. Believe in him. Call upon his name with
your prayers and praises.
Then you are dressed for action, ready for your master to
come home from the wedding feast.

12 min
December 25, 2024 241225 Sermon on Jesus, the light, scattering the darkness (Christmas Day) December 25, 2024
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
Jesus Christ is the light of the world, the light no
darkness can overcome. In our reading John puts it this way: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Again,
Jesus is spoken of this way: “The true light, which
enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Here comes Jesus. Here
comes the light.
One of the simple statements that the apostles use to
describe a Christian is that a Christian has moved from darkness to the light.
Peter encourages us to “proclaim the excellencies of God
who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Paul says,
“You formerly were of the darkness, but now you are
light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found
in all that is good and right and true.”
If the fruit of light is in everything that is good and
right and true, then the deeds of darkness must be bad and wrong and false. An
example of that was when Jesus was betrayed and arrested. One of the 12 did it.
Judas had already been operating in the dark for some time. He kept the money
for their little group, and he had been helping himself. He struck a deal with
the chief priests and elders. He would lead them to Jesus so that they could
arrest him, nice and quiet-like, when there was no one else around. Judas used
an amazing sign. He would kiss Jesus when he greeted him. Then the soldier
would know who to arrest.
Judas, with a band of soldiers and Jewish officials, came to
Jesus either very late on Maundy Thursday, or, more likely, in the very early
morning hours of Good Friday. He said, “Greetings
teacher!” and he kissed Jesus, but Jesus said to him, “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” Then
Jesus asked the officials and soldiers: “Why do you
come out against me with clubs and swords? I have always been public with my
teaching, and yet you didn’t seize me when I was out in the open.” Then
Jesus said, “But this is your hour, and the power or authority
of darkness.”
What happened there was bad and wrong and false. Jesus was
betrayed by his friend. Jesus was rounded up in the middle of the night, when
the multitudes of people who loved him were asleep. Jesus’s enemies didn’t care
whether what they were doing was honorable or not. They just wanted to win.
Darkness has its advantages. If you want to impose your will
without anyone getting in the way, then operating in secrecy and darkness is
the way to go. Jesus was arrested when most people were still sleeping, and already
by nine o’clock in the morning he was nailed to the cross. The powers that be
engineered the whole thing so that it would be over before it even began.
Everyone, including the disciples, thought that it was a done deal. The
authorities had used darkness, yet again, and carried the day.
Paul characterizes the time that we live in as being a time
of darkness. The story of history has largely been a story of darkness. One
fellow gets the better of another fellow. Now he’s king. But today kings don’t
hold the power anymore. The people who hold the power today are in business. By
and large, the story of business is darkness too. Somebody figures out some
clever way to get more from his employees or more from his customers or he
sabotages his competitors. Then he uses his ill-gotten gains to buy off politicians
who will pass laws that will further his empire. The rule he follows is always
the same: He wants more for himself and less for others.
We are largely powerless against these powers and
authorities. Never before have human beings had such ready access to
information with the Internet and all, but who can know what is true and not
true? There is information, disinformation, misinformation. The darkness is bad
enough already, but it is only made worse when false lights and false christs come
along and say, “Trust us. We’ll fix everything for you.”
Jesus Christ is the light of the world; the light no
darkness can overcome. Jesus has come for judgement. Jesus says, “This is the judgement: The light has come into the world, and
men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For
everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light,
otherwise he would be convicted of his evil deeds. But whoever does what is
true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have
been worked in God.”
Here is the choice: The light or the darkness. Do you want
God to prevail in Jesus Christ or do you want to do what you want to do under
the cover of darkness? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but doing
whatever we want is awfully enticing. It’s how we first learned to lie and
operate in the darkness. If you good enough at that kind of thing, nobody else needs
to know the truth. When the light comes, you can’t hide anymore. You’ll be
convicted. You’ll lose the shiny, white façade and be revealed as a sinner.
That’s how it is, strangely enough, for those who have been
converted. Those who believe in Christ, who believe in the light, are exposed
by that very same light as being evil. Christians should not hide their sins.
That’s the old strategy of fig leaves and bushes from the Garden of Eden that
won’t get you very far with God. Instead we should plead guilty before God like
we do when we confess our sins:
I am a poor, miserable sinner. I have sinned with my mind, by
the words I have spoken, and by the deeds that I have done. I deserve God’s
temporal and eternal punishment. That is what the light reveals about me.
But the light is not merely like a searchlight or an
interrogation light. It does not solely expose what is hidden or evil and to do
nothing more about it. The light of Christ exposes, but it also heals and
forgives. It obliterates the darkness so that it is no more. We are transferred
from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Jesus came to seek and
save the lost.
Jesus says as much in the same section that I quoted from
earlier. He says: “God loved the world in this way,
that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned.”
God has sent his Son. He is the light. This light will save those
who are in darkness, but we cannot remain in darkness. If we prefer the
darkness to the light, then we are on the wrong side. Jesus heals. He’s also
coming to judge. The powers that be in this present age of darkness believe
that they are on top of the world. They believe that they can do anything they
want whether their actions be honorable or dishonorable. But their time is
limited. They better hope that they can live long lives, because that is all
the good times they will have.
What is much more prudent is to embrace Jesus, the light and
life of men, who has come into the world. As Paul encourages us, we should cast
away the works of darkness. Whatever is bad, wrong, and false will not help us
in the long run. Grace, mercy, and truth come from Christ. They radiate out
from him like light from its source. You have something better with Jesus. Jesus
will win. The light will scatter the darkness.
15 min
December 22, 2024 241222 Sermon on why Elizabeth and Mary are happy (Advent 4) December 22, 2024
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
Our Gospel reading is appropriate as we approach the
celebration of the birth of Jesus. Our Gospel reading describes something that
happened not long before Jesus was born. Mary, Jesus’s mother, visited her
relative, Elizabeth. Both Mary and Elizabeth were pregnant with very special babies.
Mary had been visited by the angel Gabriel who told her that she would conceive
and bear a son. She was to name him Jesus because he would be the Savior.
Elizabeth’s pregnancy was also unusual. Elizabeth and her
husband Zechariah were old and had not been given any children. Zechariah had
also been visited by Gabriel who told him that he and his wife would conceive
in their old age. The child was to be named John. Zechariah and Elizabeth did
conceive about six months before Gabriel went to Mary.
So in our reading today Mary was pregnant with Jesus and
Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist. Luke says that Elizabeth was
filled with the Holy Spirit. She is filled with joy, and she speaks several
blessings. She blesses Mary: “Blessed are you among women.” She blesses Jesus: “Blessed is the fruit of Mary’s womb.” She blesses
herself. She rhetorically asks: “Why is this granted to
me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Her thoughts turn to
her son. She comments on how her baby leaped for joy at Mary’s greeting.
Finally, Elizabeth blesses Mary for her faith. Perhaps
Elizabeth’s thoughts turned to what it might have been like when Mary heard
Gabriel’s message. Elizabeth said, “Blessed is she who
believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the
Lord.” Not every woman would believe that she could conceive while
remaining a virgin simply because the Lord said so. Mary did. She said to God:
“Let it be done to me according to your Word.”
Elizabeth moves from one blessing to the next. Everyone is blessed.
All are exceedingly happy. What I’d like to consider today is why they are so
happy. I’d also like to pay attention to our own happiness. Happiness is
important to us. We all would like to be happy. So, in fact, before we consider
what makes these women happy, I think it would be beneficial first to consider
what makes us happy. We can then be on the lookout for what might be different
with these women.
There are a lot of things that can make us happy. Hunger
being satisfied with food makes us happy; thirst, with drink. We have many
desires and needs. We want and need affection, comfort, entertainment. We like
to be right. We like to be the best. We like making progress. Getting richer is
better than getting poorer. Getting stronger is better than getting weaker. There
are so many ways to be happy, and we like them all. The more, the better; the
more, the happier.
Now let’s consider these women’s happiness. What makes them
happy doesn’t exactly fit the pattern we’ve sketched out. They aren’t getting
stronger, richer, better. Elizabeth’s life didn’t get easier with her pregnancy
in old age. Mary’s life was thrown into turmoil to a much greater degree. Mary
became pregnant when she wasn’t married. Everyone would have assumed that the
pregnancy was the result of fornication. Joseph, her fiancé, had no other
choice but to assume that she had been unfaithful. An angel had to intervene to
tell him otherwise. Mary would have had a hard time of it because most would
not believe what sounds like a far-fetched story—that Mary was pregnant with
the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Consider, additionally, the several clues about Mary and
Joseph’s poverty and powerlessness. When they came to Bethlehem they couldn’t
get a room. If they had more money, they could have compelled someone to
provide for them. Later, when the sacrifices were made in the Temple, the
cheaper option of two pigeons was offered instead of the more expensive lamb. These
clues indicate that Mary and Joseph were poor. The baby was born into poverty: “No crib for a bed” to lay
down his sweet head.
If we place ourselves into Mary’s shoes, we can see how she
lacked things that we regard as essential for happiness. So how can she be
happy? How can Elizabeth be happy for her when trouble is on every side? She
even makes the audacious claim that Mary is blessed over and above all others.
The only explanation is that they were focused on things that aren’t often
looked to for happiness. We might sum up all that they were feeling by saying: They
were happy because the kingdom of God was coming upon the earth.
What is the kingdom of God, and why is it a good thing? We
can’t hardly talk about a kingdom without talking about the king. Something you
might keep an ear open for the next couple days is how often Christmas carols
will sing about Jesus being the king, or the Lord: “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” Or: “Come and worship, come and
worship, worship Christ, the newborn king.” The good news of great joy that
is for all people is, as the angel declared on Christmas night, that unto us a
Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord.
The work of Christ the King in his kingdom is made plain in
the Gospels. Jesus did several things. He taught the Word of God that has always
been calling people away from evil, away from the devil, towards that which is
good and true—life giving and life protecting. Jesus taught people to believe
in the only true God instead of the various false gods. Jesus acted with power,
performing miracles. His many cleansings, healings, and restorations to life were
a foreshadowing of the greater work he will do when he resurrects the dead.
Over and above all these things, but also at the very root
of them, Jesus suffered and died. As our epistle reading mentions, he offered
his body once for all. My favorite line of all the Christmas carols is the one
where it says: “Nails, spear
shall piece him through. The cross be borne for me, for you. Hail, hail the
Word made flesh, the babe, the Son of Mary.” The king sacrificed himself.
The result is forgiveness, righteousness, and life for everyone.
So if we return to the happiness and joy of Elizabeth and
Mary, we can see that it is outside of them. The kingdom of God is coming. Happiness
depends on the king, not on themselves. So long as their faith in this king
doesn’t fail, nothing can take their happiness away. Whatever sadnesses might
come, they cannot undo the march of progress the kingdom of God will make.
You can see this in both their lives. Both Elizabeth’s and
Mary’s unborn baby boys would eventually be killed at the hands of evil men. Simeon
prophesied to Mary in the temple: “A sword will pass
through your heart.” Mary mourned at the death of her Son, but God will
turn all mourning into gladness. Jesus died, but then he rose. Then his kingdom
only entered a new phase, the song swelled to an even higher pitch. Joy will
grow, even if, in the meantime, we pass through the valley of the shadow of
death.
This joy is available to each and every one of you. All that
is needed is to be like Elizabeth and Mary: Believe in Jesus’s kingdom. To
believe is not some great challenge or a puzzle you have to figure out. It is
only a matter of believing the testimony that is given about Jesus, and testimonies
abound! Elizabeth gave her testimony in our reading. The angel gave his
testimony on Christmas night. The apostles, evangelists, prophets,
prophetesses, deacons, and deaconesses all gave their testimony, and they all
say the same thing: Jesus Christ is Lord. He does all things well. He sets all
things right.
This is good news, which comes to us from the outside. It does
not place any demands upon us. It does not require any preparation. Think of
all those people in the Gospels whom Jesus helped. Did the blind man have to
start improving himself before Jesus would give him sight? No. The blind man
remained as blind as a bat. The deaf man remained as deaf as a stone, until
Jesus made them otherwise. The only thing that happened to them prior to their
healings was that they were given hope in Jesus the king by the good news that
was told them.
The same thing is true for us today. We have problems. We
might have a bad reputation. We might be poor. We might be blind, deaf, lame,
demon possessed. Believe in Jesus.
And let’s apply this to sin. One of the most frustrating parts
about being a Christian is that we end up falling into sin, even though we really
don’t want to—or at least a part of us doesn’t want to. What do we do with
that? We almost can’t help thinking that we must clean ourselves up in order to
become acceptable before God. That seems right. To do otherwise can make it
seem as though sin doesn’t matter. We have to take our sin very seriously.
These are not altogether bad thoughts, but they can make us
lose sight of the one thing that makes all the difference—the one thing that
makes us happy with a happiness that no one can take away: Jesus is the king.
He saves sinners. He baptizes you, you don’t baptize yourself. He forgives you,
you don’t forgive yourself. The kingdom of God is on a roll with the preaching
of the Word that Jesus is the Savior. What is asked of us is not a great
burden: Stick with the king. Listen to his Word. Jesus will do everything he
has promised. Jesus is going to win.
So you, like Elizabeth and Mary, may fully embrace the
goodness of the kingdom of God that made them so happy that blessings were
flying all over the place. The kingdom of God is the best, because Jesus is the
best. No matter what is going on, no matter how disappointed you might be in yourself
or in others, Jesus Christ is Lord.
“Come
Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free.” Amen.

17 min
December 15, 2024 241215 Sermon on our reluctance to hate sin (Advent 3) December 15, 2024
Audio recording
Sermon manuscript:
I remember being very distressed by splinters when I was a
kid. Splinters are not terribly serious. You won’t die from having a splinter. They
do cause a bit of discomfort, but what’s far worse, is that the splinter has to
come out. To get the splinter out, the finger must be turned over to an adult.
What might the adult do? Armed with a needle or tweezers, the adult must dig
around in there until the splinter comes out. I remember asking, “Can’t we just
leave the splinter in there?” I didn’t like how the splinter ached, but I more disliked
the much sharper pain involved with getting it out.
I think this is helpful for what can happen to us
spiritually. Just as it is by no means unusual that a kid gets a splinter while
playing, it is very common to fall into sin. Just as a kid regrets doing what
he was doing whereby he got the splinter, so also a person can regret having
sinned. The advantage or the pleasure of the sin soon passes, and we are left
with a dull ache. We’ve disappointed ourselves. We thought that we were better
than that. Maybe we’d promised ourselves, “Never again!” and now look at what
we’ve done. What a shame.
But besides that dull ache of disappointment, the splinter
of sin doesn’t hurt too badly. It’s nothing compared to the much sharper pain of
being caught. That is very embarrassing. So our natural reaction is to try to
manage sin on our own. We’ll cover it up. We’ll lie about it if we have to. Eventually,
with the passage of enough time, we’ll forget about it—and that’s a relief. If
we manage to pass though this experience without too much pain, we might draw
the conclusion that our sins didn’t harm us. We got a splinter, but—like we so
hoped for when we were children—it didn’t need to come out. It seemed to have
gone away on its own.
With splinters we can easily see the childishness of
believing that it will just go away on its own. The splinter will cause
infection. The poison of infection will spread. The more time passes, the worse
it will get. The splinter must come out.
We are not as good at seeing how childish it is to believe
that sins won’t harm us. Just as a splinter inevitably has an effect on the
health of a finger, so also sins have an effect on the soul. Think back to the
sins that you committed even when you were a little kid—3, 4, 5 years old. Sins
darken the mind. They create a habit of lying. Already at a young age we can
easily draw the conclusion that sins will not harm us so long as we do not get
caught.
But sins are nasty and ugly, full of puss and consequences.
Unlike splinters, which only affect the person who has them, sins affect
others. One person’s nastiness draws out the nastiness of another. The bible
shows that sin affects the whole community. The entire people of Israel needed
to be cleansed when only a portion had sinned. Therefore we should not be so
nonchalant to think that sins cannot affect a congregation, a classroom, a
workplace, a family, or a couple. Sins are no child’s play.
However, a very powerful spiritual force fights against this
understanding of sin. It is far worse enemy of Christianity than evolution or
wokeism or whatever other boogeymen Christians might fear. This spiritual force
does everything within its power to lull people to sleep with gentle phrases
about the harmlessness of sin. It says, for example, “All this fuss and bother
about sin is counterproductive. If we want the church to grow we must focus on
other things! What’s the use of sticking with old fashioned morals when even the
old fashioned couldn’t keep them? Or Jesus’s commands: aren’t they unreasonable?
Show me one person who forgives, who gives, who is without anger or lust.”
And maybe I haven’t quite caught the tune that would make
you shut your eyes to the seriousness of sins, but I know that tune is out
there, because we human beings all have the same basic hope. Somewhere in all
of us is the hope that our sins won’t matter. Our sins aren’t deadly. We can
manage them without any great change. There is no need to go through the sharp
pain of repenting them. Just leave them be and hope for the best.
When people believe that sins do not matter, that they do
not cause much harm, then the devil has won. This is exactly how the devil
wants us to deal with our sins. He wants us to believe that sins are fine or
natural or funny or unimportant. Everybody does them, so what’s the harm? He’ll
blabber on and on until he finds something that sticks. And he’ll find it too,
because, as I’ve said, there is a part of all of us that wants to believe the
splinter does not need to be taken out.
The devil starts to lose his grip on people when they move
from not caring to caring. This happens when people start to hate the splinter,
start to hate sin. So long as people believe that they can peacefully coexist
with sin, they remain in the devil’s grip. But sometimes people get sick of the
muck and guck and puss and stench of sin. People hate the lovelessness, the
chaos, the shame, the hatred, the broken relationships. They get sick of that
splinter that has caused them so much grief. They want the splinter out!
This is when tax collectors, prostitutes, drug addicts, liars,
porn addicts, alcoholics, scrooges—losers of all kinds—might turn to Christ.
They hate their life which has been ruined by sin. They want something else.
They long for healing, and they are willing to humble themselves in order to
get it.
The fundamental posture of all disciples is always the same.
It’s the posture we see in people in the Gospels. People came to Jesus who were
blind, deaf, lame, mute, demon-possessed—absolutely wretched. They said,
“Jesus, help me!” It is the same posture of those who hate their lives, hate
themselves, hate their sins, hate the splinters with all their puss and filth.
“Jesus, heal me!”
When such people come to believe that Jesus forgives them,
that Jesus died for them, that Jesus will make them better, they then hate all
the more the devil with his practically infinite lies, all of which minimize
the importance of sin. On the other hand, they begin to like what God has
commanded and taught—stuff that they formerly might have rejected and fought
against. They’ve been converted. They renounce the devil and all his works and
all his ways, and they have embraced a new Lord and God from whom they want
help. They no longer want to be on the side of sin and lies and false hope. They
want to be on the side that fights sin, that’s true, that embraces the light, even
though it means that they have fallen into the strong and terrifying hands of
God. If suffer they must, then suffer they will! Suffering is by no means the
worst thing. Health, life, truth—that is to say, God’s kingdom—this is what they
want.
What I’ve spoken about today—a kind of insanely long introduction—is
an attempt to get at something that otherwise might be difficult to understand
about our Gospel reading. Our Gospel reading talks about how John the Baptist’s
preaching was successful, particularly among those whom you’d think would be
the most resistant. John was successful among the unwashed masses. Why did John
the Baptist come to be loved by the tax collectors and sinners? Was it because
John the Baptist told them that they were fine just as they were? That their
sins didn’t matter? No. Just the opposite.
John hated sin. He wasn’t scared of it either. He didn’t
believe that it was inevitable or invincible or any other garbage that the
devil likes to say about sin. John himself couldn’t really do anything about
sin, but he was an ambassador for Jesus, who was coming after him, whose sandal
strap he was unworthy to untie. The Christ is the only one who forgives sins. He
promises to wash away all the stains and puss and filth for the life to come.
So, to use the analogy we’ve been working with today, John
was someone who would speak the truth. He would say, “That’s a splinter. That
needs to come out. You’ll be sorry if it doesn’t.” Since we all know the pain
of getting a splinter out, we can understand why some people hated John. They
preferred their false belief to the truth of God’s Word that—even though
painful—would have helped them.
But some people loved the possibilities that opened up by
the Word of God that John spoke. They were so full of splinters, they were so
sick of the consequences of their sins, that they embraced John’s baptism for
the forgiveness of their sins. They didn’t want to go on with the misery of loneliness,
helplessness, and hopelessness. They wanted health, life, and light. They
wanted Jesus to be their king instead of the devil. Disciples of Jesus show up
in the most unexpected of places.
All of us, including me, have our splinters. They are not
cute. They are not harmless. Even if we manage to forget them, they don’t stop
silently pumping out their poison. They have to come out. How? We can’t do it
ourselves. We can’t get deep enough. We have to turn ourselves over to the
adult, so to speak. We have to turn ourselves over to Jesus. That requires
courage. What will he do? Is that a needle or a tweezers I see?
But don’t be too afraid. Jesus is good at what he does. He
is the good physician who has come to heal those who are sick, who have need of
him as a physician.

18 min

About Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons

From the publisher's feed

Sermons preached at Peace Lutheran Church, Oelwein, IA and Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Independence, IA. This is a dual parish of The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. We use the one year, historic…

Share Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons

Sign up to save your podcasts

Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons

Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons episodes

About Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons