Sermon Audio Sermon Manuscript: About 250 years ago some men in Great Britain began to do some experiments with machines and the manufacturing of cloth. They had come up with some clever devices that were able to spin yarn and, later, to weave it in a way that was much more efficient than doing it by hand in people’s homes. At first these machines were powered by water wheels on a river. Eventually they would come to be powered by steam engines that used coal as their fuel. With these sources of power, which, unlike humans, never got tired, these earliest factories made a lot of cloth. The factory owners got rich. Their customers were happy with the inexpensive cloth that they didn’t have to make themselves. The tiresome chores of spinning and weaving became a thing of the past for the normal home. Soon the same kinds of ideas and techniques were applied to other things—farming, cotton picking, transportation, and many other pursuits—and productivity rose tremendously. This rather long process in human history, which is arguably still going on today, is known as the industrial revolution. The story is quite a bit longer than what we have told here. I bring it up, because when we think back to life as it was a few hundred years ago, the industrial revolution is perhaps the main thing makes us think that we are so different from them. They generally didn’t have indoor plumbing. It took a lot longer to communicate and transport things from one place to another. Much more work went into the daily chores of producing food, heating the home, doing the laundry, cooking, and so on and so forth. We have a lot more stuff and we are able to go and do many more things than they could. This is one of the ways that you can define wealth, and so you could say that we are much wealthier than they. We have a lot more food and a lot more drink. We have a lot more clothes, and they might be of a better quality than Solomon’s were in all his splendor. So it might be a little challenging to buy into what Jesus says in our Gospel reading. He says, “Do not worry about what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your clothes, what you will put on.” Well we can probably check those things off the list. Who worries about what he will eat or drink? Who worries about having clothes? The fault lines in our society, when it comes to resources, is whether you can afford to buy fresh fruits and vegetables or whether you buy the industrialized, cheaper, processed food. Nobody is going without. For clothes it’s a matter of buying name brand vs. generic. Something has to be way out of whack for any of our people to worry about food, drink, or clothing. So it’s very easy for our people to put this book back on the shelf and thank God that we are not like other men, like those poor pre-industrialized people. Or, if we want to be more pious, we can set it off in the corner of our minds as a nice thing we can fall back on if ever we should run into poverty. Either way, what Jesus says is not taken very seriously. He was speaking to a different time and different place. This doesn’t have much to do with us. However, not only is this not taking Jesus’s words very seriously, it’s also not paying very close attention. At the beginning of our reading Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Mammon is a Semitic word for money or wealth. There was also a Syrian god called Mammon. And this is the very thing that we have been talking about today. The reason why we might look back at those poor saps, who didn’t have toilets, is because we believe that the power of our wealth blesses us. They, in contrast to us, were not blessed. They did not have countenance of Mammon shining down upon them like we do. So this is what Jesus is telling us today: No servant can have two masters. One of them is always going to be preferre

 Sermon Audio The outward appearance of something often tells you a lot about what is going on in general. When you go to a business and see that there are weeds growing, the paint is peeling, and dust is covering the merchandise, you know that that business is not in good shape. It is lacking the resources to keep itself in shape. A lot of times you can tell whether a person is healthy or not by looking at them. If they are pale and sweating, if they are gaunt and emaciated, if they are swollen and puffy, or any other number of signs, you know that something’s wrong. Thankfulness and praise, or the lack thereof, can serve a similar function in assessing the spiritual health of a person or community. This is because thankfulness and praise are closely related to faith. When and where the Holy Spirit gives the gift of faith, he also produces thankfulness and praise. Thus the outward sign of thankfulness and praise is an indication of faith, even though faith is something internal, something that can’t be seen. In our Gospel reading nine out of the ten go their way. They return to the lives that they were familiar with. Only one comes back thanking and praising Jesus. Jesus tells him to go in peace. “Your faith has saved you,” he says. The man’s thankfulness and praise is a sign of what is going on inside. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So it is only natural that if the heart is filled with the goodness of the Lord, that this should come out in what is said. On the other hand, if the heart does not know the grace of God, or believe in it, then you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip. So what if we took stock of ourselves? What has been going on with our mouth? What has been in our heart, soul, and mind? I think we all would like to think that our thankfulness and praise has been alright, and that, therefore, our faith is in good shape. I don’t know how honest that would be though. Even if we have been better than other people in this regard, it still is falling short. Where is the praising God with a loud voice, the falling down on your face? This does not mean that you Christians do not want to be able to do this. All Christians would like to be filled completely with thanks and praise. It is a joy in and of itself. It is also, as I’ve mentioned, a sign of what is going on on the inside. We’d feel better about ourselves and more confident of our relationship with God if we were moved to worship God wholeheartedly. Worship experiences, in general, are highly sought after regardless of whether a person is Christian or not. Religious feelings are powerful and enjoyable. It’s the reason why people listen to stirring music, or go to concerts, or go to stadiums filled with thousands of people. There is a spirit that takes hold of us when we are moved by such things. As I’ve said, it is pleasant to feel this. It makes us feel alive and important. It also isn’t something that happens everyday, which makes it quite special too. Since it is rare, it is also valuable. Since Christians share this desire to be moved, as well as having the specific desire to thank and praise the true God, it is not surprising that we should find errors in regards to thanksgiving and praise. There are certain techniques that Christian churches can use to manipulate how a person feels as all entertainers know. Our country, in particular, has a long history of churches focusing on religious feelings. It started with the revival movement 200 years ago and more. Tent revivals were held on the American frontier. People would gather from miles around for these occasional services that would sometimes go on for days. They would make sure that they booked a good preacher for those occasions. You didn’t want somebody droning on, boring the people. Eventually a large library of stirring music was composed to further enhance the mood of these meetings. Almost all of what our people refer to as their “old favorites” are from this time period. R

 Sermon Audio Sermon manuscript: God’s Law is plain in our readings this morning. It is God’s Law that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. We should also love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Our Gospel reading further elaborates on the second part of this definition of God’s Law—what it means to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. There is more that could be said, therefore, about the first part—what it means to love God with all that you can muster. Perhaps you can think on that yourself later today—what does it mean to love God with one’s whole being? As far as this sermon goes, we will deal with Jesus’s explanation of what it means to love our neighbor. There are three things that I’d like to point out to you today. First, I’d like to speak about how good God’s Law is—how appropriate and helpful and beautiful it is. Second, I’d like to show you how this thing that is appropriate and helpful and beautiful is not your friend. It is not warm and cuddly as you might suppose. Finally, I’d like to show you how the Law can become sweet and mild and good to you again. Let’s begin with how the Law is superb and praiseworthy. Our Gospel reading is known as the parable of the Good Samaritan and for good reason. The Samaritan is good—really good. While the priest and the Levite pass by on the other side of the road, the Samaritan was moved to compassion when he saw the man who had been attacked and abused by the robbers. All too often people are liable to blame the victim for what happened to them. What’s more is that all too often, such reasoning is not too far off the mark. Perhaps if this fellow had been more prudent he wouldn’t have found himself in the bad position he was in. Icy hearts are good at this kind of reasoning. They can make stinginess and meanness sound like praiseworthy virtues! The Samaritan was not so cold hearted. He loved the man and helped him. And, boy, did he ever help him! I’m sure that you’ve heard me speak to this over the years, because it is one of my favorite places to go when the question comes up of what the Law requires of us. This Samaritan dropped what he was doing and took up this unfortunate man’s cause as his own. As I’ve said over the years, the Samaritan could have given the man a couple hundred bucks and left it at that. As it is he went the extra mile. He bandaged him and tried to make him as comfortable as possible. He put him on his own animal and walked beside him for miles on the hot dusty road until they came to a place where they could stay. As you know, there isn’t a hotel on every street corner, so they might have had to go some distance. The Samaritan stayed with him and nursed him all night long. After all that he still gave him a couple hundred bucks—telling the innkeeper to look after the man until he returns. Then he’ll pay the man’s bill—however big it might be. Why did the Samaritan do all this? There’s only one possible explanation: he wanted to. If he didn’t want to do it, then he would have easily found a way to get out of it. As it is, he made it his goal (in a sense it was his hobby—it made him happy) to trudge alongside him and shell out his hard earned cash. I challenge anybody to prove to me how what this man did is anything other than excellent. It is so appropriate, so helpful, so beautiful. It is so common for children to be taught that they should be as glorious and accomplished as they possibly can be—they should be a president or a CEO or something. That is all garbage compared to the goodness and beauty of loving one’s neighbor as it is laid out for us in Jesus’s parable. If you would be truly great, then sell what you have and give it to the poor. Then go and follow Jesus. Now I said at the beginning that even though the Law is so good and beautiful, it is not your friend. How come? It’s because the Law and you are not on the same page. What you want and what the Law of God wants are not the same. There are a

 Sermon Audio Sermon Manuscript: If you have ever traveled to a foreign country, then you’ve probably noticed how widespread the English language is. Signs usually have their message written in the indigenous language, but right below it, the message will have been translated into English. So if you go to far away places like Asia or Africa, you should still be able to make your way around, at least somewhat, because you know English. The reason why English is so prominent across the globe is because of the power of the British empire in the 1800s and the power of the American empire of the 1900s and up to today. This acceptance of the langue of the most powerful nation is something that has happened for a long time. English is just the latest fad. Before English being the universal language it was French. Before French it was Latin. Before Latin it was Greek. Which brings us to the New Testament times. Last week I mentioned how Alexander the Great conquered the known world a few hundred years before Christ was born. Alexander the Great was Greek. The rulers who ruled after he died were Greek. They spoke and wrote in the Greek language. At Jesus’s time, therefore, Greek was to them what English is to many people today. Jesus and his disciples did not speak Greek as their first language. They spoke a language called Aramaic. But Greek was the dominant language throughout that region of the world. When the apostles and evangelists wrote the Gospels and the letters to the churches that we know of as the epistles, they wrote in the Greek language. This made it possible for many more people to read the Gospels than if they had written in Aramaic, which was not known as widely as Greek. There are a few instances, though, where the original Aramaic that was spoken was preserved in the Gospels. The most well known message is what Jesus spoke from the cross: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus was quoting the words of Psalm 22 from the Old Testament. The rawness of these words stuck fast in the minds of the disciples who heard them. There are two other instances where Jesus’s literal words in Aramaic have been preserved without being translated into Greek, as it was with all the other sayings of Jesus that our Gospels record. There was one time where a girl fell sick and died. Jesus told the people who were mourning her death that she was not dead, but sleeping. They all laughed at him with a vicious angry laughter, but Jesus had them all escorted out of the house. Then Jesus took the hand of the girl and said, “Talitha, koum!” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” And she did. The third instance where Jesus’s words in Aramaic have been written into the Gospels is in our Gospel reading today. There was a deaf man who, perhaps because of his deafness, also had a speech impediment. Jesus put his fingers into his ears, spat, and touched his tongue. Then he looked up to heaven, groaned, and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened.” The man’s ears were opened, his tongue was released from its fetters and he spoke rightly. So with these three instances of the Aramaic words being preserved we have extraordinary things going on. The Christ, the anointed, the beloved of his Father asking why God had forsaken him on the cross is striking and memorable. The words by which he raised a little girl from the dead so that she was returned to her grieving parents is also extraordinary. Compared to these other instances, what happened in our Gospel reading for today might not seem as noteworthy. While I can understand why someone might think that way, I think that you might have a greater appreciation for the significance of this healing if you yourself became deaf and/or mute. Since I’ve been a pastor I’ve had a few parishioners who have been stricken by deafness or by powerful speech impediments. This has been an extremely bitter experience for all of them. Unfortunately, the proverb hold

 Audio Recording Sermon Manuscript: It will be helpful for us to consider what the two men were like in our Gospel reading this morning. The point of the parable turns on these two being quite different from one another outwardly. So that is how we will begin today before getting into the meaning of the parable itself. The more important character to properly understand to get Jesus’s point is the Pharisee. Pharisees, understandably, do not have a great reputation among us because they were often Jesus’s enemies. But we must understand why they were Jesus’s enemies. In a sense, it was because they were so dedicated to their important task of preserving the church at that time. Something that is not widely understood is that all of God’s people owe a debt of gratitude to the Pharisees. The Pharisees were those especially dedicated people who kept the religion of the Bible going in the couple hundred years before Jesus was born. About 300 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered almost the whole of the known world at that time. This included the Jews. While the Jews lived under Greek rule they were sorely tempted to become like the sophisticated Greeks. The Greeks were thought to be much more advanced than those Jewish simpletons who believed in the revelation contained in the Bible. If Jews got rid of the Jewishness it also opened up doors to them for personal advancement. They were much more likely to get good jobs from their Greek rulers. If this situation would have gone on without anybody crying foul, the religion of the Bible would have passed away within a few generations. The Jewish children would have been brought up the way the Greeks wanted them to be brought up. They would have studied Greek thinkers instead of the much more roughly hewn Scriptures. But God, in his grace, raised up a group of people who eventually became known as Pharisees. The Pharisees were the people who championed the Bible regardless of how it might be made fun of by the Greeks. They encouraged people to be faithful to what the Bible said regardless of the consequences. One of the very important things about them is that they were honest. If one of their fellow Jews abandoned the teachings of the Scriptures it was not just brushed under the rug. They were called out for their unfaithfulness. They were disciplined and eventually shunned as a pagan and a tax collector if they would not repent. Not only did the Pharisees teach the Bible, but they followed up with the consequences. This work of discipline and integrity is vital for the church at all times so that it can continue to be strong and healthy. With any body there has to be a way to get rid of waste. If you don’t get rid of that which is toxic, then the healthy tissues will become infected and be destroyed too. If you think about the efficient way our bodies get rid of waste every day, you realize how important this unpleasant and stinky work actually is. If we couldn’t get rid of the waste in our bodies we wouldn’t live very long. So it is with a church body too. Without the Pharisees championing God’s Word the Jewish people would have simply been taken over by the Greek world around them. In our day our people’s souls, also, are being taken over by the unbelieving culture around us. Unfortunately, we do not have Christians with the strength of character that the Pharisees had to be distinct in our beliefs. As a result all our people’s hearts, souls, and minds are being colonized and taken over without much of anything standing in the way. Thus our people are more or less agnostic about spiritual things because that is precisely the way that they have been trained to think. There are a few things they are sure of: they know that the Bible can’t be right—at least not if it is understood literally. They know that there are multiple genders and sex is for the purpose recreation instead of procreation, so who’s to judge what a person might enjoy doing with their sexual recreation? They know t

 Audio Recording Sermon Manuscript: From almost the very beginning of the world there have always been two different kinds of people: believers and unbelievers. Adam and Eve were created as believers. The devil turned them into unbelievers with his lies. God had mercy on them and came to them again. He brought them to repentance. He promised salvation in Jesus, the Seed of the woman. In the first generation after Adam and Eve we see the two different kinds of people. Cain, the firstborn, became jealous of his younger brother Abel because Abel was acceptable in God’s sight whereas Cain was not. Cain was an unbeliever. Abel was a believer. Cain killed his brother. God gave another son to Adam and Eve named Seth. Seth was a believer. With the descendants of Cain and Seth we see that communities are formed. The descendants of Cain were unbelievers. The descendants of Seth were believers. The descendants of Cain are described as great innovators. They worked hard to remove the curses that came with the fall into sin. They tried to make a name for themselves. The Sethites had very different ambitions. They are described as being people who called on the name of the Lord. They listened to God’s Word, prayed, praised, and gave thanks. With both groups of people you have communities, which make them different than isolated individuals. Within communities cultures develop. People are raised and confirmed in a certain way. Members of the community support and encourage one another in their shared objectives. This is true for the worldly Cainites as well as the believing Sethites. This has been the way that things have carried on from that point forward up to the present day. Around the world there are cultures where many things are known and taught. Many things are believed in. But not everyone knows of and believes in the Savior promised to Adam and Eve. The community of believers in Christ is small in comparison to these other cultures. Nonetheless, here, there, and scattered throughout the world congregations of Christians remain. They are congregated by the Holy Spirit. They call on the name of the Lord. They hear God’s Word, pray, praise, and give thanks. Within these little communities children of God are born who will not die, but have eternal life in Jesus their Savior. Believers and unbelievers, Sethites and Cainites, have existed from the beginning. They will exist until the end of the world. But these communities do not have permanent members. As we’ve already mentioned, Adam and Eve went from being believers to being unbelievers and back again. Cain was born into a family of believers, but he became an unbeliever. Some people have been born into an unbelieving family, but God called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. The way that someone is converted as well as the way that faith is sustained is always the same. Barring some extraordinary miracle, it is always by coming into contact with individuals and communities who believes in Christ. The Word of God gets preached by Christians in such a case. The Word of God is preached to believers so that they can continually repent of their sins and believe in Christ. The Word of God is preached to those who are not yet converted, inviting them also to take refuge in the crucified Christ for their salvation. These individuals and communities who have the Word of God are essential for faith. Those places where there are no Christians are wastelands, haunts of the devil, even if they be sophisticated and rich like it was with the Cainites or with Sodom and Gomorrah. Even where there has been the Word of God, however, it can and does and always will happen that the community declines. “Judgment begins at the household of God,” as Peter says. God’s people are punished for their chasing after idols, for their cold-heartedness, for their disobedience. When God punishes with the loss of property or pestilence or some other bodily harm, then things are not so bad. But He can

 Sermon Audio Luther Quotation referred to in the sermon:The First Commandment: "You are to have no other gods."That is, you are to regard me alone as your God. What does this mean, and how is it to be understood? What does "to have a god" mean, or what is God?Answer: A "god" is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need. Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart. As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol. If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true one. Conversely, where your trust is false and wrong, there you do not have the true God. For these two belong together, faith and God. Anything on which your hear relies and depends, I say, that is really your God.The intention of this commandment, therefore, is to require true faith and confidence in the heart, which fly straight to the one true God and cling to him alone. What this means is: "See to it that you let me alone be your God, and never search for another." In other words: "Whatever good thing you lack, look to me for it and seek it from me, and whenever you suffer misfortune and distress, crawl to me and cling to me. I, I myself, will give you what you need and help you out of every danger. Only do not let your heart cling to or rest in anyone else."So that it may be understood and remembered, I must explain this a little more plainly by citing come everyday examples of the opposite. There are some who think that they have God and everything they need when they have money and property; they trust in them and boast in them so stubbornly and securely that they care for no one else. They, too, have a god—mammon by name, that is money and property—on which they set their whole heart. This is the most common idol on earth. Those who have money and property feel secure, happy, and fearless, as if they were sitting in the midst of paradise. On the other hand, those who have nothing doubt and despair as if they knew of no god at all. We find very few who are cheerful, who do not fret and complain, if they do not have mammon. This desire for wealth clings and sticks to our nature all the way to the grave.So, too, those who boast of great learning, wisdom, power, prestige, family, and honor and who trust in them have a god also, but not the one, true God. Notice again, how presumptuous, secure, and proud people are when they have such possessions, and how despondent they are when they lack them or when they are taken away. Therefore, I repeat, the correct interpretation of this commandment is that to have a god is to have something in which the heart trusts completely.Large Catechism, 1st Commandment  Sermon Manuscript:If you haven’t read the quotation from Luther that is on the back of today’s bulletin, I encourage you to do so sometime today. What he points out about having a god is crucial for correctly interpreting the situation that all people find themselves in. Everybody has at least one god; what’s more likely is that a person has many gods. A person has a god or many gods whether they acknowledge it or not, whether they know it or not. That’s because having a god is tied up with faith, and everybody believes in something. Luther asks in the quotation I’ve provided: “What does it mean to have a god? Answer: A ‘god’ is the term for that to which we are to look for all good and in which we are to find refuge in all need. Therefore, to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart.” So what might a person look to for all good, for refuge in time of need? Think of what is common among us. Most of our people look to science and to the applied science that is technology. This is the most popular religion of our times. If the forces of nature can be tweaked in this direction or that direction according to the knowledge we have gained, the

Sermon audio Sermon manuscript: A few generations back there was a more widely spread notion that it was important to belong to a congregation. Most people could say that they were members at this congregation or that congregation. Today this is no longer the case. But it is important that we do not look at the past with rose colored glasses. Even when more people held membership in congregations, the good reasons for being a member weren’t at all clear to them. A lot of people were members of a congregation because that was what was socially expected of them. If you weren’t a member of a congregation, then where were you going to have your funeral? Or another reason why people might belong to a congregation was because it was a family tradition. They were brought up in such-and-such a congregation and so that is where they kept on going. Or maybe there were friends, or maybe being a member of the congregation was good for business—a good place to network. More reasons could be found without too much difficulty. But these old reasons for why people were members of congregations were inadequate because they were nowhere near important enough. The decline of congregations across the board is proof of both the shallowness of people’s commitments as well as how widespread that shallowness was. The reason why people aren’t members of congregations and aren’t coming to church is because it isn’t useful to them. Those old reasons aren’t compelling enough. The social expectation for everyone to be a member of a congregation is pretty much gone. If you need a clergyperson for a baptism, wedding, or funeral, you can find one to hire for the occasion without too much difficulty. Family ties to congregations have lessened over the years. Finding friends and business contacts is easier to do in other places besides the congregation. Times have changed. This is not all bad, though. Young people are finding these old reasons for being a member of a congregation inadequate. Christians should find them inadequate too. There is much more involved in being a member of a congregation than what we’ve talked about so far this morning. Christians are children of God by virtue of their baptism. Christians are pilgrims and strangers in this world, just like all the faithful have been before us. That makes for a difficult life. We are powerfully opposed on all sides. The world rejects us just like Jesus was rejected. Even people as close as our own family are likely to hinder our pilgrimage, as Jesus says, “A man’s enemies will be within his own house.” The devil tempts and torments Christians to a much greater degree than he works on the worldlings, because he already has them in his pocket. Our own sinful flesh is fully and completely eager to submit and succumb to the devil’s devices, and it often does. Christians fall into grievous and shameful sin. Year after year Christians are assaulted from within and without. They stumble, fall, and (God-willing) rise back up again to faith in Christ rather than living according to the desires of their flesh. In the midst of these great troubles all the old reasons for being a member of a congregation offer no help at all. In fact, they are likely to be more of a hindrance rather than a help, for we are all too eager to believe that there is no battle involved at all with living as a Christian. If our own congregation is more concerned about finding some way to look attractive to prospective members rather than helping people walk the difficult pilgrim road as a Christian, then it is easy for us to go along with that. Then we don’t have to fight. Then we don’t have to be concerned about whether we are indeed Christians, whether we will be going to heaven or to hell. We all naturally want to sleep our way through life as far as our conscience is concerned, and so if the church is helping in that endeavor, then it would be better if there were no such churches at all. They’re not helping. They’re actually hurtin

Sermon audio Sermon manuscript: Our epistle reading last week was Romans 6 verses 1-11. Our epistle reading this week is Romans 6 verses 19 to the end of the chapter. Both last week’s reading ad this week’s reading are from the same chapter. It isn’t surprising that there is a connection between the two readings. So I’d like to refresh your memory of what was said last week. Our reading began with Paul’s rhetorical question: “What then, shall we remain in sin so that grace may abound? By no means!” What Paul says after that is not what we would naturally expect. So let’s start by talking about what we would naturally expect. When we are talking about sinning or not sinning we immediately, naturally assume that we are talking about knowing what is right and wrong, and then revving up the will power to do what is right. All the self-help books, all the ethicists and philosophers, say the same thing. What sells their books is some new, clever twist that they come up with. They say stuff like, “You see, where you went wrong is that you were thinking about it in the right way. All that you need to do is think about it in this way! If you think about it this way you will find that everything will go splendidly. You will look better, feel better, and have money coming out of your ears.” If the sales pitch is clever enough we just can’t help ourselves. We say, “Mmm, that sounds good.” And we give them our credit card number over the phone. As we all well know, a lot of times—dare I say, practically every time—the self-improvement program fails. But it’s never the clever salesman’s fault. He can always say, “Well, you didn’t try hard enough. It’s not my fault; it’s your fault! If you had just continued with my program you would have the results that you were seeking.” And who can argue with that? When they’re right, they’re right. So when Paul brings up the topic of sinning, we immediately assume that he is going to talk to us about how we should improve ourselves. Perhaps he’s going to give us some new knowledge so that we think about it in a better way; so that it is easier for us to rev up our will power. That’s not what Paul does though. Instead he talks about what baptism has done to you. He says, “Do you not know that when you were baptized into Christ Jesus you were united with him in his death? In Jesus you died to sin, because Jesus died to sin once and for all people. United with Jesus in a death like his you are also united with him in a resurrection like his. So this is how it is: you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Now it is very tempting to us to turn Paul’s words into something that we can more easily, naturally process. It is very tempting for us to turn this talk about baptism into some kind of object lesson where baptism is merely an empty symbol. The logic would go like this: Being dunked in the water is kind of like dying. Being pulled out of the water is kind of like being born. With this simple object lesson in hand, Paul is understood to be like a high school football coach who says, “Go get ‘em boys! Pretend that you have died. Pretend that you have been raised. Go, fight, win!” Baptism doesn’t do anything (so it is assumed). So it’s all up to you. But what if baptism actually does something? What if God is active in baptism? Then we have a rather different picture. Then God has killed you with all your sins and evil desires. God has also raised you from the dead to live in the only true righteousness that exists, which is Christ’s righteousness. With this way of understanding Paul (which is the correct way), we are dealing with God’s grace, God’s working, rather than with yet another self-improvement program. What’s more is that this is at the very heart and soul of our salvation and the story of the universe. We are being saved by being crucified in Christ, God’s Son, who died for our sins, paying our ransom. We will rise from the dead when our Savior comes and rends the heavens wide. When w

Sermon audio Sermon Manuscript: There is an advent hymn that goes like this: “O Savior, rend the heavens wide! Come down, come down with might stride! Unlock the gates, the doors break down! Unbar the way to heaven’s crown.” We have some dramatic imagery here. “Jesus,” the singer says, “Rip the heavens in two as though you were ripping some fabric. With a determined march, looking neither to the left nor to the right, come right down here to us. There are gates and there are doors that are in the way. They are between us and heaven. They are between us and God. Kick them down and let us out! There’s a crown for us in heaven, let us get to it.” We do not know when this day will be when Jesus will come. It could be today. It could be this Christmas. Perhaps Jesus will delay his coming for another couple years. But it is coming. Perhaps it won’t come before your body dies and you are placed in a coffin in the ground. With this event, unlike other things that might happen after your death, you won’t be excluded from experiencing it. Jesus says that when he comes down, comes down with mighty stride he will have an alarm clock of sorts. There will be a mighty trumpet that will be blasted by the angels. I wonder what that trumpet will sound like. Jesus will speak with the voice of an archangel. The net result of this is that all those who have died will wake up. The second coming of Christ is an event that all of the creatures whom God has made in his own image are going to participate in whether they are living in that moment or had died thousands of years before. All will participated in it, whether they like it or not, whether they believed that it would happen or not. This is something that God is going to do regardless of whatever anybody else thinks. Unfortunately, there will many people who will want to hide on that great day, but they will find that they won’t be able to. In fact, the Bible seems to indicate that there will be more people who will be wishing that the mountains would fall on them or that the ground would swallow them up, than there will be those who are looking for their crown to be given to them. The fear that is put on display for us as we anticipate the Day of Judgment is tremendous and awe inspiring. It easily holds our attention. But Paul says that this word of condemnation, although tremendously glorious, is actually the lesser glory. The glory of salvation on that day will be so great that the terror of condemnation, although extremely glorious, won’t be able to hold our attention. The glory of the resurrection to eternal life will be so glorious that we won’t even notice the condemnation. It’s like the glory of the moon and the glory of the sun. The moon has a bright countenance and a definite glory. Full moons are impressive. But the moon’s glory is such that when the sun rises in the morning, the moon can no longer even be seen. The moon is often there somewhere in the sky during the day, but we can’t see it. That is how it is now with the thought of condemnation. While we are still making our way through this darkened world, there is nothing that is so captivating to all people as the thought of God’s judgement, of death, of horror, of hell. I can always count on having people’s attention while talking about such things. They might think that I’m crazy, but they can’t help but look at the light of that full moon shining down on them. “But,” Paul says, “we Christians are not preachers of the letter of the Law that kills. We Christians are preachers of the Spirit, who gives life.” The ministry of the Spirit so far surpasses the ministry of the letter that condemnation’s impressiveness is swallowed up by the greater glory of our justification in Christ, God’s only-begotten Son. When the life giving Holy Spirit raises us and all believers in Christ from the dead, we will see him with an unveiled face. We, who have died together with Christ and been raised together with Christ, will see God. We will full