Grace Lutheran Church Sermons

Costly Love

2009-11-10T05:39:00.000-08:00

19th Sunday after Pentecost
October 11, 2009
Mark 10:17-31

You know the story well in today’s Gospel which I just read: Jesus and his disciples are walking along a road heading to Jerusalem. And you also know very well what awaits Jesus there: betrayal, trial, suffering, crucifixion ~ a horrible death.

And on the way to the forum, so to speak:

A fellow Jew, a prosperous young man, apparently after hearing Jesus express that soon only God would be ruling over them (meaning the Romans would be gone) and that the kingdom of God was coming and God’s kingdom would be brought in by the hoped-for Messiah, approaches Jesus and asks for Jesus' opinion.

"My good man," the young man said, "what do you think that I should do so that I may receive God's gift of eternal life?"

Jesus is quick to respond to his query: "Why do you address me as your 'good man'"? "No one is truly good except God alone! But in answer to your question: You know the commandments: 'Do not murder anyone, nor commit adultery, nor steal nor defraud anyone. Honor your father and your mother.'"

And the young man proudly proclaims to Jesus, "Sir, I have carefully observed all of these commandments from the time that I was young." Ahh! That’s quite some claim.

And then Mark says something that is not mentioned in any other account of this episode: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”

Very interesting phrase: Perhaps Jesus sees that, despite all of the young man’s virtues, he lacks just one thing, and that is what he demands the young man deal with first. There is just one impediment, one thing blocking his becoming a full-fledged, fully focused follower.

Or perhaps Jesus thinks that the young man is not all that sincere in his request of him and so is therefore attempting to test the young man’s sincerity. We don’t know for sure. All we know is that what Jesus says to him he says out of love.

That’s when Jesus shocks this eager young man down to his toes with these words: “Go sell what you own and give the proceeds to the poor; then you will have treasure in heaven. Then, after that, come, follow men!”

Wow! That’s a bomb shell the young man was certainly not expecting, no, not at all! With that, the young man slowly turned away and “went away grieving.”

Note that what we have here is a call story. Someone is being called by Jesus to follow him along the way. Jesus is not interested at this first moment how this man feels or how smart he is or even if he’ll remain faithful. He just wants to know if he is up to following him right now. He looks at him and sees the one thing needful, that which is required for discipleship, and loves him enough to lay it front and center.

Now - If you were the one coming before Jesus that day, what would he demand of you? What would be that one thing that perhaps keeps you from wholehearted, focused, intense discipleship? Long ago, a wise man, a Danish theologian, named Soren Kierkegaard made this observation:

“Christ has many admirers but few followers.” Very Interesting!

Thus, today’s Gospel lesson ends with Jesus’ disciples saying that they have left everything (businesses, homes, family, perhaps wives & girlfriends, even a good bed to sleep on to say nothing of a roof over their heads!) and followed Jesus. They feel they’ve made quite a sacrifice. So Jesus reassures them that there is nothing that they have given up to follow him that will not be restored to them a hundred times greater in the future. What they have given up pales in comparison to the benefits of following him, of being his disciple. Yes, there are indeed benefits to following Jesus, but, Jesus forcefully reminds us: costs as well. And Jesus loves us enough to be upfront about the cost.

Christianity is all about loving Jesus the Christ enough to be a servant, and it is all about loving Jesus in the same manner that Jesus loves us as a servant. The acid test for our love is sometimes how much we have been willing to give up for Jesus in order to realize the gift that he offers us.

Discipleship – following Jesus – is really very difficult for a number of reasons. When we take our Christianity serious, we have to note that Jesus is really quite demanding and sometimes his demands cut against some of our most cherished values. Sometimes his demands challenge our dearest idols. For those of us in the affluent West, our greatest hindrance is money and what money can buy for us.

I think Jesus really has problems with our commitment to money. He’d much rather we were committed to him FIRST, really FIRST! Many in our society, including many of us, I would say, are infected with AFFLUENZA - you get it, don’t you? It’s a combination of affluence and influenza! We in America who make up less than 6% of the world’s population use up 40% of the world’s resources. It’s like a disease; it invades your mind, body and spirit insidiously without our even being aware of it. Think about it! Affluenza!

In some form or other Jesus says the same to us as to the young man:

“Go, my rich young friend, go sell all that you have and give it to the poor, then come, follow me.”

Ouch! That must have hurt really deep.

For with that radical command to redistribute his wealth, the man slumped down and got totally depressed, muttering to himself, “And I thought Jesus was a nice guy.” He climbs into his Porsche and departs. Which leads Jesus to mutter loud enough for all his disciples to hear, “You just can’t save the rich people!”

Jesus playfully replies to his disciples query then about who in the world can be saved, that with God all things “are possible.” It can indeed happen. Like it or not: you and I are included in that “rich people” bunch when you compare us and our standards of living with the vast majority of our world’s population!

Listen folks: The future of Christ’s kingdom, of Christ’s church, of Christ’s mission here in this place that goes by the name of Grace Lutheran is possible only because of the relentless desire of a loving God to get what God wants. And he’ll keep on calling you, pestering you and me until we let go of whatever it may be that stands between us and him. What is it in your life? What is it in mine? I hope it’s nothing, but it could be; perhaps only known to you and God!

Yet, as you and I are honest before God, if there is something between us and God, we’ll have to put it front and center, lay it on the table, and decide if we’re willing to be a fully committed, whole-hearted servants of the Christ.

Give that some serious thought this week! Is there anything - anything at all - in my relationship with God in Jesus Christ that stands in the way of that relationship being as full and rich that it can be.

Remember Jesus said: “I have come that you might have life ~ eternal life ~ and have it abundantly.”

That’s his promise. A M E N

Dr. Bob Rademacher, Vis. Pr.
Grace Lutheran Church
Lincoln, NE

The Journey

2009-09-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Mark 8:27-38
September 13, 2009

It is very interesting that today’s gospel writer, Mark, uses the picture language of a journey as a way of organizing his story of Jesus. In Mark’s gospel when Jesus invites people to come and follow him, he invites them to join him on a journey.

In Mark’s Gospel, it seems Jesus is always on the way to somewhere else. Mark tells the story of Jesus with a breathless tempo. He says that Jesus did this and then immediately does the next thing and then he is off to someplace else.

Jesus is always on the move.

For example: When you get to the very end of Mark, Mark says that the women came to the tomb on Easter morning. But by the time they get there, they are greeted by a "young man in white" who tells them, "You're looking for Jesus? Sorry. Just missed him. By this time of the morning, he is already well on the way to Galilee. Now run along and tell his disciples."

Isn't that typical of Jesus? Just about the time we are about to get the point, almost ready to catch up with him, he is on the way somewhere else!

The picture you get of Jesus' followers, his disciples, in Mark's account, is of a group of people who are always breathlessly trying to catch up, always just one step behind Jesus as he moves on to somewhere else.

Today's gospel is such a moment, a snapshot if you will, along the way of the journey with Jesus. Jesus pauses to ask his disciples, seemingly out of the clear blue: "By the way, who do people say that I am?"

And after hearing what other people have to say about him, Jesus asks the disciples who they think he is!

Ahh! It’s a test. And as usual in Mark's Gospel, it is a test that the disciples flunk. Peter answers that question for the group of disciples by saying that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, the anointed one of Israel.

But strangely after Peter said this, a couple of odd things happen:

1. Jesus first of all tells them to be quiet about his being the Messiah; don’t tell anybody. Shhh! Keep it a secret about my being the Messiah.

2. And secondly, Jesus proceeds to inform the bewildered disciples that the next thing on his personal agenda is to suffer, die and be raised alive! Um, what on earth do you suppose that all about?

When Peter hears what Jesus is planning, he protests Jesus' expectation of his upcoming suffering and death (strange! because who would expect a Messiah to suffer and die?); In response, Jesus scolds Peter in the harshest of terms, calling him "Satan," or “you devil; get out of my way!”

This episode is an example of the way in which Jesus' identity gradually unfolds for the disciples. The disciples in Mark must learn, in their everyday experience of Jesus, listening to his words, observing his actions, who Jesus is. Alas, in this gospel, the disciples don't seem to learn much! They are forever giving the wrong answer, as Peter does here. They seem unbelievably thick-headed.

We contemporary disciples might take heart from Mark's rather unflattering depiction of the first disciples. After all, we struggle to get the point of Jesus, but sometimes we just don't. We are on a lifetime journey with Jesus in which his meaning for us unfolds gradually as we journey.

There are those who act as if their "acceptance of the Christ," or who "have been saved," or "have decided to become a Christian," or even when they were baptized, that that was the end of their journey with Jesus, they have reached the goal, they have arrived.

No, not at all. That journey to which Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, calls us to, begins with his call to us to walk with him, but that is only the beginning, not the end of the story of discipleship.

Faithfulness to Jesus requires a willingness to learn from the Master, and to expect that there will always be twists and turns and surprises along the way. It was true for his first disciples. It shall certainly be true for us as well.

Traveling with Jesus is a journey that is definitely an adventure. In fact, one of the things that makes a journey an adventure is when we don't know the destination. We have a word for that, coming from the name of a ship (The Serendip) in a story about a group of adventurers. The word we take from that story is serendipity. It simply means making a surprising discovery while on a journey to somewhere else, a completely unexpected bonus in your adventure.

And if you have been journeying with Jesus very long, you know how serendipitous that journey is; you learn that it is quite typical to keep making surprising discoveries with Jesus, even when you are on the way somewhere else.

Now here, at this point in our text today, is where the whole thing really turns serendipitous, becomes a true adventure.

Things become ominous and really hard to understand:

Jesus drops this bomb shell on us; he calls us to “take up our crosses and follow him,” in effect, he calls his followers to “come and die!” How do you like them apples? Ummm! Strange, don’t you think? Let me read what Jesus said here from a different translation:

37Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, [it’s] my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose {yourself}, [you] the real you? What[ever] could you ever trade your {life} [soul] for?

Now that’s pretty heady stuff! In plain English, THE SAVIOR BIDS YOU COME AND DIE! Yes, DIE! Take up your cross, he says! Does that sound like a party? Does that sound like ease and luxury? Does that sound like a “walk in the park”? Not in my ears, it doesn’t!

So if you are thinking about faithful discipleship, don't think of it in terms about getting your heads straight on a long list of fundamental beliefs or preconceived ideas. Don't think about discipleship as memorizing a whole string of Bible verses. Think about discipleship as a journey, a journey with Jesus.

When you were baptized, NOW GET THIS: when you were baptized, the Christ called you to “come and die,” to live your life on his behalf even when it includes suffering in your walk as a Christian and suffering and standing along side others in their grief and sorrow.

And in the Christ, we find that dying is not the end of the world, but in the Christ, it is the greatest of new beginnings! Really, only when we realize that are we truly free to live, to give ourselves away on behalf of others in service of the Christ. Having a pain or troubles in life and bearing them with a smile has absolutely, positively nothing in the world to do with bearing your cross in Christ’s name!

Welcome, friends, to the topsy-turvey world, the upside down world of Jesus where losing is winning and winning is losing, living is dying and dying is living. It truly is God’s world, a world worth giving your life for.

Jesus stands among us today and says, Come, follow me, come with me on a serendipitous, adventurous journey! When you’re traveling with me, you never know what will be required of you! It is through hearing and responding to that call to risk everything for Jesus, on behalf of the world. The gift of salvation IS the call to follow; the gift IS the call!

German theologian and Lutheran pastor of World War II vintage, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, once said, “When Christ Jesus calls a person, he bids that person come and die.” Yes, folks, that’s every bit as bad as it sounds, yet better than you and I can imagine!

This is the story that each of us is finishing for ourselves. Each of us is busy tagging along behind Jesus, being surprised by Jesus, trying to figure out what he said at the last stop, being amazed at the places that he leads us on this adventure…the adventure that leads to new and abundant life, the reason for which Jesus came.

See you, fellow traveler with the Christ, on the journey! A M E N

Dr. Bob Rademacher
Grace Lutheran Church
Lincoln, Nebraska
September 13, 2009

Paying Attention

2009-08-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

John 6:56-69
16 August 2009

Do you ever catch yourself not paying attention - like right now, maybe?

It is very easy in our fast-paced, multi-sensory, intrusive, noisy, distracting world to lose our focus. With everything happening instantly followed quickly by something else in our busy world, it is easy to flit from one focus to another without doing anything much justice.

Some days I find it very easy to lose my focus when someone is talking to me and miss completely what they are saying: is it boredom, is it too many sights and sounds bombarding my limited brain, or is it just plain rudeness on my part or what?

Paying attention to what is important is sometimes very tough. Ask any teacher who has to constantly tell his or her class, “Now class, pay close attention to this; it’s something you just have to know! It’ll be on your next test!”

In Chapter 6 of John’s gospel which has been our attempted focus for the last several weeks, Jesus has been trying to get our attention and considering how confusing and complex his conversation has been, it is very hard to stay focused on what he is saying, what with his saying he is “bread come down from heaven,” and that we should eat and drink him, and that in so doing one will live forever and so on, it’s no wonder some not only said, “this is difficult, this is hard to accept,” but some just threw up their hands and left. It made no sense, besides some of what Jesus said was offensive; they’d had enough.

Small wonder, too, that Jesus asks his disciples if they, too, are offended at what he has been saying and if they too are going away like many others.

Even if we miss much of what Jesus is trying to tell us in this complex chapter of John 6 which has been our focus for the past five Sundays, even if much goes right over our heads, still there are some things in that chapter that call out loudly for our attention, for paying attention to God, especially to God’s presence with us in Jesus the Christ.

That phrase “pay attention” is interesting in itself: “Pay” - why not “give attention” or “offer attention” or even “lend attention” (like in “lend me your ears”)? Does it “cost” something to “pay” attention?

Yes, it does: it costs us our individual, undivided attention and focus which in turn shuts out other distractions; it narrows our vision to focus on one thing; it takes attention off ourselves and focuses it on something else. It’s much like looking through a microscope and focusing on one thing, the rest of the things in the room or on your desk are shut out for the moment.

For example: it costs something to pay attention to God, to worship God alone, to serve only the true and living God. That means other opportunities, other gods, other rivals are shut out. Our choices are limited to one! And that costs - and for some, that might be much too expensive!

Yet that choice is often rewarded. As we have focused on this difficult chapter of John 6 we may have missed a great deal of what could be mined there, but perhaps we have found a few choice nuggets.

Here is a parable that may help:

A farmer in South Carolina scratched out a meager living off some terrible farm land for many years. He had the worst time growing crops on his land before he finally, after a particularly sad harvest, gave up, sold his land and went to work in town.

The man who bought his land noticed the poor vegetation on the property, therefore, he didn’t offer or pay much for the acreage. One day the new owner while walking over his newly acquired property noticed a strange outcropping of white rock.

He had always been interested in geology, so he chipped off some of the rock and took it to a geologist friend for analysis.

To make a long story short, he eventually sold the property for millions. His land contained a huge deposit of a mineral used in the processing of aluminum and other metals.

One man was on the land and didn’t notice or recognize its value, he didn’t pay attention to what was right under his feet; for to him, it was just some more rocky soil. Another man’s background and curiosity and close attention led him to discover something extremely valuable.

Reminds you of a similar parable Jesus told, doesn’t it? I’m speaking of the treasure a farmer found and sold everything in order to own that treasure. (Matt 13:44) Often what you get, what you find, depends on how closely you pay attention.

So, looking at this difficult chapter of John, we hear Jesus saying, “eat my flesh and drink my blood,” a horribly offensive statement taken all by itself, especially to Jewish ears? But you know from your background, from your experience at the Lord’s Table what it is all about because all through your life, you have been paying close attention to bread and wine.

We gather each week ~

~ to focus on and pay attention to what is written in an ancient book ~ and thereby learn and mine from it nuggets of God’s life-giving word.

~ to focus on and pay attention to a loaf of bread and a cup of wine ~ and in this seemingly insignificant action participate in the life of Christ and the worldwide community.

~ to focus on and pay attention to a man from ancient Nazareth - and find in him the very presence of God that brings all of life into focus.

And in all of that we see and experience the presence of the Living God among us. We see God here among his church, his called ones and know that even though we may not understand everything we hear and see in this place, God is here with us.

And that paying close attention is not only called for, is not only our duty as followers of Jesus the Christ, but especially by the Spirit’s leading, gives us eternal life, the very thing Jesus talks about in this chapter and which his disciples proclaim:

“Master, to whom would we go? You are the one who has the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves to you, confident that you are the Holy One of God.

That, my friends, is the kind of confidence and assurance in faith that you get for paying close attention! A M E N

By Dr. Robert Rademacher
Grace Lutheran Church, Lincoln, Nebraska

The Perils of Power

2009-07-15T06:39:00.001-07:00

6th Sunday after Pentecost, July 12, 2009
Mark 6:14-29

You have all probably heard this quotation, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Power, whether it is absolute or not, can be a very strong corrupting influence.

What is there about power that so often corrupts the one who has it? From a Christian point of view we might say that power gives us a wee, itty-bitty taste of what it might be like to be like God. After all, don’t we like to define God in terms of omnipotence – absolute power ~ especially since God seems to have it all? ~ and we don’t!

There are definite limits on what we can and can not do. For example, we all know that there are much faster and more powerful animals than we humans. We can’t predict the future, undo and do over the past or even control the present.

On a higher level, for instance, 1) Jesus says that we cannot, just by our own power, add an inch to our stature. Another example: 2) Paul famously remarked that, “The good that I would do, I cannot.” 3) And then there’s Luther who reminds us in the meaning of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe that I can not by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him.” And there are countless other examples of our limited power.

Yet through science, technology, mass production, and progressive enlightenment we do have incredible power over the world’s resources and over human life, ours and others.

Having power whether it’s economic, communications, military, political, parental, judicial or whatever, is the great promise of the modern world. The promise of the serpent you will be like God tauntingly paraded out to Adam and Eve back in the garden seems to be partly fulfilled among us in the modern world.

Now finally, to the text: I have all this thinking about power on my mind because today’s Gospel (Mk 6:14-29) tells of a horribly, tragic event that happened early in Jesus’ ministry. All of the Gospels begin with John the Baptist – you remember him - the forerunner of Jesus, the prophetic figure who preaches in the wilderness, preparing the way for the advent of the messiah. John baptizes Jesus according to the three synoptic gospels, and thus Jesus’ ministry was inaugurated. John and Jesus must have been very close, some say they were first cousins.

Early on in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus hears the devastating news of the brutal capital punishment of John the Baptist. John’s was a powerful voice. From the wilderness he preached strong, fierce sermons proclaiming the coming kingdom of God. And now that voice is silenced by a more politically powerful voice. The voice of King Herod is indeed more powerful than the voice of John the Baptist. But in actual fact, it wasn’t at first the voice of Herod which led to John’s execution – it was the whim of a dancing girl and her mother, and Herod, coward that he was, succumbed to her desires to have John’s head on a platter as a “thank you” for her dancing!

Herod Antipas, son of the Herod the Great who was king when Jesus was born, had an affair with a near relative, and John the Baptist dared to call King Herod Antipas to account. It took a lot of guts for a little preacher to stand up and call this king and politician on the carpet for his adulterous life. How much fortitude it took ~ we are learning here: It cost John the Baptist his head, literally!

John the Baptist, a man driven by the power of the word of God, is silenced by Herod Antipas, a man who wields the power of the sovereign Roman State.

Once again, governmental violence has triumphed. The king has silenced the preacher.

Once again, a good person has been annihilated by power of the state used in an evil manner. You don’t have to come to church and listen to the Bible to hear a story like that. When it comes to power the one with the largest guns or the biggest bomb or the sharpest stick wins. We hear about that on the news every day.

And yet, if we read a bit deeper in our text, we may discover an even more interesting message. The message may not be simply that the powerless suffer because of the powerful, but the message also might be that there are different forms of power.

King Herod Antipas is powerful enough to simply speak and a prophet’s head is presented on a platter. That’s power ~ at least one kind of power! And in his suffering and dying, John the Baptist reveals, another kind of power which highlights the weakness that lurks in Herod’s brand of power.

There is a great irony behind this violent story of the abuses of power. Herod executed John the Baptist in order to shut him up. But here we are today, still talking about John the Baptist, still remembering his prophetic words, still admiring his courage. We wouldn’t even be talking about King Herod Antipas (most of you probably never heard of him until I mentioned him in this sermon!) except he plays a bit part in the story of Jesus.

Herod Antipas couldn’t shut down the gospel just by executing one of its preachers. The word goes on. This story is being told even in the 21st century. New contemporary disciples are being instructed and encouraged by this story. It’s enough to make you ask, “Who has real power, anyway? Where does true power come from, power that doesn’t end when a ruler no longer rules, real power that continues to undermine the old world and bring forth a new world?”

So if you thought courage died with John the Baptist, think again. John’s disciples show their powerful courage, their love for him in their stepping up to give their revered mentor, John the Baptist, a respectful burial. See what Mark is doing? That seemingly small detail is very telling. The courage continues. Herod thought that he had once and for all put an end to this nuisance prophet, to this troublesome, outspoken preacher. But his followers don’t let the message die with their beloved messenger. And King Herod Antipas is powerless to stop the message: The preaching continues. The gospel sharing continues. The courage continues.

Right here in this congregation, the courage and sharing continues. Looking out on you this morning, I don’t see many people whom the world would regard as highly influential and powerful people and yet, it is a promise of the gospel that Jesus is powerfully busy doing a powerfully new thing in each of us as He powerfully calls us to service, generosity, peace, justice and love in actions like these:

~ Every time you speak up for love in the face of hate,

~ Every time you tell the truth about injustice and reach out and attempt to subvert inequality, unfairness and prejudice.

~ Every time you value truth over discrimination,

~ Every time you reach out to the poor and destitute,

~ Every time you use your resources to feed the hungry or clothe the poor,

~ Every time you comfort the dying, visit and pray for the sick,

~ Every time you set an example of godly love in even the smallest act in the face of all odds against you,

~ And this is the most important one:

~ Every time you respond to and obey Jesus’ most radical and unique command, “love your enemies,”

… in all these powerful things and more, you are showing power, true power, the power of God in Jesus the Christ.

And what makes it so tremendous is this: The grand promise that gathers us, in these weeks after Pentecost, is that nothing, no power on earth, will be able to defeat those who are “in Christ!”

You’ve got the REAL power!

Use it wisely and use it generously!

AMEN

~~~ Dr. Bob Rademacher, Visitation Pastor

Stewardship Letter from Pr. Shaner

2009-05-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here is the text of a letter from our last issue of the Grace Greeter, in which Pr. Shaner talks about some basics of stewardship.

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I want to visit with you about something that is very near and dear to my heart and has been my entire ministry STEWARDSHIP!!!

Stewardship in reality is about who we are and how we live our lives. Stewardship is about all of life! Some of the things I will write, you have probably already heard many times and other things you have probably never thought about! Stewardship is about what God has given to us and how we use those gifts and blessings! There are many in the congregation who will say that we talk about our possessions and talents too much. I would suggest we do not talk about them enough. If we read scripture carefully and especially the New Testament, Jesus teaches us a lot about our possessions and how we use them through His parables and teachings. In fact about two thirds of Jesus teachings deal with this subject.

All that we have or even hope to have comes to us from the hands of a loving God! It is He who gives us the talents and the ability to earn a living and to take care of our families. We have received many blessings from His hands -- more than we will ever deserve!! How we use these blessings given to us freely is what Stewardship is all about. The Bible also talks a lot about tithing! Giving of the first fruits to the work of the church and living on the rest. A tithe is 10% of all that we earn. I am always asked the question whether this means giving from our gross or net income. To me it does not make any difference; either way is fine!!

My wife and I learned from the very beginning of our marriage that when we give to the church from the top of our income all else falls into place. When we sit down to write the checks to pay the bills, the first check is always written to the church for 10% of our income. There is no question about it or even any discussion! Yes, it has been difficult at times and we often wondered how we were going to pay the bills but through it all the Lord has provided and our lives are richer. I would challenge each member of Grace Lutheran Church to consider tithing or increasing your giving to the church by one percent until you get to the point that you are tithing. I can hear many of you now oh pastor, increasing our giving to the church is impossible because special circumstances in our lives. Why not give it a try and see how the Lord will provide AND HE WILL!!

For example, lets say you have given $10 a week to the church for many years and not increased your giving. I am sure you have received increases in pay over those years. If this is true in your case, you have actually DECREASED your giving to the church. That $10 will not buy as much today as it did ten years ago because of inflation and other factors. In order for the church to carry out its mission and be true to Gospel, it takes faithful stewards to accomplish. We give out of thankfulness for what God has done for us! He has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. We give out of our abundance so that others may live out their dreams. In doing so, we spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the community and to the world. We live out our baptism!!

Again, I ask you to consider increasing your gifts to the congregation in the coming months. Especially during these summer months because even though we may take those hard earned vacations, the churchs financial obligations continue. YOU WILL BE BLESSED AND THE CHURCH WILL BE BLESSED!!! May God continue to bless the people of Grace Lutheran, as it seeks to carry out its mission in this place and in this time. Please feel free to visit with me about anything I have said in this article!

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Bill Shaner, Interim Senior Pastor

April 19, 2009: Second Sunday of Easter

2009-04-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

People of the Presence

John 20:19-31

In Mark and Matthew’s account of Easter, the angel or young man at the tomb tells the women that Jesus is not there and that he is going “ahead of you to Galilee.”

Here’s a post-Easter question for you to ponder: Why Galilee?

Galilee was in some ways a forlorn, out-of-the way sort of place in Jesus’ time. It’s the province where Jesus came from, but that’s about its only claim to fame. Jesus spent most of his ministry in Galilee, the “outback” of Judea, so to speak, getting ready to go to Jerusalem. All of Jesus’ disciples seem to have hailed from Galilee. Jesus spent most of his time in Galilee getting his disciples prepared to leave Galilee and go to the capitol city with him. Then, there, in Jerusalem, he winds up getting himself crucified and there he is buried. But the moment he arose from the dead, says today’s Gospel, he headed back to Galilee. Why?

One might have thought that Jesus would appear before the movers and the shakers, the influential, and the newsmakers, those who had some power and prestige. Can you just imagine Jesus appearing to Pilate at his breakfast table? WOW! That would have been some scene to behold!

No, the risen Christ didn’t go to the palace or to the temple, not even to the market place or his friends’ home in Bethany. No, he went back to Galilee. Nobody special lived in Galilee, nobody except the followers of Jesus. You know, people like us, perhaps!

The resurrected Christ goes back to, and appears before the very same rag-tag group of people who so disappointed him, who so often misunderstood him, who when the chips were down, forsook him, and fled into the darkness and left him all alone to face his accusers and torturers, Still, he returns to his betrayers, his fearful little flock. He returns to us.

That first Easter, nobody actually saw Jesus rise from the dead. People didn’t appear to him. He appeared to them. As well, he appears to us. In the Bible, the “proof” of the resurrection is not the absence of Jesus’ body from the tomb; the proof of the resurrection is the presence of Jesus to his followers.

And for us, too; though we were as good as dead, Jesus returned to us. The risen Christ became and continually becomes present to us. If it is difficult to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, as it apparently was for Thomas and likely would have been for us, too, it is almost impossible to believe that he was raised and returned to us.

The result of or the proof of Easter, of the resurrection of Christ, is the church – that is, the community of people through the centuries with nothing more to convene us, to bring us together, than that the risen Christ who came back to us. That’s our only claim, that’s our only hope.

That’s what you see in today’s Gospel from John: the followers of Jesus, are hunkered down alone, cowering behind locked doors, but then the risen Christ comes to them. They are full of fear and doubt. They don’t come to him. He comes to them. This is the dynamic that is at the heart of the Easter experience and it’s at the heart of being a Christian. Jesus comes back to us. Yes, to Us!

Have you noticed, scripture is not a story about how we kept seeking God? It’s a marvelous, continuing story about how God keeps seeking us!

“Show us what God looks like!” we demanded of Jesus. And Jesus tells us that God is the Good Shepherd who doesn’t just sit back in shepherd’s tent and wait for the lost sheep to finally head back home; God goes out, risks everything, beats the bushes night and day, and finds that lost sheep!

God is the Father who does not simply fold his hands and sit back in his rocking chair and wait for the wayward son to wise up and then to come home; God is the heavenly father who leaves heaven and reaches down into the mire of the pig pen and pulls out the prodigal son so that he may be at home with the father forever!

We thought, what with the betrayal and the blood and gore of Good Friday, that this was the end. What else could we think? We thought that it was over between us and God. At last, we figured, we had gone too far away, crossed the line of no return, or so it seemed, for we had stooped to the torture and death of God’s own Son.

But then on Easter, he came back. Back to the very ones who had forsaken, betrayed, and crucified him. He came back to us.

Christians are the people who don’t simply know something the world does not yet know, or believe something that non-Christians don’t yet believe. We are the people who have had something happen to us that the world appears not to have yet experienced. The risen Christ has come back to us. Jesus is present to us, despite our often running hard the other way.

What are implications of all this ? When we walk through the valleys of disappointment, despair, grief and even death, time and again we look up and realize that we’re not walking by ourselves. When we come to a dead end in life, we look over the brink, into the dark abyss and, to our surprise and delight, there he is, awaiting us. We give up, we give in, we come to despair only to find him still near to us, beckoning us forward.

That’s what a risen Savior does. He comes back – again and again – to the very ones who so betray and disappoint him. He appears to us, seeks us, finds us, grabs us, embraces us, and holds us tight!

The risen Christ was real. I cannot say that too emphatically. He was not resuscitated, he was resurrected. He was changed.

Resurrection can not be explained or narrated so we have to use our inadequate human language. Resurrection can only be experienced and proclaimed. Death can not contain him. Christ lives!

In life, in death, in life beyond death, this is our hope. Our faith rests upon an experience, upon countless experiences, of Christ’s presence in, among and with Christ’s people, the church. The risen Christ came back to us! We ARE People of the Presence - the presence of the risen Christ! With Paul at the end of the great resurrection chapter in I Cor. 15, we shout with him, “Thanks be to God!”

Amen

Dr. Bob Rademacher

April 19, 2009

Catechism Series ~ Part V of V

2009-04-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

“Staying Close: Life Together”

Tonight’s sermon is the fifth and last in the catechism series. I hope that these sermons have been of some use to you in focusing on the central themes

of the Christian faith and have also re-emphasized the importance of Luther’s Small Catechism for us Lutherans.

In a lot of ways, we humans really don’t do a stellar job of living Life Together on this planet of ours, be it on the family level (just look at the high divorce rate, 71% in one Midwestern state) or the crime rate of abuse and personal attacks, or globally the world of terrorism and war

In spite of all the negative things, though, that might come to mind about family life and our society, the majority of people DO get along and respect other people’s rights and property and person. Often the motive for living in peace is love and respect; other times, it is merely out of self-interest or just plain every-day compliance with laws ~ the laws of the state or the laws of religion.

Every religion - Judaism and Christianity included - has laws, regulations and rules that are designed to make “life together” safe, respectful, helpful and joyful. Unfortunately many of them are stated in the negative: “You shall not do thus and so OR ELSE!”

I suppose the first place one would turn in the Catechism for these kinds of rules would be the Ten Commandments (page 4ff). These rules for living come out of our Jewish religious heritage and thus are a part of our Christian tradition. . . although one can find their roots in a lot of other places and cultures. We look upon the Ten Commandments as binding because we believe they are first of all given by God and secondly because they govern human behavior so that life together, staying close, is possible.

The first three commandments talk about our staying close to God by respecting him as the only God, as one whose name is holy and is to be held in high regard and reverence and not to be used in vulgar ways and as a God who is worthy of our worship.

The next seven commandments all have to do with our life together, our staying close - a guide for living that respects and supports the family, human life, property, sexuality and reputation. God is concerned that as we stay close to one another our society knows how to honor, love and respect each other.

When one looks at Luther’s meanings of all the Ten Commandments, it becomes very obvious that they are not individualistic, not just about me, but are concerned about and focused on life in community that demands and encourages a society based on respect, trust and service.

The Ten Commandments also imply what they don’t clearly state about God’s intentions for his human creation by looking at the opposite of what is forbidden - namely that humans love, honor, trust and respect one another and in so doing, we love, honor, trust and respect our God.

Life as a Christian is always shown throughout the catechism to be indeed personal, but always, in every situation, to be life together with one another. Life as Christians always assumes the community and our living in that society in peace.

The entire Small Catechism also focuses on how close God comes to us in our life together. The best place to see that is first of all in the Sacraments: how God comes to me and chooses me (and you, too, of course) to be his child in Holy Baptism and then constantly invites us to be guests at his table along with our fellow Christians throughout the world.

The community of the baptized, as it eats and drinks at the communion rail, should always see and think of itself as a small portion of that world-wide communion rail that extends right through the walls of our church and extends and joins communion rails around the world and includes millions of Christians everywhere who gather at the Table of the Lord.

Christianity is never and no where a Lone Ranger state of affairs, never I, Me and Myself, individualistic sort of thing. It’s always, as I said in another of these sermons, at least triangular shaped: God, my neighbor and me. As a memory aid, one might call that the divine/human trinity in comparison with the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and in stark contrast to Luther’s unholy trinity of sin, death and the power of the devil.

We should also not leave this subject without mentioning the Holy Catholic Christian Church, Article III and its meaning of The Apostles’ Creed (see pages 16 & 17). God’s community of the redeemed is known as The Church, the gathering and scattering of God’s people. It is not of human origin but rather created by God’s Holy Spirit as Luther so carefully details in the meaning of the Third Article:

[1] It is within this Christian church that people are called and invited to be part of God’s Family, to live life together, to hear forgiveness announced, sins forgiven and the hope of eternal life proclaimed.

[2] It is within the Holy Christian Church that God’s people live and work and serve in Jesus’ Name.

[3] It is within the Holy Christian Church - as well as in daily life everywhere - that prayer, praise and thanksgiving are offered to our God with a holy and gracious name.

There is so much more in Luther’s Small Catechism than we could possibly cover in five sermons. This series has, as said at the outset, only scratched the surface and pointed out some of the more prominent themes.

It is my hope that I have given you a renewed sense of the importance of this little booklet and that it will become much more important in your Christian walk than it probably has been in the past.

We are so fortunate to have such a clear, concise and succinct explanation of the Christian faith which will help us give a clear account of what we believe and why and to be able to tell others the answer to that typically Lutheran question, “What Does This Mean?” and then proclaim with joy and confidence, “This is Most Certainly True.”

Dr. Robert Rademacher, April 2009

Catechism Series -- Part IV of V

2009-03-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

CATECHISM SERIES ~ Part IV of V

God Cares for Us

Today in our fourth sermon on the Catechism, we focus on the theme “God Cares for Us.” This phrase could be distilled and boiled down to one word: grace.

God’s grace is at the very heart of the best “bottom line” definition of what it means to be a Christian.

I promised you last Wednesday I had a story for tonight; so here it is. This simple arrow pointing downward should give you a visual aid to remember this fact.

A seminary student tells the story of this arrow. She was sitting in a seminary class lecture that was becoming just a bit boring about some long-dead theologian. Apparently, this student was not the only one who looked bored.

Suddenly, the professor slapped shut his lecture notebook and stopped talking. “He wasn’t going to waste one more breath on us,” reported the student.

But before he left the room, he picked up a piece of chalk and went to the board. There he drew a gigantic ARROW, pointing straight down and stood back and said: “If you understand that [pointing to the downward pointing arrow], you understand everything you need to know about what it means to be a Christian . . . who also happens to be a Lutheran.” With that, the professor left the room.

The students just sat there, staring at this enormous, stark ARROW pointing straight down. “And then,” says the student, “I thought the most logical thing I could think, given everything that had just happened, ‘He thinks we’re all going to hell!’”

The next time the class gathered together, the professor began by drawing that same arrow on the board and everybody cringed; now we’re really gonna get it! This time, as he began to speak, he had our full attention. “Here’s what this means,” he said.

God always comes down.

Did you hear me?

God always comes down!

[Disclaimer: The professor in the story and I are well aware of the non-spatial dimension of God in speaking of “up” and “down.” However, we frequently speak of those in authority or power as being “above” or “higher” than we are and thus, in this sermon, I am conforming to a very common understanding of God as being above us and thus able to come “down” to our situation and circumstances.]

The professor continued:

There is never anything, nothing at all, never, ever that we can do to turn that arrow the other way around and make our way UP to God ~ although, heaven only knows how hard we try to go the wrong way on a one-way street towards God!

God comes down TO US in Jesus.

God comes down in the living Word of the Scriptures.

God comes down in the waters of baptism.

God comes down again and again in the bread and in the wine.

And God comes down in the fellowship of believers, his holy church.

That’s what this arrow means:

God always comes down. God always comes to us!

(See end note at conclusion of this sermon)

So, as good Lutherans, we ask as Martin Luther did, “What does this mean? What does the arrow mean?”

There is no such thing as “We are climbing Jacob’s Ladder” in Christianity. That’s as bogus as a three-dollar bill!

There is also no such thing as being good enough when we die for God to take us to heaven.

No such thing as earning or deserving or impressing our way into God’s favor ~ ever!!

Sorry ‘bout that if any of that was your idea of salvation or heaven or being redeemed.

Because you see: It’s ALL GRACE: all a gift; all undeserved, all unearned, all unmerited; it’s all given, all freely given.

And that theme of God’s Grace is splashed on every page of the catechism.

Read the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion - and all of Luther’s meanings for each and every one of them - and grace just bubbles out all over the place. God cares for us, God loves us, God comes to us, God comes down. God takes the initiative. God does the redeeming, the inviting, the healing, the encouraging. Oh, and did I mention: God always comes down to us?

Even in the Ten Commandments which may seem to be only rules and laws for us to follow so God will like us and not strike us down in his wrath are anything but that. They are God’s commands so that life together as his people living under our God and with each other might be rich, full, peaceful, safe, respectful, enjoyable, and “abundant” (to borrow a N.T. word). But I digress; more on that topic next Wednesday.

The first of the three articles of the Apostles’ Creed tell all about God as creator; if you will note on page 13 & 14, Luther’s explanation of Article I - Luther does not talk in lofty terms in his explanation of Article I about God’s universal power as the mighty creator, the Lord of Heaven and earth; no he talks about how God has created me and all that exists and goes on to list what our creator God does for me and all his creation, doing all of this “out of fatherly and divine goodness and mercy” - that’s GRACE, “ . . . without ANY merit or worthiness of mine at all!”

And in the Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer you have God’s care listed in great detail (pg 23) in Luther’s very, very broad understanding of “daily bread” as much more than a loaf of bread on your table - that included of course, but so much, much more. God provides, God cares, God takes good care of us - that, my friends, is ALL GRACE!

God comes down, always comes to us. He always comes to us with open arms, with a renewed invitation, with undeserved love for each one no matter how many times we’ve messed up or what we may or may not have done.

Just as he initially did for each of us in the waters of Holy Baptism to make us his own dear children and in Holy Communion to feed us with his own body and blood, with his own self - for our forgiveness, for our joy, for our rich and full life. That’s GRACE, God comes down; God ALWAYS comes down.

I can’t impress it upon you enough just how important this “down arrow” really is. God comes DOWN to us because none of us, not one of us, could ever do anything that could make us worthy or strong enough to make our way UP to God.

God comes down to set us free from every single thing that binds us and burdens us and holds us back from being the people we have been created and called to be. God comes down to set us free from “sin, death and the power of the devil,” to borrow Luther’s famous “unholy trinity” phrase (see pg 15, meaning of 2nd Article about Jesus).

Jesus came “down” here and went to the cross for us and was resurrected, so that we could be free enough to live anew, abundantly and in freedom. In this crazy, topsy-turvy way, God “proves his love for us” in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5) AND rose from the dead. That’s grace - ALL grace!

God comes down - don’t you ever forget it. It’s the bottom line; it’s the framework for everything else we say and do and are. It’s the starting point. There’s really no other or better place to be than at the point of intersection where God comes DOWN to you and to me and meets us there on the level ground at the foot of the cross.

---Dr. Bob Rademacher, March 2009

Endnote: Story of the down arrow comes from Reclaiming the “L” Word, renewing the Church from Its Lutheran Core, by Rev. Kelly A. Fryer, Augsburg Fortress, © 2003.

Catechism Series -- Part III of V

2009-03-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

CATECHISM SERIES - Part III of V

“Who Am I?”

Last Wednesday in our Catechism Series, we considered the question, “Who is God?”

~ We noted that at the beginning of the Ten Commandments, God tells who God is: God is the one who brought the people Israel out of Egypt, freed them from slavery and gave them a new lease on life as a people and thus God was not only eminently qualified but also had the authority to make a covenant with God’s people that God could expect them to obey ~ and not for God’s benefit, but for theirs and their neighbors.

~ We learned also that God has come to his human creatures as creator of all things and all people, as redeemer in Jesus the Christ and also personally as God’s Spirit or divine presence.

~ We focused also on God as heavenly Father, one to whom we God’s children can turn for guidance and comfort - and we’ll return to that theme tonight as well.

~ The fourth major characteristic of God we observed is that God is holy, God is different from us, God is completely other, God is not one of us, God is not a super man, nor a supreme being or the man upstairs!

~ And fifthly we noted last Wednesday that God is a forgiving God and that God went to great lengths to prove that as well as to provide that forgiveness.

Now we are asking another question tonight, “Who am I?” What does the catechism tell us about who we are and especially who we are in relation to God and to our neighbor.

There are several answers or observations the catechism gives on that subject and while we can’t go into them in great detail - after all, that’s what confirmation class is for - we can at least give a thumbnail sketch.

I. Number one focus is that “I believe that God has created me together with all that exists.” That’s what Article One’s meaning or explanation tells us, page 13. No matter from what other point of view one looks at us humans - biologically, sociologically, evolutionary, psychologically or whatever - we still confess that behind all of that is God who is the responsible one behind all of creation and behind every one’s existence.

In addition to that, on the same page 13, we read all about how God cares for his creation including everything about me, about everyone else and how everything in God’s creation thrives because of God.

Luther emphasizes that also in the Fourth Petition, page 23: look at all the ways God is involved in our world as God as Providence, as our wonderful Provider who is behind all that is good and necessary for our lives. That listing in the meaning of the fourth petition although quite ordinary is truly breathtaking and humbling when you contemplate on it.

II. The second focus in pondering “Who am I?” is that in spite of how wondrously we are created and belong to an awesome God, we are not perfect. Now, of course, you didn’t need me to tell you that. In Article II, pages 14 & 15. The meaning Luther wrote is definitely blunt, “I’m a lost and condemned creature.” Now that really pinches doesn’t it. If the creed and Luther’s meaning is anything, it is definitely honest and doesn’t mince words.

But besides that, it doesn’t mince words about what God has done about our lostness and our broken relationship with him. Article II and its fantastic meaning hold the key to the whole redemption process which God undertook “just for us!” When you think of it, it blows the mind. And it’s all described in what God in Jesus the Christ did and does for us to restore that relationship and to enable us able to joyfully proclaim, “This is most certainly true!” (I love that phrase!)

III. For focus number three we are still in the Creed which tells us a great deal about just who we are, Look at Article III and meaning, pages 16 and 17. God has caused his own personal presence through what we call God’s Spirit or the Holy Spirit to be present with us each moment. And this article describes that whole process of redemption - the calling, enlightening (that is making it possible for me to see, hear and respond to God’s call), and then keeps on calling and enlightening me so as to keep me in the true faith as well as continually makes it possible for me to be a part of God’s community, the church, by daily forgiveness for me and all believers.

Further than that, God won’t forget me. After fully forgiving me and bringing me into his kingdom and into the community of faith, he promises to be with me forever and ever. Therefore death has no eternal power over me, for God promises that God will raise me and all the dead to enjoy eternal life with God forever. Again, what wonderful and joyous news and anticipation.

IV. The fourth focus sort of returns to the first focus tonight but in more intimate detail: Look at Luther’s meaning to the Introduction to Lord’s Prayer, page 19: God is not only the truly awesome, beyond imagining God, but also God is “Father.” When Jesus taught us to pray, he taught us to address this totally other and wonderful God as “Father.” And that means Father in the very best understanding as one who loves, provides, protects, cares for, rejoices with me and hurts with me. As well, the channel of communication Luther says should be - and IS between God and us - is like children who trust their father to be everything a good father is, come to him freely for all their needs, joys and sorrows. How much better can it get?

V. And the final focus I want to mention tonight is that it is not a matter of “you and me God.” It’s all of us, all of us together, all of us as neighbors to one another, all of us in a triangular relationship: God, our neighbors and me. This is most elaborately spelled out in the Ten Commandments, especially commandments 4-10, pages 5-10. There God gives us rules, guidelines, a system of how to relate to everyone around us and they to us, to all of our neighbors for we, too, are neighbors to everyone as well.

God is concerned that we live in community with one another so that life and property and necessities might be protected, provided for all and certain parameters observed in our relationships with one another. Read all about that in each of the commandments.

Jesus quoting the Old Testament great commandments includes that very important sentence: “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself!” That, my friends, is not nearly so easy to do as it sounds but it is still God’s command.

So there you have a brief introduction and sampling of “Who am I?” as spelled out in Luther’s catechism. Next week, we address the statement - a profession of faith, really, “God Cares for Us” and the monumental lengths God undertook to prove that to us!

Dr. Bob Rademacher, March 2009

Lent 3: March 15, 2009

2009-03-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 10:5-13;John 2:13-22

The Ten Commandments are seen as the Judaeo-Christian version of ethical principles that are universally accepted by the human race.

But this is only partly true.

The last six are most certainly not unique to Jews or Christians. All societies prohibit murder, adultery, stealing and false witness against their neighbors. Certainly this group of commandments are known to people quite apart from biblical revelation.

But when we look at the first four commandments, we will find that they are unique to the Judeo-Christian statement of faith. God speaks and identifies himself as “the Lord our God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage.” These first four commandments are put in the framework of the relationship of the people with their God. They are part of a covenant relationship with the people whom God has chosen to love. Because God brought them out of the land of Egypt his first commandment is: “You shall have no other gods before me.”

The second commandment is just a extension of the first in that they should make no graven images. In light of this, the first two commandments are asking us whether God is our ultimate concern. A graven image is not necessarily something that we carve out with our hands. A graven image is a concern which we allow to take priority over God and all other concerns. We are created to have God at the center of our lives but we have allowed other things to push God to the outskirts.

The ten commandments are a vivid reminder that the covenant between God and his people is a two way agreement. God took the initiative to form a covenant with his people and bestowed upon them many blessings. And the story of the Old Testament is the story of the people’s failure to keep their part of the covenant.

In the second lesson for today, Paul reminds us that a new covenant has been made by God in Christ. Paul is contrasting the holiest of faith with the holiest based on law. God has given his law to the people who he has chosen in order that the relationship with his people might be continued.

But the people used the law to exalt themselves rather than glorify God. We are more concerned about exalting ourselves than to serve God.

In describing the holiest of faith, Paul says,
“if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

It is interesting that Paul links confessing with the lips to believing with the heart. The holiest of faith is not just a matter of saying the right things. A person may affirm a host of orthodox doctrines and really have no faith at all. Where there is true faith, it has the desire to share the Good News of Jesus Christ through a confession with the lips.

But such a confession will be an effective witness only if the speaker also believes it in their heart.

The Old Testament lesson for today is at the center of the law that God gave to his people. Laws, such as the Ten Commandments can be seen in two ways. They can be seen as a response of the covenant people to their God. Because God delivered the people out of slavery, the people desire to know what they can do to please God who has done so much for them. But such laws can also be seen, as the second lesson makes clear, a way people can exalt themselves and not honor God.
The laws are no longer seen as a way of continuing what God has started and as an expression of love to God who first loved us. Instead, they are seen as a means whereby we can exalt ourselves, win favor with God, and earn our place in heaven..

In the first view, the laws are an expression of the people’s unity with God. In the second view, the laws are an expression of the division between the people and God.

In the first view they are the means of communicating with God. In the second view they are barriers to be hurdled if the people are to come to God.

Where the laws are seen as barriers to be overcome, then worship itself will be commercialized. The keeping of the Sabbath, worship and obedience to God, these are no longer precious opportunities to have fellowship with God. They instead become duties in order to earn God’s favor. Since it becomes the place where we try to earn God’s favor then worship can become a place to do other business.

That brings us to the Gospel lesson for today when Jesus finds the temple a place where the people do not honor God but a place to do business. The temple, a place of worship, had become a place where livestock and birds were being sold and coins being exchanged.

In cleansing the temple, the gospel writer John, is saying to us, that Jesus was doing more than chastising the villains on the spot. Jesus was introducing a new order.

In his messianic claim he was bringing to an end the whole idea of buying our way to God with good deeds.

The Gospel lesson for today is calling us to Jesus.

It is calling us to be a witness to his life, death and resurrection.

We are the only means by which Jesus has to tell the story of God’s Good News to the world.

We have been set free in order to be in a true covenant relationship with God.

The questions become:

Do we use the commandments to buy our way into heaven??? Or do we use the commandments to exalt God and his great mercy to us??

I pray we use the commandments to give God glory and to be his servants in the world. We are a servant people because of the covenant God has made with us through our baptism.

As we journey with Jesus during this Lenten Season may we live out that baptismal covenant.

NOW GO and be the people of God sharing the good news with our neighbors and the world. AMEN

-- Rev. Bill Shaner, March 15, 2009

Catechism Series -- Part II of V

2009-03-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

Who is God?

“Who is God?” That is the profound question we ask this evening in our second sermon in the catechism series based on Luther’s Small Catechism.

But what a monumental task we have set out for ourselves. We must first of all declare a “disclaimer of limitations” and it is this: no matter how high sounding, no matter how many superlatives we use, how fancy a language we invent, NO ONE can completely define God or fully describe God.

The best we can ever do is describe humanity’s experience of God and tell one another what we believe we have experienced of God and what we believe we have seen God doing in our lives and in the world and how we understand God’s self-revelation to the human race and how we see and understand God revealed in Jesus the Christ.

We can never “box in” God in any kind of theological statement or creed or personal testimony. Our words are always abysmally limited when it comes to a description or attempted definition of God or even in our praising and worshiping God.

With that in mind, we look tonight at Luther’s Small Catechism to see the words that Dr. Luther uses to describe what many Christians believe about God, so let’s get started:

FIRST OF ALL, One of the things missing in this particular version of the catechism is what used to be there right at the top of page four and used to be called The Introduction to the Ten Commandments, where Luther quotes God as saying, “I am the Lord your God.” The full quote from Exodus 20, where the rest of the 10 Commandments are written, reads “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” In my never-to-be humble opinion, of course, I wasn’t asked, that statement (at least “I am the Lord your God”) should have been retained in this newer version of the catechism. It sets the stage for what follows in the Ten Commandments.

At the very beginning of the Ten Commandments, God reminds the people of Israel of not only who he is, but also what he has done which in effect gives the authority and clout for his statement “I am the Lord your God” and his right to issue the commandments in the first place.

Because I have done this powerful and mighty act of setting you free and bringing you to your new home, I am your God. I’m the one who freed you - not Moses, not the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, not your elders and leaders, but I, the Lord your God. In effect, it is I, the Lord your God whom you have to thank - as well as to honor and obey.

And because I have done this life-giving action for you, here are specific rules for living, 10 of them, very basic and very useful; they’re not ten suggestions or ten good ideas, but important commandments I expect you to obey.

And I, the Lord your God, am giving you these commandments so that your life as you relate to me and to your family, you and your neighbors and the countries around you will be blessed, orderly, sacred, protected, long-lasting and safe for all.

That’s the first thing we learn about God. Now we can’t highlight everything this evening that we can learn explicitly or implicitly about God in the catechism, so we focus only on a few.

The SECOND main area is in the Apostles’ Creed (pages 12ff) - there we learn that God has come to us, his human creatures, as the Creator of heaven and earth; as the Redeemer of a sinful, lost and helpless humankind; and that God’s personal Spirit or presence resides everywhere among God’s people and God’s creation, but is especially known in the church that is, among the People of God.

The THIRD prominent mention of God is in the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer (pages 18ff) There God is addressed as Father - not just the mighty creator, not just the one who rescued his people from slavery, not just the one who powerfully initiated a covenant with his people - but as Father, the One to whom we can go and with whom we can confidently speak just as beloved children speak to their loving father.

The FOURTH major characteristic of God we learn from the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer (page 20), immediately following the “Our Father” reference. Here we learn that God is not one of us, not a super human, not a supreme being, not the “man upstairs,” not a playmate or a pal, not someone with whom we can kid around: God is holy, God’s name is holy. God is “other” than we are. Face it, God is different from us. God is not a glorified human being.

In fact, God is so great and so beyond us that we use the word “hallowed” and that word means holy and very much beyond us. The Jewish people to this day recognize this very candidly and do not even speak or write the name of God but make only spoken or written references to God’s name so as not to in any way defame or misuse it.

The FIFTH important attribute of God is “God forgives.” The fifth petition tells us that (page 24) - God forgive us our sins. In that petition of the Lord’s Prayer we acknowledge that it is God who forgives and we humbly pray for that forgiveness for ourselves and promise to forgive others who do us wrong.

Forgiveness is spelled out in much more detail in the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Holy Communion. On page 28, the first benefit of baptism listed: “In baptism, God forgives sin.”

As well, in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, part 2, page 34, the benefit of Communion is pointed out in the words Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Later in Luther’s same explanation a few lines down, he summarizes it this way: because where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.
So for Luther and for us it all settles out as this: FORGIVENESS is the heart and soul of the Christian faith - it summarizes all of the other benefits of the sacraments, of the new life in Christ, of being redeemed; because where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

And FINALLY - for our purposes here today - this wonderfully valuable and beautiful gift of forgiveness is explained further in the Second Article of the Creed pages 14 & 15 and in Luther’s answer to the question “What Does This Mean?” as he describes who Jesus is, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and what it that all means: He [Jesus] has saved and redeemed me, freed me from sin, death and the power of the devil - that IS forgiveness. That’s what the Christian faith is all about.
I could go on and on and point out many other places in the catechism that tell who God is - and some of them would overlap into the sermon two weeks from tonight when we cover the theme, God Cares for Us. There’s not a page in the Small Catechism that doesn’t add to our understanding of God and who God is and what God does. I’ve only scratched the surface for you here this evening.

Our great and wonderful God is so powerful, so awesome, so majestic, so deserving of our honor and praise - yet, this same God is the one who has come to humankind to show us just who God is!

Dr. Bob Rademacher, March 11, 2009

Catechism Series -- Part I

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On Wednesdays during Lent, Pastor Rademacher is preaching a wonderful sermon series on Luther's Small Catechism. He has graciously allowed me to post his sermons here, so if you missed one, or would like to go back and read one again, you will be able to do so! Thank you, Pr. Bob!

Introduction to the Small Cathechism

The year was 1529 and Dr. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and university theology professor in Wittenberg, Germany, had really stirred up things in the church and in Germany. The Lutheran Reformation was well underway and always the pastor at heart, Luther decided to take a pastoral tour of area congregations in the province of Saxony.

What he found absolutely appalled him. The people in the parishes were abysmally ignorant of even the most basic things regarding the Christian faith. And it wasn’t just the lay people, it was the clergy as well. Some of them couldn’t even recite the Apostles’ Creed or Lord’s Prayer because thought they were too long to memorize.

Many people in Luther’s day had no real idea what they believed as Christians or what was really at the heart of their Christian faith. They just did as the church told them out of a great fear of going to hell and didn’t worry very much about basic beliefs.

So, Luther sets quill to paper and writes a catechism. Catechism means a handbook using the question and answer format. Luther maintained that every person ought to have his/her own copy of the catechism so as fast as he got it written, the Small Catechism was printed and distributed far and wide - and to this very day, this little booklet is absolutely basic in our Christian faith and life.

Luther’s Small Catechism is in most Lutheran congregations the center piece for confirmation instruction.

You who have been confirmed will remember Luther’s often repeated question in the catechism, “What Does This Mean?” Inquiring minds have always been a defining hallmark of being a Lutheran, it’s part of our identity, it’s part of who we are: We want ~we need ~ to know what we believe and why. So we ask, “What Does This Mean?”

And when we have the answer from God’s Word, we declare, “This is Most Certainly True!” ~ another Lutheran phrase that indicates that our faith is not simply a “I think so, I hope so” proposition. What we believe from God’s Word becomes a profession of our faith, a mark of our identity, a guide for our living as Christians.

What’s in this little book we call The Small Catechism? Basically it is divided into five chief parts, each dealing with a very familiar part of our Christian life and understanding:

The 10 Commandments, pg. 4-11
The Apostles’ Creed, pgs. 12-17
The Lord’s Prayer, pages 18-27
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism, pages 28-30
The Sacrament of Holy Communion, pages 33-35

Several other items are included:
How people are to be taught to confess - pages 31-32 - What confession is and how to do it.

Also included are Luther’s Morning and Evening blessings, pages 36-38.

We have added on inside front cover: biblical references for The Ten Commandments, The Lord’s Prayer and the two sacraments.

What is this little book for, why is it so important that you should not only own one, but also know what’s in it?

Do you recall this Scripture verse from I Peter (3:15) “Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you”?

Can you do that? Can you give an explanation, a recital of what you believe as a Christian ~ and not merely a generic religion-in-general answer? such as “Well, yeah, uh, I believe in God and I believe in Jesus and I hope to go to heaven when I die.”

~ Can you give an explanation of your salvation, of forgiveness of sins, tell who Jesus is and what he did and why?

~ Can you tell what you believe about the Sacraments ~ what they are all about and their benefits?

~ How about a basic explanation of the Triune God or the guide you follow for living and what it’s all about?

~ Or the number one prayer of Christians and what it means? I’m of course talking about the prayer Jesus taught us known as The Lord’s Prayer.

It’s all in here! In short, easy to read, easy to understand, easy to remember - yes, easy to memorize - portions; easy to reference when needed.

As a Christian you absolutely, positively, definitely need to know what is at the heart and soul of your faith, of the “hope that is within you,” as Peter says.

Where else can you get a summarized, biblical response than from the Small Catechism, the booklet that your church has used for centuries, the booklet you are familiar with from your confirmation days or will be one day, a booklet that is reliable and able to give you a basic understanding and answer to anyone who may ask, “Why do you believe such and such and is it really true Lutherans believe . . .?”

I firmly believe the catechism, small as it is, should have a home between the covers of your Bible. It should be read often, used as a spark for prayer and meditation, referred to in times of doubt, held up as an authoritative, yet simple, understanding of your Christian and Lutheran heritage. If you or somebody asks, you’ve got a reliable, perfect resource right at hand.

The Small Catechism deserves a place of prominence in your Christian life. You should be so familiar with it, that even if you can’t quote all of it, at least when you hear quotes from it, you immediately recognize where those quotes come from and what they mean.

For example, if I should quote in a sermon, “I believe that by my own understanding or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him . . .” you would immediately know that quote came from the explanation of the third article of the Creed. (page 16 )

Or if I should quote “…because where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation,” you would immediately know those words come from the Sacrament of Holy Communion. (page 34)

I fear that the majority of Christians - Lutherans included - really can not give a very good account, a good, reasonable explanation of what they believe and why, if asked, and at the same time make it sound reasonably close to a Christian explanation and not simply a generic American religion-in-general description.

That is why I am preaching this series on the catechism. I want you to be informed, to be RE-informed, of what you as a Lutheran Christian believe and why. And I believe the catechism is the best explanation that I can give you and I urge you to re-read the whole catechism this week ~ several times even ~ to once again familiarize yourself with its contents.

Next Wednesday we’ll be looking at the theme, “Who is God?” This theme runs throughout the catechism: What can we learn from the catechism about this God whom we claim as “our God” ? Who is God, what has God done, what does God continue to do and why should I care?

Read, re-read the catechism and bring it along next week.

Pastor Bob Rademacher
March 4, 2009

Welcome

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This blog is a place for all of you to find the recent sermons preached at Grace Lutheran Church in Lincoln Nebraska. Check back every week for updates!