Christ’s Promising Word

December 21, 2008
Fourth Sunday of Advent
God’s Big Secret
Romans 16:25-27

In the End…All Thanks to God

On those Sundays when Jason Worcester helps up front as an assistant minister, Jason & I end the service in back with our own private ritual. It has become our “thing.” I stretch out my hand to Jason and say, “Thank you, Jason, for being the assisting minister. Great job!” And Jason (in typical Jason Worcester fashion) points a finger up to heaven and says piously and angelically, “Thank God!”

And look what is happening in that ten-second exchange: Jason is teaching the preacher. All thanks…ALL thanks…finally ends in “doxology,” a word of praise to God.

In just a few days now, people will be exchanging a ton of gifts. And you will hear people say, “Thanks, mom. Thanks dad. Thank you, grandma & grandpa.” But in the end, the very end, all thanks go to God, “to whom be the glory forever! Amen. Amen.”

Paul’s Final Account

Last Sunday we were in the bible book of Thessalonians, which was the first letter of the Apostle Paul. And now today we are in the book of Romans, which may have been his last letter. His “Final Account” some people call it.

And appropriately Paul ends his letter with a doxology. A word of thanks to God. A word of praise.

Paul points his index finger to the heavens, and Paul says, “Now to God…(dot, dot, dot)…to the only wise God…to God through Jesus Christ be the glory. Forever and ever. Amen. Amen.” That is a doxology, a word of thanks and praise that gives the credit, the work, the honor and attention…it gives it all to God.

The “Obedience of Faith”

And “what” Paul gives thanks “for” is simply awesome. Paul gives thanks for a “Big Secret” now disclosed. A “Big Secret” first testified to by the prophetic writings but which is now in Jesus Christ “fully” disclosed.

A “mystery” Saint Paul calls it. But in the bible a “mystery” always means “a revealed secret” (for if it wasn’t “revealed” then we wouldn’t even know that it was a “secret”).

And what that “Big Secret” is is “the obedience of faith.” The “obedience of faith” through which everyone is included—Jew & Gentile, you & me alike. Everyone is included (or, at least, CAN BE included) through the “obedience of faith.” That is the entire point of Saint Paul’s gospel. Everyone is included through the “obedience of faith.”

“How” we Hear and Obey Depends on “What” is Spoken

“Obedience” is a wonderful, multifaceted word. Literally, the word “obey” means to “hear,” as when mother says, “Are you listening to me? Do you HEAR what I am saying?” Or, like when dad shakes his finger at you and says, “You didn’t listen to me. You didn’t obey.”

But “how” we “hear” something depends upon what is “spoken.” If someone speaks to me a “command,” then the way I “hear” it (or “obey” it) is “to do” what is commanded. But now let’s change it. What if somebody “speaks” to me a joke: How do I “hear” or “obey” a joke? I “laugh,” of course. I don’t do anything at all except to “laugh.” That is the way to hear a joke! Or, if someone leads me in a “cheer,” “how” do I respond to that? I “cheer,” too, of course. Or if someone tells me a say story, I “obey” it (I respond to it) by “tearing up and crying.” “How” we “hear” something depends on what is “spoken.”

A Promise Spoken & Heard

Now, let’s say someone speaks to me a “promise.” How do I “obey” or “hear” a promise? What is it that I “do”? Well, I don’t “do” anything at all, except to “believe” it and act upon that promise.

Let’s say I promise to come over to your house and wash all the windows and dust the home before Christmas. What is it that you must “do”? Nothing at all, except to “believe me” and take me at my word and have to door open when I come. In fact, if you do “do” something (like clean the house yourself because you don’t believe that I am really coming) then you cannot take advantage of and benefit from the promise even if I do come.

What did the virgin Mary “do” when the angel Gabriel came to her and gave to her the greatest promise of them all—that she would bear a Son and that he would be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world? Why “she” did not “do” anything at all, except to believe it…and take God at his word…and say, “Here am I the servant of the Lord. Let GOD “do to me” whatever it is God wills. Let it be to me according to YOUR word.”

And then, she raced off to her cousin Elizabeth to point her index finger to the heaven and praise God by saying, “My soul MAGNIFIES the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Doxology. Her faith moves her to doxology. To thank God. And to give God the praise.

“Plan B” is “Plan A”

Sometimes I hear people talk as though “the godly life” is all about “obeying God’s COMMANDMENTS.” In fact, the ancient rabbis use to count the commandments in the bible. They came up with something like 613 or so. And each one of them was equally important. Break one, you break them all.

And sometimes I hear Christian people talk about Jesus as though he were a “Mr. Fix-it.” Their thinking goes like this: God planned the world to obey his law perfectly. It’s all about God commandments. But, we sinned & blew it. And so, God went to “Plan B” and sent Jesus to save us from our sin.

But “Plan B” was actually “Plan A” all along. God is NOT so much a “law-giver” as God is a “promise-maker” AND a “promise-keeper.” And that the way to “receive,” “hear,” “obey” a promise is to “believe it.”

Abraham believed God, the bible tells us, and God “reckoned it to him as righteousness,” the right way to related to God. Faith is worship. Faith in Jesus is the way to “worship” God. Jesus was God’s Plan A right from the very start.

Promise Theology is Gift Theology & Ends in Doxology

This is the “obedience of faith” that Paul is talking about at the end of his last letter. This is the “big secret” and the “mystery” that God kept “hidden” for many long years until he gave us the greatest gift of them all on Christmas Day—the fulfillment of his promise in the prophetic word—Jesus Christ our Lord. Son of David according to the flesh. Son of God by his coming through the Holy Spirit. This is GOD’s work. It is not ours.

And we do not “catch on” to it until we see it and receive it as a “gift.” The gift of God’s grace. Promise theology is “gift” theology. It says that it is all about God’s work in us through Jesus Christ.

And what is there left for us to do, except to point our index finger up to the heavens and say “to God…to God through Jesus Christ be the glory forever and ever. Amen!”

© 2008 Pastor Paul Jaster

December 14, 2008
Third Sunday of Advent
Rejoice! Pray! Give Thanks!
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Three Crisp Imperatives

Rejoice! Pray! Give Thanks! Three crisp imperatives cry out the Christian life in all its joyful splendor. Rejoice in the Lord always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks to God in all circumstances of life.

This evening at our Advent dinner we will have “The Decking of the Dads.” The dads will sit in chairs. And then, the rest will decorate them like “Christmas trees” with lights and ornaments. Come, it will be a blast! This happened to the Hull family a number of years ago at McKinley School, where Greg & Karen teach. And as they did, the students sang, Deck the Hulls with Boughs of Holly.

Well…this is the adornment of the Christian life. This is God’s will for us in Jesus Christ. It is what God wants people to see when they look at us: Rejoice in the Lord always…Pray without ceasing…Give thanks to God in all circumstance of life.

Paul’s Happy Letter

We are in the book of 1 Thessalonians today. Which just happens to be the first letter that we have of the Apostle Paul. Which also means that it is the very first book written in our New Testament. It is the earliest writing that we have from the hand of any Christian.

This is Paul’s happy letter. Although these folks were just a brand new church which Paul had just founded…and although Paul had to leave them sooner than he really wanted…and although Paul had some anxious nights and moments worrying over them like a newborn’s mother as he sent Timothy from Corinth up the coast of Greece to see if they were still okay, he was thrilled and he was ecstatic when Timothy came back with the good news: They were okay. They were “hanging in there.” There were still “steadfast in the faith.” There were no major problems in this congregation.

And so Paul gushes with relief. And waxes on about Jesus will come again with triumph and with trumpets. And on how no Christian will be left behind. And then he closes with three imperatives. Three gospel imperatives. Fantastic words of hope and encouragement: Rejoice in the Lord always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks to God in all circumstance of life. For…this is the will of God…in Christ Jesus…for you. How could we say it any plainer?

Tune Into the Good News

And what a contrast that is from a world which is down, depressed, deflated and despairing. I have a nephew Josh, who is a real go-getter. He works for Edward Jones as a financial advisor. And he is sharp and savvy. In fact, he is the go-to-guy that headquarters invites in from the field to help train the new recruits.

And through the family network, I asked what advice is Josh giving to his customers these days. And my sister Ellen reports that it is very simple: “Turn off the TV & don’t open any of your financial statements.” Stop listening. Stop listening to the bad news.

And I as a pastor, would add one more thing to Joshua’s excellent advice, “Stop listening to the bad news…AND tune into the good news.” Do not only “tune out” the bad, but rather ALSO “tune in” to the good. The good news God has for you in Jesus Christ.

Quite frankly I am tired of the bad news. I find it gets me down and depressed, especially since I am prone to S.A.D. anyhow. Seasonal Affective Disorder. I don’t like cold, dark nights. I like the light. And I am sick and tired of living in a greedy and short-sighted culture that trades long-term health for short-term gains. I am weary of the politicians who buy votes with other peoples money, especially mine, when I would like to do other things with those dollars—like Christian ministry. That’s what turns my crank. Using dollars for Jesus. It makes me angry to think of the retirement dollars & health care benefits that have simply vanished because those entrusted with public responsibilities were sleeping at the switch.

It makes my stomach turn whenever anybody gets on TV and measures how good or bad Christmas is because of retail sales. My word, what in the world does Christmas have to do with “retail sales!” Those two words do not belong in the same sentence: Christmas & retail sales. And I am especially sick and tired of CEOs and politicians who point the finger of their blame at other people, when all along their own finger has been stickin’ in the pie.

Sanctified by God

Do not we know that there is a God who has “sanctified us entirely” by our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection? Have we not heard that it is God, and not us, who keeps us sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? Did we not see and hear that LOUDLY on the cross?

And so, we test the spirit of our times. And we hold fast to what is good. We tune into the Good News. We come to worship weekly. And we engage in the classic Christian disciplines of regular reading in the bible and of prayer. And we turn off the bad. And we abstain from every form of evil, including getting caught up in the despair and depression of these current days.

This does not mean that Christians stick their heads into the sand. Sad things happen to us like everyone else. We lose our pension money. Ours jobs are insecure. Nasty illnesses hit us like it does non-Christians. We struggle with our ex’s and our in-laws. We worry over the kids at night. And we have our share of gut-wrenching losses—just like everybody else.

Called to a Baptismal Life

But we know this, too. God is faithful. And God calls us to a baptismal life. We stick our finger into the baptismal water and mark the sign of Christ on our foreheads. And we say to ourselves, “I belong to Jesus. He died…he rose…for me.” And that leads us to a whole new life. The Christian life. A baptismal life.

And the bottom line is this: we seek to do good to one another and to all. And we rejoice always…no matter what happens in our life. And we trust that somewhere, somehow, God will work something good out of it. Like, let’s say, a death and resurrection. And we pray…without ceasing…knowing that God has the answers even when we do not. And we give thanks to God in Christ Jesus…in all circumstances of life.

Three crisp gospel imperatives cry out the Christian life in all its joyful splendor: Rejoice! Pray! Give Thanks!

© 2008 Pastor Paul Jaster

December 7, 2008
Second Sunday of Advent
Wait…There’s More!
2 Peter 3:8-13a

Where is the Promise of Christ’s Coming?

Leave it to Peter to put his finger on the problem that has plagued Christianity ever since its start. The promised day of Christ’s return—Christ’s parousia or “Second Coming,” some would call it—that day has not yet come. There was a time when early Christians expected Christ to come again in their own life-time. “Any day, now!” the preachers would say, “Any day, now!” “So be ready and prepared!”

But after 2,000 years of “nothing-happening-yet” isn’t that line getting a little old? Where in the world has Jesus been the past 2,000 years? How can we possibly take such a promise seriously? In our Gospel reading for today, John the Baptist says, “the one more powerful than I is coming…” and in the very next line we read, “And Jesus came…” Now that’s the way it should work! A promise is proclaimed and immediately it is fulfilled! I love it! Promise made. Promise fulfilled.

But, where in the world has Jesus been since then? Nobody’s seen him for 2,000 years. And so is it any wonder that, after many of the first-generation eye-witnesses died off, there arose a bunch of second generation “scoffers.” That’s what Second Peter calls them “Scoffers.” Skeptics who say, “Where is the promise of Christ’s coming? He died and rose, you say; but NOTHING HAS HAPPENED YET! Nothing is different. Nothing has changed. This Jesus stuff is just a myth, an empty tale.”

Go to any public college or university today and I bet that somewhere there is a professor who says: “All knowledge is scientific and empirical. We learn by observing nature around us. We test and we verify. And science shows that God does not intervene. Religion is a myth. So grow up. Look around you. Find your own path through life. Do what pleases you and gives you pleasure. No one else will do it for you. It is all up to you.”

Nothing New

Sounds pretty modern doesn’t it? And yet would you believe this line of thinking was invented by a Greek philosopher who lived 340 years before Jesus Christ was born. Epicurus was his name. Originally, he was called a soter, a “savior,” because he “saved” and “freed” people from the “religious myths” of the Greek gods. Some profs probably think that they are “saviors,” too, and messengers of “enlightenment.”

But his followers later came under censure and were called “pigs” and “dogs” for wallowing in their self-serving passions. Maybe the “scoffers” do have one point in “there is nothing new under the sun.” Human nature has been the same ever since “the beginning of creation.” Self-centered, egotistical, piggish, and selfish. “It’s all about me.”

But wait…there’s More! God is Changed

But wait…there’s more! There is a “Word” from God. A powerful, mighty “Word” from God. A Word that IS new, different and dynamic. It is that same “Word” by which God creates the heavens and the earth. Creation is ongoing. And it is that same “Word” God uses to send the flood that first destroys and then renews the earth. That is on going, too.

Maybe the first flood did not make any change in “people.” The bible, sadly, grants that after the first flood the earth was still corrupt and full of violence and that people where still looking out only for themselves. That did not change. The selfish pigs were still around.

But there WAS a change in “God”! God repented. Yes, God did. God looked at all the devastation and found the loss of life too high, for only eight were saved this way. Get your fingers up and count them off: Noah, Mrs. Noah, three sons & their wives. And God said his great “Never Again!” “Never again will I destroy the world this way.”

Jesus is a New Way

And so when the “Strong One” came—Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee—Jesus did not come with fire and flood. Well, not at least the way we normally think of it in those terrible apocalyptic pictures — those disaster movies that get played before our eyes. He came with a “flood” of God’s grace & the “fire” of God’s Spirit. He came with his gentle “washing” of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. We call it “Baptism.” Holy Baptism.

And he came with the bright “flame” of God’s burning desire and love. The “Gospel light,” we call it. A fire that we take from the Paschal Candle (the Christ candle) that stands beside the font in Holy Baptism. And we take a smaller candle and we “pass it on” to the person who is baptized and we say, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

And notice please what is happening over there this Advent season. Where we normally have the baptismal font, there we have an Advent wreath. And we use it to count down the days until Christmas…until we light the final central candle (the Christ candle)…and recall how the “Word” of God (that mighty Word of God) became flesh & dwelt among us full of grace and truth. And on Christmas Eve, we dim the church and pass that light around, person to person.

Christ’s New Day

There is a reason why the return of Christ is delayed, Second Peter tells us. There is a very good reason. God’s ways are not “our ways.” God’s time is not “our time.” Thank God for that! With the Lord one day is as a 1,000 years, and a 1,000 years are like one day.

The Lord is not SLOW about his coming, but rather Jesus is PATIENT. And Jesus is using this time so that we might be a “John the Baptist” and proclaim the Gospel of forgiveness, too. Because God does not want anyone to perish, but would rather give much more time for everyone to repent.

And that “hope” and that “promise” changes the way we live. It changes us Christians. We do not settle for what we have now. And we do not hog our resources like selfish pigs. And we don’t join the moaning and the groaning of the “skeptics” and the “scoffers.”

Rather, we are an “Advent people.” And we WAIT. We wait patiently (& impatiently!) for the coming of the Lord. And we hasten that day with a holy and godly life. In fact, later in his letter Peter lists off eight virtues. Eight. Eight virtues Christians have to match to the eight people who were saved in that first flood. And to match the “new creation” that began one the “new Sabbath,” that first Easter, the eighth day, the first day of “new creation.”

Get your fingers up and count them off with me: faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection, love. Especially faith & love. The first one & the last one. There is more to life than piggish selfishness. Yes, there is more. Much more. And as an Advent people who cling to the promises of Christ we wait for it. We wait for it—“a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.”

© 2008 Pastor Paul Jaster

November 30, 2008
First Sunday of Advent
Rich in God’s Gifts
1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Advent’s Attitude Adjustments

Advent is all about “attitude adjustments.” Advent is a time of year designed to adjust our “attitude” for the coming of the Lord based on the gift of Christ that we receive on Christmas day. I saw a vivid example of Advent’s attitude adjustment once.

Many years ago when our daughter, Kirsten, was only four years old and quite rambunctious, I caught her climbing up on the play table in the basement. And before I could grab a hold of her and sweep her up (because we don’t stand on tables in our house) her eye caught sight of a Christmas present Laurie had hidden out of sight high on an upper shelf.

And immediately Kirsten’s eyes lit up and she clapped her hands together quite angelically and she said, “Is that for me?” “Maybe,” I said as evasively as I could. Not one more word was spoken on that topic. And yet, I could see a significant change in her behavior for the rest of the day. She was sweeter, kinder and more cooperative. That is the effect that Advent—the promised coming of God’s gift—can have on attitudes.

Smugly Satisfied

Listen now to Scripture: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The First Sunday of Advent takes us to Saint Paul’s first letter to the church of Corinth, a prominent port city along the Mediterranean in southern Greece. And I suppose that if there is one way we can characterize this letter, it is as an “attitude adjustment.” My word, all of the apostolic letters were attitude adjustments!—revolving around the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

There were problems in the churches. Behavior problems related to attitude problems. And Saint Paul addressed them head on even in his opening Prayer of Thanksgiving, which also serves as a table of contents to each of his individual letters.

“I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge…so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Read these words in the context of the entire letter and you will discover quite a bit of tongue-in-cheek in this opening prayer. For the problem with the church in Corinth was that they were NOT waiting for a better day ahead. They were NOT longing for it, praying for it, yearning for it. They were NOT waiting for the revealing of their Lord Jesus Christ.

They felt sufficiently blessed and enriched by their charismatic gifts (especially by their ability to speak in tongues, and by their advanced, sophisticated knowledge) that they were ready to settle for the present and were smugly satisfied with what they had now.

And what that resulted in was a self-contained and contented individualism, a crumbling down of the fellowship, and in a lack of love. Can you believe this? They were not even waiting for one another at meals of Holy Communion. That’s how bad it had become. They were like a fragmented family where each person goes their own way.

The Fragmented Family

And isn’t that our problem too? We have been so blessed in America…well, at least, until the last bubble burst…that we are satisfied for now. We are like a bunch of spoiled kids who never learned a sense of delayed gratification. And so, put it on the credit card. Take out a cheap home loan at a teaser rate. Run up the national debt. Borrow on our children’s future.

We think we are so smart and what that has resulted in a self-contained and contented individualism, a crumbling down of fellowship, a lack of love, the fragmented family.

Saint Paul’s Solution

Well, Saint Paul has the answer to our problems, and it is Advent. Waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are NOT satisfied with now. We are waiting for a better day ahead full of grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And like my daughter Kirsten standing on the table, we have already gotten a glimpse of that gift God has purchased for us.

And just for the fun of it, why don’t we think of it as this table of the Lord—the table of Holy Communion—a table from which we can look into the past and see God’s grace and peace coming to us from a man dying on a cross and a baby cradled in a manger. And it is “Top Shelf” stuff.

Here he is, Jesus Christ. God’s gift. God’s richest gift. The One for whom the world was waiting. The One who takes our guilt and wrong and brokenness away. God was faithful and he came! Full of grace and peace—two great gifts we have already.

The Gift of God’s Own Self

And that is the great wonder of advent: the One for whom we are waiting is the One who already came in a redeeming love to make us blameless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what makes his coming so exciting. We are not waiting for a day of judgment, as in “just wait until your father comes home.” We are waiting for the Christ—a gift, a present—the gift of God’s own self.

And that, in turn causes a change in our behavior. We are been enriched in every way in Christ. We are not lacking in any spiritual gift as we wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I hate waiting. I hate waiting in lines. I hate being stalled in traffic. I hate being placed on hold. But what I hate about it is the idleness.

It is not to an idle waiting that Christ calls us, but rather to an active waiting—like “waiting” on tables and “waiting” on customers. Call it service. Call it action. Call it love. Christ has given us things to do while we wait. A Gospel word to speak. And a fellowship of people to care for.

When our attitude is right—a hopeful waiting for Jesus Christ—then a behavior change must follow. A behavior change called “love.” We are rich in the gifts God gives, and so we put those gifts to good use. That is the effect that Advent has on attitudes.

© 2008 Pastor Paul Jaster