Christ's Promising Word

Second Sunday in Lent
February 28, 2010
Jesus’ Lament
Luke 13:31-35

God is like a Mother Hen

God is Like a Mother Hen

It is  said, “A picture is worth a 1,000 words.” And that certainly can be said of Jesus.

Jesus often painted pictures to get his point across—especially pictures right off the farm.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

The love of God. The passionate and personal love of God. What is that love  it like? Just look at this picture. It is like a mother hen, who, when the fox comes and threatens the brood, gathers her chicks under her wings to save them and protect them.

The Decoy

I’ve never spent much time around chickens, but I did see this parable happen once.

I was canoeing up in the Minnesota Boundary Waters—which is paradise itself. And I saw a mother duck with a bunch of little ducklings all spread out. And they were so cute and cuddly that I had to paddle over to take a closer look.

And first this mother duck swept them under her wings and pushed them to the shore under some brush. And then she flew away and left them by a couple of dozen yards so that I would go after her instead of them.

She was the decoy drawing me away. She would rather have me come after her to die herself than have me mess with her little chicks.

The Love of Almost Any Mom

And who needs to be around chickens or ducks to get the picture? You see it in almost every mom—that passionate desire to love and protect her children with her own wings.

That is the maternal instinct that God has put into every mom. It’s in their genes. It’s in their DNA. God has programmed them that way.

And that is precisely what the love of God is like. It is like that passionate, self-sacrificing maternal instinct that we can see in any mom anywhere in nature.

Love Spurned & Rejected

But just because this mothering God loves us and protects us doesn’t mean we like it.

When I paddled up to those ducklings, a lot of quacking was going on. And although I am not particularly fluent in “duck,” I can easily guess what they were saying.

“Quack! Quack! Henry, get back here. I told you not to swim so far away. You shouldn’t get anywhere near to strangers.”

“O mom, stop hyperventilating. It’s only just a couple of tourists in a canoe. They will not harm me.”

And that is part of our programming too. To take parental love… and to spurn it…and reject it, because parents tend to clip our wings and tie us down.

Time and time again Mother-Hen-God sent prophets to tell her children just how much she loves them. How much she passionately loves them. And to warn them of the terrible danger they are in when they wander too far away from God’s protecting arms.

But, by and large, God’s people just dismissed them as a bunch of noisy quacks, hyperventilating over nothing.

We Kill Any Challenge to Our Status Quo

We Kill Jesus, Too

And Herod is not the only one who tried to kill Jesus because Jesus was a challenge and a threat to his self-indulgent way of life. His power and his control.

We kill Jesus too, each time we reject God’s love and try to live our life on our own apart from God’s provision and protection.

We kill Jesus each time we stonewall him and block him out of our lives because his way of life is too restrictive and confining.

O sure, we like to hear the Gospel word that God loves us.

But don’t let that love make any demands on us. Don’t let it meddle in our affairs. Don’t let it change the course on which we are swimming.

For we are big kids after all. What need have we of a mothering smothering God?

Christ’s Passionate, Persistent Love

Well, our need is great. For in a world of sin and death, we are as vulnerable as a tiny, little chick in an outside yard. We are in great danger. Grave danger.

But just because we reject our parents’ love, does not mean that our parents stop loving us. At least not true parents, although some human parents can let us down.

Within our Lord’s lament over Jerusalem there is a heavy sigh—the sigh of love rejected. But more than that, there is the passionate desire to keep on loving still no matter what the cost.

“Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. …I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.”

Jesus was leaving. He was leaving Herod’s Galilee and going on to Jerusalem. NOT because he was scared and running away from Herod, but in order to face a greater foe and a greater danger for us—the death we to die because of our lovelessness and hate…and our desire to rebel and live apart form the love of God.

The mission and the ministry of Jesus Christ continues. And even a powerful ruler like Herod cannot stop it. Until it takes Jesus to Jerusalem and to the cross.

And there an odd maneuver takes place. Jesus flies away from his brood of disciples. Why?

For the same reason that the mother duck flew away from her ducklings. To be the decoy. To be the prey. If any danger must come to my children, Jesus says, then let that danger fall on me.

Pictured in the Pelican

Christ's Love Pictured in a Pelican

On the bottom panel of our stained glass window entitled “crucifixion,” there is another female bird, a mother pelican, surrounding her young with her love.

Why there? Why on that panel?

It is because in medieval piety, people thought that the mother pelican would pick at her own breast until it bled to feed her young with her own blood.

They were wrong, of course. She was not picking at her breast, she was just mashing fish against it. And that gooey mess just looked like blood.

But they were not wrong in using it as a way to picture what it is that Jesus Christ has done for us. He has poured out his own blood so that we can live.

It is no accident that we call the death that Jesus died his “passion” for that is what it is all about—God’s passionate love for us. A love which never stops. Even when it is rejected.

And how can we ever picture it? How can we ever picture the great intensity of a love like that? Well, picture it like this—the love of any mom.

© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster

First Sunday in Lent
February 21, 2010
Testing
Luke 4:1-13

Is God Testing You?

Testing...testing...testing

Do you ever feel that God is testing you? I once lived with a community of believers during a time of tremendous struggle in the church. Families were being divided. People were losing their jobs and homes. All because of struggles over biblical interpretation. It is a lousy way to be the church. I do not recommend it.

And we were all gathered in a large field house, a gym, trying to figure out what to do next. About 500 people. And down on the floor some tech was setting up the sound system and putting up a mike on a stand so that the wise old saints among us could give us guidance and direction. And the tech bent over the microphone and said, “Testing, testing, testing.” And the room became hushed

First up was old “Doc” Caemerer, the oldest preacher in the bunch. Shaky, thin and frail, and yet as spirited as ever. He came to put in words the anxiety we all were feeling.

And the first thing that came out of his mouth was to say that that young tech had already said it all. “God was testing…testing… testing us.” And the crowd broke into thunderous applause because old “Doc” had put his finger on our malady with just one word. God was “testing” us. Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever feel that God is testing you?

Lent Begins with the Temptation of Jesus

The Sundays of Lent always begin with the temptation of Jesus. Right after Jesus was baptized around the age of 30, Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Spirit. And there he was tempted by the devil for 40 days. Not just one day. But 40 days. Each and every day. And do you get that equation: to be baptized is to be tempted, “tested” daily?

And I have always found great comfort in that Jesus as tested too.  God doesn’t place a protective bubble around his Son. God doesn’t a make special exception for Jesus just because he is God’s chosen one.

Rather God sends Jesus into the most extreme hostile environment we humans ever have to face. Jesus too is tested, in every way that we are: food, wealth, power, status, religious furor. You name it. Jesus has been there too.

Life in the Wilderness

A Place of Death Becomes a Place of Life

Jesus’ stay in the wilderness for 40 days makes us think of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. Back in the days of Moses, God led Israel out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land.

But, in between those two places there was a long, wilderness stay. And at first, the wilderness seems to be a God-forsaken place. A place of death. A place of curse. There is no water, no food, no plants, no growth. Only dangerous and threatening things live there…including Satan.

But it is not a place of death. Strangely, almost miraculously, the terrifying desert becomes a “place of life” because God himself is there and God is leading them.

Maybe God didn’t lead them as fast as they wanted to go. And maybe didn’t always lead them in the same direction they wanted to go. Haven’t we all learned the hard way like Israel did that God’s interests do not always match our own? God doesn’t always think like you or me.

But God comes through. God always comes through with help and full provision. Bread from heaven–manna. And water out of a rock.

God Provides

And in a way, any wilderness experience is as much about “testing” God as it is about “testing” us. And have you ever thought of that? Times of temptation don’t just tempt us but they also “test” God. Will God come through? Will God be faithful to his promises?

And take any wilderness experience you want. The answer is always “Yes!” “Yes!” “Yes!” God is faithful. God comes through on every promise. God will always, always pass the test! Maybe not in our way and our timetable. But certainly on his.

Out of its experience in the wilderness, Israel learned something about its God. That the God of Israel was indeed a very present help in time of trouble. And that this God is always able to do the life-giving thing even when it seems to be so impossible.

And Israel learned something about the wilderness. That even though it seemed so empty and so hopeless it was a place of nourishment because God was there.

And Israel also learned something about itself. That it had to live in a complete dependence on a God who in his own way and in his own time would provide.

Jesus Remains the Faithful Son of God

Which brings us now to Jesus and his own 40 days in the wilderness. Another act of God’s provision.

Last Temptation of Christ

In the wilderness, Jesus faces all of the same temptations we have to face. That same sense of hunger and frustration, short-cuts to power, glory and the easy way. Jesus is tested…tested… tested… every way that we are.

And yet, Jesus remains the faithful Son of God. Jesus becomes the only human being in history who does not give into temptation. He remains the obedient Son of God. A true Israelite. And through his love and grace, his obedience becomes our own.

Obviously, the story is not over yet. The temptation of Jesus is only our Lord’s first round with Satan. Clearly, there will be more. The devil leaves for a more “opportune time” the bible tells—which means that this battle will ultimately go to the cross.

On the cross, Jesus will be tempted again, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. He saved others but he cannot save himself.” That will be the tempting taunt. And that is true. He cannot save himself, not if he would save us. (And don’t you ever for a moment think that it wasn’t tempting for Jesus to use his power and come down.)

We Know the Final Outcome

And yet, already now on this First Sunday in Lent we know the final outcome. Jesus will resist the temptation to save himself. And in the process, he will save us.

And that in turn changes the wilderness for us. It changes our wilderness times and our wilderness places. For Jesus is God’s proof that God is with us and that God is for us in the wilderness moments of our life. A very present help in time of trouble.

Life is a test. It’s all a test. Of God, as much as it is of us. Will God be faithful to God’s promises? Will God come through? And the cross of Jesus Christ gives us the answer. The answer is “Yes!”  It’s always “Yes!” It’s always “Yes!” when Jesus is around.

© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster

Ash Wednesday
February 17, 2010
Confession
John 20:22-23

Wow! What a Power

Forgiveness is the Key

Wow! What a great power it is that Jesus gives us: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any they are retained.” This is the power of Jesus. The power of confession and forgiveness. It is the “Office of the Keys.”

During this Lenten season on Wednesday evenings, it is our plan to do something very Lutheran and talk about the “six chief parts” of the Christian faith.

And where we start is with what Martin Luther called the “Office of the Keys,” because it is a key the unlocks the doors of heaven itself. We know it better as “Confession & Forgiveness.”

At almost every worship service we have, the very first thing we do is to return to our baptism, confess our sins and receive the assurance of God’s forgiveness. And on the Ash Wednesday night we do the very same thing with all the more intensity—very mindful of our mortality. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

In previous years, the tradition in our Lutheran churches was to confess our sins this night, this Ash Wednesday night, and then hold off the pronouncement of forgiveness until Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. This way Ash Wednesday and Good Friday formed the two bookends of the Lenten Season.

On Ash Wednesday we confessed our sins, we did so very deeply and very personally. And then, on Good Friday we received the personal assurance of God’s forgiveness.

Personal Assurance of Forgiveness

And we still do that in a very unique way here at Emmanuel. And I invite you to come back on Good Friday at noon to complete the action.

On Good Friday between noon and 1:00 God’s people gather for about 10 minutes of private meditation. And then, they are invited to come forward to the communion rail where they stand or kneel as they are able.

And after they do, I will go down the row one-by-one to lay my hands on them and give the personal assurance of God’s forgiveness: “In obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins.” It is a powerful and moving moment for us all. And then we receive the reserved sacrament, bread and wine, from the night before and go.

But before this all happens, Bob Lessing reads a passage from Martin Luther’s “Brief Exhortation to Confession & Forgiveness.” It’s a powerful piece. And although I hear it for about three times year after year, I never tire of it.

Part One: Look in the Mirror

Examine Yourself in the Mirror of the Ten C's

Confession has two parts, Luther says. The first is that we confess our sins and examine ourselves on the basis of the Ten Commandments. Take out the Ten Commandments, Luther says, and use it like a “mirror.”

Do you know how you can’t see a blot or blemish on your face without a mirror? Who would ever go outside in the morning without checking one’s appearance in a mirror first?

Well, hold up the Ten Commandments like a mirror, Luther says, and then begin to ask yourself these questions: “Have you feared, loved and trusted God as God requires? Have you properly used his name, prayed, praised and given thanks? Have you kept God’s word holy, heard and learned it, as you should have done?Have you been loyal to your family, faithful to those who love and trust you? Have you served and helped your neighbor in every need?

Room for Improvement

I don’t know how you do when you check your lives against the Ten Commandments, but I know how I do. And it’s always, “Oops! There is clearly room for some improvement.” The face I see in the mirror always has its faults and blemishes.

Do any of you have High Definition TV? I just read that actors and actresses and the TV talent are getting upset with HD TV because it now shows all the faults and blemishes on their faces.

Well, the Ten Commandments are like that, too. They are like HD TV. They will show us all our faults and failings, if only we dare to look at our lives through them closely. That is the bad news.

Part Two: Faith in Jesus Christ

But the good news is this: the second part of confession is faith. Faith in Jesus Christ. Who has taken away the burden of our sin and who gives to us the assurance of God’s forgiveness as an undeserved gift of God’s grace. It is all gift. Sheer gift. The very gift of God. What we cannot do ourselves, Christ has done for us.

And so, Luther says, when the pastor absolves you, these are not just empty words. But something is really happening. You are really receiving the forgiveness of God promised in the Gospel. It is happening, it really is.

Your sins are indeed forgiven you before God, just as certainly as if Christ himself would immediately speak from heaven: “Be of good cheer, my son, my daughter, your sins are all forgiven you.” The voice of Christ himself. That’s what we hear when we confess our sins and receive the assurance of forgiveness. The voice of Christ himself.

How Do You Picture Sin?

Sin is a Headache

About two weeks ago I was sitting with a couple of pastors at a professional leadership retreat. And one asked me, “How to do you picture sin?” I don’t know how you picture it. But I picture it as heavy weight or burden. And I feel it physically.

Sometimes it feels like a heavy weight on my shoulders. Like a monkey on my back. Sometimes it feels more like nausea or a knotting of the stomach.Sometimes if feels more like a pounding headache that will not go away.

But what a great gift it is to be able to bring that weight here week after week and reduce it all to dust and ashes and to be able to dump it and leave it at the foot of the cross. And then to walk away a Spirit-led person: washed, unburden and cleansed.

Now that is power. Real power.  The Power of Keys. Confession & Forgiveness. An extension of our Baptism. That great part of Christian faith and life that unlocks the doors of heaven itself.

© 2010 Pastor Paul Jaster