Christ's Promising Word

Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 20, 2009
The Miracle of Christmas
Luke 1:39-45: “The Miracle of Christmas”

What is the Miracle of Christmas?

Christmas is a miracle—we all know that. Stuff like this just doesn’t happen every day.

How often do angels fill the skies and shower on the earth their “Glorias?”

When else have shepherds ever left their flocks behind and go with haste to see some great things which the Lord had made known to them?

In what other year on the calendar have wisemen from the East come following a star to find a child king and worship and adore him?

Christmas is a miracle. One of the greatest of them all.

But just what is the miracle of Christmas?

Luther’s Christmas Book

In the year 1521, Martin Luther spent an entire year hiding in Wartburg Castle. He had stirred up such a firestorm of controversy that both the pope and the emperor sought his life.

And so, his local prince, Frederick the Wise, put Luther on ice for a while and dressed him like a knight and hid him away in a safe place until things cooled down one year later.

And while at Wartburg Castle, Luther not only translated the entire New Testament into the language of the people so that folks like me and you could read it too, but that wise old bird Prince Frederick also had Luther write a series of sermons on every Sunday of the church year as a positive, non-polemical statement of his theology.

And so, Luther began with an outstanding series of sermons on Advent and on Christmas [Roland Bainton, ed., The Martin Luther Christmas Book]. And in my book, his sermon on the angel coming to Mary (the Annunciation, we call it) is the very best of these precious gems.

The Three Miracles of Christmas

There are three miracles in the Christmas story, Luther says. One is great, the second greater, and the third the greatest of them all.

The first miracle is that a virgin should conceive and bear a son. That indeed is a great miracle. For it defies everything we know about obstetrics. When else have you ever heard of a child being conceived this way?

And yet, as far as Luther was concerned, that miracle was a snap for God. Any God worth his salt, any God who could create the heavens and the earth could certainly do a thing like that. Creating something out of nothing is exactly what a Creator God does.

No, by far an even greater miracle was that God himself should become flesh and become a human being like us in this little child.

The greater wonder in the birth of Jesus was that God, the heavenly ruler of the universe, should care enough about us sinners to actually take on our sinful flesh and share in our common woes…and that the Almighty Son of God should humble himself to lie in the feed box of a donkey and to hang upon the cross.

The incarnation that would lead to a crucifixion, that was by far a more difficult thing for God to do.

And yet, the greatest miracle of them all is that anyone believed it. The miracle of faith. That is the real miracle of Christmas.

Would You Believe It?

Would you believe it? Would you believe that this baby born in Bethlehem to a human man and woman is the Son of God, Emmanuel, God-with-us? What if the angel came to you rather than to Mary and to Joseph. Would you believe this was God in human flesh?

To tell you the truth, if an angel came to me today and said to me, “Paul, do not be afraid. Your wife will bear a son,” I would probably hop in a car and go see a shrink long before I would stop into a drug store for a home pregnancy test.

“No way!” I would say. “It defies all sense and logic.”

And yet, Mary did believe it. She believed that this child in her womb was the Son of God, the Savior of the World, the Forgiver of our Sin. She believed that she, and not some queen or princess, was chosen to be the mother of our Lord.

And Joseph believed. Joseph believed that this was the saving work of God and not the deceitful work of his wife-to-be fooling around with some other man. And do not kid yourself—that took no little faith.

And the Shepherds believed. The shepherds, when the angel came to them, dared to believe that the God of heaven and earth cared enough about them to let them in on the working of their salvation—even though the only sign they had was a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

“This is the hardest thing of all,” Luther says, “not so much to believe that Jesus is the son of a virgin or that Jesus is God himself, but to believe that this little child has come for you and for me.”

God starts with Mary, Joseph and the shepherds. And God ends with us. And the question all the time is simply this: “Do you believe?”

The Miracle of Faith

It defies all sense and logic that God should care so much for sinful folks like you and me.

But, that is what the angel said, “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” This child who is born, is a gift from God for you and for me.

This is the real miracle of Christmas: to believe that Jesus Christ has come for you. It is difficult, yes. It defies our human reason, yes. But, it is possible when we hear the angelic word and take it into our hearts.

That is the miracle of Christmas. The miracle of faith.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

Third Sunday in Advent
December 13, 2009
This is Good News?
Luke 3:7-13

The Shrill Shouts of John the Baptist

If this were Sesame Street, Elmo would be here in person to tell you that today’s Advent message are brought to you by the letter “S”—the strident, sibilant letter “S.” For what we hear on this Third Sunday of the are the shrill shouts of John the Baptist searing sinners and spouting Spirit.

Have you ever noticed that most hissssing and sssswearing and sssssnapping and ssssshouting happens with the letter “S?” “Don’t get snippy,” Al Gore once said to George Bush in a debate.

Well, John the Baptist is snippy.

“You brood of vipers!” “You bunch of slithering snakes!” John the Baptist says to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him. “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” he snickers and he sneers. “Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; “for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”

“Even now the ax is being sharpened and every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down short and thrown to sizzle in the fire. And that is not even to say yet what God will do to sinners with his sharp sickle.”

This is Good News?

The Bible must be joking when at the very end, Saint Luke writes, “So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news  to the people.”

This is Good News? This is the Gospel?

And this is what John says to his friends! This is what John says to the people who came out to him and were responsive—those who desired to be baptized. What in the world would he ever say to those who didn’t come?!!!

The shrill shouts of John the Baptist is not what we expect to hear this close to Christmas. Just try it on your Christmas cards.

As you compose your annual Christmas letter, try this little experiment. Write down as your opening line “Dear friends, You brood of vipers! You scummy bunch of slithering snakes. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

And then wait to see how many of your friends include you on their Christmas list next year. Hissssing at people is not the way to win friends and influence people.

What We Need To Hear

And yet, John the Baptist and the Gospel writer Luke and the Holy Spirit who moved the Church to assign this Bible passage to this particular Sunday—they all assert this precisely what we need to hear so close to Christmas.

For when you get right down to it we are all a bunch of slithering sinners who got suckered by a snake. You and me. And we will do anything we can to wiggle out of our predicament by denying the deadly seriousness of our sin.

Oh, sure we are a little sick, we will admit. Oh, sure we have our faults and failings. “Nobody’s perfect,” we say as if that were an excuse and not an accusation. We are sick. We are sinful.

But that is something minor. It’s just a case of sniffles or the flu. But basically, we see ourselves as very decent people. We do not see ourselves terminally ill. We do not see ourselves as suffering, as Saint Paul would say, from “a sickness unto death.”

And so we treat our Christian baptism like a shot the doctor gives us in the office to inoculate us from the flu. Once done, we are protected and we need do nothing more.

We do not treat Baptism like a beginning of a total change of life style. The total change of life-style. The kind of thing that happens when you have a heart attack and suddenly you realize that—”Boy,  if I don’t make some major changes in my life, I am going die.”

Shock Therapy

And so, John the Baptist deliberately chooses to use some “shock therapy” to startle and to scare us (much like a heart doctor would) to capture our attention.

John is a serious soaker who does not confuse the superficial with the substantial. He does not invite the crowds to adopt his desert way of life, but rather calls upon them to make a permanent change in their behavior in their own homes to be more conducive to the Lord’s soon coming.

Repentance. John calls it. Repentance.

But be careful with that word. For it is the most misunderstood word in all of Scripture.

Repentance does not mean a “pity party.” Repentance does not mean beating yourself up by hitting yourself with the awareness of your faults and failings. Nor, does repentance mean trying to impress God with pious acts of penitence.

A Change in Our Behavior: Stewardship & Social Sensitivity

It’s much like parenting. In her younger years, I had a daughter who didn’t always do what I ask her to do, even though I asked time and time again.

And there came a point in our relationship when she kept saying to me, “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry.” And I said to her, “Stop. I don’t want to hear, ‘I’m sorry.’ I don’t care about ‘sorry.’ I want to see a change in your behavior.”

A change in our behavior—that’s what God wants to see. A change in our behavior. Or, as John the Baptist puts it: “Bear fruits worthy of repentance.”

And what fruit is that? What is the behavior that is “worthy” of repentance? It is sharing. It is caring. “Whoever has two coats must share with those who have none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”

And suddenly John is talking stewardship. And John is talking about social sensitivity to the poor and needy.

John is talking about standing in our station and doing honestly and fairly the job that God has given us to do…and to be satisfied with what we have.

We Need a Savior — The Stronger One Who Spouts with Spirit

We cannot do it on our own. We are too weak for that, as even John admits for himself. We can only do it when we surrender to the Stronger One who is coming, Jesus Christ, and submit to his gift of the Holy Spirit.

We need the Savior and the Spirit that he gives and brings by baptizing us into his own death and resurrection. Salvation we call it. The greatest “S” of them all.

We are saved by the Savior who comes and soaks us with his own Spirit so that we might become his sons and daughters and share in the inheritance of his salvation. No wonder Saint Luke calls it what it is. Good news. The Gospel. Good news to all the people.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus, come.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

Second Sunday of Advent
December 6, 2009
Luke 3:1-6
A Wild Word for a Whirling World

Pattern of our Life: A Dizzy Spin

This past summer, Laurie & I had an amusing experience. We attended a Canaries’ game. A South Dakota baseball team. And between the innings, some MC was doing wild stunts down on the field to entertain the crowd.

And for one of them, three men from the stands were invited down to the field to engage in a little competition, for which they would get a prize. All they had to do was to plant a baseball bat vertically on the ground. Put their forehead on the end of it. And run around it as quickly as they could in a tight circle. And then, they had to run as straight as they could from one line to another.

It was a hoot! Try it yourself sometime. They all looked like drunken sailors. One man was so dizzy that he couldn’t even stand. But kept on falling down for the next five minutes and had to be assisted off the field. The other two make it, but their path was crooked and the going rough.

It’s funny when you see it at a game. It is not so funny when that is the pattern of our daily life. A life without Jesus. A life without God.

Important People Whirling: Lording Over Others

These are important people that we hear of today. People in charge. People with authority. They controlled empires, kingdoms, temples and regions. Tiberius himself—the big dog. Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee. His brother Philip. Lysanias. Annas and Caiaphas.

These were important people, whirling around in a wild world. Dog eat dog…as they pushed for more power and authority. Everybody lording it over someone else. Each wanting their cut, their piece of the pie. With the big dog on top getting the biggest slices and the puppies on the bottom getting crumbs.

Luke catalogs them by name and place in their proper order, starting at the top and moving to the bottom. And one could work the list down to us and to that little piece of turf that we control and manage. Our corner in the dog-pound. Most of us whirl around in little circles too, like those men with heads on baseball bats.

The Word of the Lord Came to John: Judgment & Grace

But what about that man at the end of the list? After tracing out for us the typical pattern of a chain of command, Saint Luke throws us for a loop. Then it was, in times like these, that the Word of the Lord came to John the son of Zechariah. And he is given a wild word for a whirling world in the wilderness of all places.

First of all it was a word of judgment. The entire world had become a wilderness. A place of emptiness. A place of death. A place of God-forsakenness. And the people of God stumble around in crazy, silly circles, like drunken sailors who simply want to get their pay, their share, their cut. And then tuck it in their socks and then go down to the bar to blow it on dames and booze.

Our way of running the world is nothing like the way that God intended. Or, the way that God requires. It is crooked to the core. Rough, stony, dirty and dry. Hostile and corrupt.

The world ordered by Tiberius (and all who branch off  his tree) is a graceless, power-hungry, money-grabbing world. Where people get used by those in power. And pay dearly for their mistakes. Get dumped on and not bailed out. “It’s a dog-eat-dog wilderness out there,” I heard one man say to me this week.

And need we say that anybody who wanders and opposes God like this is in a sinking ship?

A Stronger Who: Who Lifts in His Lording

And yet, in this place of death, a wild wilderness, there is a word of life. John not only has a word of judgment. He has a word of grace. A mighty wonder. The Lord was coming. The One. The One. The Man. The very Savior promised by the prophets—for whom we all are waiting—was finally drawing near.

And there is a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that makes us “straight” and “right” and “ready” to receive him. And this baptism gets its power from “his baptism.” His baptism into a death and resurrection.

Jesus came with power and great authority. He was the Strong One of God. “He is the one stronger than me,” John says in another gospel, “whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

And yet, Jesus did not come like a Tiberius to lord it over us. Rather he used his power and authority to die for us. To pay himself the price for all our wild antics of distrust and misbehavior. And he straightens out our relationship with God. And lifts us up in the midst of a crazy world. Gets us out of its dizzy spin. And gives us his way. His path, his footsteps to follow.

A New Way of Behaving for Those Who Believe

And those who believe and trust in this good news of the kingdom of God find themselves graciously caught up in it. With our drowning in the waters of baptism (our death to our old self), there is a rising. And our hearts and hopes are changed.

In Jesus Christ himself, we see a new way of behaving, living, walking, loving. And a change of heart causes a change of mind and a change in our behavior. No longer are things going to stay the same way they were before. People whirling around in dizzy circles for someone else’s entertainment and amusement.

Faithful people tired of the politics-as-usual see a wonderful revolution. There is a path, a “Way,” that heads us all in the right direction aligned with God. There is a whole new world order. His way. Christ’s way.

Not a lording over others, with bosses and workers, politicians and peons, who push and shove, reach and grab. But rather there are helpers, friends, angels and saints. People who lift other people up. And make sacrifices for them. And help them with compassion and concern. It’s God work through our hands.

Forerunners of Jesus

And chief among our tasks is taking on the job of John himself. To be the baptized and the baptizers. To be a people who prepare the way for the coming of the Lord by a Gospel witness that reaches out the entire world. So that everyone, “all flesh,” may see the salvation of God.

Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. Isn’t that a lot more fun than seeing silly men do silly things in South Dakota?

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

Advent 1
November 29, 2009
Coming Soon
Luke 21:25-28

Name in Lights

I went to New York once. It is the city that never sleeps. And one of its most beautiful sights at night are all the neon signs that light the city up.

And many of them have the same theme: “Now Coming,” “Appearing Soon.” They announce some coming attraction. Some person or show that is soon to appear.

And, who knows, maybe one day one of our own kids will be there with their name in lights. “Rachel Cunningham now appearing.” Or, “Brian Sprague coming soon.” Wouldn’t that be something?

And should that day ever come, I’m going to buy a ticket and get on an airplane. I want to be there in a front row seat.

Frightening Cosmic Signs

There are signs of another kind that Jesus has on his mind this First Sunday of the Advent season. These are “cosmic” signs, not man-made ones. And Jesus warns they will be frightening.

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,” he says, “and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the seas and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heaven will be shaken.”

And hasn’t that always been the case? People afraid of the foreboding “cosmic” signs they see.

Certainly we are not afraid of solar and lunar ellipses like ancient people were. In fact, they are kind of fun to see now and then.

Nor, are we afraid of falling stars or roaring seas or earthquakes. We see them as part of natural phenomena and not as any kind of “message from God.” We are too scientific and sophisticated for that.

But we are afraid of the signs we see in the economy. And the mounting national debt. And of tinkering with the health care system. And the abuses to our environment.

A Day of Reckoning

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone around the Thanksgiving table this past week said, “I am scared of what is coming down the pike.” “I am afraid of the debt we are passing on to our children.” “Things are crazy now. And someday there will be a day of reckoning.”

Indeed, there will be one—a Day of Reckoning. Jesus himself agrees. And yet, the reckoning that Jesus has in mind is not just an economic one or a political one or a social one. It is a theological one.

God will come…. God will come with power and great glory. God will visibly come for all to see. And what kind of account will we give then? How will we justify what we have done with all the gifts God has given us? Gifts of life, intellect, time and money.

No wonder “people will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.” For who, in the world, can ever stand up to God?

To God, don’t all of our shenanigans just look like one more scam and Ponzi scheme? And there is a price to be paid by those who scam God.

Stand up and Raise Your Heads

And yet, Jesus says to his disciples, “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

We have every reason to “fear” the coming of God. To ignore it and deny it, like we do a lot of other things we fear.

We simply put it out of our mind and pass it down the line into the future, pretending it’s not going to come. Because there is a real power, a real nightmare, a real judgment in the coming of the Lord.

And yet, we have every reason to “welcome” the coming of God. To pray for it. Long for it. Hope for it. Live for it.

The God Who Comes Once Already Came

For the God who is still coming is the very same God who once already came.

And we already know how he came then. He came as the little baby born in Bethlehem. The Christ child. Who did not come to damn and condemn us, but who rather came to forgive and save us.

There is a price to be paid for our shenanigans. And the people of Jesus’ day thought they saw it when the Romans invaded and tore their temple down (It was their 9/11).

But that was not it. That was not the “ultimate” price. And life went on… much like it will for us when we get past the next impending crisis.

Price Paid by Jesus on the Cross

The price was paid by Christ on the cross. There it was that God dealt with all our sins and scams and Ponzi schemes. There it was that God showed and revealed the true and ultimate nature of his heart, which is not to condemn us but to save us. To pardon and forgive.

Indeed, there is a price to be paid for scamming God. But, not by us. It is paid for us by Christ. And that changes the way we look at everything, including the way we look at the coming Day of the Lord.

We Testify and Comfort

We do not fret and worry over the future. We do not panic at the scary signs we see. We do not faint with fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.

Rather, we do two things. First, we stand and raise our heads and testify. We preach the gospel and testify to the hope and faith that is in us. We say that Jesus is with us now and will come again for all to see.

And secondly, we comfort those who are terrified in times like these, knowing that God is near.

The terrifying signs of our time are simply “neon signs” that say, “Coming Soon! Now Appearing!” Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, the ruler of the kings on earth. That one unique Son of God who is also the Son of Man. The Son of Us. One of us.

And we have no need to fear. For he is our redemption drawing near. He is ours. And we are his.

And you are already sufficiently prepared if you put your trust in him.

For the ticket to this show is “faith.” And it guarantees you a front row seat when God’s kingdom finally comes. Soon, we hope. So soon.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus. Come.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

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