Christ's Promising Word

January 25, 2009
Third Sunday after Epiphany
Short on Time?
1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Short on Time?

This morning we join the ranks of time management experts to ask the ever timely question, “Are you short on time?” And if you say, “Yes!” then you’re part of a vast majority.

Time—we never seem to have enough. And yet, each of us already has all the time there is. And that is the strange thing about this commodity we call “time.”

It’s not a resource like money that can be saved for a rainy day or credit that can be drawn upon in advance. Unlike any other resource, time has a fixed rate of spending—60 seconds every minute, 60 minutes, 24 hours every day.

Time. Are you short on time? What a silly question. How can we get any more?

The Gospel Express

We hear those stories of people who are told that they have only a short time to live. And it really makes you wonder.

What would I do if I knew I only had a year to live—which maybe I do. What changes would I make in my life? How would I reorder my priorities? How would I spend each day know that I had only 365 left in my back pocket?

It would be tempting this morning to take Saint Paul’s statement, “The appoint time has grown very short” and use it to preach one of those moralistic “set-your-priorities-straight” sermons.

But, as per usual, whenever Saint Paul starts talking ethics, Christian ethics, he’s always heading down another track. Saint Paul never railroads us into Morality City, but tickets us on the Gospel Express. And we must be care lest we fall asleep at the switch and miss the turn.

The Appointed Time is Short

“The appointed time has grown very short;” Paul says, “from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.”

Apparently, in Corinth (that ancient port city of Corinth) there were some Christians who naively though that they could improve their Christian status by making drastic changes.

It’s like the person who keeps changing jobs all the time to solve his or her problems thinking that the change of job alone will make things better. Or, those who do the same thing with marriages.

Apparently, some Corinthian husband thought that way about his marriage. If he could be rid of his marriage, if he could be free of his wife, he would be a better Christian. And I am sure that there are some today who can sympathize with that. People who want out of their marriages.

And on the other hand, some young women though that everything would look up if only they were marriage.

And still others thought that being a Christian meant a dramatic change in emotional feeling. How could a spirit-filled believer ever be down in the dumps? If we have Jesus in our heart, must we not also always, always, always have a smile on our face?

A Change in Where we Put our Trust

But, our new life in baptism, is more than just a change in our daily life or a reordering of our schedule. It is a change in where we put our trust.

Saint Paul does not say, “Do not marry. Do not mourn. Do not rejoice.” He says “live as though you were not married, as though you were not mourning, as though you were not rejoicings, as though you had no business dealings.”

In other words, do not put your “trust” in whether or not you are married, or in how good or bad your feel, or in how well or bad you do at business. Put your trust in Christ. The issue here is “faith.” That to which we pin our hopes. The place in which we put our trust.

In Christ we Trust

We have been baptized in Christ. In him we trust and move and have our being. And for the one who lives A.B., after Baptism, that gives a new and special kind of freedom. Not a freedom from daily living, but a freedom for daily living, until Christ comes again in glory. Life in the Gospel.

Freedom, for example, from the pressure to perform. Produce, or else get out. Freedom from the pressure to be married or unmarried. Freedom from enslavement to our own volatile emotions.

We live in Christ. We do not live under the deadline that death would impose. We can be short on time, but never short on life.

Oh, yes, there are indeed many who work at a frantic pace sensing that time is short. They sense the sands of time are running out in the hourglass that has been given to them. And so they are drive to accomplish and perform, to prove that they amount to something.

An Open Door to God’s Future

But we have been baptized into Christ. And so, there is nothing more that we could ever amount to. When Jesus rose from the dead, he broke through the ceiling, the glass ceiling that death puts on time. And he opened for us a door into God’s future.

And so, the jobs we do are not tasks we must perform to earn our salvation, they are opportunities for service into which we have been called. It does not matter if we don’t always accomplish what we set out to do. Time is redeemable. God forgives our mismanagement of time. What matters is that we trust God to do what we cannot.

What Saint Paul is telling us is simply this. Work, laugh, play, marry, remain single, cry, weep—live your normal, ordinary life. But do not make of it a god. Do not put your trust in it. Put your trust in Christ. This life of ours will pass away into a greater life to come. One day we will live in eternity.

And that frees us now to live in time. For now we are creatures bound to time. For some, perhaps, that is a heavy load, a dull and burdensome drudgery. But for those who are bound with Christ in baptism for all eternity, that time goes pretty fast.

And what is more, our greatest time still lies ahead.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

January 18, 2009
Second Sunday after Epiphany
Your Body is a Temple
1 Cor. 6:12-20

Your Body is a Temple

Last Sunday we said that we are baptized with Spirit. When Jesus lays his hands on us in Holy Baptism, we are born again in water and the Spirit. That is Christ’s promise.

And now today we add a second “epiphany,” another revelation. When we are baptized, our “bodies,” our physical bodies, become a “temple” of the Holy Spirit. Our body becomes a place where the Holy Spirit dwells. And so what we do with our “bodies,” our physical bodies is important, especially in matters of human sexuality. And you can’t get any more physical than that.

“Free Sex” is Never Free

On the Second Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord, we are in the city of Corinth. A city well known for its “free sex.” By that I mean “sex outside of marriage,” which is rarely “free” at all. Sex was widely available for sale, just like it still is today.

In fact, when Laurie & I toured Greece and Turkey a number of years ago, the guides would take particular delight in pointing out the paintings on ancient buildings and the etchings in the pavement stones of the street that would point the sailors to the local brothels. That’s how they spent their money.

And all of it was legal. Perfectly legal. There was no “civil” law against it then. And so men in the church of Corinth were simply exercising their legal right to enjoy a pleasurable activity that was completely normal in their own culture.

In fact, they were taking one of Saint Paul’s lines and throwing it right back at him. “All things are lawful for me.” Isn’t that what Saint Paul said? All things are lawful. And wasn’t Paul the great apostle who was preaching freedom from the Jewish Torah? Wasn’t it Paul who declared that all foods were clean? “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” They simply took what Paul was saying about food and they applied it to their sexual appetites.

Not all Things are Beneficial

But Saint Paul took their words and he added the Gospel’s clarification. “Yes, all things are lawful. The Jewish Torah does not apply anymore. But…not all things are beneficial. Not all things are good for you and the community around you. Yes, all things are lawful. But certain things lead you back into a slavery to sin and death. And me? I will not be dominated by anything, except by my Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. But the body…the body is meant for the Lord and not for sexual misconduct.”

Do you not know that whoever has sex outside a marriage becomes one body with that person? There is no such thing as “recreational sex.” Sex just for fun. Sex just for pleasure. Sex bonds two people together. And if you do not use sex as God intended—to bond two people together in a marriage…well, then, you are only falling back into a slavery to sin and death.

And that jeopardizes the whole Christian community. We are “one body,” the body of Christ. And Christ is one with us in Spirit. And when one member of this body engages in sex outside of marriage it negatively affects the entire body. And not only is it a sin against your spouse, if you happen to have sex outside your marriage. But is also a sin against Christ. For Jesus has married himself to you.

You Belong to Christ

Christ died for you. Christ rose for you. Christ has bought you at an awful price. God created you as a “body,” a physical body. And God will raise you as a “body,” a physical body. And so what you do with your body is important.

For you are not your own. You belong to God. Your “body,” your physical body, is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It is a place where God dwells in you. And therefore glorify your God in your body.

“Flee!” Saint Paul says. “Flee! Shun sexual misconduct. Do what Joseph did (Joseph back in the Old Testament), when the wife of his master Potiphar tried to seduce him. Flee! Just flee. Just get away from there and have nothing to do with sexual misconduct.”

Set Boundaries

I was talking to one of our teens last weekend. And I asked her, “How is your boyfriend?” And she said, “I am not allowed to have a boyfriend. I can’t have a boyfriend until I have a car.”

And the wise-cracker in me wanted to say, “Well, if you had a boyfriend you wouldn’t need a car.”

But I applaud that. I applaud parents who set boundaries for their children and articulate clear expectations.

It doesn’t hurt kids at all to lay down the law and set boundaries for them and to delay the onset of adult sexual behaviors. It doesn’t hurt to look at the way they dress before they go to school and to say “The way you are dressed is not appropriate for someone your age. Go back into your room and change. I am not letting you out of the house this way.”

Or, to delay the start of one-on-one dating. Group date for a while. Get to know a lot of different kids that way. Or, to tell your kids very clearly and explicitly what kind of behaviors are acceptable and not acceptable in this family.

This is especially important for moms. Studies show that it is especially critical for moms to verbally and explicitly express their rules and their expectations. For junior high and teenage kids, that is a bigger factor than anything else.

Glorify God in Your Body

And it is important that all of us adults practice what we preach. We can hardly expect our children to have appropriate sexual conduct if we don’t model it ourselves. If kids see mom sleeping with a boyfriend outside of marriage, it makes them wonder why they should wait. Mom does it.

Many of the saddest things I see in life is the result of sexual misconduct. It ruin families and homes for years. Generation after generation. And there is not a better time to break the cycle than now.

If you are a victim of abuse or if you are an abuser, if your life is loose and out of control, get the counseling you need now to break the vicious cycle. Do not pass it onto the next generation of kids.

You are not your own. Not when you have been baptized into Christ. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit now. And so what you do with your body is important, physical and spiritually. Shun every evil and glorify God. Glorify God in your body.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

January 11, 2009
Baptism of our Lord
Baptized with Spirit
Acts 19:1-7

“Incomplete Christians”

Today we meet an oxymoron. A creature that does not exist. The “incomplete Christian.” Yes, you heard me right. The “incomplete Christian.”

There is no such thing, of course. You cannot be half-Christian any more than you can be half-married or half-adopted. Either you are or you are not.

And yet, there are “incomplete Christians.” Perhaps there are many of them. We meet twelve of them today in the book of Acts as Paul enters the great city of Ephesus. He meets believers in Jesus whom he senses are “incomplete.”

And immediately Paul puts his finger on the problem. Paul says to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” And they said, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit?” And Paul said, “Into what were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” “Aha!” Paul said, “That’s the problem. “John’s baptism was only for repentance. It is Jesus who gives the Holy Spirit.”

And on hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

Mark of a Christian

And isn’t that worth noting? The mark of a Christian isn’t simply believing in Jesus. These twelve disciples believed in Jesus just as much as Paul did. And the mark of a Christian isn’t simply being drenched with water into a baptism of repentance—what the bible calls “John’s baptism.”

The mark of a Christian is being baptized into the name, into the power, of the Lord Jesus Christ AND receiving the Holy Spirit which results in external actions, especially a loosening of the tongue and the proclamation of Christ’s love. That is what makes a “complete Christian.” As if there is any other kind.

Measure of the Spirit

There are certain Christians, Pentecostal Christians, who might walk into this sanctuary, take one look at us, and say that “we” are “incomplete Christians.” They might look at the way we do baptism and say that it is a “water baptism” only and not a baptism in the Holy Spirit. For let’s be honest now. How many of us speak “in tongues” the way that some Pentecostals speak “in tongues?” And how many of us “prophesy” the way some Pentecostals “prophesy?”

But, remember what Saint Paul said when he himself was confronted with this issue.

If I speak in the tongues of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [And the percussion section in God’s celestial orchestral is already full enough. And so cut it out unless it builds someone else up, not tear people down.]

And if I have prophetic powers and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not insist on its own way…but rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Faith active in love. Faith active in love—that’s Paul’s measure of whether one has the Spirit or not.You tell a Christian by the “fruit” a Christian bears.  The fruit of the Spirit.

We Pour It On

Our baptism here at Emmanuel Lutheran church is NOT a “water baptism” only. It is not. It is NOT the baptism of John. It is NOT a baptism of repentance only, although it certainly includes repentance.

Our baptism is a baptism into the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, just as Jesus has commanded. And our baptism includes the laying on of hands and a vibrant prayer for the pouring out of Spirit. In fact, the way that we apply the water signifies that. Rather than “immersing” a person in the water (a wonderful practice that suggests dying and rising with Christ, being buried with him in baptism to rise to a new life)…instead of doing that, we “pour” the water to signifies the “pouring out” of the Holy Spirit, which is a pretty powerful image, too.

And you be the judge. Does your baptism into Christ lead you to produce the “fruit of the Spirit” that Saint Paul talks about in Galatians chapter five: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? This, Saint Paul says, is what it means to “live by the Spirit” and “be guided by the Spirit.”

Christ Empowers Us for Service

The great thing about Christian baptism is that it assures us of God’s grace. Either we have been baptized or we have not. There are not “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts” about it. The whole purpose of the two sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion, is to assure us that God’s love and grace is specifically for us.

The other great thing about Christian baptism is that it “empowers” us for service. Being sorry for sin and being aware of God’s judgment by itself is not enough. That only digs us into a big hole that we cannot get out of. By itself, repentance only leads to an anguishing despair, as it did for Judas. Sorrow must lead to faith. And faith to loving service. Faith leads to action.

John the Baptist was the first to admit it. “It takes someone much more power than I,” he said, “the one who is coming after me. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

And no sooner has John said that in the Gospel According to Mark, then the “Coming One” is named and it is said that “in those days Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee CAME and was baptized by John in the river Jordan. And that he was declared to be God’s own beloved Son and that the Spirit descended on him like a dove so that he himself could pour out that same Spirit upon all others.

That is the power. That is the power for our faith and for our service. Christ’s own immersion into our sin and his coming out of it beloved and alive. What happened to Jesus happens to us, when we allow Jesus to gets his hands on us…and mark us with his sign, his cross…and allow him to pour into us his Spirit. We are Christian through and through. Faith is active in love. And there are no “ifs,” “ands” or “buts” about it.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster

January 4, 2009
Epiphany Sunday
Mystery Revealed
Ephesians 3:1-13

A Dirty Little Secret

Shhh…I want to let you in on a dirty little secret. Christian people read other people’s mail. Yes, we do. We boldly and unabashedly read other people’s mail. Every time we open up the bible, read a passage from the Scripture, and claim that it is addressed to us, we are reading a piece of mail that was original written to someone else.

The Old Testament was not written to Christian people. It was written to Hebrew people. It is the Tanakh, the Hebrew Scriptures. And the New Testament was written to Christian people, but not to those of us in the USA. Originally it was the personal correspondence of pastors to first century churches along one small portion of the Mediterranean.

How Dare We?

How dare we? How dare we take other people’s mail and read it as if it were addressed to us? How dare we take their gifts and presents and treat them as our own? How can we take those precious promises originally meant for someone else and claim they are good for us as well?

I have a greedy daughter. And the devil comes out in her at Christmas time. For some mysterious reason, she thinks that every gift under the tree is meant for her. And I had to slap her hand again this year—more than once—as she grabbed for stuff that didn’t belong to her. Especially beverages. She went after the beverages: the wine, the Drambuie, the coffee, and the teas. “Get your hands off,” I kept yelling at her, “that stuff does not belong to you! It doesn’t have your name on it.”

To Them Belong the Promises

In a book I am reading entitled The Beginning of Jewishness, a Jewish expert in the field, Shaye Cohen, makes the point that “there are two kinds of people in the world: those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who do not.” And Jewish people, he asserts, are in the first category. They see the world in bipolar terms. Jews vs. non-Jews. Jews vs. gentiles. But, don’t we all do that? Don’t we all tend to divide the world bi-polarly—“us” vs. “them”?

And we always need to remember as Christian people, especially us “outsiders,” us “non-Jews,” that Jewish people are the Israelites, the original descendents of Abraham. And, as Saint Paul once said, “to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises…and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Amen.”

How dare we reach into “their” mailbox and open up the envelopes that are so personally addressed to “them”? How dare we reach under the Christmas tree and make a grab for “their” Messiah and claim him as our own? How in the world can we take those precious promises first voiced to them and have them whispered so tenderly into our ear?

The Mystery of Christ

That is the “mystery” of Christ, now isn’t it? A mystery “hidden for ages in the God who created all things.” A “mystery” revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians chapter 3, Saint Paul (or one of his disciples) lifts up this great “mystery” to an Ephesian audience and then he “spills the beans” of God’s working in the Christ.

It took a “2 x 4” or two to get Paul’s attention. It took an appearance of the risen Christ along the Damascus road. But eventually Paul caught on. There is no distinction between Jew and gentile. All of have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are dead through trespasses and sin, following the rule of this world, living in the passions of our flesh. That’s how Saint Paul puts it. He or his disciple.

But already before the foundation of the world was laid, God had it in God’s plan to “choose us in Christ.” Already before the foundation of the world was laid, before anything was created, God had it in God’s mind to take all the “outsiders” and make them “insiders.” To make them “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promises in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.”

God chooses to adopt us gentiles, too. That’s how we can read other people’s mail. And God did it with the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead and to seat him on God’s right hand in heaven.

A Whole New Picture

It isn’t that God just took his people Israel and then tacked on some Gentiles on the outer ring, the outer circle, which is the picture that we “normally” get this time of year. The picture of the wise men coming to Jesus, coming to the King of the Jews, and then depositing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and then going home another way.

That is not the picture. It is not. Us coming. Depositing some precious gifts. Some money and some coins. A few precious words of pious praise. And then leaving…somewhat altered…but still going back to the home from which we came before. That is not the picture!

The picture is the church, the Christian church. The body of Christ. A whole new creation that bridges and transcends all the old divisions and labels. Where all are equal partners now.

In fact, the writer of Ephesians invents a whole new word to describe what is going on because no other existing word would do. Sussoma. That’s the word he invents. Sussoma. Never before is it used in all of literature sacred or secular. And it is never used again anywhere else in the bible. Sussoma. Joint members of one body. Joint members and joint heirs. The one body of Christ, with Jesus as the head, under the same promise.

God’s Own People Created For Good Works

And what Israel was once called, “we” become, this new entity, the church: God’s own people. God’s model. God’s object lesson. God’s prototype. God’s children sermon. God’s light. God’s demonstration people.

We are created for good works. To love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. Bearing with one another in humility and patience. Making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. A fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God, living as children of the light.

The mystery of our salvation is no secret now, for the heart of God has been revealed in Jesus Christ. And we proclaim it with boldness and confidence through our faith in him. In Jesus Christ, God’s mystery is revealed.

© 2009 Pastor Paul Jaster