Sermon C: 5 S Epiph: Is 6:5

On 2/4/07 the 3 readings assigned for the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany are Isaiah 6:1-13 (God confronts Isaiah); 1 Corinthians 14:12b-20 (Praying in tongues) and Luke 5:1-11 (The catch of fish). The text chosen to elaborate on is Isaiah 6:5 in which Isaiah laments, "Woe is me, for I am undone!"

It is not always that one finds such an obvious passage easily comprehended using the distinctions between Law and Gospel. While the first distinction between L&G involves their proper use, this passage indicates clearly a second distinction between "Living under the Law" in contrast to "Living under the Gospel." To "live under the Law" means to assume that your works make a difference to God as to whether you become saved and whether you remain saved. It's called legalism.

God confronts Isaiah in this chapter with Isaiah's response being, "Woe is me, for I am undone!" Note the reason for his fear. "Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." As James points out, the most damaging member of the body can be the tongue which often speaks words that one wishes he could take back but which is impossible to do.

Every religion of the world concludes that because God is so holy and almighty, the only task of the human being is to attempt to placate His anger and wrath directed toward us. Every religion lives under the Law assuming that our obedience or meditation or sacrifice or living right, etc. etc. will move God to love and accept us. The concept as revealed in Christianity that God loves you while you were his enemy and takes upon Himself the whole work of your salvation is simply unknown.

To Isaiah's astonishment and delight, God sends a seraphim angel to Isaiah to touch his mouth with a live coal from the altar. In the context of the Bible, who cannot realize that the only altar of sacrifice from which comes redemption is the cross of Christ? Note that both "iniquity" is taken away and "sin" is purged. The word "iniquity" refers to the punishment of sin that is removed from Isaiah while the word "sin" in the Hebrew points to the the offerings that are no longer required to offset one's sin!

Isaiah, living under the Law in fear of the holy God, receives the Gospel gift of forgiveness and righteousness. When God therefore asks whom shall He send to go for "Us" (the Trinity), Isaiah responds "Here am I! Send me!" That's how sanctification works! First God makes the move to redeem us; then we respond with delight and joy in taking up the privilege to obey His call.

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Sermon C: 4 S Epiph: Lk 4:35

As we approach the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany that will occur on January 28, 2007, we find that the three readings assigned are Jeremiah 1:4-10 (17-19) (Knowing Jeremiah in the womb); 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 (Greatest is love) and Luke 4:31-44 (Reuking demons). The text chosen to elaborate on is Luke 4:35 which has Jesus rebuking the demon and saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"

Just what was the demon saying that Jesus told him to be quiet? Perhaps he was denying that Jesus was God or that a man could be saved by works. Surprisingly, the demon was confessing Jesus as the "Holy One of God" (verse 34). In fact, it gets worse. In verse 41 Jesus again rebukes demons for crying out and saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of God!"

This is a good passage to understand why you simply cannot take the Bible out of context. For the obvious application would be that Jesus also rebukes you if you refer to Him as the Son of God or the Christ or the Holy One of God! What is going on here? First, we interpret; then we apply. First, we use "Scripture interprets Scripture" and then we use "Law and Gospel." For if you get the interpretation wrong, you certainly will get the application wrong.

From the context of the New Testament we know that many of the people in Jesus' day were not looking for the kind of Messiah (Hebrew) or Christ (Greek) to come that was spoken of in the Old Testament books. Instead of the suffering and dying Messiah Who was to come to take away the sins of the world, the people were looking for a triumphant Messiah come to take away Roman domination and restore the land of Israel to its former self.

Though it appears at first reading that the demons are properly confessing Jesus as the Messiah, they are in reality attempting to make Jesus out to be a "bread king" as the 5,000 fed with loaves and fish had concluded. Even the disciple Peter who confessed Jesus as the Messiah heard a few moments later these words from Jesus, "Get thee behind Me Satan" as Peter attempted to dissuade the LORD from going to Jerusalem to be crucified.

The interpretation is clear. God will not tolerate a false confession even if the words sound okay. The application is therefore clear. The easy one would be to accuse the Mormons, JWs and Muslims of pretending to honor Jesus but in realtiy making a mockery of His real mission and purpose. They do that by asserting that salvation is by our own works rather than by His works and His alone.

However, the finger of accusing Law needs to be directed at each Christian in the pew also. That is done by reminding each of us that we, like the disciples, often don't like how God truly reveals Himself. We show our displeasure with His revelation by continuing to sin not only by deed but also by thought and by word and not only by commission but also by omission. If we truly understood the mission of Jesus and what He did for us, we would never sin.

Yet the Gospel is also good news to those who in faith are contrite over their sins and trust in the saving work accomplished for us by the Christ because of His birth, sufferings, death, burial, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God. Even Jesus makes clear that His mission is not to sort out the problems of this world by setting straight the kingdoms of the earth. Instead, He insists that IT IS NECESSARY for Him to "preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent!"

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Sermon C: 3S Epiph: Luke 4:28

This coming Sunday, January 21, 2007, is the third Sunday after the Epiphany with the following three readings assigned: Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10 (Reading of the Law); I Corinthians 12:12-31a (Different members in the Body) and Luke 4:16-30 (Jesus preaching at Nazareth). The text chosen to examine is Luke 4:28 which reveals "Then all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath."

Just returned last night from a weekend of seminars, Bible classes and preaching in the Los Angeles area of southern California. In fact, while there, I was told that the temperature hit a record low of 30 degrees. During one of the Law and Gospel seminars, I asked the question as to what person would the audience consider as being the worst preacher in the world. They could choose from someone living today, in the past or even from the Bible.

I heard the names of Noah, Paul and contemporary preachers. After telling them that the way God thinks is to first think commonsensically and then reverse it, the name I suggested was none other than Jesus Himself. Who else was rejected by the leading religious figures of his day, who had most of his followers leave him in his hour of despair, who had one betray him, another deny him, his own mother and relatives embarrased by him and the list goes on and on. One of the items I pointed to was from the Gospel reading for today in which after preaching at his own hometown "parish", Jesus has to escape from being thrown off of a cliff.

Making the point that even his own relatives, friends and neighbors rejected him, I would then turn to those hearing this sermon and accuse them also of being no different. For do we not live after the time of His death, resurrection and ascension and yet we also continue to sin day in and day out? Yes, we may have faith but it is a faith that is weak indeed!

Yet not all regarded Jesus with disdain. His own Father spoke these words more than once in that He was most pleased with This His Son. How so in light of the fact that Jesus was such an apparent dismal failure in getting people to follow Him consistently? The fact is that what makes for a successful preacher from God's point of view--which is really the only view that counts--is that one preaches the Word of God in its purity and adminsters the sacraments as God so intended. The results do not compute in the equation for success.

How different is that from the typical attitude of most of us who measure God's pleasure by how well things are going in our life? Thinking that we deserve better than we get from God, at times we cry out, "What did I do to deserve this?" The cry is really directed to Satan who makes deals and works on the basis of justice. For the true God is one of mercy and grace Who withholds from us the justice we deserve and provides us with the gracious gift of salvation we do not deserve.

Yes, the world wants to see signs and wonders from us to back up with evidence that which we teach. But we have no other evidence that the Scriptural Word of the death and burial for three days and the resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God. That is sufficient material for the Holy Spirit to work on the hearts of the unbelievers so that the ungodly are declared godly. In fact, is it not a fact that of those voices raised against the Christ in that town of Nazareth, one of them was probably his own brother James who in time became the Christian pastor of the holy Christian congregation of Jerusalem!

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Sermon C: 2 S Epiph: John 2:11

For September 14, 2007, the three readings for the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany are Isaiah 62:1-5 (No longer Forsaken or Desolate); I Corinthians 12:1-11 (diversities of gifts) and John 2:1-11 (Wedding in Cana). John 2:11 is the verse chosen to preach on this week in Los Angeles, CA which reads, "This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him."

All Jesus did was to change water into wine and the "disciples believed in Him"??? If it's that easy to get people to believe in Jesus, why not show to them the constant miracles that He is doing in their lives day in and day out. However, such an approach would indeed be that of the theologian of glory who assumes that his experience reveals the kind of god we have.

This may sound somewhat radical, but I have yet to find a miracle in the Bible that converted anyone to Jesus Christ. How can I say that in light of John 2:11? Was it not the changing of water into wine that led to the disciples coming to faith? The answer is "no." How so? A casual inquiry into the previous chapter 1 of John will find that these disciples of Jesus had previously been disciples of John. These were not unbelievers but believers in the coming Messiah.

What happened to these men is not that they became believers for they already were believers trusting the promises of God that He would send the promised Messiah. What happened to them is that their true faith became one in which they no longer looked to the future for the Messiah but now looked to the present in the person of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

And that is the purpose of miracles. They are for the faithful. For the Old Testament makes clear that the signs of the presence of the true Messiah is that the blind would see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the lame walk and so on. The disciples had heard from John and then Jesus Himself the words of Life. Thus, the miracle at the wedding of Cana did not create faith; rather, it moved the faith already present to look to Jesus as the fulfillment of the promised Messiah (Christ).

The believer in the pew needs to have eyes of faith to see the hand of God everywhere in contrast to the unbeliever who never sees the true hand of God. The believer's assurance is never his or her experience but rather the promises of God that are a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For us in 2007, all that happens can be used by God to manifest (Epiphany) His glory so that we, His disciples, believe in Him!

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Sermon C: 1 S Epip; Bap: Rom 6:4

On January 7, 2007, the Sunday has a dual emphasis of being the 1st Sunday after the Epiphany and the Baptism of our Lord. The three assigned readings from the Revised Lutheran Lectionary are Isaiah 43:1-7 (Israel has been redeemed); Romans 6:1-11 (Baptized into His death) and Luke 3:15-22 (John's baptism of Jesus). For our deliberation we have chosen Romans 6:4 "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death."

The problem facing every religion in the world is how to get right with God Who demands obedience to His demands. Some religions respond with the view that God does not demand perfect obedience but only better behavior. Others respond by suggesting that working off your sins by sacrifices and offerings will get God on your side. Then there are those religions that actually propose that you become perfect, if not by your own ability, at least with a little help from God.

Only Christianity teaches that God not only demands perfect obedience and perfect motivation but that there is NO HELP that God can possibly give you. For declaring that God can give you some help, assumes that the unbeliever can make use of the help God provides to fulfill the Law's demands. That is impossible.

So how does Christianity reveal to us the solution to our problem? Salvation is neither merited nor earned. It is a free gift provided by a God of mercy and grace. And how does He provide it? He does so by simply transferring to the ungodly what Christ the godly did at the cross and resurrection. At the cross Jesus took upon Himself the punishment you and I deserved. At the resurrection, it became crystal clear that Jesus had indeed finished the task for which He was sent by the Father.

Now, as unbelievable as it sounds, God has decided in His infinite wisdom to transfer all the benefits Christ won for us by simple water. But it is not simple water but water connected to the Word of God. And not just any Word but the Word of promise from Matthew 28 that disciples are created by being baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!

From God's viewpoint--which is the only one that counts--the forgiveness of sins which Christ won for us in His death and resurrection are now received by us in the waters of holy baptism. It is as though our own bodies were buried with Christ having suffered the hell He experienced on the cross with the words, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Having received the gift of the forgiveness of sins and the robe of righteousness in this glorious exchange, we have His assurance that we have been adopted into the family of God. Now that's a means of salvation that cannot be found in any other religion in the world which, of course, are all man-made and demon-inspired.

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The Seduction of Extremes

This first blog for 2007 begins a new feature on Law and Gospel in which we are going to comment on other items besides the regular readings for the various Sundays of the Church Year. The Rev. Dr. Peter Kurowski's latest book "The Seduction of Extremes" is one of those rare books that you will read more than once. In fact, for those preaching or leading Bible studies, it is filled with material to last for a number of months.

The theme of this ground-breaking book is that the paradoxical nature of Scripture keeps one from falling into the left ditch of legalism or the right ditch of lawlessness. The phrase "Tension Deficit Disorder" rather than "Attention Deficit Disorder" focuses on how many in the Church grab for an extreme point of view rather than permit the Scriptural tension between two extremes to hold sway. For example, because some could not "understand" how Jesus Christ could have both a divine and human nature, errors resulting in his only appearing to be human or a division between the two natures were taught.

I'll have more to say about this book both in my sermon blogs and in further articles. However, to whet your appetites, here are just a few of the paradoxes of the cross that Pastor Kurowski notes:

1) God's severest judgment upon evil; his greatest manifestation of good.
2) The place of curse and the source of blessing.
3) Point of greatest sin and greatest revelation of sinlessness.
4) Worse day in history; best day in history.
5) God is separated from God.
6) The just dies for the unjust.

And these are only 6 of the 30 that are found listed at the end of chapter 4! This 178-page book is copyright 2007 and is now available at a cost of $17.00 which includes postage, handling, etc. To receive a copy through the mail, simply send an email using the email button "Email Tom Baker". Include your name, mailing address and phone number. You will be sent a bill with the mailing.

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