Sermon on Mark 13:24-37

St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA

Sunday, November 30, 2008,

First Sunday of Advent, Year B

(word count: 1036)

Keep Awake; Plant Trees

Advent is about the coming of Christ, past, future, present. Today's readings give fluorescent attention to the Second Coming, to the coming of Christ at the end of this world. The day will arrive on which Christ will return to earth in the ultimate way. As we confess in the Creed, “Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.” Maybe in another 2000 years, maybe before today sets, Christ will return at the End of this world.

When we Christians think and talk about the Second Coming of Christ, we tend to have one of two attitudes. One attitude that some of us Christians have about the Second Coming is that of obsession. Such people read book after book about it, scrutinize Revelation for clues about when the Second Coming will occur. These folks swear that we are in the Last Days. They believe that the Bible points to many of the events of our time. Some Christians obsess over the Second Coming.

A problem with obsessing over the Second Coming is that Jesus tells us in our reading from Mark 13 that, no matter how hard we try to figure out if Christ, is about to come back, we will never know for sure until afterwards. Only the Father knows the when of the Second Coming. Christ will return like a robber breaking into your house.

Besides, does God really want us to spend valuable time fretting over the Second Coming? Wouldn't it be a holier use of our time if we obsessed over new ways to help people, new ways to care for the needy, new ways to end bickering and back-stabbing? Obsessing over the Second Coming is understandable, but it would be wiser to obsess over how to glorify God by helping people, especially since we cannot know for sure when the Second Coming will happen anyway.

While some people obsess over the Second Coming, other people ignore it. The ignoring is the second attitude. They flush their lives down the toilet. They are careless about God and helping people, act as if they have decades to burn, live as if there will never be an End. The problem with such an attitude is that the Bible makes it plain as perfume that there will be a Second Coming.

So if obsessing over the Second Coming is unwise and indifference is unwise, what is the wise attitude? Jesus tells us in Mark 13 the right attitude. “Keep awake,” he says. He does not say, “Obsess over when the Second Coming will happen,” and he does not say, “Ignore the Second Coming.” He says, “Keep awake.” In other words, always be ready for the Second Coming. Keep awake.

So how do we keep awake? The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love the neighbor, so keeping awake demands love. Love God by going to worship, praying, giving offering, studying the Bible, remembering your baptism, repenting of your sins, eating and drinking the body and blood, helping people in need, keeping the commandments. No matter how lousy the economy is, keep on loving God and loving the neighbor. Do not give up. Keep awake. If we do that, then regardless of when Christ returns, we will be ready.

In fact, if we keep awake, if we focus on loving God and loving the neighbor, then we will see that, in a sense, Christ already comes to us right now. Christ will come in the supernal way at the end, but Christ comes to us now, too.

As we heard last Sunday in Matthew 25, when we help people in need, we help Christ. We encounter Christ. Moreover, we who keep awake also discover, by the Spirit's guidance, that Christ is with us each Sunday at worship. He tells us in Matthew that, where at least two of us gather in his name, he is with us. We encounter Christ, also, in reading Scripture, for it it is the Word of God. Further, as the Book of Concord teaches us, we encounter the real presence of Christ in holy communion. When we love God and neighbor – when we keep awake – Christ reveals himself to us.

In this new Church year, what are new ways that we baptized witnesses can love God and love the neighbor? Thanks be to the Holy Spirit, we at St. James do much, from the Angel Tree to Operation Reindeer to Meals on Wheels to fundraisers for the Blackburn Center. What more could we do as we keep awake, obsessing over loving God and loving others?

In Africa, a couple decades ago a woman named Wangari Maathai started planting trees to help fight erosion. Now she has helped to plant over eighty-million trees and, in so doing, has helped to improve dramatically the environment and economy in Kenya. It all started with planting a few trees. Dr. Maathai is keeping awake. What more could we do as we witnesses keep awake?

As we think, pray and talk about how we can keep awake, obsessing over loving God and neighbor, we recall the first coming of long ago. There will be the Second Coming, and Christ comes to us now. In addition, remember that first Advent, that first coming, of long ago? Picture it. In the evening, Christ celebrates the Last Supper. Jesus urges the disciples to keep awake in Gethsemene. At midnight they put him on trial. At cockcrow Peter denies Jesus. At dawn, he stands before Pilate. Then they crucify Jesus. His nailed body hangs against the clouds. The sun turns dark. See him. Christ hangs in power and glory on the cross, with us, gasping toward death.

Christ came to die for all. The wood of the manger turns into the cross. Let that Good News keep you up, obsessing over holy love.

Sermon on Ephesians 1:15-23 and Matthew 25:31-46
St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA
Sunday, November 23, 2008,
The Reign of Christ, Year A
(word count: 1077)

Simul Sheep and Goat

A man lies in the street in pain, groaning. A stranger stops. She kneels beside the person.
Today's reading from chapter 25, the parable of the sheep and the goats, comes at the end of Jesus' teachings. This is the last story King Jesus tells before he heads to the cross to die for our sins.

What a story it is. Jesus tells us that, at the end, he, the king, on his throne, will judge us according to whether we helped people in need. Did we give food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty? Did we welcome the stranger and clothe the naked? Did we care for the sick and visit the imprisoned? If we did, Jesus will welcome us to life. If we did not, Jesus will send us to hell. Boom.

Note that Jesus does not place conditions on our helping people in need. He does not say, “Only help people who deserve help.” He does not say, “Only help white people,” or “Only help Americans.” Jesus does not say, “Help everyone, except Muslims.” Christ the King does not decree, “Help everyone in need, except illegal immigrants.” No, through this story our King teaches us that we are to help all people in need, no exceptions.

The woman wipes away at the wounds of the man lying in the street. They are full of puss and blood. They stink, but she keeps cleaning them. People walking by say, “Man, that's disgusting. I wouldn't do that job for a million dollars.”

Are we sheep or goats? Do we help people in need, or do we make excuses not to? Do you give food, money, attention, and talent to reduce poverty, care for the sick, and support people in jail?

I think I am a sheep, for the most part, although there are times when I am a goat. Plenty of times I look the other way instead of helping someone. When I hear about poverty-stricken children on TV, sometimes I turn the channel. I give money to charities, pray for people in need, try to help people, but I could do more. I could give more money to people in need instead of spending it to over-eat. The synod runs trips to Mississippi to help Katrina victims. I could do that. Why don't I?

Am I a sheep or a goat? It depends. Most of us are like that. Most of us do not fit neatly into one category. The Book of Concord teaches that we are both saint and sinner. God has made us saints, but we still sin. Romans 3 proclaims, “All have sinned.” Are you a sheep or a goat? You're both. We all are.

So then, how can God divide people into sheep and goat? Aren't we a combination of sheep and goat, a combination of good and bad? Aren't we all sinners?

Maybe part of the point of the story of the sheep and the goats is to show us that we all fall short. When we hear this story, if we are honest, we will confess that, while sometimes we care for those in need, other times we neglect people. There's some goat in each of us.

Perhaps, then, this story helps us to see how much we need Jesus to die for us. We hear this story, and we say, “Yes, I have my sheep moments, but I can be pretty goatish, too. Sometimes I help those in need, sometimes I don't. I do not do enough. I am a sinner.” When we acknowledge that we just cannot do it all on our own, that we can never be good enough, then we cling to the cross, for it is through the cross that Christ has saved us. Are we as good as should be? No, but Jesus died to save us.

Indeed, the Book of Concord teaches that the Law of God, the passages of commandment and judgment, function like a mirror to show us how much we need Jesus. These tough passages of the Bible, such as the story of the sheep and the goats, hold a mirror to us [hold up mirror]. We look in the mirror. We see our sin. We declare, “Look at all that sin. I can't do all this on my own. I need Jesus.” Then we the baptized sprint to the cross, trusting that Christ forgives us. We cannot be good enough, we cannot be sheep enough, we cannot help people enough, we cannot earn our way into heaven, so alleluia for Christ the King, who has saved us. Whew, what a relief!

Christ the King has snatched us from the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Christ the King takes his place on that throne called the cross to save us. From the cross, Christ says, “Because you are hungry and thirsty and a stranger and naked and sick and in prison, I die for you.”

Christ the King dies to give us life, and Christ the King empowers us to care for the needy.
Further, because Christ the King has saved us by dying for us, we can help people in need without worrying about reward. Feed the hungry, visit the sick, welcome the stranger. Why? To get a reward? No, Christ has earned the reward for us by dying on the cross. Ephesians 2:8 and 9 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith, not by the good deeds we do. So why should we care for people in need? Because God wants us to, and because, when we do so, we help God himself.

Mother Teresa cleans the pus-filled, bloody sores of the sick man lying in the street. The sores stink and run. Disgusting. A reporter mutters, “I wouldn't do that job for a million dollars.”

Mother Teresa replies, “Neither would I.”

Christ has cared for us, has saved us. He then sends us out to care for others, not for reward, but because that is what God wants us to do. Further, when we help people in need, we help God himself.

For this new Church year, what is some new way you could help people in need? What new deed could I do? What could St. James do?

“I wouldn't help human beings for a million dollars.”

From the cross, Jesus says, “Neither would I.”

Sermon on Zephaniah 1:12b, 1 Thessalonians 5:9,
and Matthew 25:14-30
St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church, Youngstown, PA
Sunday, November 16, 2008,
27th Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
(word count: 857)

Trillionaire Slaves

We do not give God enough credit. We short-change God.

For instance, many of us come to worship on Sunday but then go about the rest of the week as if God does not really make a difference. We believe luck, fate, superstition, and hard work make a big difference from day to day, but God? Oh, he's good for the occasional miracle and for some spiritual comfort, otherwise God doesn't do much, or so we act.

We fuss over guardian angels, but then we fail to go the extra step and give God the glory. Isn't God the one who sends the angels? The angels know to give God the glory. We short-change God.

Similarly, many people short-change the Church, which comes from God. It's sweet and nice, full of feel-good sentiments and helpful rules but, for the most part, it doesn't really make much of an impact. We treat the Church like a feel-good club that you can join if you want but that you can ignore if you want. It doesn't matter. Go to church, don't go. Whatever works for you. It doesn't matter.

We hear just such an attitude in our first reading, Zephaniah 1. In verse 12, the writer reports that many people are saying, “The LORD will not do good, nor will he do harm.” He's just there, watching us as if we were a TV show. Thousands of people in Zephaniah's time thought that way. “God doesn't do good, doesn't do bad. He's just up there, hanging out, watching the show.” Deism.

The people of Zephaniah will soon learn that they are wrong. God announces that he will squeeze them with wrath. The people of Zephaniah are about to learn that God does make a difference.

Are we, the baptized believers, going to experience the wrath of God if we think that God does not make a difference? No. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 tells us, “For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We will receive, not God's wrath, but the jackpot of eternal life. As Luther writes in the Book of Concord, Christ has bought our salvation, not with silver and gold, but with his precious blood. The Redeemer paid the ransom to rescue us from wrath.

However, even though, because of Christ, we will not experience the wrath we hear about in Zephaniah, we are still not to underestimate God's impact on our lives. As in Zephaniah's day, many of us live as if God does not make much of a difference. We short-change God by underestimating him.

So what specifically does God do for us in our lives today? Let us count some of the ways. For starters, Luther tells us in the Book of Concord that the Father gives us life. Are babies being born? That would be the Father's doing. The Father also gives us food, a place to live, a paycheck, clothes, medicine, people who love us. Do you have any of those things? You may not have all that you want or need, but whatever riches you do have are evidence that God is active in your life, making a difference. Let's not short-change God by under-valuing him. Let's praise him by sharing the wealth he gives us.

Luther goes on to tell us in the Book of Concord that the Holy Spirit is with us, active, right here, right now. The Spirit is the one who gives us faith to believe. The Holy Spirit is the engine powering the Church. The Holy Spirit enables us to repent and believe that God will forgive us. This worship service is evidence of God's activity in the world. If it weren't for the Holy Spirit, there would be no worship service, no St. James. The Holy Spirit makes baptism, holy communion, forgiveness of sins, the sermon, and the healing service all possible. Let's not short-change God by under-appreciating him. Let's praise God by sharing the wealth he gives us today.

Best of all, Luther reminds us in the Book of Concord that salvation, eternal life, is because of Jesus Christ. If it weren't for Christ, we'd end up prisoners in hell, penniless, senseless. Because of Christ, we have life. Let's not short-change God. Let's praise God by sharing the wealth.
Like the people in Zephaniah's day, many of us act as if God and his church do not matter much, that God is just up in heaven watching, inactive, that the Church is just a nice club that you can take or leave. The reality is that God, the Trinity, without ceasing deposits riches into our accounts. Every day, the Lord fills our accounts with riches. God is not bankrupt, and neither is the Church. God is giving us riches through our basic needs, through worship, through forgiveness, through eternal life. The Trinity has entrusted us with a fortune, is here, active in your life, right now. Good and trustworthy slaves, we are wealthy. We are God's trillionaire slaves. God makes a difference in your life now.