All You Need Is Christ!

The Corinthian church was obsessed with image. They wanted others to look up to them with awe and respect. St. Paul writes the letter of 1 Corinthians to turn them away from these things, and this introduction to the letter summarizes many of the themes to which Paul returns in this letter.

What are these things? Paul hints at them with the words “speech” and “knowledge” and “gift.” The Corinthians had three things with which they struggled most. They looked up to the Sophists, a movement of charismatic speakers who gained fortune and fame by being eloquent. They looked up to the Stoic philosophers, who showed how great they were by their wisdom (St. Paul even quotes them in this letter). They looked up to those with impressive spiritual gifts, especially speaking in tongues and prophecy.

But the obsession with these gifts divided the congregation, the eloquent against those who stumble over their words, the wise against the foolish, the spiritually powerful against the spiritually weak. Is that what the Christian church should be like?

St. Paul tells them that the only gift that matters is Jesus, and God supplies us with every speech, every kind of knowledge, every kind of gift through Jesus’ grace.

It Really Happened!

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth to tell them about Jesus’ resurrection, because many of them doubted what had happened. They claimed that there was no such thing as a resurrection from the dead.

So Paul begins his lesson about the resurrection by telling them that Jesus’ resurrection really and truly happened. It’s important to Paul to let them know that the same body that was killed on the cross and was laid in the tomb, that same body rose from death three days later.

Many people want to talk about the resurrection like it’s a metaphor. We talk about Jesus’ resurrection as if it is a symbol of obstacles overcome or hardships endured. We talk about it like Lucky Day talks about El Guapo in the Three Amigos. It’s not about Jesus’ resurrection but what how Jesus’ resurrection is symbolic of your own struggles.

But the Bible is very clear that Jesus’ resurrection must be physical. The gospels focus on showing the disciples Jesus’ body. The Gospel of Luke 24:39, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” In the Gospel of John, Jesus shows them his hands and his side so they can see it’s truly him. In the Gospel of Matthew, “And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him” (Spirits in the ancient world didn’t have feet).

Jesus’ resurrection is a real, physical event. It means more for us than just that some guy was dead and is now alive. It means we have the promise of resurrection, too. Find out more about what that means.

Which is more free: Obedience or Independence?

Romans 6:19-23

When we think about freedom, we usually think about our ability to make our own decisions. Freedom means that we can do what we want without asking permission from others. Political freedom works exactly that way. The United States’ political system is all about giving every individual the freedom to make his or her own decisions without interference (for the most part) from politicians.

When it comes to our personal lives, though, freedom to choose often means that we choose to be less free.

St. Paul talks about the freedom we have in obedience vs independence in Romans 6. When we believe we are being independent, we are not free at all. When we say to God, “You can’t tell me what to do,” we actually imprison ourselves. We make ourselves slaves to sin and impurity with the end that leads to shame, more sin, and eventually death.

When we turn to God in obedience, we live out what God has already made us to be. He has already saved us. He has already raised us to new life. He has already given us a new, faithful heart to follow him.

Freedom, true freedom, is living in God’s will and obeying him. In this sermon, we examine examples of how independence and selfishness makes us less free while living in God’s will makes us more free.

Jesus' Story. Our Story.

Romans 6:1-11

Sometimes Christians focus too much on one particular way of talking about our relationship with God. We, Lutherans, tend to focus on doctrine as if the whole of Christian life can be summed up in a checklist of things we’re supposed to memorize. Others focus on feelings, that the Christian life is mostly about how close you feel to God at any given moment.

St. Paul turns us away from both to focus on story. The story of Jesus and our story through him. He tells us that the two stories are united by baptism.

So, Jesus’ story becomes our story. Jesus became sin for us. He died on the cross. He rose from the dead. He lives a new life. He did it all for us, both the suffering and exaltation, so we can follow in his footsteps.

Through baptism, we are united with Christ, so his story becomes ours. Jesus was faithful in life, so we receive his faithfulness in baptism. Jesus died a righteous death, so we receive his righteousness death in baptism. Jesus rose from the dead, and so we rise from the dead, too. Jesus lives a new life free from the power of death, and we live that same life, too.

These things are not a future reality. They are present. In baptism, we die and rise with Christ now. In baptism, we live eternal life with Christ now.

Listen to the sermon to find out what it means for us to live this way.

Moral Therapeutic Deism: All Human Wisdom Falls Before Christ

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

No one can see the world the way it is. There is too much going on for us to take in everything. So, we interpret the world through mental models. We understand the world through our own culture. Let’s take an example.

What would you say the sin is in the story of the prodigal son? The sin depends on your culture.

• Americans focus on either the wild living or that he wasted his money.

• Other cultures believe the sin was leaving his family. That’s your safety net, and you never know when you’ll need it.

• Still others say the sin was that the strangers in the foreign land didn’t give the son any food.

Which one is right? Well, they all are. But your focus comes from what you believe is true about the world. Americans focus on money while other cultures focus on other things.

The same is true in the church. Christians filter the Bible through what they believe to be true about the world. Do we understand the gospel through a biblical worldview or through an American one? I believe we do so, myself included, through an American concept of Christianity.

The most popular mode is something called Moral Therapeutic Deism, coined by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, the authors of Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Moral Therapeutic Deism has five core beliefs:

1. God created the world and watches over it.

2. God wants us to be good and nice.

3. God wants us to be happy and feel good about ourselves.

4. God isn’t involved in my life unless I have a problem.

5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

Each of these has a sliver of truth, but they are twisted away from what the Bible says. In response, the Christian worldview might say:

1. God doesn’t just watch over the world he created. Rather, he is in and responsible for everything.

2. God wants us to hold each other accountable to holy living.

3. God wants us to be faithful, not happy.

4. God wants us to seek his will and his support in all things.

5. Only bad people go to heaven when they die.

If you’re curious about how these things match up with God’s word, listen to the sermon.

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Abide in love

1 John 4:16-21

Americans are in love with being in love. We watch romantic comedies to see a couple fall madly in love with each other. We watch TV shows in which the main drama is the tension between people who don’t know that they’re secretly in love. Love is the reason why The Bachelor is in its 1,000th season.

St. John asks us to abide in love. What does that mean?

Abiding in love begins with God’s love for us in Christ. He loved us before we loved him, and he sent his Son to die for us to give us eternal life. That’s love. And it’s free. There are no preconditions, no membership fees. God gives it to us, because he loves us.

To abide in that love, we remain in Christ. In John 15, Jesus talks about the vine and the branches. When we, the branches, remain in him, we can bear fruit. We can love. To abide in love, we have to abide, to remain, in Christ.

When we abide in love, there’s no judgement. We have confidence before God, because Jesus died on the cross for us. We know that Jesus’ love gives us life. When we stand before him on the last day, we will be with him forever.

Because we have that confidence, we don’t have to love out of fear. People love out of fear all the time. We love out of fear when we love because of a command. We love out of fear when we love because of duty. Most of us love out of fear, though, when we love in exchange for love. Our conception of love is mutual love. But God’s conception of love is one-way. That’s the love God gives to us.

The Ineffable, Effable God

Romans 11:33-36

We celebrated Trinity Sunday on June 16th, when Pastor Huenink preached this sermon. On this Sunday each year, we focus on the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is a difficult concept to understand, how God can be both three persons and yet one God. St. Paul tells us that God is inscrutable, unsearchable. He couldn’t be more right.

In the Amazon TV show, Good Omens, an angel and a demon frequently talk about God’s plan. The demon asks how anyone could follow a God who allows a particular wicked event. The angel always replies that it’s part of God’s ineffable plan. He explains. Ineffable means unexplainable. Everyone in the show thinks they know God’s plan for the future, but how can they when God is ineffable?

The Trinity shows us how God is ineffable. Yet, it also shows us that God is effable, too (It’s a word. We looked it up). He is totally explainable when you look at what he tells us about himself: The Father sends the Son to die on the cross, and they send the Holy Spirit to give us faith and forgive our sins. That so simple, even a little child can remember it.

Yet, we so often turn away from what God reveals, his effable will, to look at his ineffable side. We want to peer into God’s divine mind when we should look at what he says about himself through his word. Listen to the sermon to find out more.

At the same time, though

Possessed By The Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1-4

The Pentecost story is pretty crazy. The Holy Spirit descends with the sound of rushing wind, even without a wind blowing. Fire appears, floating in the air, and it floats about the disciples’ heads. Then, filled with the Spirit, they are driven out into the streets to preach in every language imaginable. What an amazing, awe-filled experience!

It’s so powerful, so crazy, that it reminds me of other events when the a spirit comes on someone and causes them to do something crazy. It sounds like possession. Most of the times we read about a possession, we read about demons. In this sermon, I contrast demon possession and Holy Spirit possession to show the blessings of being filled with the Spirit.

God Provides For His Church

1 Peter 4:7-11

Language is a funny thing. We a word in one situation to talk about one thing. We can use the same word in another situation to talk about something completely different. Think about the various meanings we have for the word, “ball.”

• Round thing that you can throw

• A fancy dance

• Something that’s fun: “have a ball”

• A pitch that isn’t a strike

• A game that uses a ball “play ball”

• We can ball up our clothes

• The balls of our feet

Isn’t it amazing that the same letters can refer to so many different things?

The church does this, too. In 1 Peter, the apostle uses the same word for “gift” and for “grace.” It’s the same word, but he uses it in two different, but related ways. In parts of 1 Peter, he talks about grace the same way we usually do. Grace is God’s free gift of favor through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Grace is the gospel message, that Jesus died and rose to save you. God gives this grace the same way to all believers.

Peter also uses grace to refer to varied gifts and abilities that God gives individuals in his church. As God’s grace comes to us, it sprouts into a variety of flowers, each with its own characteristics. Peter mentions a few in our reading: hospitality, speaking, and service. We see others in Paul’s letters, too. He calls on us to use these gifts to serve one another.

God calls his church on a mission, and he gives his church the abilities we need to do it. Each person who receives his grace receives also good gifts for service in the church and the world.

How should we use it? Peter tells us to be sober-minded. That is, to be clear-headed. He wants his people to avoid passions that cloud the mind and cause us to make bad decisions. The Christian Church in America is clouded by a culture of loss. We look back to a supposed golden age, and we wish we could get it back. We wish we could build a church, open the doors, and watch it fill to the brim. We wish our communities remained stable like they were 50 years ago. We wish we could offer the same programs. But we can’t get it back. Loss and fear clouds our judgment so we can’t see the opportunities God gives us now.

Listen to hear more.

Pilgrims and Sojourners

1 Peter 2:11-20

Peter tells us that we are pilgrims and sojourners. Pilgrims and sojourners was the word for foreigners who travelled through someone else’s land. That’s what we are. Christians travel through the world, not as people who live here, but as people who are passing through to a better land. So, we don’t need to be attached to the things of this world. Whatever we see, it’s not as important as the place we are going.

The first Christians may have used this radical message to try to get out of their worldly obligations. The gospel was a radical message. They believed the old divisions mattered. They believed that the division between male and female wasn’t just in their DNA. It was in the quality of their character based on their sex. Slaves were lower levels of humans than free people. Foreigners had no rights. These divisions mattered.In the gospel, for the first time, God makes all people equal. There are no Jews or Gentiles, no slaves or freemen, no male and female, because all people are one in Christ.

It could be easy to take that to the extreme. If all are equal in Christ, then there should be no divisions in our duties. No rulers or subjects. No police. No teachers. Everyone is equal. Peter reminds them that the world works differently than the kingdom of God. While we travel through this world, we need to follow its rules. Honor the laws. Fulfill your duties.

We have learned the opposite lesson. Most of us are so focused on the ways of this world that we forget to focus on our real heavenly home. So, we get caught up in our jobs. We get so angry at our coworkers when they’re lazy or our bosses are jerks. Why should that matter to us? It will all fade away. Why are we so concerned about securing our children’s future that we place their events before their education in Christ? Wouldn’t it be better to starve than turn away from Christ. This world will go away, but our eternal home is eternal.

The Myth Of Righteous Anger

This sermon leans heavily on a paper of the same name written by Dr. Jeff Gibbs. I encourage you to read it.

1 Peter 2:21-25

It seems like everyone is angry. We shout at each other over social media. We read it in our newspapers. You probably feel it. Our American social and political life is filled with anger. Sometimes we think about anger as a virtue. Aren’t we supposed to be outraged when we see evil? Aren’t we supposed to be angry when there’s injustice? Christians sometimes appeal to “righteous anger” to justify that position. In this sermon, we examine how God describes divine anger and human anger in the Old and New Testaments.

God’s anger is almost always in response to human sin. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God reacts to our disobedience with judgement. When Israel broke God’s covenant, his anger burned against his people. When Jesus found people selling animals inside the temple grounds, he made a whip of cords and drove them out. But God’s anger is always righteous, because God is God.

But God doesn’t define himself by anger but by mercy. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. In fact, whenever he’s angry, he always returns to mercy. The whole Bible is the story of God’s grace given to his people from the moment they sinned in the Garden of Eden to the day Jesus returns. God wants only to give mercy. He only becomes angry when it’s unavoidable.

Human anger, however, is almost always negative in both the Old and New Testaments. Proverbs uniformly condemns anger throughout. Cain’s anger causes him to kill Abel. The prophet Jonah becomes angry when God spares the people of Nineveh. Jesus equates anger with murder. The New Testament letters often include anger in the list of sins to avoid. the Bible, almost uniformly, condemns human anger. Righteous anger is truly a myth. It doesn’t exist.

So what do we do with anger? You’ll have to listen to the sermon to find out more.

Christians Overcome The World In Christ

1 John 5:4-11

The victorious life. Many Christians talk about it, that Jesus gives us victory over the world. What does that mean?

For much of the ancient world, victory meant conquering others. The Roman Empire didn’t believe in stable borders with her neighbors. Every chance he had, the emperor sent out his armies to take new land or fight off a rebellion. Victory meant taking what you wanted from others.

Victory can also mean living a successful life. Victory is when our family does well, our career is on track, and our life is under control. The victorious life is “the good life.”

For Christians, however, victory is not conquering others or gaining “the good life” from the world. Christian victory is the battle that Jesus won with the world, a victory he won on the cross. Jesus gives us that victory through faith, through the word and the sacraments.

But the world wants to convince us that we have no victory in Christ. There’s the guilty voice that tells us God could never love us. There are the problems that weigh us down. We think, “I could never have victory when everything is going wrong.” We have temptations that pull us away from living the way we want to. We can even come to believe that we have no victory in Christ.

But we should never believe our own thoughts over what God says to us. God’s word always trumps our conscience. St. John tells us that God has given us witnesses to prove that we have victory in Christ. The Spirit, the water, and the blood. That is, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit through them. We don’t trust ourselves. We trust the promise of God.

The Mystery Of The Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:51-57

We use the word “mystery” differently from the way the Bible does. We might think about a mystery novel, where a private detective must piece together the clues to solve the mystery. By the end, the detective has found the guilty party and justice is done. That’s not the way the Bible uses the word, “mystery.”

In 1 Corinthians 15, mystery means knowledge that must be revealed by someone who already knows. It’s a secret. For example, reading is a mystery that must be revealed to learn how to do it. Anyone who has taught preschoolers how to recognize their letters understands this. They must help them recognize the shapes, and they ask what kinds of sounds each letter makes. The teacher has to reveal what the ink on the paper means.

The resurrection is that kind of mystery. When Jesus returns, he will change our mortal bodies into immortal bodies. He will make our perishable flesh imperishable. There will be no more sickness or death, no more sadness or hurt. There will only be resurrection and eternal life.

There’s no microscope that can see the resurrection or a chemical test to find it. We can’t break up an atom to understand it or stare out into the stars to find it. The resurrection must be revealed to us.

That’s what Jesus’ resurrection does. Because he died on the cross and rose from the dead, he reveals to us our own resurrection on the last day. He is the pattern for what will happen on the day he returns.

Communion Is Union

1 Corinthians 11:23-32

FThere are a number of names for the sacrament where we eat Christ’s body and drink his blood. Each of them describes a different aspect of the sacrament. Eucharist comes from a Greek word which means “to give thanks.” It reminds us that we give thanks to Christ for his body and blood. The Lord’s Supper reminds us that Jesus is the host, and he offers himself to us. The Sacrament of the Altar points us to the altar as a symbol of sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed himself for us and we receive his body and blood.

Holy Communion points to the unity we have in Jesus. When we eat his body and drink his blood we are united both with him and with each other in his body.

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul tells us “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” and “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

Those are some scary words! Guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Eats and drinks judgment on himself. How can we avoid that?

We’ll skip all the details (you can hear them in the sermon) and give you the short answer. Holy Communion is a union with all who take it. We are united in Jesus’ body. When people come to communion in disunity, it’s a sin against the union of Holy Communion. People who are angry at each other shouldn’t take communion together until they’ve reconciled. People who believe different things about how God works shouldn’t take communion together, because they’re not united.

My Kingdom Is Not Of This World

John 18:36-37

Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world. We can see how the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of heaven are different when we look at Pontius Pilate and Jesus of Nazareth.

Pilate and Jesus have a different view of what a leader should do. Pilate uses his power to jockey for position. He makes other people suffer so he can keep his job. That’s what he does for Jesus. He knows that Jesus is an innocent man. He even tells the people. But he allows Jesus to be crucified, because Pilate thought it would keep the people from rioting.

Jesus does the opposite. He doesn’t make others suffer for him. He suffers for others instead. He doesn’t protest his innocence. He just takes the punishment we deserve.

Pilate shows the world’s glory, too. He has the clothes that show off his high office. He sits in judgement in a symbol of Roman power. He has guards that protect him. He has the kind of glory that the world has.

Jesus’ glory is in his suffering. It’s in weak things. Jesus’ glory is hidden beneath his human flesh. His Holy Spirit hides behind human words. Jesus’ forgiveness and new birth hides behind the splash of water in baptism. His body and blood hide beneath styrofoam tasting wafers and cheap wine. They don’t look amazing, but they are the glory of God.

We also know that Pilate’s world is coming to an end while Jesus will continue. Pilate’s struggle for power was meaningless. He didn’t last long as governor of Jerusalem. The only reason we remember his name is because Jesus made it famous. The same is true for the rest of the world. Time is limited. it will come to an end.

Jesus’ kingdom will never end. After he died, he rose from the dead. Now that kingdom will last forever.

Listen to the sermon here.

God's Grace Doesn't Follow The Rules

Galatians 4:21-31

Human beings are tribal. We create tight communities, but there are also outsiders. Our loyalty is to the people who are “in” and not to the people who are “out.” You can see this everywhere. Cubs fans and Sox fans have a friendly, sometimes not-so-friendly, rivalry. But it’s not like they know each other. They are loyal to their teams, their tribes. We can see the same thing in political parties or families.

St. Paul writes to the Galatians to talk about tribal loyalty, whether Jews and Gentiles could be part of God’s kingdom. He uses Abraham’s family as a metaphor. Sarah and Isaac represent God’s chosen people, the people of God’s promise. Hagar and Ishmael represent the outsiders.

St. Paul uses this metaphor to show us that God’s grace doesn’t follow human rules. God creates a tribe by his choice, not by our own actions. Isaac wasn’t naturally the heir. He wasn’t more faithful. He wasn’t more legitimate. God chose Isaac, because he chose Isaac. That’s it.

God chooses us for his tribe, too. It doesn’t follow our rules. Listen to hear more.

A Life Of Service

Ephesians 5:1-2

St. Paul tells us to be imitators of God, to walk in love like Christ. So, we have to ask, “What did Jesus do for us?” You probably know the story. He saw our lost condition, and he knew he had to do something. He left his heavenly throne, and he became a human being. He lived through everything we lived through but he did it without sin. Then he died on the cross, giving his life as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. He loved us with everything he had, and he still does.

God has made us like Jesus, and he wants us to serve like Jesus did, too. Jesus served with everything he had and we should, too. The world tells us to act differently. The world says that we need to take care of ourselves first. We need to fill up our cup before we can fill others. But that’s not the way of Christ.

The world tells us that it’s ok if we separate our lives into “charity” and the rest of our lives. But that’s not how it works, either. Jesus served everyone, every day, with everything he had. We should, too.

Called To Holiness

1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

Through Jesus Christ, God has made all Christians holy. In baptism, we are clothed with Christ, and his holiness and faithfulness become ours. So, God calls each of us to live holy lives, sanctified lives. We are to spend our whole lives learning to live out what God has already made us.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7, St. Paul tells us and the church in Thessalonica to abstain from sexual immorality. Just like the Thessalonians, the culture surrounding the church presses us toward sexual immorality, celebrating passions of lust rather than discipline over our bodies.

It used to be different, though. Only 60 years ago, Christians could count on the rest of society to reinforce sexual morality. We all believed that sex was supposed to be reserved for marriage. Now, however, people see it as weird to abstain from sex until marriage.

So, the church has to talk, really talk, about sex. Why did God create it? What are we supposed to do with sex? How does it relate to our Christian calling? Listen to the sermon to find out more.

Exodus II- Bigger and Better

Exodus 14:21-28

More and more movies and television shows are sequels or remakes. We watch reboots of 90’s sitcoms or we buy tickets to eighth Avengers movie. Sequels have to be bigger and better than the ones before. Take the movie Die Hard. In the first movie, John McClane was just a regular police officer with above average pain tolerance and grit. He does heroic things, but they’re within the realm of possibility. By the end of the series, he’s driving cars into helicopters and leaping on the the wings of jets.

In the Bible, the New Testament tells sequels to Old Testament stories. In the two testaments, we see an exodus from Egypt and an even bigger and better exodus from sin and death through Jesus. In this sermon, you’ll hear how the Exodus story of the Red Sea points us to our rescue through baptism from sin and death.

Confidence Before God's Throne

Hebrews 5:14-16

Jesus is our great high priest. As such, he gives us so many gifts.

First, Jesus gives us access to the Father. Priests in the Old Testament used to offer sacrifices for themselves and for the people. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the Ark of the Covenant. But then, everyone remained outside!

Jesus, the great high priest, brings us into God’s presence, into the Holy of Holies. We hear his voice. We can come before him in prayer. We have access to the Father. The Gospel of Mark illustrates this when Jesus dies on the cross. The moment of his death, the temple curtain tears from top to bottom, revealing the Holy of Holies to all.

Second, Jesus gives us confidence to speak our mind before God. So many of us approach God, if we go to him at all, hesitantly as if a wrong word would get us cast out. But that’s not true. Because of our great high priest, we can stand before God without fear of rejection. We can bare our souls before him.

Third, Jesus gives us the expectation of mercy. It’s easy to expect a perfect God to demand perfect obedience. And God does. But when he looks at us in judgment, Jesus holds up his hands to the Father, and he asks the Father to forgive us for his sake. Because Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice, we know that the Father will give us mercy when we call on him.