Welcome to Higher Things!

Dear everyone,

I'm pleased to announce that the Ninth Annual Christ on Campus Conference will be held May 24-26, 2011 at University Lutheran Chapel in Boulder, CO. We thank Pastor Daniel Burhop and his campus congregation for agreeing to host us!

More details will certainly be coming in the future, but please mark your calendars now and make plans to join us next summer in Boulder, Co!

Fraternally in Christ,

Rev. Marcus T. Zill
Higher Things, Christ on Campus Executive

Looking for information on next summer's Higher Things Lutheran Youth Conference? There's only one place to find it!

If you are a member of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, you have a new, easy way to help support what matters most to you.

Through Thrivent Choice^SM, a new charitable grant program, members can help choose where Thrivent Financial distributes some of its charitable funds each year.

The program has two components: Voting Events and Choice Dollars^SM.

Through Voting Events, all members age 16 and older can vote to help choose where Thrivent Financial distributes funds among a short list of national organizations. Voting Events occur one or two times each year.

Eligible benefit members also are designated Choice Dollars. By directing Choice Dollars, they can request funding for thousands of Lutheran organizations nationwide, including Higher Things! Potential designated Choice Dollars amounts that can be directed range from $25 to $500 for each eligible member.

If you are eligible to direct Choice Dollars, you can direct them right now. If you are uncertain about your eligibility, visitThrivent.com/thriventchoice, or contact your local Thrivent Financial representative.

Directing Choice Dollars and voting in Voting Events are subject to the Terms and Conditions of the Thrivent Choice Program. VisitThrivent.com/thriventchoice for complete Terms and Conditions.

Dear Reflections Subscribers,

The next set of HT Reflections for August 15 through September 18 are now available. To download the Reflections in a printable booklet format, click here. 

Thanks for your support of Higher Things!

Pastor Mark Buetow

HT Media Services 

Higher Things was honored at the triennial LCMS Synodical Convention last week in Houston with both a resolution supporting the work of HT as well as the election of several staff and board members to positions throughout the Synod.

The resolution of the Synod in convention gives the following "resolved:"

That the Synod in convention recognize Higher Things as a valuable asset for youth ministry for its congregations and encourage its members to consider including Higher Things in their youth ministry strategies.

In addition, many current and former Higher Things staff, speakers and supporters have been elected to various positions around the Synod. These include:

• Jeff Schwarz (current Board member) was elected to the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR)
• Sandra Ostapowich (Conference Coordinator) was elected to the Board of Regents for Concordia University - Irvine

by Heidi Gaub

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

The best week out of my year, hands down, is the Higher Things conference. This year I served as a Christ on Campus Volunteer (CCV) for the Given conference in Logan, UT. It was my fourth conference attended, my second time as a CCV. As always, Higher Things did not disappoint. 

This year we focused on the theme “Given”, the gifts God has given to us through his Son, Jesus Christ. The plenary sessions, in-depths, and breakaways, although varied in topic, focused on these gifts given through Christ. The liturgy, marriage, confession and absolution, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and baptism, are examples of God’s gifts to us that were looked into further at this year’s conferences. All of these sessions also reinforced that these gifts were GIVEN TO us. That Christ died FOR us. It is nothing that we did for we are sinners and can do nothing worthy of these gifts. God does not need our worship and praise, he does not need us to confess our sins, or to pray. These are gifts that are FOR us, to strengthen our faith and to keep us in His Word, for He has GIVEN us eternal salvation through His Son. 

We went to 10 worship services that week, two of those being the Divine Service, and we also prayed Compline every night. These services delivered God’s gifts to us through the Word and Sacrament, the liturgy, and confession and absolution. These worship services always fill my eyes with tears, simply because I am so amazed at 500+ youth singing “We Praise You and Acknowledge You” and chanting the liturgy with such sincerity and faith. 

I love what Higher Things does and I could not be more thankful to the people who help keep this organization running. It is so important for the young people to come and worship, learn, and enjoy the company of their brothers and sisters in Christ. It has been said before that we live in a time that makes it very difficult to be Lutheran but these youth “Dare to be Lutheran!”

It is incredible to walk out of a breakaway teaching session and hear high-school aged youth talking about how great the session was and that they want to hear the pastor speak again. It is amazing to hear them asking questions, trying to learn as much as they can in a one-hour session. It is refreshing to hear youth talking about worship services, the Bible, and the catechism and not topics that would so frequently take up the conversation of teenagers today. It is wonderful to see them making new friends, and meeting new people from all over the country who share their faith.

Although I served as a CCV of the conference, I was still able to attend all the worship services, plenary sessions, in-depths, and breakaways. Sure, I ran around like a crazy person the rest of the time but to me it was all worth it. I do this for the youth because I am grateful someone did the same for me when I was an attendee. I learned so much and took new knowledge and understanding home with me. You know Higher Things is doing something right when a sleep-deprived volunteer can stay awake during all the sessions, eager to learn, and when she rolls out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to pray the Litany with other CCVs!

I pray for Higher Things daily and for all of our youth. I go home confused when there is only church once a week on Sunday and not more services to attend! I break out into biblical discussion with anyone I run into, quoting the in-depth, breakaway, and plenary speakers I heard. I miss Compline so much, in fact, that a few fellow CCVs and I have even begun praying it over Skype with each other at night! 

Higher Things is a constant reminder to me that all of the earthly troubles and worries I have will end and I will receive the gift of eternal life. Although it hurts every year to say “good-bye” because I don’t know when and if I will see everyone again in this earthly life, I know I commune with all my brothers and sisters in Christ and all the company of heaven every Sunday, and we will live in eternal joy and salvation through Christ Jesus, our Lord. 

The gifts Christ freely gives, He gives to you and me, to be His own, His bride, His chosen, saved and free! Saints blest with these rich gifts are children who proclaim that they were won by Christ, and cling to His strong name.” (LSB 602)

Heidi Gaub served as a CCV at Given 2010 in Logan, UT.

We've received a number of questions about the merchandise we featured at the 2010 Higher Things summer conferences.  All of these t-shirts and hoodies are available online via Printfection, an online retailer.  You can find our catalog of merchandise by clicking here.  This link can always be found via our Store page as well.

Adriane Dorr, a long time editor and writer for the Higher Things magazine has recently taken a position with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's flagship publication, The Lutheran Witness.  Everyone at Higher Things is very excited for her and wish her the best on her new endeavor in the world of publications.

A full press release from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's Board for Communication Services can be read online at: http://www.lcms.org/pages/rpage.asp?NavID=17198

Rev. George Borghardt

St. Matthew 5:13-16

In the name of Jesus. Amen. "You are the salt that salts the earth. You are the light that lights up the world."

Salt. Salt goes with the sacrifices in ancient Israel. It purifies. It sanctifies, it makes holy.

Where salt, there a covenant. A testament - cut with the sacrifice of grain or bull seasoned with salt, pure and holy.

Pointing to the sacrifice of the Son of God on the Cross. Beaten, broken, snuffed out, for our righteousness, for our salvation. There the salt is in the sweat, mixed with blood, flowing down His forehead.

Salt was rubbed on the Israelite baby’s heads. The Baby was seasoned - marked as the Lord's own.

That carried into the early baptismal rites too. The baby would have salt put on his or her tongue - tasty! Or better.. salty.

But, what a confession! In the baptismal font you were salted with His sacrifice. His death your death to sin. Your death to darkness and tasteless salt.

And here you are today, the baptized, the salted, His holy people, His kingly priests, lighting the world around you with His light. Salting it with everything that you do in this world.

You are who He says you are. His proclamation lights you up. His words salt you. Salt in all His saltiness. Light in all His brightness.

Except you know yourself to be far from salty and full of nothing but darkness. You know what you do. You’ve done it before. You’ll do it after you leave here. It horrifies you. Or that it doesn’t scare you, horrifies you more.

Darkness and about to be trampled under the foot - that’s what the Law says is waiting for you. And you try to stop, try to turn, but you just can’t get salty or become bright enough or to get out of it.

Now, there was that candle given to you in Baptism. You’ve seen it given to others. You got one too. And with the candle came the words, “Receive this burning light and live always in the light of Christ and be ever watchful for His coming”

It burned with His light. The Light who had just en-lightened you with His Cross-won forgiveness. For on Cross, His Light is snuffed out, sacrifice for your darkness. He rose and now His light will never dim. Your light too in the waters of your Baptism. Your salting too.

Born anew. Forgiven. Salted. And lit up with His life and light. Baptized. That’s you.

Now, salt that loses it’s saltiness is no use to anyone at all. Light that’s covered up in a basket doesn’t good either. Hide it under a bushel... You know the rest.

A city on a hill shines. A lamp on a lampstand gives light to the whole house. And salt, it gives flavor - Jesus flavor. His sacrifice. His forgiveness. His eternal life.

So that the world out there would see your lamp and glorify Him - not you. This hasn’t been about you at all, but about the One who brought you out of darkness into His wonderful light - your Father in Heaven.

For you aren’t salty by yourself. You aren’t a light at all. Not even a flicker. You know that.

He’s your salt. He’s your light. Given to you in His gifts. Gifts which salt you, light you, holy you, priest you, to salt, light, holy, and priest for others.

An early early early (like 100 A.D.) church Father named Ignatius, you can google Him on your phone when you get out of service, describe you and me as salted in Christ. Christ preserves us from corruption. He preserves us from sin and we are recognizable to the world by our smell. We are salted in Him.

Smells like a Lutheran? Not sweat, just Jesus. The One who was given to be sacrificed for your sins and raised for your justification. The One who is your Light. The One who is your King.

And so today, He sends you from here, given to, lit up with His light, and forgiven. His salt. His light. Shining when you aren’t even trying to shine and salting everything you do with His Cross.

That’s you when you feel salty and lighty like today at the end of a solid week of being nothing but given His salt and His light at this conference.

That’s you too - salt and light - even when you feel like salt that has lost it’s saltiness and your light seems all but extinguished.

But, His sacrifice for you on the Cross - There’s a light that no one can snuff out. A salty that will never lose it’s saltiness.

“You are the salt that salts the earth. You are the light that lights up the world.” You are the baptized.

"That in these gray and latter days, there may be those whose life is praise, each life a high doxology to Father, Son, and unto Thee." (LSB 834, 4). INI. Amen.

Rev. Rich Heinz

Ephesians 2:1-10

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“We will watch your career with great interest,” says the newly-elected Chancellor Palpatine. You can hear the schmoozing and insincerity in his voice. And years later he declares, “Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.” He prepared situations, events, and placed the right people in the right locations at the right times to do what he devised. And Anakin and others unknowingly did the works which Palpatine prepared in advance for them to do.

Yes, the Galactic Emperor is fiction, and yes, he is evil. So Perhaps he is not the best example of this. Yet we can see that the works were not necessarily Anakin’s, or anyone else’s; they were the Emperor’s, who prepared them for others to do.

The Lord God has GIVEN you Baptism and called you by grace – out of His holy and perfect love and mercy that is completely undeserved. He has GIVEN you faith. He has GIVEN you His Gospel and His Absolution that speaks Christ into your ears and into your hearts. He has GIVEN you His Holy Supper so that Christ enters your body with forgiveness, life, and salvation.

These GIVEN things are precisely what you confess when you declare: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” The trouble is, this is where you usually cut it off. The passage you learned by heart typically stops with verse 9. But wait! There’s more!

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Hold on, Pastor. We are saved by faith alone, not by works.

You are right. Martin Luther once quipped that we are saved by faith alone, however, he said, faith is never alone. Where there is faith, the littlest thing is a good work. Washing dishes for your family, taking out the trash, defending your classmate from slander on FaceBook, these are just a few examples of good works that God has prepared in advance for you.

Although face it, are you always doing these with a pure heart and in sincere faith? Not a chance. Like Anakin serving Palpatine, you can have wrong motives. Your heart is not always in it. Even if you might have the good of someone else in mind, such as trying to save your wife from dying, in the end, so much is motivated by selfishness. You fail to be perfect in these works of love.

And teaming up with you is the old evil foe. Satan tries to give you gifts too – gifts of doubt, gifts of self-centeredness, gifts of anger, fear, and aggression. These gifts are really burdens of evil. Your flawed human nature is attracted to these gifts, and would rather pursue them with your own works than receive the free gift of salvation in Christ.

That is why God does not leave this up to you. He has reached out and redeemed you by the precious suffering and death of Jesus. He has delivered that redemption to you through His Holy Gifts of the Means of Grace.

And He does not save you on the basis of your works. He does not even demand them as a follow-up to redeeming you. Yet He produces them in your life of faith. He provides the works and the opportunities – He even provides the will to do these things that He “prepared in advance for [you] to do.”

Have no fear. God watches you with great interest, but the Lord is not scheming and not requiring good works of you. He has GIVEN them to you! He does them through you and your brothers and sisters in Christ. He even does them when you least expect it. Rejoice and be glad. This morning’s text is not some Law-requirement that you do something. No. It is a joyful declaration of the Gospel, and delivers God’s forgiveness and peace as He reminds you of the good works that He gives you, and to you.

Rev. Joel Fritsche

Eph. 2:1-10

IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AMEN.

Complete sentences aren’t in these days. There’s facebook and texting and all kinds of abbreviations along with them. I thought learning Greek was hard. Sometimes I really have to work hard decode the texting abbreviations. Thankfully there are websites devoted to this. Years ago I thought it was fun when you typed in a sentence and had it translated into Jive or into Redneck or even into Elmer Fudd. Now you can go to transL8it.com and translate from text lingo into plain English or from English into text lingo. I have to go there sometimes to decipher assignments from my confirmands. Like I said, complete sentences aren’t in these days. You may not have verbs or even full words. BUT…

When you hear the Word of God pay attention to the verbs. Take note of the tenses: past, present, future. Take note of subjects and objects so that you know who is doing what and to whom what is being done. In Ephesians 2 in the original Greek you don’t even really get a complete sentence at the beginning of the chapter. Well, you do, but the subject doesn’t come until verse 4 and the main verb until verse 5. The English fools you a little bit and cleans all that up. But if you take it as it stands and pull out the subject, the verb and the object you have “GOD MADE US ALIVE.”

God is the doer, not you! Like the dependent clauses at the beginning of this chapter you cannot stand alone. Why not? You’re dead! Dead in your trespasses and sins! That’s what you WERE! Note the past tense, but we’ll come back to that. You were the walking dead. When you’re dead you walk the way of the world. You walk the way of the devil and evil spirits. You pursue the passions of the flesh, the desires of the body and mind. It’s all about you (that’s a capital U). And where does that put “U”? Under the wrath of God.

But that’s all in the past, right. You don’t live that way anymore, do you? Do you? Is your life all about you? Are you in it for yourself? Do you want to stand alone? Do you want to be the walking dead? Passion! Desire! We like those things! Doesn’t actually sound too bad until that wrath of God part. Did you hear the psalm we prayed? “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it came to be; He commanded and it stood firm” (Ps. 33:8-9). If that’s His creative power then imagine His destructive power. A look at God’s commandments, His Law assures you that you ARE dead. You are under His wrath. Remember the Close of the Commandments? “God threatens to punish all who break these commandments. Therefore we should fear His wrath and not do anything against them.” What do I do? I’m dead for sure!

But there’s more to stand in awe of here than God’s wrath. St. Paul would have you stand in awe of God’s saving, life-giving power, to stand in awe of God’s GRACE! That’s an acronym worth remembering! “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” No need to decode it. The Lord reveals what it’s all about. GRACE! Jesus walked the way of death in your place all the way to the cross. He became the dead man. At the cross He was the one who walked in the passions of the flesh, the desires of the body and mind. He was the child of wrath, taking the fullness of God’s wrath and anger on Himself to the point of death. “Thou camest to our hall of death, O Christ, to breathe our poisoned air , To drink for us the dark despair That strangled our reluctant breath” (LSB 834:3). God’s Son was given into death and you are given life. GRACE! You are given grace and every blessing in Him.

GIVEN! “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). And don’t forget the last verse: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Salvation is gift! Faith is gift! New life is God’s gift! And God, in His grace purposed it all for you from eternity.

The Lord is all about giving! And we’re all about being given to by the Lord. We’re all about being made alive by the Lord. You’ve been given Christ’s life in Baptism. Jesus didn’t stay dead. God raised Him from the dead, and you with Him at the font. God doesn’t leave His beloved for dead. Christ’s resurrection is yours. It means that in Him you walk a new way of life, no longer on the course of the world, no longer for yourself. “Christ died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:15).

Remember the rest of the Close of the Commandments? “God promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. Therefore, we should also love and trust in Him and gladly do what He commands.” That’s the new life GIVEN you in Christ Jesus: GIVEN at the font, GIVEN in His absolution, GIVEN at His Table again today. There’s nothing left for you to do, no boasting, just being given to, to receive the life of Jesus and walk in it to the praise and glory of God, a life of high doxology!

Complete sentences aren’t in these days. Unfortunately neither is complete salvation. The Lord gets things done for you. God made you alive. Complete sentence. Complete salvation. In Christ there are no abbreviations or lingo to translate or decode. It’s quite simple: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

IN THE NAME OF JESUS. AMEN.

This sermon was preached at the Matins service on Friday during Given 2010 in Logan, UT. 

by The Rev. Mark Buetow

Isaiah 52:7-10

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news!” That means how beautiful are Jesus' feet because He brings Good News. These are the feet of God's Son who was born with ten little piggies just like the rest of us. These are the feet that stepped into the water of the Jordan River to be baptized for you. These are the feet that walked on water and carried the preaching of the Kingdom of God around. These are feet so beautiful that the sinful woman washed them with her tears and hair! These are the feet that stood before the religious leaders and the Roman Governor. These are the feet that stumbled as they carried the cross to calvary. And there, on Calvary, on the mountain, behold the beautiful feet, pierced with nails, stuck to the cross. To bring Good news. The Good News that your sins are forgiven. The Good News that He is pierced for you. That His feet and hands and side and brow are pierced for your sins. To wash them away with His blood. To wipe them out once and for all. The pay the price. To bring peace between you and God. How beautiful indeed are those holy feet of Jesus that walked this earth on their way to be nailed to the tree for our salvation!

And we need those purdy feet! Because our feet ain't so purdy! Our feet are dirty. Our feet step in it. In sin. How often have you used your feet to wander away from Christ's church to someplace more interesting and exciting or buried those feet deeper under the covers rather than get up and go hear Christ's Word. How often have you used your feet to wander away from those around you who are in need? How often have you run with those feet to share the latest bit of juicy gossip? How often have you used those feet to storm away from Mom and Dad when you're angry at them? How often have you used those feet to kick others while they are down or to stride around like you're the best thing ever happened to everybody? Oh yes, our feet are caked in the gunk and crud of sin!

Jesus knew this about His disciples. Their feet were dirty like that too. So He washed them. He whose feet would be pierced made sure the feet of the apostles were clean and beautiful and then sent them to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name to the ends of the earth. That Good News that your pastor proclaims, that your sins are forgiven for Jesus' sake is what makes your pastor's feet beautiful, what makes Him a messenger worth listening to. For Jesus has sent your pastor to proclaim the Good News of Christ that cleans the feet of even the dirtiest sinner! Your pastor has had his feet washed, that is, been forgiven, and sent and ordained to be the guy who brings you the Good News. Who proclaims peace. Who announces glad tidings. Your pastor's feet are beautiful because He walks around giving the gifts of Christ. It is your pastor's feet that stand by the font while Christ washes us from our sins. It is the pastor's feet that stand before you, speaking the words of holy absolution. It is the pastor's feet you see as you kneel at Christ's altar, eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus and receiving that forgiveness! Rejoice that by the feet of His ministers, the blessings of Christ's nail-pierced feet are delivered to you. “How beautiful are the feet on the mountains of him who brings good news!” Indeed those feet are beautiful because they are the feet of Jesus, pierced for our salvation on Mt. Calvary. And that Good News is carried to us by the feet of Christ's preachers. How beautiful the feet that trod the road that leads us back to God. How beautiful the feet that ran to bring the great good news to man! To you! In the in Name of Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Tim Pauls

Romans 1:16-25

The story goes that the London Times once sponsored an essay contest, by invitation only. The editors asked several of the best writers and thinkers of the time to answer the question, “What’s wrong with this world?” Among the contest entries was one by G. K. Chesterton, whose entry was also the shortest. It said, “Dear sirs: I am.”  It was a quick, elegant commentary on original sin.

It’s also the Law from our reading this morning from Romans 1: you’re what’s wrong, and you have no excuse. 

You’re what’s wrong. The Lord makes clear that you’re not nice people who do sinful things now and then. It declares that you do sinful things because you’re sinful from the get-go. The sins you do are a problem, sure: all by themselves, they’re enough for you to deserve God’s wrath. But just like nausea and headaches are symptoms of the flu, the sins that you do are only symptoms of the real problem. You’re sinful. You don’t just do wrong. You are wrong. 

Furthermore, you have no excuse. It’s not just that God has revealed His wrath and power in the creation around you: if you’re sitting here, you’ve had more than a couple close encounters with the Ten Commandments in the Small Catechism, not to mention that part about Confession. You’ve gone through a few lists of how God’s Law gets broken; and if you’ve been honest at all, you’ve confessed that you’re worthy of His wrath and punishment. Furthermore, in His Word the Lord has revealed His Gospel to you, so you’ve heard that you’re set free from sin, made a righteous child of God. 

So…what’s up with those sins even now? What’s up with the thoughts you’re tossing around your mind right now, be it the lust or the jealousy or the pride or the resentment, or the plotting to one-up the people you don’t like very much? What’s up with those pet sins that you think you’ve got on a leash, but you’re firmly in control, like the snarky texting or that picture you’ve got stored on your phone? What’s up with the yawns towards God’s Word or the apathy towards His Supper? 

They’re all common sins of youth. And anyone else who’s got a pulse. You’re what’s wrong, and you have no excuse.

But as destructive as those sins ultimately are, they’re not the great danger that our text warns about. Of those who do not honor God, it says “they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Everybody’s got to have a god: and if you don’t honor the one true God, the one you’ve got is a fake. The Bible’s full of stories of people who carved a face on a rock, called it a name and said, “This is our god.” But a rock with a face is just a rock. It can’t provide, it can’t save and it certainly can’t raise you from the dead.

People still like false gods, though, for a simple reason: if a rock can’t tell you what to do, then you get to tell the rock what to tell you to do. And—strangely enough—a rock will usually tell you what you want to hear. That’s why people love false gods, because they’ve created a higher authority that will let them indulge in the lusts of their hearts and the dishonoring of their bodies. 

Now, I haven’t seen anyone carrying a rock-god around here, but be warned: the most dangerous false god for you is a fake Jesus that you create for yourself. That’s what happens when you keep your favorite sins around and unrepented. They make your thinking futile and your heart dark until you find yourself sincerely saying, “I can keep these sins and follow Jesus, too.” Your faith gets squeezed out until, a few years down the road, you sit there facing your pastor and saying, “Oh, c’mon. We can still be Christians and live together without being married,” or “I really don’t see why I need to be coming to church to be a Christian. Jesus understands.” At that point, your jesus isn’t the One that the Bible proclaims. It’s a fake jesus who tells you what you want to hear. You didn’t create a god in the image of a bird or an animal or a creeping thing. You created a fake Jesus in the image of you: and as you approve of such sins, that makes you ashamed of the Gospel. God grant you a faithful pastor, now and then, who not only points out your sins of immorality or sloth or whatever, but the greater problem of idolatry.

For all these sins, now and then, you’re wrong and you have no excuse. You’ve got nothing to hold up to God and say, “I deserve your mercy.” 

You ought to be ashamed. Not just now or then, but forever. That’s the Law of our text this morning.

Here’s the Gospel. For Jesus’ sake, God is not ashamed of you. It’s not because you’ve done such a great job of being godly and righteous, but because Jesus has. He became flesh for you, with pure heart and incorruptible body. He bore your sin and guilt to the cross and scorned its shame for your redemption. He suffered the dishonor and contempt of scourge and scorn at the hands of darkened, futile sinners. Far more than that, God unleashed His wrath for your sin upon His Son. Rather than leave you given up to the lusts of your heart and the dishonoring of your body, God gave up His Son on the cross and forsook Him instead of you. Where you exchanged the truth for the lie, Christ has swapped out your sin for His holiness, your guilt for His innocence, your defilement for His purity. For your sins of worshiping the creature, the Creator went to the cross. 

All glory to Him—none to you or me. He did all this before you and I were born—even chose us before eternity, so you and I have no claim to working a part in His saving plan. But to bring these gifts to you, He joined you to that death and resurrection in your baptism. He keeps feeding you, nourishing your faith by His Word and Supper. He keeps giving, that you might be delivered from death and night to grace and light.

It is all His doing. And because Christ dwells in you, you are no longer wrong, but righteous. No longer without excuse, but full of faith. Clothed in His grace, you’re righteous and holy, for you are forgiven for all of your sins. 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen

Isaiah 42:1-9

You didn’t even ask.  You didn’t even merit it.  And you probably thought you could do without.

But the Lord interrupts your life.  The Lord speaks up when you’d rather be talking, texting, tweeting or facebooking.  He has something to say.  He preaches a sermon.  The old fashioned way.  No Apple iPhone 4 message.  A word from His mouth.  And He’s in a giving mood.  Always is.  And the sermon? “Look here everyone!  Behold, my servant!  I’ve chosen Him!  I’m absolutely delighted with Him!  And He’s my gift – to you!”

Did you catch that?  The Lord gives you – A SERVANT!  How odd.  God gives a Servant.  His Son.  Jesus.  For you.  A sinner.

What will you do with this gift?  Take advantage of Him?  Abuse or spurn the gift?  Mock the gift? Would you rather not have Him interrupt your life?  And so make plans to eliminate Him?  What was that you said?  Was it … “Crucify Him”?  “Crucify Him”? That was you, wasn’t it?  You handed the Roman soldiers the hammer and the nails, didn’t you?  Didn’t you offer your assistance to hoist up the cross with the Servant Gift hanging on it?  As He screamed in immense agony and then died?   

The answer’s yes.  Yes you did.  And so did I.  We’re responsible for hanging Servant Jesus there.  You and I crucified Him!  

And yet the Father who created the heavens, who spread out the earth, who gives breath to all living things, is still delighted!

With Jesus!  His gift to you.  Servant Jesus.  Who came not to be served but TO SERVE and to give His life into death for you!  

Behold a “new thing.”  We don’t go to God.  God comes to us.  The Father’s only begotten Son is conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.  Immanuel – God with us.  Christmas Gift Servant Jesus.  To save you from your sins.

How?  Good Friday.  You meant it for evil.  But He uses it for good.  Your eternal good.  He just goes ahead and does the Friday we now call “Good.”  Your sin is His.  He answered for it that day.  All of it.  He left none out.  His Blood cleanses you from all sin.  

Yes, that’s right.  I said it.  All!  You name the sin.  Little.  Big.  Or if you’d rather not – it doesn’t matter – it’s all taken care of in Servant Jesus.

Behold a “new thing.”  Servant Jesus interrupted your life.  Called you by the gospel!  Took you by the hand, gave you His holy name, and washed you clean at the font.  Comes right into your midst and sets you free from the chains of your sin and death by saying:  “I forgive you.  I died for you.”  And then He invites you to His supper table.  He speaks something very new.  What had never been said before:  “Bread.  Eat it.  My body given for you.  This cup of wine.  Drink it.  It is the new testament in my blood. My promise – my absolute promise – that I don’t hold your sins against you.”

No wonder the Father says:  “Have you seen my Servant!  I chose Him.  And I’m so delighted with Him!”  Because Servant Jesus is His gift to you.  The one and only gift of salvation.  And because of Jesus – He is most pleased with you.

In the Name of Jesus.

by Rev. Matthew Harrison

My dad loved to go to the early service—always the early service, and the earlier the better. He would have loved to have Easter sunrise service every Sunday of the year! But it was a different story for my brother and me. Church? Forget it. I’d rather sleep in since my brother and I liked to stay up as late as we possibly could on Saturday night.

Dad had the habit of saying the most un-cool things at 7:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning: “Come on boys! Up and at ‘em!” Then, if we lay in the sack too long, he’d go grab a towel or wash cloth, soak it in the coldest water possible, and come and throw it on any exposed skin (usually a face, sometimes a back).

Then the routine was simple for me. Get dressed. Wolf down any available food. Hassle my little sister until she lodged a formal complaint with my parents—you know, normal stuff.

I thank God now for my dad’s dogged persistence and his no-questions-asked, we’re-going-to-church-buddy-so-change-your-attitude attitude. My parents gave me something very important. They taught me that Christians go to church, but it wasn’t until many years later that I managed to figure out just why we go to church!

Why go to church? To learn about God. To give our time, talent and treasure back to God. To show God how we care about him. To worship God. Great answers, but they all miss the main point—Jesus.

I once read a sermon by Martin Luther, which forever changed how I look at going to church. Luther said to think about going to church with an empty sack. What’s the first thing you do in church? You confess,“I, a poor miserable sinner...”How we love to confess,“Oh Almighty God, my brother, my dad or mom, is a poor miserable sinner,” or “I thank Thee, Lord, I’m not like other men” (Luke 17). But here, finally, there are no more excuses. The problem is ME. This is simply saying,“Dear God, I’ve got an empty sack.”

Then what happens? The pastor says, “In the stead and by the command of Christ, I forgive you.” It’s as good as Jesus saying it himself (John 20)! And at just that moment, God throws a heap of grace, mercy, and peace into your empty sack! You do nothing; you only receive, mouth hanging open, looking down into your bag, amazed at the gift. And what do you say? “AMEN!” That is,“Yep! I got it God! It’s in the bag!” And then comes more.

The lessons are read, and more grace and love and mercy from God are piled into the bag! After the gospel is read you say,“Thanks be to God! Yep! In the bag!” Hymns are sung which speak of Christ and His birth, life, death, and resurrection for you. Then the sermon is preached. The gospel of free forgiveness from Jesus is dished up and delivered to you. And the very forgiveness spoken about actually happens (Rom. 1:16)! The sermon ends with an “Amen!” And don’t just let the pastor have that “Amen” at the end of the sermon. You say it with him. By doing so you say,“Yep! I believe it! Jesus is mine. It’s in the bag!”

Then comes the Lord’s Supper.“Take and eat...” and you respond,“Amen! Got it!” Then comes the blessing,“The Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face shine upon you....”You respond,“Amen, Amen, Amen! I got it! It’s in the bag! And it’s heaping full!” By the end of the service your sack is heaped full of God’s forgiveness and grace and mercy. All your sins are forgiven. Do you see how foolish it is to whine,“I don’t get anything out of it” even when the sermon doesn’t strike home?

Then, bag full, you merrily head out of church. First thing you know, your dad sins against you by thinking you did something when you didn’t; or your sister proceeds to generally make life miserable for you; or that kid at school whom you really actually hate makes you seethe with anger. What do you do? You pull that full bag off your shoulder and smack ‘em right over the head with it? –No!

You pull that sack of forgiveness off your back and say, “Christ has given me this sack of forgiveness and love and mercy. Here, I want to give you some forgiveness.”

And so it goes through the week. Mercy  and love for the teacher who drives you insane. Forgiveness and prayers for the bully who makes your life miserable. Grace to “put the best meaning” on things, instead of gossiping. Strength of faith and hope and love, to help someone in time of need. But you fail time and again, and scoop up that grace and mercy for yourself, until you’re back at church, back on your knees, confessing something true: “Dear God, I’ve got an empty sack.”

Luther got it exactly right. Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisee went to church and prayed loudly,“Dear God, I thank you that I’m not like other men. I pray. I fast. I give a tenth of all I get.” He was saying, “I’ve got a full sack, God. I filled it. And I’m proud of it.” 

He did not realize that our relationship with God is not primarily about what we do. It’s about what God does for us in Christ. If we won’t have an empty sack, we’ll have no God to fill it for us. But standing far off from the Pharisee, there was another man. He beat his chest, knowing full well that he was a sinner. He prayed,“God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said.“that man went away justified—forgiven.”

This Sunday, every time you say “Amen” in the liturgy, or after the sermon, or at the Lord’s Supper, take note of what just got dropped in your sack! It’s Jesus and His forgiveness, grace, and mercy.

This article originally appeared in Winter 2003 ed of the Higher Things Magazine.

Gen 2:4-7; 1 Pet 1:13-23; Jn 3:13-21

In Nomine Iesu

"Oh, you shouldn't have. No, really, you shouldn't have. It's too nice. It's too expensive. I don't deserve it. You shouldn't have bothered. Why did you do this? Wow. I'm totally blown away by this! You really shouldn't have."

Isn't that how it sounds when we receive an unexpected gift? "You shouldn't have." Why? Because now I have to give you something back. Because now I'm obligated to you. Because now there is a debt between me and you.

We're natural-born transactionalists. Deal-cutters. Bargainers. When we give gifts, it's to get something in return. Isn't it? Guys? Hmmmm? We bribe. We bargain. We butter up. We control and manipulate. "If you really loved me, you'd buy me that ring." "How do I love thee, let me count the ways: One carat, two carats, three carats, more."

Thusly God loved the world: He gave Jesus. This is His love: He sent His only-begotten Son into the world, into our flesh, born of a Virgin, born under Law, to redeem the world, to buy it back, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. Not to condemn the world but to save it.

It's not a deal, it's a gift. God loved the world in His Son. God gave His Son to the world. A gift given. Wrapped in swaddling clothes. Hung on a cross. Raised from the dead. It's a fact whether you believe it or not, want it or not, like it or not.

God gave Adam life. Body and breath. He breathed into Adam's clay His breath of life and Adam became a living being. It's one of the most remarkable verses of the Bible,and I defy anyone to rationalize it. There was no transaction. No bargaining. No deal. Just lifeless clay and the breath of God. Divine CPR.

God has given you body and breath too. Not out of the mud, but from your mother and father. Biologically reasonable, yes, but no less mysterious. We know about the genetic code and conception and all that, but we are no less fearfully and wonderfully made. Your eyes, your ears, your parts, your reason, your senses, your psychology, your intellect, your intuition, our talents. All are gifts from your Giver God.

Adam and Eve refused the gift, and you know the story. It's written in Genesis 3 and also in your life. The rebel will. The refusal to be given to. The gift used against God. That's what evil is. God's good used against God. A tree becomes a weapon of defiance; its fruit the sacrament of death. "On the day you eat of it, you will surely die." "You will be dead to me. Adam, where are you? Where are YOU?"

They loved darkness rather than light; themselves rather than God; the devil's instead of God's truth. You know the outcome. Ashamed, hiding, fearful, accusing each other, accusing God.

We love the darkness. We love the deal. We love the notion that we are gods and that we have God wrapped around our little fingers. We love the idea that we can be like gods. Some people think they are. What better religion can there be than one where you are a god? We love the notion that we can work our way up the ladder, and we'll devise ladders small enough for us to climb. Oh we love the darkness for what it hides. We hide from each other and from God.

You too. Your inner sinner, the old Adam, Adam 1.0, loves the darkness, the shelter the darkness affords for sin. Who will see when no one is watching? Who will know when no one has knowledge? Who will judge when you don't get caught? God does. His light penetrates the darkness of sin and death, exposing the evil and bringing it into the truth.

Here is the truth: God gave His Son. This is His love for the world, for you. Behold, the Lamb slain and living whose blood pays the price for your sin, whose death conquers your death, whose life is your life. It's all given, to be received by faith, simple trust that it is finished, it is so. This is the judgment: Light or darkness, life or death, Jesus or self. "He who believes, who trusts, is not condemned; he who does not believe, does not trust, is condemned already." Believe it, my friends, believe it. Trust this Jesus who saved you. He is all you have and all you need. He is given you.

He gives you His gifts. You were dead in trespasses and sin. You still are, in yourself. Dead as dead can be. The Law says so. Your sins are the hard evidence. But God breathed life into you. New life. The Spirit. In your Baptism you were born anew from above. As you had no choice in your first birth, so there is no choice here either. Baptism is not a deal but a gift. Forgiveness, life, salvation - all are given you in water and Word. And again in Absolution, given you in the word of forgiveness. And still more in the Supper, His death destroying, sin forgiving, life sustaining body and blood given you in your own mouth, His words ringing in your own ears. "Sinner, I have not come to condemn you but to save you."

God can't help Himself. He loves to give. He loves giving out gifts to His children. And He loves when His children receive His gifts. It is the Father's joy that you receive the gifts of creation, the gift of His Son, the gift of salvation, the gift of the Spirit and new life and adoption and the opportunity to call Him Father with delight.

So what do you say to such gifts? What can say? "Oh, you shouldn't have?" Of course not! Simply Amen! Gifts received with joy and thanksgiving. This is most certainly true.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.