Sermon Video: The Law and the Gospel - Luke 16:16-17

What is the relationship between the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Are they partners, adversaries, or something else?  In a brief comment in Luke 16, Jesus indicates both the continuity between the Law and the Gospel in a prologue/sequel type relationship, and the ongoing validity of the Law.  The purpose and role of the Messiah, in God's plan, is not to abolish or even amend the Law, but to be the first and only one to actually keep it.  By keeping the whole Law, Jesus is free of its condemnation, there is no death penalty upon him, therefore he can die for another; because he is the Son of God, he can die for us all (and subsequently be raised to new life).  What are the implications of this understanding of the Law and Gospel as partners and not adversaries?  The Old Testament is thus seen as a prologue to the New, providing the foundation for our understanding of it and the history of God's attempt to reconcile humanity prior to the Advent of Christ.  In addition, the Old Covenant remains in force, Israel remains the Chosen People, and God's work for and through the Church is not a replacement of those previous promises.  Lastly, the relationship between the descendants of Abraham, and those called by grace to faith in Christ, ought never to be an antagonistic one, although to the shame of the Church it has been throughout much of Church history.  Anti-Semitism, prejudice and hatred of the Jews, from the pogroms and expulsions to the horrors of the Holocaust, are categorically and unequivocally rejected by the Church as grave sins against God, sins for which all those who have committed them will answer before God.

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Sermon Video: "No servant can serve two masters" - Luke 16:1-13

In a parable given to his disciples, Jesus tells a story where a corrupt business manager is unexpectedly commended after having defrauded his employer because after he was caught initially he continued to defraud his employer but did so by forgiving portions of the debts owed to his boss so that after he was fired he would have the gratitude of those who had benefited from his fraud to fall back upon.  This "shrewd" use of wealth is what is commended in the parable.  Why would Jesus tell a parable where an unrepentant thief is commended for being a shrewd thief?  Jesus uses this parable to illustrate that the "people of this world" understand that money is a tool in a way that the "people of the light", i.e. God's people, often don't understand.  Wealth is not an end in itself, it is simply a means to an end, one that should be directed toward eternal and not temporary goals whenever possible.
The parable reminds us of the needs to use wealth shrewdly, and the words of Jesus following it put the emphasis on being trustworthy as well.  God desires to entrust his people with great things, provided they show themselves worthy of trust in the little things.  The conclusion of Jesus' teaching on wealth leaves no room for Christians to be under the impression that the pursuit of wealth is compatible with our discipleship of Christ: "You cannot serve both God and Money."  We are all servants, we all serve, our pride may insist that we don't, but we do; the only question is, whom do you serve?  God isn't interested in sharing his servants, he desires 100% of our commitment, a level of commitment which is, by the way, the best way to ensure that we are what we need to be in all of our relationships and responsibilities, for the one who serves God fully will also love his neighbor as himself.

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We're not broken just bent: wisdom in a song

Wisdom and Truth are ultimately all derived from God, and are powerfully manifested in his revealed Word, but they can also be found in unlikely or unexpected places.  As I was driving the other day a song came on the radio that I had heard before but whose lyrics really struck me this particular time.  The song was "Just Give Me A Reason" by P!nk, and it contains this chorus:

Just give me a reason, just a little bit's enough,
Just a second, we're not broken just bent,
And we can learn to love again.
I never stopped, you're still written in the scars on my heart,
You're not broken just bent,
And we can learn to love again!

The song is about a couple trying to work through a difficult patch in the relationship and rekindle their love, the imagery of a bent, but not broken, flower pops into my head, something that has been battered by a storm but will stand back up afterwards.  These words also remind me of the traditional vows that I've often utilized when performing a wedding, "for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health..."  Marriage is a long-term, a life-long commitment, one that will have difficult days and seasons, but also one that can bloom again, that can be brought back from life-support and made whole again.
There are a variety of things wrong with relationships between men and women in our culture today, including the confusion of sex and love and the willingness of many to start with sex, hope for love, and some day look for a commitment.  This backwards attitude, for commitment (i.e. marriage) is the only sure foundation upon which love and sex can truly be built, has led our culture to a place where relationships, like so much else in society, have become disposable.  Why work through a difficult phase in a relationship, why learn and grow as a person, why sacrifice for someone else, when you can just ditch the relationship and move on.  Relationships are abandoned when sexual desire fades, relationships are given up on when feelings of love subside, yet these were never meant to be the building blocks of the union between one man and one woman, for they cannot stand the test of time.  There is a reason that a marriage ceremony includes vows and promises, and when these are not taken seriously, or when a relationship is attempted without them, the end result will far too often be to give up when things are bent, to not try to learn to love again, but instead to walk away.
Relationships are disposable in our society, love is just an emotion, and sex just a self-fulfillment.  The answer to these shallow and ultimately damaging attitudes (just ask the kids left holding the bag) has been with us all along, it was the plan of God for us from the beginning: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Mark 10:7-9)  If you are bent, you don't need to break, you can learn to love again.

Sermon Video: The Prodigal Son's brother - Luke 15:11-32

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is the third parable in a row told by Jesus in response to the muttering of the Pharisees and teachers of the law who had observed his friendly social interaction with the tax collectors and assorted "sinners".  Each of the three emphasizes God's concern for the Lost, God's willingness to seek and save the Lost, and the joy that erupts in heaven when God succeeds in saving one lost soul.  The younger son in this third parable is indeed prodigal, that is he is wasteful through loose living of his resources, in this case his portion of his father's estate, at which point he hits rock bottom and reconsiders his choices in life.  The younger son begins the process of repentance, turning from his sinful choices and seeking forgiveness for them, even formulating a plan where he will ask his father for a lesser role than being his son, hoping instead to become simply an employee of his father.  Such a resolution is unacceptable to the father, who upon seeing his son return, rushes out to meet him in a loving embrace and immediately restores his son's rights as a son in a tremendous act of grace.  Likewise, God meets the lost sinner where he is, rushing out to meet us and offering total and free forgiveness as well as cleansing us and making us whole.  This parable is a heart-warming story, a tremendous lesson in love, grace, and forgiveness, as well as a warning about the danger of "freedom" apart from God; but it doesn't end there.  The second son, the older brother, is the true target of the parable as he sits sulking in his bitterness and anger when he learns of his father's generosity to his undeserving brother.  It takes the father's intervention, along with harsh and unfair words from the older brother aimed at his father, before the point gets across that the younger brother had been dead, and is now alive, he had been lost, and is now found.
Why do Christians, people who have been forgiven themselves, become judgmental and self-righteous?  They certainly should not, such attitudes are always and everywhere unacceptable within the Church; as former defendants before God whose sentences were commuted by the intervention of Jesus, our response to grace shown to others ought to be a shout of hallelujah, if it is a mumble of self-righteous indignation, shame on us.  Why does it happen?  Two reasons: (1) Those who don't remember their own forgiveness may resent when it is given to others, which would come from a false sense that one's list of sins was somehow small or petty, not really a big deal.  (2)  And those who don't value the Lost as God values them, seeing them in his image, as our very brothers and sisters, are likely to care less about their salvation.  The Prodigal Son may have left home, and hit bottom before finding forgiveness, but it is those of us who stayed behind, who remained with our Father, who may need to learn compassion.

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Sermon Video: One sinner who repents - Luke 15:1-10

We live in a world where a 99% success rate is considered to be extraordinary, unheard of in most cases.  When Jesus is challenged by the Jewish religious leadership because he is socially accepting of outcasts like tax collectors and "sinners", he responds by telling two parable that illustrate God's unwillingness to write off anybody as the cost of doing business or an acceptable loss.  In the first parable, one out of one hundred sheep is lost prompting the shepherd to leave the ninety-nine in the care of another and search for it until it is found.  In the second parable, one out of ten coins is lost, prompting the owner of the coins to search the home diligently until it is found.  In both parables, the search goes beyond what we would normally do with such a loss, and the rejoicing that follows once the lost is found certainly goes beyond what we would do if we found one sheep or one coin.  The two parables are used by Jesus to illustrate God's perspective regarding hopeless cases and lost causes when victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat, or in this case, when a lost soul is snatched from the gates of hell.  When Jesus secures that victory, saving a lost sinner by rescuing him/her and bringing them home to God, the result in heaven is a rousing chorus of rejoicing, a party worthy of the triumph of the Son.
What do we take from these parables?  Three truths stand out: (1)  There are no "sinners", all have sinned, all are sinners, all need a savior to carry us home.  (2) There are no outcasts, none that we are not obligated to treat with dignity and kindness, none that are too far gone to be saved by Jesus.  (3)  The Gospel will save them, it can go anywhere, into the darkest places of our world and the darkest of human hearts, it can find lost sinners there and by the blood of the Lamb of God, it can save them.

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