September

     Greetings in the name of our Lord.  I know I am failing miserably to keep up with this blog.  I can do better I know and I will try.  This month has been crazy busy but crazy amazing too.  I am getting into the swing of things with the campus ministry.  We are having Bible Study on Sunday evenings and Thursday evenings.  Sunday evenings is on campus and we are looking at some major topics of being a Christian.  We have had a steady average of about eight to ten students who come to that one every week.  Then on Thursday evenings we are working through Genesis and Exodus from Abram to Sinai.  We have a steady group of about four to six who come to this one.  We are going to start having more activities and events coming up which will help the group really start to develop I hope.  I am loving getting to know the students and spending time with them.
     I am also teaching 5th and 6th grade confirmation every Wednesday which has been very challenging.  I have sixteen of them that come straight from school and are wound up.  The last thing they want to do is sit still and discuss the lessons.  I am struggling to come up with ways to keep their attention and get the themes of the stories across to them.  However, my education classes are coming in handy as I try to remember all the different things I used when I was teaching sixth grade religion and sixth grade typing in college and the seminary.  Hopefully I can find an effective method soon.
     I am responsible for High School Sunday School on Sunday mornings between services.  They convinced me that they have always done Bible Jeopardy.  So now every week I am coming up with questions that I think they should know but still challenge them for that.  It is actually a nice break between services.  It is also nice because I am saving all the categories and questions so I will have a huge game of Bible Jeopardy to take with me where ever I go now.
     The last ten days have been the best ten days of my vicarage.  The most beautiful and amazing girl in the world came to visit me.  Erin flew into Sioux Falls last Sunday evening.  The first few days I still had to work in the office so she just relaxed around the Wurm's house.  The Wurm's were gone to St. Louis on vacation so she had their whole house to herself which was kind of nice.  We did some fun things in the evenings and she got to experience Brookings.  Then Thursday afternoon, I took off work early and we drove out to the Badlands National Park.  We got there about six and it was beautiful to see as the sun was setting.  We did some free climbing on the rocks and hit several view points overlooking the park.  Then we went to the campground to set up camp.  The wind was blowing about forty miles an hour and I didn't think my poor tent was going to make it.  We had to tie it to a couple of posts just so it would stand upright.  All the other campers in their RV's and pull behind campers gave us some odd looks, but it didn't bother me.  They don't allow fires in the Badlands so we cooked supper, did some reading, and played some cards.  Then after the sun went completely down, the wind died down too.  It was pretty chilly but sleeping bags are a wonderful thing.  We did have an electric hook up there though so I could plug in my breathing machine and get some good sleep, even though I was on the ground.  I kindly gave Erin my cot and I took the little foam pad on the ground, but it worked out really well.  Then Friday morning we cooked breakfast and packed up shop.  We took the scenic route out of the park and got to see some deer and prairie dogs.  Then we made our way to Mount Rushmore.  That was cool to say I have actually seen it and they have a pretty awesome set up all around it.  Then we drove up through the Black Hills to Spearfish Canyon.  The secretary at the church had told me about a nice little trail that leads back to a waterfall.  So we hiked it and saw the waterfall.  It was cool and a good break out of the car.  Then we drove down to Custer and Custer State Park.  We were going to drive down Needles Highway which is suppose to be a really pretty drive in the fall with the trees turning colors.  However, they wanted fifteen dollars to get in the park and we didn't want to pay that just to drive through.  So we made our way to Wind Caves National Park.  This is where we camped Friday night.  It was much more remote, bare basic camping than Badlands but I enjoy that.  We could have a fire there so we sat by a nice big fire most of the evening and then hit the hay in the warmth of our sleeping bags again.  I did not have power to use my breathing machine there so I did not get a s good of sleep but I made do.  Then Saturday morning we packed up, cooked breakfast, and hit the road to head back to Brookings.  I drove part of the way, but Erin drove most of it so I could work on my sermon and listen to the Husker game on the radio.  I did get a short nap in too.
    Then Saturday after we got back, the Wurm's got back too.  Erin got to meet them and we hung out them and the kids for quite a while.  Then Sunday morning I preached at both services.  Sunday afternoon we cleaned up the camping gear and got it all put away.  We also did some yard work and just enjoyed the cool fall weather.  Then Sunday evening she went to Bible Study with me.  When we got back Pastor Wurm and Kyra had a fire going in my back yard and we all sat around a fire and talked.  Yesterday we spent some more time just hanging out around Brookings and enjoying our last day together.  This morning I took her back to the air port and she is flying back to St. Louis.  It was such a nice visit but it made me realize how much I miss her and do not enjoy this long distance stuff.
    Her mom flies into St. Louis tomorrow and Thursday they will travel together with her SUV full of stuff to Arizona for her to start her next clinical.  She will enjoy the weather down there and has an Aunt and Uncle who live down there so it will be nice for her to have family close by.  It's looking like the next time I will see her is at JoAnna's wedding if they ever set a date.  Which by the way I have to throw in a shout out to my favorite sister and new brother-in-law (just brother though cause he's that cool) on a big congrats that they are finally getting married.  I have actually thought this was coming for a lot of years and now that it finally happening I couldn't be happier for both of them.
     I am posting my latest sermon on here that I preached Sunday.  The text was not the most fun one I have ever preached on but I think the Spirit still gave me a good Gospel message with some sanctification in there too.  I will try to continue to be better about blogging and thank each of you who continue to follow this for supporting me even in my slacking efforts.  Here is my sermon, God Bless:

Grace mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Our text today is Luke 16:13 which reads, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devout to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money.”          

            I love to use tools.  Whether it be power tools doing carpentry work, wrenches and sockets doing mechanical work, or tractors and machinery doing farm work.  I loved working on the parsonage and getting to use all the tools over there.  In fact anyone who was working there could tell you the only tool I didn’t enjoy using was a paint brush.  Every job has a right set of tools, and every tool has a purpose.  Even little jobs that we rarely think about actually doing have tools.  To write you need a pen or pencil, to cook you need pots, pans and utensils, to clean you need a vacuum and mop, and so on.  Every job has the right set of tools, and every tool has a purpose. 
            However, the same tools that can be used to accomplish a good job can be used to accomplish a bad job too.  A gun can be used to hunt and supply food for a family, that’s using a tool to get a good job done.  However, a gun can be used to threaten someone’s life or even take that life in murder, which is definitely a bad use.  The internet can be used to research and learn new knowledge, to communicate with distant relatives, or even to pay the bills, all good uses of a tool.  However, the internet can be used to steal by illegally downloading music, or feed a pornography addiction; again the same tool that was used for good is now being used for bad or evil jobs.  Same tools, different uses. 
            In our text today Jesus tells this unusual and confusing parable, and we will get to that here shortly.  But first I want to look at what he says after the parable.  Luke tells us in verse 1 that Jesus shifts his attention from the crowd to His disciples, and even though the Pharisees overhear this conversation, it is directed at His disciples.  So what is Jesus really telling them about serving two masters?  How does the money fit in with this?  And how does this have anything to do with the parable of the unrighteous manager?  The answer to all three of these questions comes down to the first half of verse 13. No servant can serve two masters.  He will either hate one and love the other or he will be devout to one and despise the other. Jesus is telling His disciples that they have been called to be servants and they cannot serve two masters. They cannot serve both God and Money.  The Greek word for money here in verse 13 is the same word used in verse 11 where it is translated as wealth.  Jesus is telling them they cannot serve both God and wealth.  In other words, they cannot serve both God’s will and the desire of their own wealth. The two master’s really are not God and money, but God and themselves.  They will either hate themselves and love God or they will be devoted to themselves and despise God.  They cannot serve both God and themselves. 
            So how does money fit into this?  The disciples of Jesus are called servants and they have a job to do.  I don’t think they fully understand the entirety of their job though.  They know they are supposed to follow Jesus, learn from Him, and help Him.  However, their actual job is to witness Jesus’ preaching, teaching, and life.  They get to see His miracles and healings firsthand.  They hear His teachings and sermons firsthand.  They will even see Him die on the cross, find the empty tomb, and see Him in the flesh again after His resurrection.  They are witnesses to everything He does, so that after He is no longer with them after the Ascension, they can be the apostles traveling around telling everyone the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They can spread the Gospel with the authority to do so, because they were there and witnessed it.  This is the job He has called them to. Money is simply a tool to do the job.  Money is a tool meant to be used for good, spreading the gospel.  The tool of money gives them the means to travel, stay places, and eat along their travels.  However, even more importantly, such a huge part of Jesus’ ministry was caring for the sick, lame, poor, and elderly. So now this is a majority of the apostles’ ministry too.  Money is again the tool that allows them to care for these less fortunate people as they continue to spread the Gospel.  But as I mentioned before, every tool can be used for good or for bad.  Here caring for the poor and spreading the gospel is the good use of money. Storing up barns of wealth for oneself as we saw in chapter 12 of Luke in the parable of the rich fool in is a bad use of the tool.
            This is where the parable for today fits in.  The parable of the unrighteous manger.  I say unrighteous manager, because that’s what the Greek says and the term dishonest is what I think confuses us the most.  Most people heat the term dishonest and think it is talking about what he does in the second half of the parable.  They think that his reducing the tenants’ bills is the dishonest part.  But when you understand it as the unrighteous manager, you can see this is who he is from the very beginning of the parable.  He is introduced as the unrighteous manager because he is a servant who is clearly guilty of serving only one master, and it is not his actual master.  He is hating His master by wasting His master’s money.  He was serving his own desires of squandering the master’s money, serving himself and despising the master.  Wasting the money was certainly not what the master wanted and was a bad use of the tool of money.  So when the master calls him out on what he had been doing, he realizes what he has been doing is wrong, and he begins to use the tool of money in a good way.  You see the amount he cut off of the tenant’s bills is most commonly agreed upon by scholars to be his cut.  This is the amount he would keep off the top before giving the rest that they actually owed to the master.  He gives up his portion because what he is doing is giving his money back to the tenants.  He is finally using money in the right way.  Now you may say that the reason he gave them his money was so that he would have friends once he was jobless.  You might say he is still only serving himself.  However, this shows that he now understands the concept of charity.  He understands that those who have should help those who don’t.  So while he still has money to give away, he helps those less fortunate than himself, hoping they will do the same once he has less than them.  He is giving the last of his money to the poor, knowing he is about to be poor himself.  This is when the master commends him because for the first time he has used the tool of money for a good use.  He has been shrewd with his money and is no longer serving himself. He finally understands that money is simply a tool to help others, and the important thing is to use it in the right way. He is being shrewd with money, in the sense of using the tool for a good job. 
            This is what we are called to do as servants of Christ.  We are called servants; we are the disciples of Christ.  We are called to do a job, to be the faithful people of God, spreading the Gospel and caring for those around us.  We are called to use the tool of money for a good use, to get the job done.  And yet far too often we are the unrighteous manager. We are the one’s wasting our master’s money and serving ourselves instead of serving him.  You see all money is God’s money. He gives it to us in the first place.  He gave us the intelligence we needed to get through school, he gave us the talents and skills we have, he put us in the right place to get the jobs we have.  So we may let ourselves think that we earned the money, and it’s our money.  But it’s not.  It’s all God’s money that He gives us.  It is our masters money, and we are simply the manager put in charge of it.  And now we have the dilemma of not being able to serve two masters.  We cannot serve ourselves, by doing whatever it takes to make ourselves rich, and still serve our master in doing the job he called us to do.  We will either hate ourselves and love our master and serve him faithfully, or we will be devout to ourselves and despise him by squandering away his money.  Our sinful nature tells us to go ahead and spend all our money on ourselves, but our faith teaches us that is not what we are called to do.  We cannot do both, these are the very words of Jesus.  If you want to know what type of manager you are, simply think about where the majority of your money goes to.  Look at your checkbook and see where you are using the tool of money.  It is on new cars, new TVs, the highest amount of channels package the TV company sells, vacations, concerts and sporting events, golf clubs, guns or fishing poles, decorations for the house, all things that our clearing serving only our wants….. Or is the majority going to offerings, donations, charities etc.  And this not only goes for money, but our time and talents too.  If you put all your time, talents, and financials spent on you and your family versus all of your time, talents, and financials spent on those less fortunate and the gospel into a balance scale, which side is going to win?  I would be willing to bet everyone in here, myself included, is found guilty of serving ourselves over God.  We are the unrighteous manager squandering away, wasting our master’s possessions.  We use the tool’s we have in a very bad, evil, and selfish way.            
            However, this is why God sent the one who would actually serve him.  This is why God sent His only Son, to be the one who would use the tools to get the job done.  Jesus Christ was the only one who could ever fully faithfully serve the master and not himself.  He came into this world and used all the tools God the Father gave Him to serve the one true Master.  He used the tools God gave Him to accomplish the good job perfectly.  And His tools were not only money, time, and talents.  No His tools included a cross, three nails, a crown of thorns, a spear, and a dark grave.  A dark empty grave!  He got the job done once and for all, He accomplished the greatest job!  And because He accomplished His job, we can be His servants, forgiven of our sins, and proclaim the hope we have in eternal life.
            So does that mean that because we cannot do the job we are called to do we shouldn’t try?  Jesus did the job, so now we can just reap the benefits and be the unrighteous manager wasting all of his money?  Absolutely not!  We are still called to serve Him.  We are still servants striving to love him and hate ourselves.  We strive to be not the unrighteous manager, wasting His possessions.  Rather, to be faithful managers, faithful servants serving Him, using His tools to get the job of spreading the gospel and caring for others.  This is how we serve only one master.  The true master.  We love him and hate ourselves; we are devoted to Him, despising ourselves, the very way Christ despised Himself enough to die on the cross out of His devotion to the Father.  We try as hard as we can everyday to be the good and faithful servant, and then at the end of the day we know we have still failed to do our job.  But we take comfort in the mercy of our Lord.  The mercy of our Lord shows us that even though we are the unrighteous managers because of our actions, we truly are the righteous managers because of CHRIST’S actions.   We take comfort in the fact that Christ accomplished His job, giving us forgiveness of sins and another chance to try again to do our job.  We have a fresh start to try to serve Him again the next day out of our devotion to Him.    This is how we go and serve the Lord, thanks be to God.  In the name of Christ, Amen.  

Next Sermon

     Greetings in the name of our Lord.  I apologize that I have not been very good with keeping up with this blog.  However, I have been so busy working, getting stuff ready for LSF, remodeling the parsonage, and moving into my house I haven't had much free time for anything.  However, the parsonage is almost done and my moving in is almost complete.  So hopefully I will have a little more free time but I am not going to make any false promises.
    I did preach my second sermon and I feel that it went pretty well.  My delivery was not as smooth as the first one because I had less time to work with it.  However, I feel the content was much deeper and better because I had more to work with in this text.  So here it is, hope you enjoy:

            Our text for today is from the Gospel reading but specifically looking at verse 11 which reads, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

            Grace, Mercy, and Peace be to you from God our Father in Heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

            How many of you who walked in here today were filled with fear, trembling as you walked through those doors right back there, or bowed in reverence as you entered the pew?  How many of you felt unworthy to be here in the house of the Lord as you entered today?
            We live in a culture of pride.  Slogans such as be proud to be American, proud to be of the land of the free.  We are the BEST country in the entire world, we have the BEST standard of living, we have the BEST technology, and if anyone tries to tell us we are not the best we do not even debate it or argue it because we know they are wrong.  We praise our kids for the smallest task completed.  We tell our friends what good people they are and how they deserve to be happy.  We build each other up and build ourselves up in order to feel better than those around us and to insure that everything will be alright.  We get defensive the moment someone says something even slightly brash about us.  We are pretty proud of the person we have turned out to be and we are not afraid to brag ourselves up when push comes to shove.  I made sure to say we every time because I am just as guilty of this as the next person.  The point is humility is not really our strong suit as Americans.
            In our text for today, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees while He is eating with them at one of their houses.  He shares some brutal honesty with them.  Even though He is a guest in their house, He tells them basically what they are doing is wrong.  He sees these Pharisees automatically going for the best seats on the couch and reclining there to eat as if they are the only ones worthy of laying there.  So Jesus tells them, “When you are invited a banquet, do not assume you are the most important person in the room and seat yourself at the place of honor.  If someone more important than you comes, and the host now wants that person to seat at the place of honor, he will ask you to move and you are going to be embarrassed as you have to get up and move.  Rather sit at the lowest seat and then if the hosts decides you are the one he wants to be the honored guest, he will invite you to move up to the place of honor and you will be seen by all moving up.” Really this should have happened at this very house of the Pharisees, because if they would have known who Jesus really was and fully understood that they had invited the Son of God as a guest to their banquet, the host should have asked Jesus to sit in the place of honor, forcing the Pharisees already sitting there to move and be embarrassed.  If they would have understood who was present with them in their house that day, they should have been filled with awe and fear and moved without being asked.  Here stands Jesus, the one and only Son of God, 100 percent man but 100 percent true God, powerful enough to heal a man with dropsy right before their very eyes.  This is the same God who created Heaven and Earth, the same God who sent the 10 plagues to free His people from Egypt, the same God left His throne in Heaven to be born in the flesh in a stable, the same God who would let Himself be arrested, beaten and killed, the same God who would come back to life, walking out of the tomb resurrected from the dead.  This is the person standing before them and yet they were still pompous enough to seat themselves at the place of honor.  As if they are more important, more special, or better than the incarnate Son of God standing in front of them. 
            And yet we are no better than these Pharisees.  We come into the house of God as if we belong here, as if we are the ones doing the church the favor.  The church should thank us for gracing it with our presence because we could have just as easily slept in this morning.  We didn’t have to get dressed in nice clothes and take the time to come to church, but now that we are here we might as well participate and say the words in bold.  So we recite the words of confession from memory, but how many of you actually thought about the dirty prideful sins you have committed over the past week?  How many of you used the pause of reflection to actually reflect on the disgusting state of sin you live in?  If we come before the Lord in confession with an attitude of self-righteousness, if we think, yes I am a sinner, but I am not as bad a sinner as that person so I am really OK, if we merely speak the words but do not think about anything at all, we are the Pharisees who have exalted ourselves to a higher seat than we deserve.  However, when our faith drives us to come to the Lord in confession in a lowly state of humility, honestly admitting to every last dirty, rotten, prideful sin we have committed, realizing that we are filthy nasty, grungy, sinners who have done nothing right and truly do deserve His present and eternal punishment, now we are  in the lowest seat.  When we actually comprehend how terrible sinful we are, the Holy Spirit leads us in this state of humility, graveling for His mercy because we know we have no rights, we have given Him no reason to even love us let alone forgive us, this is the humility of the lowest seat at the banquet.  This is when we will be exalted.  You see Luke is a very clever and smart author.  He writes our verse today in a way that alludes but does not directly express his point.  God is the subject of verse 11.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted should really be read as whoever exalts himself will be humbled by GOD, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted by GOD.  God is the subject; God is the one doing the action.  God is the one who will humble us when we will not humble ourselves, but He is the one who exalts us because in reality we cannot exalt ourselves.  We try every day to exalt ourselves, make ourselves seem better than we really are, pretend like the old Adam in us doesn’t exist.  However, it is God and only God who can exalt us to anything higher than the lowest scummiest sinner.  He is the subject because it is by His grace alone that He exalts us to be forgiven when we come humbly before Him truly confessing our sins.
            So we do come humbly before God, seating ourselves at the lowest place possible because we truly are sinners who deserve nothing more than to be condemned and wiped out.  We deserve to be damned to Hell, and if you can’t admit that than you are a Pharisee exalting yourself.  We do not deserve to be in the seat of honor; in fact, we should be thankful to even be invited to the banquet.  The very fact that we as sinners are allowed to come into His presence to ask for His mercy is a miracle.  You see we are the ones Jesus speaks of in verse 13.  We are the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  We are the ones who can in no way ever repay Him.  And yet we are the ones who He invites to His banquet.  (walk out of pulpit to communion rail)  He invites us to come to His banquet here at the communion rail.  And this banquet here at His table is not only bread and wine, but the very body and blood of His incarnate Son.  He is truly and absolutely present with us here. 
            And let me just say, that even though we as the Missouri Synod practices closed communion, does not mean we do not want everyone to come up to this rail.  We do believe that communion taken in the wrong manner is to your harm, and it should be taken in unity as one confession of faith.  Now we do desire everyone to be taught the truth of this meal so that we may all receive it in the right manner and in one unity, but out of our love for you and our love for our Lord, until you are taught the truth we ask that you do not partake of the body and blood of our Lord.  However, just because you do not partake of the bread and wine, does not mean you are not invited to the banquet.  This morning I invite everyone in the pews to come forward to the rail during the service of the Sacrament.  For those who are not yet part of the unity of faith to partake of the bread and wine, simply cross your arms over your chest and receive the blessing.  Come be a part of the banquet and be in the presence of your Lord.  But even more important than me inviting you, Jesus invites you.  None of us deserve to be up here at this rail; none of us deserve to be in His presence, but He invites all of us. (walk back into pulpit)
            So we come humbly, kneeling in reverence, knowing that Christ is truly present at this banquet.  If you still have your doubts, just look at our liturgy.  We hear pastor say in the proper every week, with angels and archangels and all the accompany of Heaven, we laud and magnify His glorious name evermore praising and saying, Holy holy holy.”  This is exactly what is happening at this rail. We truly are in the presence of angels, archangels, and all the accompany of heaven.  We laud and magnify His glorious name because we are in the presence of our Lord.  We are invited to the most holy of holy banquets here at this rail.  This is the most holy of holy banquets because of the guest of honor.  And that guest of honor is not us, so we do not think about what we have to do after church or think that we are the most important person there.  But rather the Spirit leads us in our faith to come humbly, focused on the one who is seated at the place of honor at this banquet.  Christ, our Savior and Lord, the very incarnate Christ who was speaking to these Pharisees.  The same Lord who would was willing to go to the lowest place, His death on the cross to die for the sins of all people, and then be exalted if full glory as He was resurrected from the dead to defeat sin, death, and the devil once and for all.  This is the Lord who exalts us, exalts us to be forgiven, exalts us to be His brothers and sisters, exalts us to be the children of God, clothed in His righteousness and now able to come into His presence.  It is He who exalts us to the seat of honor out of His deep love for us. 
            So today, next Sunday, and every time we enter the Lord’s house from here on, maybe we are filled with a little fear as we sinners enter His presence.  We come into His house with awe and reverence, humbly and genuinely speak the words of confession, focus on the miracle that is actually happening as we hear the words of absolution, sing the holy holy holy with the angels archangels and all of heaven with gusto, and come humbly kneeling into His presence at His banquet.  What a gracious Lord we have who exalts us to be the children of God.  In the name of this Christ, who does exalt us, Amen. 

Now may the peace of our Lord, given to us through His mercy, will keep and guard our hearts and mind in the one true faith until life everlasting. Amen. 

I got a lot of good compliments.  The coolest part to me was that there was one guy in each service that their wives are members who commune every Sunday, but they always just stay in the pew.  However, this Sunday they both came up for the blessing and it was awesome to see that they understood what my message was and acted to it.  The Lord works even through a sinner like me.  All Praise be to Him.