Good Friday Blessings!!

                                                

    Good Friday Blessings to you all!  I pray you may hear the sad but life-given news of our Lord's death this evening.  The picture above is what our sanctuary looks like right now with the red glow of the cross in the midst of the darkness reminding us what today is all about.

    Here is my sermon from last night.  My first Maundy Thursday as a pastor is in the books and this is the sermon I got to preach.  The theme is "The Blood of the Covenant".

      You know as Christians, we are truly kind of a weird people. And as Lutherans we may be the weirdest of all. This is Maundy Thursday, the special day in the church year, part of Holy week, when we remember the Last supper. Jesus is in the upper room with His disciples and this is when He institutes Holy Communion. This day is celebrated as the remembrance of the first time Jesus told us that as we gather together and eat bread and drink wine, truly what we are doing is eating His body and drinking His blood. Now that probably doesn’t sound that strange to you because we have heard this so much as Christians, that it is perfectly normal to talk about eating the body of and drinking the blood of Christ. But I want you to stop for a moment and realize how strange that would sound if you were not used to this Christian teaching.
      In fact, this very kind of talk is what led the Romans to believe the early Christians in the ancient church were cannibals. Non-Christian Romans soldiers in Jerusalem would hear about this new group of people calling themselves Christians, and heard rumors that they were gathering together to eat flesh and drink blood, and they honestly thought this was a new cult of cannibals sacrificing children to eat flesh and drink blood. And while it may sound ridiculous to us, you have to admit this is one of the strangest teachings of our beliefs. Especially when you consider quite a few Christian denominations don’t even agree with us on this point. Baptists, Methodists, and many others think we are crazy to believe we are truly eating Jesus body and drinking His blood. They practice the sacrament as symbol only. Even the Catholics, who believe they are eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ, don’t agree with us that it is still bread and wine at the very same time as it the body and blood of our Lord. So you see, Christians are strange enough, talking about eating human flesh and drinking human blood, but us Lutherans, we are the odd ducks of an already weird religion. We believe, teach, and confess that as we eat the bread and drink the wine of this sacred meal, we truly and certainly are also eating the body of Jesus we are drinking the blood of Christ.
     Now we could examine closely both of these elements, the bread/body and the wine/blood, but tonight I want to focus in on the second one. Tonight I want to look at the wine, but even more importantly the blood of Christ that we confess we are drinking in this sacrament.
     So as we look at the wine which truly is the blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper of communion, the very meal we will partake of this evening, listen to the words Jesus used to institute this part of the meal. Our focus text for tonight, from Matthew 26 Jesus takes the cup, gives thanks and says, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” This is my blood of the covenant. This statement begs two questions. First what is the covenant? And Second, why does this covenant need blood?
     Ok, so the first question, what is the covenant Jesus is talking about. In the Old Testament, God makes four major covenants with His people. Tonight, very quickly I promise we will look at three out of the four. The first one is the covenant with Noah to never flood the world again, this is the one we are not going to look at.
     Then the second one comes in Genesis 12, God comes to Abraham and makes a covenant with him God promises Abraham that he will be the father of uncountable offspring, he will be the blessing to all nations, his offspring will inherit the land of promise flowing with milk and honey, and that that group of people will always be God’s people, and God will always be the God of that people.  This covenant will be reaffirmed through Isaac, and Jacob.
     The third covenant comes on Mt Sinai. This was our first reading for tonight from Exodus. Moses who has been in the presence of God up on Mt. Sinai, comes own and stands before the whole nation of Israel. He reads to them all the words that God had told to him while He was with Him. And all the people agree to the covenant as they say, “We will be obedient”.
     The fourth covenant is when God promises to establish the throne of David forever.
     So when Jesus says, this cup is my blood of the covenant, which covenant is He referring to? Is He referring to any of these four at all? In Luke and 1 Corinthians, it is recorded as Jesus saying, this is my blood of the NEW covenant. Maybe this is a completely new covenant that doesn’t tie back to any of the four. Well this is a new covenant in its own way, because it is the fulfillment of three of the covenants. Excluding the covenant with Noah, Jesus has come to make a new covenant that includes the other three.
    The covenant to Abraham, the covenant on Mt. Sinai, and the covenant to David are all being fulfilled in one new covenant through Jesus Christ and what He is about to do in the next couple days.
    The covenant of Abraham is fulfilled because now the mighty nation of God’s people will not be determined by being the offspring of Abraham, but rather the offspring of Abraham will be determined by being God’s people who believe Jesus is the Son of God. So you and I who believe Jesus is the true Son of God are now the offspring of Abraham and we are part of that original covenant, that we are blessed through the promise given to Abraham, we are and always will be God’s people and He will always be our God and we will inherit His kingdom.
    The covenant of Mt Sinai is fulfilled in Jesus because as sinners, both the Israelites and us failed to be obedient to all the ways of the Lord. So Jesus came and lived a perfect life for us, doing what we could not, and in His death pays the price for all those times we failed to keep God’s Word perfectly. Jesus has fulfilled this covenant for us in His perfect life, and His sacrificial death.
     And the covenant given to David is fulfilled in Jesus, because Jesus does establish the throne of David once and for all and Jesus will reign as the King of Israel, He is our King now and forever more.
     So what covenant is Jesus talking about? It is the new covenant that He makes with us, His people as He fulfills the three covenants of the Old Testament. This is the beautiful new covenant Jesus makes with us. We are His people, and He is our God forever and ever. We will inherit His Kingdom as we are the righteous forgiven children of the one true King. Salvation is ours as He forgives us of all our sins. Eternal life is ours as He promises to bring us into His kingdom on that final day. This is the awesome, amazing covenant we have in Jesus!
     Now to answer the second question. Why does the covenant require blood? For two reasons. One because covenants were sealed with blood to show how seriously they were to be taken, and two because God especially has always used blood to seal His covenants. In the ancient days of the Old Testament, if two people were to make a covenant together, instead of shaking hands, or signing a contract, they would each cut an animal in half, lay them side by side with the halves pulled apart from each other, and then both parties would walk through the blood as they walked between the split animals. Now you may think this sounds extremely grotesque. However, you have to remember their culture and daily life was very different from ours. They were very used to dealing with blood. Now most of us in our daily lives don’t deal with blood. With the exception of medial professions and butchers, hardly any of us deal with blood on a regular basis. It simply is not part of our daily life.
     The people of the Old Testament were very used to blood. Between slaughtering their livestock for meat, any war they fought was a very brutal savage style of fighting with swords and seeing the blood, and then later on the sacrifices at the temple, dealing with blood was a very common thing. In fact did you know the word blood is use 382 times in the Bible? And of those 382 times, it is used 291 times in the Old Testament, leaving only 91 times in the New Testament. Literally 3/4 of the times blood is talked about, it is in the Old Testament.
     So they were used to blood, and killing animals, and dealing with all of that stuff in their daily life.  So by each of them killing an animal for the covenant, this was kind of like each of them paying a down payment to show they were serious, and then as they walked through the blood, the bottom of their garments would be stained with the blood. This was to show that if either party brought the covenant, they owed blood to repay the other person. This is how serious covenants were. It cost you one of your animals, and you signed it with the stain of blood to show you would not break it. So blood was an essential part of any covenant.
     And this is true every time God makes a covenant. With the covenant with Abraham, God includes this tradition of cutting animals in half. Abraham falls asleep and as he is asleep, God shows Him the animals being cut in half, and then God is the one who walks through the blood. This is significant because God is the only one held accountable to uphold the covenant. Abraham is not held responsible with blood, only God is the one who is held accountable with blood to keep the covenant. 
    Then as we saw in our text from Exodus 24 this evening, we see that as the people say, We will be obedient, Moses throws the blood of animals onto the people. Can you imagine that. What if tonight I were to sprinkle the blood of some dead animals onto you to signify the covenant God has made with you? Well don’t worry, I won’t because I don’t have to.
    This new covenant that Jesus makes with us on that very first Maundy Thursday is sealed not with the blood of bulls or rams or any other animal. Instead, it is sealed with His very own blood that He will pour out on the cross. As He will be nailed to that cross, the grotesqueness of real blood, His blood is poured out through the nail holes in his hands and feet, through the thorn wounds in his head, through the whip wounds in His back. Through the spear hole in His side. His very own blood is poured out as He seals this new covenant for us in His death.
    And instead of walking through this blood, instead of being sprinkled with this blood, to show we are part of the covenant, instead we drink it! Every time we come to this rail, we drink the very true blood of our King, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed that blood for us in His death on the cross. So that now, every time we drink this blood, we are reaffirming the covenant, that we are His people and He is our God. We are reaffirming that He lived the perfect life we never could, but that through His death we are forgiven and made righteous. We are reaffirming that He is our King and that we will inherit the eternal life of His kingdom. This is the covenant He has made with us and this is what He sealed with His blood on the cross. And we may be a strange people, but it is such a powerful and wonderful gift, that we get to drink His blood and reaffirm that awesome covenant that is ours because of what Jesus has done for us.
    So tonight as you come forward and you eat the body and you drink the blood, know that this is the true body and blood of our Lord and King who died for you, who poured out His blood to seal the new covenant for you, and think about what this new covenant, as you drink the blood of your king, means for you!
    Because truly this cup you are about to drink, is the blood of Jesus Christ, shed for you to seal the one eternal covenant which guarantees your salvation and eternal life. We may be strange according to the world, but according to God, we are His people who have salvation and eternal life in the name of His Son Jesus. Amen.

    Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Happy Palm Sunday

    Greetings in the name of our Lord and King, and Blessed is His name! Hosanna!  Happy Palm Sunday, I hope you got to sing some joyful praises to the Lord this morning.  Not only did we get to sing some awesome hymns, we got to hear the Sunday School kids sing and from the mouth of children came some beautiful hosannas.
    I apologize that it has been quite a while since I posted anything on here.  Lent has been busy, but also has been super amazing.  I am very thankful to be in team ministry, and have a ton of respect out there for sole pastors who are currently writing two sermons every week.  I am not taking any credit myself, but the Spirit has really inspired me with some good sermons lately.  I got to preach a really fun one last Wednesday.  It was fun because I got to bring some of my Iowa, farm boy roots to the pulpit.  I will include my sermon all about corn in this post.
    I am excited for holy week and to get to celebrate Easter for the first time here at Peace in Christ.  What a joy to not only preach the greatest news this earth has ever heard, but to celebrate that good news with so many wonderful people.
    There isn't much new news with the house.  We got through inspections and they fixed the two things I asked them to fix.  The appraisal was suppose to happen Friday so we will see how that comes out.  Then the last thing will be the septic inspection after the ground fully thaws out.  We don't close until May 5th, but I am excited to sign those papers, be handed a set of keys, and walk into the very first home I will own.  God has made this whole thing such a blessing for both parties.  I cannot thank Him enough for handing this gift to me and providing me with a wonderful home that I hope to call home for a long time.
     Other than that everything else is pretty awesome in my life.  I hope all is well with you as well.

Here is my sermon from March 16th.

Our Text for this evening comes from John 12 we hear verses 20 to 26.

“20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

This is our text. Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

      Our text this evening, actually takes place after Palm Sunday. Jesus has made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and He and his disciples are in the midst of the busy city as everyone is getting ready for the celebration of Passover. And as they are in this busy city, a couple Greeks come up to Philip and say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Now this isn’t really that strange or unbelievable, because by now Jesus has quite the reputation. People have heard about his miracles, they have heard he raised Lazarus from the dead, and they heard He was welcomed into Jerusalem as a king just a few days ago. There is a lot of excitement in the air, and a good majority of it has to do with this Jesus person. So these foreigners who are only visiting Jerusalem for the holiday, do not want to miss their chance to meet this person they have heard so much about.
      Now, as you listen to how Jesus responds to Philip and Andrew as they bring these Greeks’ request to Him, you might feel disheartened. Jesus doesn’t even seem to acknowledge the request. Instead He seems to be completely changing the subject all together. Picture it, you are Philip and Andrew, you walk up to Jesus, “Lord, there are some Greek men asking to see you.” You stare at Him and wait for His response, and then all of a sudden, Jesus starts talking about wheat dying and growing. Soooooo, are you going to go see the Greeks or not??!! I can imagine Philip and Andrew’s confusion as they listen to Jesus’ response.
       However, as person who grew up in the heart of farmland, I think Jesus’s answer makes complete sense. In a very clever way, Jesus’ response of wheat does answer the Greek’s request. I am going to change the wheat Jesus speaks about to corn because that’s what I grew up with in Iowa. If someone who had never seen corn before, asked me to show them corn, I could dig out the bin of corn kernels I have in my old tractor box, and show them a handful of yellow kernels, that have been harvested and just individual kernels without the cob, husk, or stalk. However, if someone asked me to show them corn, I would rather drive them down to farm country in the fall. I would pull up to a brown, ripe, ready for harvest corn field. I would then “show” them CORN! I would explain to them how clear back in the spring, the farmer planted seed corn into the ground. Then how that seed corn began to germinate under the soil. Then a week or two later it sprouted into a tiny, fragile green stem and two leaves. As the summer went on, that tiny green plant grew taller and bigger. As it gets bigger, it will produce more leaves, the stock will get thicker, and it will get hardier as it is able to now withstand the wind, heat, rain, and dry spells. When it gets to be about six feet tall, it will produce tassels. Those tassels will produce pollen so that the next windy day, that pollen will fall off the tassels and land on the silk of the blooming ears. Then once the ears are pollinated, they begin to grow. The cob begins to grow, producing kernels all the way around the cob, all of it growing nicely in the green husks for protection. The ear will keep getting bigger and bigger until its full of hundreds and hundreds kernels. Then that ear begins to hang upside down, and that beautiful green and yellow corn field begins to dry out, turn pale, and eventually turn brown as it is now ready for harvest. Now the farmer gets to go in and harvest, with a combine these days, and cut that stock off, rip those ears off the stock, pull the husks back, and strip all those hundreds and hundreds of kernels off the cob. The kernels are collected in the bin, and everything else is thrown back out into the field. You see, this to me is CORN. The whole process, this miracle of how one seed corn being planted in the ground, turns into hundreds and hundreds of kernels ready to be harvested from that one seed. This is corn and to me it is beautiful. Most people who drive through the Midwest, think corn fields are boring. But to me, I love them, they are beautiful and amazing. I love living up here in Duluth, and the trees and the lakes are awesome, but I do miss my corn fields. Even after 27 years, I am still amazed at how the whole process works and works the same every year. This is the full awesomeness of corn that I would want to show you.
     And I believe this is exactly what Jesus is saying about Himself as he answers Philip and Andrew. Sure, Jesus could take five minutes to go meet those Greeks, shake their hands, call them by name, and they could see they had seen Jesus. But this would be like showing someone a handful of kernels and saying you showed them corn.
     Instead, Jesus’ answer to his disciples lets them know, He wants those Greeks to see His full power and full glory. The full glory of Jesus is the whole story, His whole narrative. His full glory includes a virgin who gave birth in a stall and laid that baby in a manger full of hay, surrounded by animals and shepherds and included angels singing on high. It includes everything He did that showed He had the authority of God, everything He said that showed He taught with authority. Every time He resisted the temptations of the devil so show He was perfect. The full glory of Jesus includes a donkey ride into a city shouting Hosanna. It includes an upper room with a table set for a special meal with twelve of his friends. It includes a garden where he would spend hours on his knees in the dirt as those twelve men slept. It includes palaces and courtrooms where he would be accused, questioned, beaten, mocked, and sentenced. The full glory of Jesus includes the blood, sweat, tears, the whips, ropes, nails, and a cross on that dark Friday. It includes a death like no other, a burial, and a stone rolled shut. However, it also includes an early morning sunrise that revealed the stone had been rolled away, it revealed that the tomb was empty except for a few folded linen clothes. It includes women carrying spices, and angels announcing the good news that Jesus is risen. It includes Him appearing to his disciples, eating with them, offering them peace, and promising to be with them until the end of the ages.
     Those Greeks wanted to see Jesus, and they would have been happy to simply see Jesus standing there in front of their eyes. But Jesus knows, His hour has come for His full glory to be seen. He wants to show the Greeks, His disciples, and everyone in Jerusalem His full glory, who He truly was, why He really came to live on this earth. It was to die, so that through that one death, he could offer life to so many. He came, His full glory was that in His one death, He has produced life for all those who believe in Him.
     You ask me to show you corn, I could show you the yellow kernels, but I would rather take you to Iowa for six months and show you the full beauty and miracle of corn. How that one seed became hundreds and hundreds of kernels. The Greeks asked to see Jesus, but Jesus wanted to show them His full glory. He wanted them to see what would happen in the next few days, see His full glory of how His one death on that cross, truly leads to life for so many including you and me. See how his answer about wheat/corn kind of makes sense.
     Now I don’t know if you are aware of this or not, but this verse of the Greeks asking Philip is kind of a special verse here at Peace in Christ. I don’t know if you are aware or not, but this very verse is what Pastor Ludwig and myself see every time we get into this pulpit. Right here, is our reminder of why you are all here. Your very presence in the pews is you telling us the same thing these Greeks told Philip. As you sit there, looking to us as we walk into this pulpit, we know you are not here to see us, you are here because you too want to see Jesus. And we could put up a picture of Jesus on the screen, and read a few passages about Jesus from the Bible and say there, you got to see Jesus. Or, we can try to show you Jesus. We can try through the power of the Spirit, to show you the power, the full glory of Jesus. It is our goal every time we get in this pulpit to not just show you kernels, not to just show you Jesus but to show you show you His full glory. So we don’t point to a picture of Jesus, instead we point to the cross. Because this is truly where the full glory of Jesus is. This is where His one death produced life for all believers.
     You ask to see Jesus, don’t look to just see a bearded man, instead look in a manger, look to the cross, look to the empty tomb, look to the faith He has placed in your heart, look at the brothers and sisters he has placed beside you that make up the body of Christ, look at the His church still living and active two thousand years after Christ. You want to see Jesus, His answer is, look at the His full glory of how His one death truly is eternal life for so many including you and me and all believers. This is where we see Jesus. In His name, Amen.