Holy Week

      Greetings in the name of our Triumphant King.  I was supposed to preach Palm Sunday; however, we got about six to eight inches of snow Sunday.  It has just started snowing Sunday morning but Pastor asked me not to come because he was worried I wouldn't make it back home after the service.  So now I am preaching tonight instead.  I worked over eight hours Sunday moving snow, which I loved.  Then I survived three days of classes before the break this week.  Today I slept in, made chili, and made a few slight changes to my sermon.  I am writing this quick, going to practice my sermon, and then its time for supper and church. Tomorrow, I plan to work on some homework and get a head in the quarter.  Then Saturday and Sunday, Erin and I are headed up to Nate's in Decatur.  Mom, Dad, JoAnna, and Steven are all going to be there too.  This is Erin's first time meeting the Richter clan.  Hopefully all will go well.
     Monday, I plan to work in the office for my boss most of the day.  Then Tuesday classes begin again.  I will try to write another blog Monday, letting you know how preaching and the weekend went.  Here is my manuscript for the sermon I am preaching tonight.  It is from the Old Testament lesson from Palm Sunday: Deuteronomy 32:36-39.

          Have you ever observed someone working and you thought to yourself “there has to be a better way to do that?”  I have worked many jobs over the past nine years of my life.  From janitor to bank teller, from road crew to a cook, and through all of these jobs I have had many experiences.  The one thing almost all of these jobs had in common was trying to find the best way to get the job done.  I would be assigned a task and then either shown or told how to do it.  I would begin doing the task, but would immediately begin to try to think of an easier or faster way of doing the job.  Most of the time these were pretty tedious, mind-numbing tasks, such as painting, mowing, spraying, etc.  Now I am not trying to say that I was smart enough to come up with some grand solution for everyone of these situations.  I am just simply saying that I occupied my time by trying to think of a better way to do the task.  The truth is it was my laziness that would cause me to want to be done with the job and therefore my mind would begin thinking of every possible solution to getting done faster.  I always wanted to do a good job and an efficient job, but if there was a way to do this in a faster manner, I always figure why not.    However, even if I was able to come up with some better to do it, my boss or co-worker would normally not let me do it.  They told me to do it how I was told to do it because that’s how it is suppose to be done.  While this was frustrating, it was what I was told to do, so I did it.  Plus I was getting paid by the hour!  The point is the job got done, but the work seemed counterintuitive.  

            Our text for today comes from Deuteronomy 32 as I just read.  This chapter is towards the end of Deuteronomy when the forty years of wandering in the desert is coming to an end and the people of Israel are about to cross into the promise land.  Moses knows his time is almost up.  He knows he will not enter the promise land, he knows Joshua is the one he will hand the reins over to.  This speech is one of Moses last parting speeches to the people of Israel, and this song is both a hymn of praise but also a way for them to constantly be reminded of all that God has done for them.  After he speaks the words of this song, he tells them,

Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law, For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. 

This beautiful song includes so much if you go read the whole chapter. But this morning I want to focus in on the one line in verse 39 where it says, there is no god besides me, I kill and I make alive.  You see Moses at this particular point in the song is reminding the people that their God is the one true God.  The very same God who promised to deliver them out of Egypt and He did just that.  The very same God who made the original covenant with Abraham, promising that his seed would be the seed of blessing for all nations.  He tells them this is the God who has promised to be with His people, to deliver them, and to free them from their sins.  Then we get this line that we are looking at today and Moses shows us how God works.  He is telling us that this is the way God has chosen to fulfill those promises.  God kills and God makes alive, this is how He will complete the task at hand, this is how He will get the job done.       

            But this is where people get frustrated and they think to themselves that God has chosen a counterintuitive way about accomplishing His work.  Like me painting a classroom, their minds begin to wander and they think there has to be an easier way God could do this.  You see the problem is mankind disobeyed God’s word and broke the relationship we had with Him.  We are all sinners and are no longer able to have the relationship God had with us before the fall.  When mankind fell to sin and destroyed this relationship, God now had several options.  He could have just destroyed all of creation.  Erased everything He created and just started all over, but we know that’s not what He did.  So now He had to find a way to fix that broken relationship.  This is where some people try to come up with their own way of fixing the problem.  Some suggestions I have heard are:  Why didn’t God just kill the devil when he fell away from God?  I mean the devil was created as an angel, but then rebelled against God and lead his rebel army away with him.  And it is true God could have just killed the devil and his demons before they had the chance to tempt Adam and Eve.  But He didn’t.  Or another suggestion I have heard is: Why didn’t God just forgive Adam and Eve, just let that one mistake be a onetime free be and let them continue to live in the garden?  Again, He is God, He could have done this, but He didn’t.  There are many, many more of these suggestions that human minds have come up with that seem like a better way for God to fix the broken relationship.  But God doesn’t do any of them.  And it doesn’t matter if it seems non-logical, or counterintuitive, or backwards to us, God has chosen His way of fixing this relationship. 

            But then I have to stop and wonder why are we so quick to judge how God works?  After all, we are the ones who broke the relationship.  And not just Adam or Eve, but all of us, you, me, and the like.  We are all sinners that go directly against God’s word, disobey Him, rebel against Him, and sin day in and day out.  We do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  We fear things that can hurt or kill the body like dangerous animals or evil men with weapons, but do not fear the one who can kill the soul.  We love ourselves, our possessions, or our money, but do not love the one who first loved us.  We trust in superficial things like karma, horoscopes, or the basic principle that all humans are morally good, but do not trust in the one who provides all things for us.  We do not love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, and mind.  We do not love our neighbors as ourselves.  Instead of uplifting and protecting our neighbor’s reputation, we deliberately gossip and talk badly about them.  Instead of honoring our father and our mother and others in authority, we think that we know better so we can just do whatever we want anyway.  We lust, cheat, steal, lie, and then justify it all with excuses at the end of the day so we can sleep at night.  We are the ones to blame, we are the ones who are guilty, we are the ones who turned away from God.  And yet we still think we know better than God and think if only God had done it this way or that way it would have been better.  His way just doesn’t make any sense! 

            Well you know what; God did not choose to do it this way or that way.  He chose to do it His own way.  He is God, He can do whatever He wants, and instead of critiquing His work, we should be thanking and praising Him that He did it His own way.   

            This text is perfect for Holy Week.  Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem as the triumphant king.  People shouted out and sang loudly, Hosanna, to the son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.” This is how Holy Week starts, at the pinnacle of Jesus’ ministry.  However, as we move forward to today and the rest of this week we see God’s chosen way of fixing this relationship in action.  We are the sinners that Jesus died for, but God the Father is the one who ordered Jesus to be killed.  This was His plan of fixing the relationship from the very beginning.  He had His Son killed on Good Friday in order to pay the price for all of our sins.  But then only three days later on that very first Easter morning, God made Him alive again.  Jesus, fully resurrected in the flesh walked out of that tomb, is now truly the triumphant king.  God killed His own Son, and then He made Him alive again and this is the way he chose to do His work.  This is how He chose to give you and me the life we don’t deserve. 

            However, God’s work is still not done.  He is still working to fully fix and restore our relationship to Him.  Just as God put His own Son to death but then brought Him back to life, all those who were here Sunday witnessed God working this exact same way again as He put His son Lucas to death and brought him back to life by the water and the word.  He did this to us all at our baptisms.  By the water and the word we die the same death Christ died on the cross, but through the same water and word we are made alive and live the same life that Christ lives.  This is how God works to bring us our salvation and make us His holy children.  This is how He gives us our eternal life that only God is able to give to us because this is how He chooses to redeem His people from their sins, and this includes all who believe in His name and have been made His through baptism.  It includes you, it includes me, and today it includes Lucas. 

            So as we continue ahead through this Holy week, we left Sunday morning singing loud hosanna to our king.  Then today and tomorrow as we come back, we grieve the suffering and death of our Lord, knowing it was for our sake He was killed.  But we remember this verse from Moses’s song that reminds us that our God who puts to death, brings back to life.  And on Easter Sunday we sing our Alleluias as loud as we possibly can, thanking Him and praising Him for bringing His Son back to life through the resurrection and bring us back to life through our baptism.  And on that Final Day, when God’s work is finally finished, and every knew bends and every tongue confesses Him Lord as we heard in the Epistle reading today, that is when our relationship with God will finally be restored back to perfect.  We will be resurrected in the flesh just as Christ was when He walked out of the tomb, and spend the rest of eternity in His presence.  Moses told all of Israel in that this is how God works, and we know this truly is God’s life saving work for all His children. 

In the name of Jesus, Amen.  

BLESSINGS ON YOUR EASTER!!!!!   HE IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!!

Spring Joy

     Greetings to you all in the name of our Triune God.  As the weather continues to get nicer, I am getting busier and busier.  Last week we had our first softball game for IM's.  We won and it was so much fun to be playing again.  Last night I played with the golf team for the first round of the season.  The course was not in very good condition but I still played decent.  It took two holes to shake off the rust and find the old swing again. I need to spend some time on the driving range fixing and tweaking a few things, but it felt good to be back out on the course.  I am still trying to work out two or three days a week, play basketball one or two days a week, and now softball will be twice a week and golf will be twice a week. This is the very reason I took fewer credits in the spring because this same thing happened last year and I remembered how active I always am once the weather is nice again.
     Classes are going well and are really interesting.  For my Matthew class we are supposed to read the entire book of Matthew (in English) three times a week.  I read it three times the first week and only got two in last week.  I read it once today for this week, but it really is fun to feel like you know the book and see patterns and themes you have never seen before.  I am also working on reading the entire New Testament once through this quarter.
      For field work church I am still doing liturgy every non-communion Sunday and reading the lessons every communion Sunday.  We are still working through the Psalms in my Bible Study every week, and this week I preach.  I am excited because on May 26th I will be doing the entire service by myself.  Pastor will be on vacation so he asked me to cover for him. I will be doing liturgy and preaching for the first time in one service. I also get paid for doing it since Pastor is gone.
      Other than all the sports and activities, classes and homework, and field work church, I am still trying to spend time with Erin and with Logan while he is down here student teaching.  Erin is back in classes and so she is busy reading and studying every night again, but we are still able to find time to hang out.
      I will post my sermon manuscript on here this week after I get it officially completed.  My thought for today comes from Bible Study this last Sunday.  We covered Psalm 25, (look it up and read it). It is a beautiful prayer written by David, but it is especially amazing because it is an acrostic poem.  Each new line starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  Now this cannot be seen in the English, but it pretty cool in the Hebrew.  However, when you look at the prayer, it is a great example of how we should still pray today.  He starts out by praising God and telling Him he trusts in Him.  Then he asks for protection from his enemies. Then the vast majority of the middle of this prayer is looking inward, confessing to be a sinner, and asking God's guidance and instruction to avoid these sins in the future.  He then ends the prayer again asking for protection from all of Israel's enemies and prays for the chosen people of God as one voice.  We can pray like this too.  The thing I especially like about this prayer is that as I continue to struggle with the sinner saint paradox, it reminds me I am not alone and shows me an example of how to handle it.  We all know David was a sinner and knows what it feels like to feel guilty and sinful because of what he has done.  However, even though David was a sinner, he knew he can still trust in the Lord.  He shows us in this prayer that it is in these struggles that we turn our trust to the Lord and ask for His guidance and instruction as we continue to live in an evil world.  He shows us how we ask for God's help as we try to live the best we can for Him even though we know we are sinners.  We fail daily, but because we are part of Israel, God's chosen people, we know we have a God who has redeemed us through His Son, and therefore we are justified saints through the life, death, and life of Jesus Christ even though we live as sinners in this present evil age. We are justified because we live in the hope of our justification on that Final Day, and until that day comes we continue to pray this prayer asking for God's hand to keep us in His people.  All Praise Him who has called us to be His people, and who has justified us through His Son making us sinners His saints.
Please Pray Psalm 25 

Spring Quarter

      Greetings to you all in the name of our Heavenly Father.  With almost an entire month having gone by since my last post, I have some catching up to do.  I survived final's week and actually made it through the hardest quarter of my seminary career.  The amazing part is I not only made it through but was even able to keep my grades up as well.  Praise be to God who was with me through it all.  I feel like I learned so much last quarter, but I am happy it is over.
      I had an amazing two week break between the quarters.  It was just a relaxing and restful break with no homework due or any worries.  I spent the first weekend, which was Valentine's Day weekend, with Erin.  We went out for a nice steak dinner and had a great weekend together.  Then that Sunday she had to go back to Indianapolis for her last two weeks of clinical and I headed to Decatur.  I spent Sunday and Monday at Nate's hanging out with him, Kari and the boys.  They did not have school on that Monday because it was President's day, so I had a good day spending some time with the boys.  Then I headed to Nebraska.  I spent Tuesday through Saturday in Seward seeing college friends and Bill and Jami.  That was the week they got all of the snow, which I was super excited about.  My friends that were doing their student teaching had a couple of snow days so we got to actually hang out and have some fun.  Then I went to Iowa for a couple days.
      Then on that Tuesday when the big snow storm was moving through Missouri and eastern Iowa, I was supposed to go back to St. Louis.  I went through Kansas City instead of the normal route of going east through Iowa and then south.  I had good roads the whole way except in Kansas City.  I had one close call where a semi cut me off and I missed his back wheels by literally inches.  Again, the Lord was with me and my angels were working hard to keep me safe.  I made it back to St. Louis that night.
      Wednesday, two of my my friends, Chris and Sam, and I went headed out to Kentucky.  We spent Wednesday through Friday completing the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.  This is seven bourbon distilleries that are a part of this "trail".  If you take all seven tours and get a passport stamped by all seven, you have completed the trail. You mail in your passport and they mail you back an official Kentucky Bourbon Trail t-shirt and your passport back.  I am proud to say we did indeed complete the trail.  The seven bourbon distilleries were: Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Heaven Hill (Evan Williams and Elijah Craig), Woodford Reserve, Wild Turkey, Four Roses, and Bourbon Town Branch.  I listed them in the order that we visited them.  It worked out to be an amazing trip.  We had three private tours because we were the only ones there and most tours only ever included one or two others besides us three.  I learned everything you could ever want to know about bourbon and I gained an appreciation for good sipping bourbon.  I would highly recommend this trip to anyone, because even if you are not into bourbon, the trip is still an amazing sight.  The scenery of the Kentucky countryside as you drive from each one to the next is beautiful.  Also, the distilleries themselves are beautiful old buildings and some were almost like small villages.  Four Roses looks like a Spanish mission and Woodford Reserve is a historic land sight for their old beautiful limestone buildings.  Maker's Mark is literally set up like a village with the buildings looking like houses and stores.  We saw huge horse ranches where the Kentucky thoroughbreds were running along the black wood fences.  It is a beautiful part of the country.
     The only hiccup we had along the way was the brakes went out on my car.  Luckily it happened between spots and not while we were driving.  I found a local mechanic who was able to get me in the first thing the next morning and got them fixed.  He was a nice guy and the price was not bad at all.  I always worry about things like that because they really have you in their hands.  I had no choice but to get it fixed and he could have charged me basically whatever he wanted, but luckily he was a fair and honest guy.  He even showed me some other things he recommend I get fixed before they go bad.
      The trip was actually pretty cheap since hotels and gas was split three ways.  The tours only cost an average of five bucks a tour. I did end up buying two bottles of nice but not expensive bourbon.  I bought them because they were the smaller distilleries's bottles that I cannot find in St. Louis.  I also got an awesome souvenir set.  I bought a shot glass from each distillery and then I got an actual bourbon barrel stave which I am going to use as a shelf to put all the shot glasses on.  This was pretty cheap since shot glasses were always the cheapest thing in the gift shops and the stave was cheap too.  I mailed in my passport and am now waiting on my t-shirt.  If you have any other questions or are actually interested in this trip feel free to contact me and I will tell you more.
       One of the coolest parts of the trip was one night we were playing cards in the hotel lobby.  A guy our age came up and asked if he could play too.  We gladly greeted him and introduced ourselves.  We found out he was a union construction worker and there were a bunch of them there for hazardous material training classes.  We ended up meeting several of them, but there were three who sat with us and talked with us most of the night.  All three had lived a long hard life.  The one guy was 19 and was already married, divorced, and had a two year old son.  The guy who played cards with us was 24, had a daughter, and was engaged to a girl who had a son.  The third guy was only in Kentucky on court order.  He had been in jail in Jersey and they agreed to let him out if he went and lived with his father in Kentucky.  All three had been to jail at one point or another, all three were working back breaking jobs just trying to make a living and get their life back on track for their kids or themselves.  The one from Jersey told us he had read the entire Bible in jail but didn't really understand it.  We ended up spending the rest of the night building relationships with all three and witnessing when we could.  Sam even gave his bible to the one who had read it and not understood it.  He put his email address in the cover so he can ask any questions he had.  When we finally called it a night the one who was playing cards with us got very serious and earnest and thanked us for what we had said and done.  We did end up exchanging contact information with him and I hope to keep in touch with him every once in a while.  It was amazing how a simple card game led us to sharing the Gospel with three guys who needed to hear it.
      Spring quarter is looking to shape up to be a very good one.  Erin is back in St. Louis again, which I am very happy about.  She loved her clinical in Indy, and was sad to leave.  I am glad she had such a great experience, but am glad to have her back too.  She starts classes again Monday.  Logan got here last night and we are going to hang out later today.  I think I am going to thoroughly enjoy the classes I have this quarter and the lighter work load will be most enjoyable.  I am working more hours again now that I am not swamped with classes.  I got another job where I will be putting several hours in as an office assistant for my old boss Kim. They rearranged who was head of what and my old boss Kim got moved to Residential Administrator.  She was sad to lose me so she offered me this new job and I gladly took it since it will provide me my most hours now.  It is really nice cause I can go in whenever I want and work, but don't have to go in if I am busy.
       My thought for the day comes from the sermon I heard this Wednesday.  The sermon was part of a series and the theme was light versus dark.  It was a good sermon, but one of the bad things about taking classes at the seminary and especially homiletic's classes, it becomes very hard to just listen to a sermon.  Instead, your mind begins to think of what you would add or subtract to the sermon if you were preaching it.  It takes work to make sure you are intentionally just listening to the message as it is.  However, Wednesday night as I was listening, I thought I knew where he was going and I waited for him to get there.  He never got to it though and I realized I had done it again and tried to make it my sermon. While he was preaching about dark versus the light, he used the illustration of a family vacation of going down into the caves and then coming back out into the light.  It was a beautiful illustration, but I heard this light and dark contrast with the idea of a cave being dark in a Lenten sermon, and my mind could not help but go straight to the tomb of Christ.  His dead body was laid in dark cave where there was no light.  The light of the world was shut-in in complete darkness and for those three days it seemed as if the dark, or evil had won.  However, on Easter morning when the women showed up at the grave there sat the tomb open and empty and sitting on the rock was an angel who was like lightning and white as snow.  Even the one who came to announce that the light of the world had conquered the darkness was seen as light.  We have our hope and joy in our faith because of the fact that even that dark tomb was not able to defeat our Lord.  No darkness can overcome the light we have in Christ.  I kept waiting to hear this, but he never preached it.  Again, it was a good sermon with the same message that our light has defeated the darkness of our world.  However, I just thought it would be good to remind myself and all of you that our Lord not only spent his life in the "darkness" of our world for 33 years, but He spent three days in the absolute darkness of the tomb, and He rose victorious over all darkness once and for all.  Praise be to Him who sent His Son to die in darkness, in order to rise victorious and be our eternal light of the world that we cling to faithfully.
Dear Heavenly Father, 
Please use this Lenten season to remind us of the suffering, pain, and death Your Son went through for our sake.  Help us to repent of our sins, beg for Your mercy, and cry out for Your Spirit to be our guide strengthening us in our faith, in the one true faith of You until our final day.  In the name of our Savior who is the light of the world, Amen.  

Video of Sermon

I am going to shock and awe you with two posts in one day!  Here is the video link of me preaching my miracle sermon yesterday.  It was at my field work church at Hope Lutheran in Highland, IL.  Enjoy!

Parable Sermon

Greetings.  I am just trying to survive this week of finals. I am already running on little sleep, but I will make it.  Yesterday was a good day.  I preached my miracle sermon in church and it went very well.  Mom and Dad were able to make it down from Decatur to hear me preach.  Everyone gave me positive feed back and for the most part really liked the football tie in to the sermon.  I thank the good Lord that He was with me and that it went so well.  I video taped it, and my friend who works in IT is converting it into a easy accessible file.  As soon as it is done, I will post a link on here so you are able to see the video of me preaching this sermon.  I got my Parable sermon back with a good grade so I decided I would share it with you guys. This is my post for today.  Enjoy!

Text: Luke 18:1-8

Focus: Luke 18:8 “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Title: Waiting around! 

            In three weeks we will be celebrating Veterans Day! A day that we set aside to remember all the brave men and women who have fought and still fight to defend their country.   However today I want to stop and think about the families of all these soldiers.  The wives, husbands, children, parents, siblings, and friends who have all had to say goodbye to their loved ones, not knowing if they will ever see him or her again.  And as they go back to their normal daily lives; right back to the rush of life, their loved one who is gone is always on the back of their mind.  They constantly miss him or her, worrying, fearing they may not come back, and they just long for him or her to come back to them.  The longer they wait, not receiving any letters or calls, not hearing any kind of news, just hoping everything is OK, the harder it seems.  There is nothing they can do but hope while they wait. 

            Even if you do not have a loved one in the military, we all know what it’s like to wait.  Spending two months away from my girlfriend while she did her clinical, I was very impatient while I waited to see her again.  I think she actually enjoyed the break away from me, but I hated being apart from her.  We all have experienced some point in our lives where we had no choice but to wait for something. 

            Our text for today is a parable that comes immediately at the beginning of chapter 18 in Luke.  Jesus is talking to His disciples.  However, before we look at the parable, we need to step back to the end of chapter 17 where Jesus’ conversation with His disciples begins.  Here at the end of 17, Jesus is explaining to them about when the kingdom of God will come.  With this he lets them know that terrible and tough times lie ahead of them when the Son of Man will no longer be with them.  He compares the day when the Son of Man will be revealed to the horrible times of Noah.  When the world was so gruesome and so sinful that God killed everyone and everything other than Noah and the animals on the ark in the flood.  He also compares it to the time of Lot, when the city of Sodom was so unbearable to God, He destroyed it with fire and sulfur from Heaven.  These extremes of disastrous times are what Jesus compares the day when the Son of Man will be revealed to.  These are the days that lie ahead of the disciples and all followers of Jesus as the end times approach.  Then, immediately after Jesus forewarns them of the days when they will desire to see the Son of Man, He tells them this parable.  You see this is important because some people take this parable of the persistent widow to be all about persistent prayer, and it is.  I mean look at verse 1, “and he told them a parable to the effect that they always ought to pray and not lose heart.”  Luke tells us this parable is about prayer.  However, the generic “meaning” of this parable that most people get out of it is, “If I really, really, really want something, I just have to keep praying for it and God will give it to me.”  This is not what this parable is about.  This parable is the silver lining to the alarming conversation they just finished with Jesus.  Jesus tells them you are going to see some of the worst times ahead of you, but be like this persistent widow.  Be like her in the sense that as she waits for the judge’s decision, she doesn’t give up.  She keeps going to Him and asking Him to help her; she is persistent in asking the judge to give her justice.  As the world becomes this dark and immoral place, we need to be persistent in asking for justice.  Except we do not turn to a secular judge, we turn to the Lord, the one true Judge.  Verse one tells us this parable is to teach the disciples to pray and not lose heart, and then in verse 7 and 8 he says, “And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay over them long? I tell you He will give justice to them speedily.”  We are to be like the widow, persistently asking for God’s judgment to come and take us out of this present evil age we live in, we need to be the ones crying out day and night knowing He will not delay over us long, but will bring His justice speedily. 

            You see we are the family of our loved one who has left for war.  Jesus came to Earth, to live a life of temptation, die on the cross, rise from the dead, and ascend back to Heaven.  He ascended to Heaven to sit on His throne as victorious King winner of the war.  But He left us behind, to live our daily lives, to go about the busyness of life, longing for Him to come back to us, wondering when He will come back for us.  And at times it seems there is nothing we can do but hope while we wait. 

            I want you to imagine a five year old boy, sitting at his desk in his room wearing his favorite, dirty, sweat-stained, Cardinal’s ball cap.  He has on one of the multiple David Freeze jerseys he owns.  There is a huge poster of Freeze over his bed, a Cardinal’s baseball sitting on his desk beside a David Freeze framed baseball card.  This little boy, lives and breathes Cardinal baseball and stands up and cheers every time Freeze walks up to the batter box.  His imagination is filled with one day being just like Freeze playing third base for the Cardinal’s wearing number 23.  And as he sits at his desk, he writes a letter to his favorite athlete.  He signs it, stamps it, and mails it to Mr. Freeze.  And for the next couple weeks, all the boy can think about is getting a letter back from the ball player he looks up to.  As soon as he gets off the bus after school every day he runs to the mailbox to check and see if there is a letter back yet.  And as time passes, day by day there is no letter.  His friends begin to make fun of him for thinking David Freeze would actually take the time to write back such an unimportant kid.  They mock him by telling fake stories about getting letters back from their favorite athletes who they wrote to.  His older brother antagonizes him by sarcastically asking him day after day, “Did you get a letter back yet?”  His parents try to convince him to focus on other things because they do not want to see him get his feelings hurt.  And the longer the boy waits for a response, his hope begins to fade and his fascination with Freeze beings to dwindle. 

            This is what happens to us as we wait for our Lord to come back on that final day when the Son of Man is revealed.  We try to live as faithfully as we can, and stay strong in our faith as we wait and hope for Him.  However, the world makes fun of us for thinking that Jesus would actually care enough about us sinners to come back for us.  Skeptics tell us this “Jesus” doesn’t even exist and we are waiting for an imaginary idol and are wasting our lives on a hopeless dream.  People mock us by sarcastically claiming to be a believer or asking where God is during disasters.  Our friends who are supportive but not religious try to kindly tell us we should focus our attention on other things.  And the longer we wait, our hope begins to dwindle.  We slowly give up hope to the point where we haven’t been to church in two months and don’t even feel guilty.  We realize we haven’t opened our Bibles in a long time.  We even begin to make jokes about our sinful deeds leading us to hell as if eternal condemnation is funny.  We put life, relationships, careers, or hobbies ahead of our faith and before we know it, we aren’t really waiting for Jesus to come back at all because we are just too busy with everything.  In fact if He came back now it would be a burden rather than a blessing because we like our earthly life and aren’t quite ready for it to end yet. 

            But this is the very point Christ is making at the end of verse 8 when he asks the disciples, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”  Jesus told the disciples you are going to have to wait, and times are going to be extremely difficult, but will you still be waiting for me when I come back?  Like a soldier who finally comes home from war, after all he has been through, and for so long he has waited to just be back with the ones he loves, and he expects to find his wife still faithfully and loyally waiting for him, his children to still love him as a father, his siblings to welcome his back and his parents to be proud of him.  He would be completely distraught if he came home and found his wife remarried because she gave up waiting on him, and his children won’t even call him dad because they have forgotten who he is.  Jesus is going to come back and be revealed as the full glory of God, and He wants to find us faithfully waiting for Him, strong in our faith, still desiring Him and longing for Him.  He is our victorious King who has won the war.  He fought the battle on Calvary on the cross and He won the War on Easter morning when He rose from the dead.  He has been on His throne as our triumphant king this whole time, and on that day He is revealed, He will come to bring His judgment and end the horrific times once and for all, locking the Devil, sin, and death behind the gates of Hell permanently.  But just as this parable ends in question, I ask you today, when this glorious day comes, will our King find faith on this earth?

            Because you see Jesus didn’t just leave us behind, our only option is not to just sit and hope as we wait.  God gave us the gift of prayer.  He gave us a direct communication line to cry out day and night, begging for His judgment to come.  He gives us the graceful means to be the persistent widow who doesn’t just sit and wait, but continues to ask for justice.  We can go to God in prayer any time anywhere and know He hears us.  No matter how terrible or horrific these end times get, we have the silver lining of this parable to remind us we have the gift of prayer.  And we are not praying to an unrighteous judge who finally gives in, but we are praying to the one true and perfectly righteous judge who will give us our justice because we are His elect and He will give us that justice speedily.  So as the world and the Devil try to surround us with doubts and fears of Jesus not coming back while we are here waiting, we are not alone, and we can cry out through the gift of prayer, “Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly.”  Amen.  

How will they know?

       Greetings to you all. I have some very sad news to share, I am completely clean shaven. I had the goatee for a while, and then yesterday I shaved it down to the mustache for a day. I got quite a few comments on the mustache, but not many were compliments. So this morning I shaved everything off, even my side burns, and my plan is to let the whole beard come back in as one length. This is the first time since I was 19 that I have had zero facial hair. I do not like the way I look without facial hair. It doesn't even seem like I am myself, because I do count my beard as part of my identity. However, it will grow back and everything will be back to normal.
        I had a great weekend with Erin. Friday night we went on a double date with her friend and her friend's fiance  Her friend's fiance, Tim, is a really cool guy. He golfs, drinks good whiskey, loves sports, and is just a down to earth guy. I think we will get along great as we will spend more time together in the future. Then Saturday her and I ran a few errands after I got off from work, and then went to the Schlafly's brewery tour. She had never gone, but this was my third time. Then Saturday night, my friend Stein had a Ground Hog Get Down party. Apparently he has wanted to have a party for ground hog day for a long time. It finally just happened to land on a Saturday so he finally got to throw his party. It was a blast. He made chocolate pudding with crumbled Oreo's on top, (dirt dessert) and put gummy bears in it with just their heads sticking out so they looked like ground hogs. A lot of our friends were there, both married couples and single guys. Again, it was a lot of fun and Erin got to meet a lot of people for the first time. Then we got a bunch of snow. I didn't go to field work Sunday morning because I wasn't sure if the roads would be clear since it snowed all night, but also because the main highway out of town was closed for construction and I didn't want to have to try to find the detour route in bad conditions. Pastor said they had three inches in Highland and there were very few people actually in church. I did go to the late service at a church close to the seminary with Erin. Then she headed back and I took my usual Sunday afternoon nap. My friend Sam and his wife Liz had me over for their Super Bowl party. So it was definitely a good weekend.
       My thought for the day comes from Systems class today. Even though it was a heated debate that seemed to be mostly a waste of time to me, it did lead me to thinking about one thing in particular. The conversation went in so many different directions I do not even know how to describe it to you. However, one topic we got on was how do we know if someone truly believes in their heart the Gospel message of Jesus. Basically the debate came down to God can look in our hearts and know if we have faith or not, but we do not have that luxury. We as pastors cannot look into someone’s heart and know if they have the true faith or not. So how do we know if someone is a believer or not? We discuss with them if they believe or not, we get to know the person, we see how they live their life, and help them to understand their faith. So what I got out of this should it be questionable if we are a “believer” or not? Shouldn't we live our lives in a way that let’s everyone know without doubt that we are Christians? I know this is easier said than done, and it is a message that is heard quite often. And yet, how often do we take it to heart and make sure the way we are living, the way we interact with people, the way we talk, etc. truly is always in a Christian way? There are songs about they will know we are Christians by our love, and motto's of a loving, kind Christian attitude, and even the old bracelets of WWJD. All of these are reminders that we should live a life that can be seen and heard in a way that gives the glory to God. We strive day in and day out to live a life that is in a manner that everything we do gives glory and honor to His name. So, it’s an old message, nothing I am taking credit for. However, it’s one that as sinners trying to live a life of love in a present evil age cannot hear too often. The more we stop and intentionally think about living this way, the easier it will become to actually be able to do it. We do not do this because we think it is what saves us. But we do it because it is what He who has already saved us has called us to do. All Praise be to Him who calls us as His redeemed children to live a life of love, the life that was made a perfect example by our Lord Jesus Christ!
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the blessings you so freely and abundantly bestow upon us. We ask that we may always receive them with thankful hearts. We also ask that You give us You Spirit to strengthen us, guide us, and help us to lead a life that praises, glorifies, and honors Your holy name. We pray this in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with You and Your Spirit, one God, now and forever more. Amen.

Why did Jesus die?

       Greetings to you all. I am slowly crossing more papers and projects off my huge list of everything to do in the next two and a half weeks. I think I will actually make it through. Other than slaving away at homework, I did get to play basketball for a couple hours yesterday. We played knock out for a while to warm up. If you do not know what knock out is, it's just a game where everyone lines up, the first two guys each have a ball, and as the game goes on, if the guy behind you makes their ball before you then you are out. So you shoot from the original line, most commonly the free throw line, and if you make it you pass the ball to the next guy in line. If you miss, you have to rebound the ball and try to make it from anywhere, most commonly a lay up. It is a fun game with a lot of running while chasing the ball and getting back to the back of the line so you are ready for your next turn. To mix it up just for a fun twist, we played from the three point line for a while and then we moved it back to the half court line. So everyone's first shot was from the half court line and then if anyone missed they had to run the full half court to rebound and keep shooting until they made it and could pass it back. Now it's not hard to figure out a half court shot is almost impossible to make; however, I made two. But before I brag myself up, our friend Ben Riley who is one of the most athletic guys I have ever met, made over ten half court shots. It was impressive and ridiculous all at the same time. Then once we were all warmed up from running around during knock out, we played several full court games of either 4 on 4 or 5 on 5. It was a blast, but I am sore today.
         I got some awesome news this morning. My good buddy from college Logan just found out he will be doing eight weeks of student teaching in St. Louis. I joked with him that I guess the Lord doesn't want me to make it through the seminary after all. Logan and I have had some crazy but fun times together. It will be so much fun having him around again. Next quarter might just be the best quarter of my life. Erin will be back in classes and around all the time again. Logan will be here. I will have an easier load of classes, and spring IM's is softball which is my favorite. I just have to make it through two and a half weeks of classes, enjoy my two week break and then have ten wonderful weeks of spring quarter.
        I am going to share with you a paper I wrote for Systems II. It is the same class that I wrote the paper on the real meaning of Christmas that I shared with you. Our last assignment was we had to either pick one specific Gospel or examine all four Gospels together as to why Jesus died. I used the Gospel of Luke and wrote my paper. The class doesn't do grades on the papers; they are all just pass or fail, and I passed. So here is my piece on why Jesus died according to the Gospel of Luke.

       When looking at the reason Jesus died, there are multiple possible answers. However, looking at Luke’s Gospel specifically, I am going to focus in on one reason Jesus died. Luke includes Jesus birth, temptation, ministry, work, Passion Week from the triumphant entry to the resurrection, and ends with the ascension. With such a broad and complete overview of the life and work of Christ, we get a great insight to why He came, why He did what He did, and why He died.
       In my opinion, Jesus states His own purpose for His work and ministry in Luke 4:43 when He says, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” Jesus mission was to bring the kingdom of God to His people. In fact, the phrase “kingdom of God” is used thirty-two times in the twenty-four chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus constantly refers to the kingdom of God in His teachings, miracles, parables, and discussions with the disciples. Luke 8:1 again expresses Jesus traveling city to city, village to village proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Luke 9:2 tells us that Jesus sent out the disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal. Luke 9:11 it is Jesus again who is proclaiming the kingdom of God and healing. These are just a few examples of Jesus’ primary focus while He is here being to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.
        Jesus, being the King of Israel, the Davidic King who was promised throughout the Scriptures of the Old Testament, has come and brought the reign of God with Him. In the foretelling of Jesus birth, the angel tells Mary that God will give this child to be born the throne of David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. This is the King who has been promised for so long, and now that He has come, He has taken the throne that is rightfully His once and for all. He has brought the reign of God with Him and this is the kingdom of God Jesus speaks of so much in Luke. When the Pharisees ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will come, His response is that the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. The King has arrived and He is the King who will reign for the rest of eternity.
       So why does Jesus coming as the King of Israel, bringing the good news of the kingdom of God with Him, create so much opposition? Luke shows us through multiple examples the little things Jesus does that leads up to the ones who not only hate Him but actually scheme to kill Him. In Luke 5 we get the first hint of this opposition to Jesus. In the story of Jesus healing the paralytic, before Jesus heals the man, He first tells him his sins are forgiven. This is when the Pharisees charge Him of blasphemy for the first time. They make the realization that if only God can forgive sins, and this man is claiming to forgive sins, then He is claiming to be God. This is why they accuse Him of blasphemy, because He is clearly not God as He is sitting there in front of them as a human. Then in Luke 6 we see Jesus further the Pharisees uneasy feelings about Him as He both eats and heals on the Sabbath. Not only does Jesus and His disciples eat on the Sabbath, Jesus follows up by claiming that the Son of Man, Him, is the lord of Sabbath. Then on another Sabbath, Jesus heals a man’s withered hand. These are such wrongful acts to the Pharisees because they still obey the 613 laws dealing with circumcision, cleansing, and Sabbath. They have clung to these laws and strived to obey them perfectly for so long. And now Jesus publicly breaks these rules. In their minds, the King of Israel should keep these laws better than anyone else, not openly disobey them. However, Jesus is showing them that He is what matters, not their laws, but they do not take this well.
       To really poke the bear, Jesus directly speaks woes against the Pharisees, lawyers, and scribes. In Luke 11:37-54 Jesus is eating with Pharisees and lawyers when He tells them everything they are doing wrong and should be ashamed of. He doesn’t hold back either and really lets them have it. Then in Luke 20 Jesus does the same thing to the scribes. There are several other times in Luke when Jesus heals or eats on the Sabbath. He eats with sinners and tax collectors. He tells parables that make the Pharisees and the scribes the bad guys. Then during His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus’ disciples are crying out “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Pharisees tell Jesus to rebuke His disciple, because again they see this as blasphemy. The relationship of the Pharisees and Jesus in the book of Luke is one of constant tension. They are always asking Him questions to try to trip Him up or trap Him, but He always has an answer that confuses them or leaves them speechless. They had to be careful because the people loved Jesus, His miracles, and His teachings. However, it all comes to a boiling point in Luke 19:47 when Jesus clings out the temple. The chief priests and scribes were now completely fed up and sick of this guy named Jesus and they sought to destroy Him.
      Jesus knew these would be the very ones to kill Him though. Over three times Jesus foretells His death. Luke 9:22 He gives the very specific details when He states, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed.” Then in Luke 9:44 He says that He will be delivered into the hands of men. In Luke 17 Jesus states that He must be rejected by this generation. And again in Luke 18:31-34, He directly tells His disciples for the third time, “He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him.” Every time Jesus speaks of His disciples He uses terms like “rejected” or “handed over” and “be killed”. He never once says the Son of Man must die, or lie down His life in Luke. He knows the only reason He is going to die is because they do not accept Him.
       Luke shows us through His Gospel that Jesus came to be the King of Jacob, He was sent to bring the good news of the kingdom of God to all people. Through this work and ministry He was opposed as the Son of God, opposed as the one whom God sent to have authority over sin, death, and even the law. The Pharisees, scribes, and chief priests dislike and contesting of Jesus early in Luke’s Gospel builds and increases to full hatred and seeking to kill Him. This builds up to the point where they do indeed successfully kill Him. The more He heals, the more He claims to be “lord of the Sabbath”, the more He forgives, the more He claims to be God, the more He teaches about the kingdom of God, the more He outwits, outsmarts, and insults them; all of this adds up to the elders, scribes, and chief priests finally having enough of Him and having Him killed charges of blasphemy.
       So Jesus was killed on the cross because He was rejected by these religious leaders. They did not want Him to be the King of Israel, they did not believe He was God, and they delivered Him to be killed for this rejection. Luke continues to show us this same motif even through the crucifixion. In Luke 23:28-29 Jesus tells the women who were crying for Him as He headed up to be killed, “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!” And then in verse 31, “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” He is saying that if they act this evil and wicked while the Son of Man is present, how much more wicked and evil will they act once He is gone. Then on the cross Jesus cries out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He knows they do not realize who they are actually killing. They do not realize they are rejecting the one true king. Even the centurion standing by Christ as he dies states, “Surely this man was innocent.” Even he knew that Jesus was everything He claimed to be, making Him innocent of blasphemy.
       So Jesus is killed on the cross and His corpse is placed in the tomb. How then does the resurrection work as justification for Jesus? The resurrection of Jesus is His justification because He did what He said He was going to do. Luke shows us this in chapter 24, with the angel’s announcement of, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee.” Jesus told you He would be killed but then rise again on the third day, and the resurrection is His words made true. Then later in Luke 24, He tells the men on the road to Emmaus, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” He has not only fulfilled His own promises and foretelling, but He has also fulfilled the Scriptures of the prophets who told of the Davidic King to come. He is the king who was promised and He did what that king was sent to do. He is unlike every other king, even David and Solomon could not restore the people Israel back to the Father. But Jesus did! He is the messiah, the King who finally reigns triumphantly and eternally. This is His vindication.
       Finally, why is this good news? Jesus says it best Himself in Luke 24:44-47. Jesus tells the disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” The repentance and forgiveness of sins proclaimed in His name to all nations is the good news. Our King reigns triumphantly over the entire world, over all nations, over all peoples. And as we live under His reign, we are included in that repentance and forgiveness of sins. Our relationship with the Father, which was broke at the fall, is now restored by our King who clears us of our debt, by forgiving us all our sins. This is our good news; it’s the good news of the kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim. Through His rejection and His vindication, He has proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God to us His people and has called us to proclaim that same good news to all nations.