Rev. Michael Holmen's Sermons

250418 Sermon on how our enemies of sin and death are defeated (Good Friday) April 18, 2025

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 22:15:00 +0000

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Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me will save it.”

Back home on the farm it was not uncommon for kittens to be born around this time of year. The momma cats liked the hay mow of our barn. The old bales of hay and straw provided nooks and crannies for secluded little dens. We kids liked to find these newborn kittens and tame them. The kittens were terrified at first. Their fur would be sticking out and their claws extended, but eventually they would trust you. You could tell when your job was done when the kitten would start to purr while lying on your lap.

The image I would like to bring to your mind is perhaps one you’ve experienced. Sometimes these kittens would be a few weeks old before we would find them. Kittens grow up quickly. These older kittens would want to run away, but if they couldn’t, they would fight back. They were still quite helpless, but they wanted you to believe they were far from helpless. They would puff out their fur, arch their backs, growl, and make that weird spitting sound with their mouths as they would strike out with their paws.

This was quite intimidating. The kittens were quite harmless, but they made me think twice. It was 99% bluffing. If the kitten were facing a real enemy, all this play-acting would be futile. All the enemy would need to do is snatch the kitten up in its jaws, and that would be the end of that.

Human beings can be like those bluffing kittens when it comes to things that are stronger than us. Sin is much stronger than us. I wish we could always and easily tell sin to take a hike, but sin often gets the better of us. Our guilt is stronger than us. We accumulated so much guilt by our evil deeds. The devil is stronger. Death is stronger. We are quite helpless. We are like kittens.

However, it is not uncommon to think we can somehow defeat these enemies. If we bristle out our fur, arch our backs, and strike out, maybe we’ll be left alone. With sin and guilt, for example, the most common strategy is simply to forget about them. As time passes, the pangs of conscience lessen, but does forgetfulness really make our sin go away? Does shutting our eyes or pulling the blanket over our heads make the monster go away?

Another strategy for dealing with sin and guilt is to fight back. Maybe God’s commandments are old fashioned or impractical. Maybe you couldn’t live the life that you want to live and still keep God’s commandments. God wants us to be happy, doesn’t he? “Live and let live” is great advice for a certain kind of peaceable life. However does this make sin and guilt go away? Maybe our conscience is soothed for yet another day, but the enemy remains.

The strategies regarding death can be similar. Nothing is more common than ignoring death. Put it out of mind so that you can more fully embrace whatever good might be coming your way. This sounds like good advice, and maybe it has its place, but does it make death go away?

Or maybe instead of taking death seriously we can celebrate life. Hopefully the person in question is good enough so that we can celebrate. Hopefully they didn’t commit any gross sins—at least not publicly. Hopefully they were only guilty of the common and respectable sins that church people commit. Otherwise it might feel strange to celebrate. But, in any case, what does it matter? It is all for nothing. Even with all this bragging and story telling the person remains quite dead. A few short decades later, they will be quite forgotten.

In all our dealings with these forces we are like defenseless kittens. We do what we can. We put on a show. But nothing can really be done. It’s all play-acting. It’s all bluffing. Our very real enemies have us in their jaws whether we make a fuss or not.

I think this might help us better understand a statement of Jesus’s that can be quite enigmatic otherwise. He said on one occasion: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but however loses his life on account of me will save it.” We might think that we have no other choice than to playact and to bluff. We have to cope somehow. But if we commit ourselves to these strategies for dealing with these very real enemies, then we will have a very different savior in our minds than Jesus—and what a pathetic Savior it is too. A kitten pretending to be a tiger? By trying to save our own life we will lose it.

But what is the alternative? The alternative is to believe in Jesus. However, this belief will be under the cross. That means we will be in unfavorable conditions and will suffer loss. As Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but however loses his life on account of me will save it.” We must lose our life with Jesus. What does that mean? It means that we allow whatever nasty enemies who have invaded our comfy little den to bite and devour us, while believing, at the same time, that they will not be triumphant. Though they do their worst—though they have me in their jaws—I will prevail because my God is for me and not against me. God will save me when the time is right even if I should end up in their gullet, in the belly of a large fish, or in a den of lions.

Let’s apply this to the enemies we’ve already talked about. There are a lot of ways to cope with sin, but Jesus is the only one way to be victorious. Repent and believe the good news that Jesus is the Savior of sinners. But even when we have done this, sin remains a powerful enemy. I wish that we Christians could become so strong that we could always tell sin to take a hike, but we aren’t. Seasoned Christians know that the devil has very good aim with his poisoned arrows. He can find the gap in our armor so that we fall into sin quite against our will.

Our situation with death is very similar. Try as we might, we can’t avoid it. This is true for Christians and non-Christians alike. We all die. The difference with Christians is that we believe Jesus when he says: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” The first part of that statement is clear enough. We believe that even if we should die, yet we will live because we will be resurrected. But what about the second part when he says, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die?” The apostles died. Christians for two thousand years have died. Did none of those live and believe in him?

No. They were believers. And they didn’t die—not really. They died in the belief that this slight momentary affliction of death would last but a little while; salvation comes with the morning. Sometimes the New Testament calls death a sleep. When we go to sleep at night we do not fall asleep with horror. We know that the morning is coming. Not only will we wake up, but we will even feel refreshed and energized. So it is with those who die with faith in Jesus, the resurrection and the life.

Unfortunately, those who really will die are like foolish kittens who think that they can save themselves by playacting. They think they can stave off death or come to terms with it. They think memories or celebrations can make the person live on in some sense. This posturing and fuss and bother are as insubstantial as smoke. They don’t know how strong their enemy is. Imagine the horror the kitten feels when their show doesn’t work, but they find themselves in the jaws nonetheless. That is death.

I understand perfectly why people do playacting. It can seem like the only recourse we’ve got. It can seem defeatist to admit anything is stronger than us. We are told always to fight, and for good reason. We don’t want to be in those jaws. Playacting is a way to convince ourselves that we need not be in those jaws. The kitten is desperate not to be picked up because it doesn’t know what might happen. One thing is sure: it will lose control.

In order to be a Christian we must lose control, so to speak. We must put ourselves and our futures into the hands of a God who has told us that he has our best interests in mind even as we are going through painful or scary circumstances. And this is not like a fairy tale where the enemy is no more and can no longer hurt us. It will be like that in heaven, but not until then. The apostles said this plainly. They said, “It is only through many hardships that we will enter the kingdom of God.” We kittens have many enemies and their teeth are sharp. However, we have hope! Even if we should die, yet shall we live, and declare the praises of the Lord.

On Good Friday it is fitting to think about our enemies such as sin and death, which are more powerful than we are. Good Friday and Easter show us that Jesus is more powerful than sin and death. However, Jesus saves in a very special way. He doesn’t ignore sin and death. He doesn’t go around them. He doesn’t go over them or under them. He goes through them. The jaws clamped on him, just as they clamp on us. However, what looked like defeat, proved to be victory.

The same thing is true for us Christians. We cannot get rid of sin. We cannot avoid death. We go through these things. They bite and gnash with dreadful effects, but even while they are doing their worst, we believe that we will be victorious and they will be defeated. Jesus will see to that.

Jesus said, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me will save it.” Amen.

250413 Sermon on Jesus's Peace (Palm Sunday) April 13, 2025

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 16:27:00 +0000

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When we use the word “peace” we often think of calmness, tranquility, the lack of fighting. There are different ways to achieve such a condition. For example, a graveyard is quite peaceful in its own way. Even though there are many people in close proximity, there is little fighting. There is also little love, little joy, but there is a kind of stillness and calmness.

Another way calmness can be achieved is through the establishment of such severe law and order that everyone becomes too scared to step out of line. Totalitarian governments come up with punishments and displays of power that intimidate the people they rule over. Almost all of the great empires of history have used these tactics.

The Roman government, for example, once crushed a slave revolt and sent a powerful message afterwards. They crucified 6,000 captured slaves along the Appian Way. For 120 miles one person after another hung there dead on crosses. The message was clear: Don’t mess with those in power. It worked. People were frightened. There was a kind of peace.

This is one way you could understand the events of Holy Week that we have entered into today with Palm Sunday. The Jewish leaders wanted a kind of peace. Jesus had been disturbing their peace. So they solved a problem. Jesus had been getting too popular. He had raised Lazarus from the dead. Upon entering Jerusalem he went to the temple and made quite a scene. He flipped over tables and let animals loose. The Jewish leaders wanted to know who had given him such authority.

Jesus was obviously out of control. He needed to be dealt with. The usual measures of getting dirt on someone wouldn’t work with him. Nor could they turn the people against him. The people loved him more than they loved the Jewish leaders. There was only one sensible course to take, and they took it. They arrested him in the middle of the night. They immediately convicted him in their kangaroo court. They applied pressure to Pontius Pilate. By the time the people of Jerusalem were hardly finished with their breakfast Jesus was already nailed to the cross! It was already too late. Efficiency like that would make any dictator tip his beret with respect.

For some of us, though, this kind of thing really makes our blood boil. It was so unjust! The leaders were supposed to be the best of the people, but in fact they were the worst. They were vain. They were vindictive. They were cowards. They purposely engaged Jesus in an unfair fight. They didn’t dispute with him in the open. It was all arranged behind closed doors. Their dirty deeds were done with the cover of darkness. Some of us might like to take our clubs and swords and give them a taste of their own medicine.

This might have been how Peter felt. We’ve been studying Peter in our Adult Bible Study. When the Jewish leaders came to arrest Jesus in the middle of the night, Peter took out his sword and cut off the right ear of the high priest’s servant. I can’t help it: a part of me says, “Hurray for Peter!” At least one of those scoundrels felt a little pain! But that sets me at odds with Jesus himself.

Perhaps you remember how Jesus rebuked Peter. He told him to put away his sword. He said, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me to drink?” He also said, “All who take the sword shall perish by the sword.”

Indeed, that is how it goes. History tells this story over and over. The story goes like this: The oppressors oppress until those they oppresse rise up and take away their power. But without fail, those who were formerly oppressed, when it’s their turn, also oppress whomever they can take advantage of. They, then, become the target until one day a knife is found sticking out of their backs. The situation is always unstable because hatred is just below the surface. Power is maintained only with the utmost vigilance. Knowing that they hate you, you must strike first, before they strike you. It’s kill or be killed. “Whoever takes the sword, perishes by the sword.”

The best peace to be hoped for is the peace of the graveyard. If all goes well you eliminate your opponents before they eliminate you. Then you live happily ever after. That was the Jewish leaders’ theory of peace, and they dealt with Jesus accordingly.

However, this theory did not originate with them. It is much older. It goes back all the way to the gray mists of the earliest recorded history. The first human being born in the natural way was named Cain. He had a brother named Abel. One day Cain became annoyed with his brother Abel. Abel was disturbing his peace. So Cain bashed his head in, and reestablished the peace. Problem solved. No more Abel; no more annoyance. He lived happily ever after… Except he didn’t. Maybe you remember the story. He thought that he would live happily ever after, but in fact he was haunted for the rest of his life by the dirty deeds he did in secret. This is some kind of peace, but it leaves much to be desired.

Is there another kind of peace? Most do not believe so. Jesus says, “Broad is the gate and easy is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter thereby. Narrow is the gate and hard is the way that leads to eternal life, and few there are who find it.” Most people believe what simply comes naturally to all of us: We will be better off if we are in control. We will be richer if we take what someone else has. We will be happier if we eliminate those who annoy us. Kill or be killed. This world is made up of winners and losers. See to it that you are like the Jewish leaders, who obviously won, instead of like Jesus, who obviously lost.

But did he? That is the question! This is why the resurrection is so important. If Jesus rose from the dead, then he was right and his ways are best. If he did not rise from the dead, then the Jewish leaders were right. The message would be: Let no scruples get in the way of your ambitions. If Abel didn’t want to get killed, he should have killed Cain before Cain killed him. If Jesus didn’t want to get arrested and killed, he should have dismissed Judas long ago, armed his supporters, and stormed the chief priest’s palace. The strategy is not hard to understand. Do whatever is beneficial to you, and don’t do whatever might be beneficial to others.

What is hard to understand and to learn is Jesus’s peace. To learn Jesus’s peace you have to change your mind, which is what the word “repent” means. You have to think so differently that the Bible speaks of this change as being born again, or that we must be crucified with Christ and raised with him. So much must change that it is beyond our powers. Faith is a miracle worked by the Holy Spirit. But what comes at the end is worth it. What comes at the end is peace.

Jesus spoke about this peace in those chapters in John that we talked about during our midweek series. Jesus said, “In me you have peace. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart: I have overcome the world.” Again, Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Those are words of quiet confidence. Although he knows that is death is but hours away, he is not like a drowning rat, desperate to survive. Jesus said, “You trust in God. Trust also in me.”

Trust in Jesus because his resurrection happened. The resurrection and judgment that is coming at the end of this world is real too. This is what all those who live only for their own ambitions deliberately ignore. The resurrection is coming! When that happens, those who appeared to have won will lose. Those who appeared to have lost will win. “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. There is nothing that is secret that won’t be revealed, and there is nothing that is hidden that won’t be exposed.” These are clear teachings of Jesus.

Now if you are like me, then you probably have your own dirty deeds done in darkness, the exposure of which would bring about intense embarrassment or perhaps even fear. To you I say, “Do not be afraid so long as your peace is in Jesus.” Your peace in Jesus will be stronger than your sins. Jesus’s righteousness speaks louder than our failings.

But don’t go on thinking that your dirty deeds of darkness will get you ahead in life. They won’t. They harm you; they don’t bless you. Even if you managed to gain the whole world by unrighteousness, the time would come when you would regret it—even if you somehow managed to make it into heaven. Change your mind; change your ways. Light, truth, life, and all other good things come from Jesus. Repent and believe the good news that Jesus has overcome the world, and his peace will reign forever and ever!

250223 Sermon on the goodness of God's commands leading us to repentance (Epiphany 7) February 23, 2025

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 17:24:00 +0000

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Our church is known for holding to certain standards that other churches may not emphasize as strongly. We take seriously the sixth commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” This commandment has many applications. We believe that marriage, as the one-flesh union instituted by God, is a lifelong covenant between husband and wife. To go against this is sin. Adultery is sinful. Divorce, when contrary to God’s design, is sinful. Fornication is sinful. Living together is sinful. We call for repentance in these areas because unrepentant sin separates us from God, and we cannot, in good conscience, allow members to continue in sin without addressing it.

We also teach that same-sex sexual relationships are contrary to God’s order. Those who experience same-sex attraction are called to deny themselves, repent, and follow Jesus, just as all of us are called to deny our sinful desires and follow him. This is not easy, but it is the path of discipleship.

Additionally, we care deeply about the third commandment: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” This is why, in April, our congregational assembly will vote on a policy requiring members to partake in communion at least four times a year. If members are absent without explanation or communication, they will eventually be removed.

These standards may seem strict, but they exist for a good reason: to help one another get to heaven. If a congregation isn’t focused on this, it has lost its way. Repentance is essential for true faith. Without it, we remain alienated from God’s commands and promises.

However, holding firm to these standards can create a dangerous mentality. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “As long as I follow these rules, I’m good.” Or what’s worse: “I easily follow these rules, what’s wrong with them?” I’m good; they’re bad. This is self-righteousness—a deadly spiritual condition.

This was the Pharisees’ problem in Jesus’s day. They meticulously followed certain rules—washing their hands a certain way, observing the Sabbath with extreme care—but they ignored weightier matters like justice, mercy, and faith. Jesus accused them of “straining out gnats while swallowing camels.” They were so focused on the things that they wanted to emphasize—things, by the way, that they were already doing—that they were unaware of how recklessly they were breaking God’s commandments in other ways.

Throughout the Gospels it is clear that the Pharisees were annoyed with Jesus. In the end, they hated him so much that they got him killed. Why did they hate him so much? It was because he pointed out those things they didn’t want to have pointed out. He showed them their hypocrisy. They saw themselves as the “good people,” unlike the “sinners” they looked down upon. They didn’t fornicate, commit adultery, or skip church. Jesus shattered their self-image. He showed them that they were just as sinful as those people they loved to despise, if not more so, because they ignored the deeper commands of God while pridefully clinging to their own self-righteousness.

We’re no different. None of us like to be told we’re wrong. If someone criticizes me, my first reaction is defensiveness. I might think, “Well, you’re not perfect either!” or “I’m not wrong—you are!” It’s rare, to say the least, to immediately respond with, “You’re right. I was wrong.” Yet, if or when we should come to that point, it’s exceedingly good for the soul. It’s the beginning of trying to live in the truth—however painful that might be—instead of covering our tracks with lies.

This brings us to Jesus’s commands in Gospel reading today. His words are challenging, even offensive to our natural instincts. I suspect that there were all kinds of reactions among you. Maybe some of you didn’t hear his words at all because you were zoned out. Maybe you heard them and thought, “That sounds weird. I’m not smart enough to understand that.” Maybe you heard them, and then purposely put them out of mind.

Let me remind you of what Jesus said: “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you.” When have you had affection for the one who was trying to make your life miserable? When did you do something nice to the person who gives you dirty looks?

But we’re not done yet. Unfortunately, it gets much worse—practically ridiculous: “To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your outer garment, do not withhold your inner garment either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.”

This is where a person could get upset. How could Jesus make such awful commands? “Give to everyone who begs?” Most of those people are crooks and drug addicts! And we are to sit idly by or even forfeit our goods to scoundrels? Once they’ve taken our stuff, we shouldn’t demand it back? Let us shunt aside these ridiculous things, lest they should see the light of day!

And yet, of course, even while I react this way, I’m still one of the good ones. I go to church, don’t I? The failure to do—the failure to even try!—Jesus’s commands doesn’t make me a bad person. If he wanted me to follow them, he should have made better commands!

I don’t think there is any other way to handle these commands—at least not at first—if we are to really wrestle with them. The easy way to deal with them is simply to ignore them or somehow explain them away as not being applicable. But if we are to take Jesus’s commands seriously, I think they have to make us upset. We really, really don’t want to follow these commands.

Notice how this puts us in the same position as those people with whom I started—the people who might be looked down upon. Those who struggle with God’s commands regarding marriage, divorce, or relationships have their reasons, just as we have our reasons for resisting Jesus’s call to love our enemies or give generously. We all pick and choose which commands we follow based on what feels reasonable or convenient to us.

The ray of hope comes, when, God willing, we start to come to our senses and think: “God’s commands are not bad, like I originally thought, but rather good.”

Instead of mocking Jesus’s commands, what if we were to realize that being merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful is a good thing? To be faithful to one’s spouse unto death—for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health—is honorable and sacred. God’s Law is not bad or foolish. It is holy, righteous, and good. For that very reason it exposes us as sinners. It exposes our pride, self-centeredness, and unwillingness to suffer. But this exposure is not meant only to shame us—it’s meant to heal us. To be exposed as inadequate is painful and embarrassing, but it’s part of the cure.

John the Baptist and Jesus had a very simple message that is just as applicable today: “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” First of all, with “repent,” if you find yourself resisting God’s commands—whether about marriage, generosity, or loving your enemies—I encourage you to pause and ask yourself why. What if our resistance is not because of some defectiveness of the commands, but because of the hardness of our hearts? What if God is calling us to something deeper, something more beautiful than we can imagine?

That, indeed, is just what he is doing. He is calling us out of our hypocrisy, fakery, being judgmental, covering our tracks with lies, so that we may come into his grace and his truth. When we come to Jesus we don’t need to pretend to be good people anymore. We can confess our sins, and God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Already in the midst of being exposed as evil, we can and should fully embrace God’s acceptance of us in Jesus, knowing that his grace extends on an on. The difficulty—the seeming impossibility—of keeping God’s commands reveal our need for God’s grace. We cannot do these things by our own strength or willpower. But we surely will not do these things if we’ve made up our mind beforehand that we don’t need to do them or won’t do them.

Believe—have faith—in God’s promise to transform us, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us. As we repent and believe the Gospel, do not be afraid. Be very courageous! God, who has begun a good work in you, will bring it to completion on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

250209 Sermon on Peter becoming a disciple of Jesus (Epiphany 5) February 9, 2025

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 17:14:00 +0000

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Jesus chose twelve men to be his apostles. With about half of those we hardly know anything more than their names. With the rest, we know a bit more, but not too much. The Gospels tell us primarily about Jesus, not his disciples. The disciple we know the most about is Peter, who is also called Simon. Our Gospel reading tells us more about him.

Our reading begins by telling us about a crowd who was pressing in on Jesus, eager to hear him. They were so packed together, it was as if they were laying on him—their interest was that intense! But where was Peter? Not in the crowd. He was down the shore, cleaning his nets. Why? It wasn’t because he hated Jesus. The reason might be hinted at later in the reading: he had worked all night and caught nothing. Fishing was his livelihood—no fish meant no food, no income, no way to pay the bills. He had to get ready to try again.

Maybe you’ve been there—stuck in a job you don’t like, grinding through mundane tasks. It’s exhausting. It’s depressing. A person might wonder how to escape.

One of the most plausible solutions for no longer needing to work is money. If you get enough money you could retire early. Move to a beach somewhere. But maybe that goal is out of reach for you. Instead you might just dream about having a nice little nest egg. If only I had a little more, I would have to live hand to mouth. These thoughts make sense. Money can do a lot!

Maybe Peter had thoughts like that while he was bending over his nets, cleaning them out for the millionth time. If only he wouldn’t have to work so hard. If only he could get ahead.

What is interesting about Peter is that if those were his goals, then Jesus made them come true, but then Peter left all of that behind. When Jesus drove the fish into the nets, Peter had never had a bigger catch. The boats were so full they began to sink. So many fish! So much money! But instead of celebrating, and instead of investing, he left it all behind. It says, “When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Jesus.”

I would like to consider what happened to Peter. Why did he leave that bonanza behind to follow Jesus? But before we begin to answer that, I think it is helpful to point out how difficult the answer will be for us to take seriously. We have been trained since infancy that money and power are the most important and useful things in life. Therefore we have some commands that we live by, according to that principle: Do what is best for you. Seek your own advantage. The more you can get for yourself, the better. These are taken to be the basic facts of life, and only a fool or a fanatic would live otherwise. That is probably how most of us took Peter’s actions today when we heard them. We thought, perhaps unconsciously: “That has nothing to do with me. I am not an apostle. Peter is some strange sort of person that I am under no obligation to imitate.” That is not true, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus.

Jesus says in another place, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will keep it for eternal life.” This verse is a good way to understand what took place with Peter. Maybe he had been dreaming about boat-fulls of fish that make him rich. If he made enough money, maybe he could start a franchise. Then other people could do all the work, and he could cash all the checks. That’s not what happened. If Peter had dreams like that, he left them behind for something better.

But was it better? That is the question. Should you or should you not be a follower of Jesus? Is it better to deny yourself, to take up your cross, and follow Jesus, or is it better to indulge yourself, avoid all trouble and suffering, and chase your own dreams?

When Peter left behind the many thousands of dollars worth of fish to follow Jesus he was rejecting a way of life that many assume to be the best life possible. Many assume that there is nothing higher or better than chasing after your own success. Peter, in contrast, put himself completely in the hands of Jesus with his kingdom. He became a disciple, which means, “student” or “follower.”

The life that ensued for Peter wasn’t filled with wealth or prestige, but God did give him each day his daily bread. God gave him a good conscience through the forgiveness of sins. He was given the hope of seeing the glory of God in heaven. On the other hand, Peter faced suffering, embarrassment, and failure. He wept bitterly, was criticized, imprisoned, and, according to tradition, crucified upside down.

Was this life better than the self-seeking life he left behind at the beach? Absolutely! Already it was far more honorable, plus there is the resurrection from the dead. Let us not discount the importance of the resurrection. Paul says that were there is no resurrection from the dead, then we Christians are to be pitied above all people. If there were no resurrection, then perhaps it would make sense to live in the way that is so common among us, where the highest goals in life are merely to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. On the other hand, however, if there is a resurrection from the dead, then it is foolish not to live under Christ in his kingdom. Otherwise we will find ourselves to have been on the wrong side.

It is safe to say that we live in a time and among a people who do not take the resurrection seriously. We are thoroughly earthly minded. Our culture values profit, growth, and success above everything else. We are taught to be completely self-obsessed. The mantra most of us live by is: “If it isn’t good for me, then I’m not doing it.” That is a pathetic and ultimately unsatisfying way to live.

Jesus’s ways are better. Jesus teaches us to live outside of ourselves in God. God is righteous and just. He loves life. He cares for the poor and hurting. He reaches out to people who are regarded as untouchable and unclean. He is not threatened by bluster and intimidation. He loves what is right. To be is to enter into this realm of God. What he likes we are to like. What he hates we are to hate. What he speaks we are to speak. And this is where disciples get into trouble. There has never been a shortage of people who think that they can dictate whatever they want to have happen, and they will punish whoever gets in their way. The disciples of Jesus get in their way, and this causes trouble.

Peter along with almost all of the other apostles would be put to death for continuing to testify to Jesus and Jesus’s ways when powerful people told them to stop. Christians’ willingness to die for the sake of Christ can be puzzling because people’s default understanding is that this life is everything. Why needlessly suffer?

But Christians believe in Christ’s kingdom that will result in the resurrection. That is the glory we must strive after, otherwise it won’t seem as though the sacrifices are worth it. It is always easier to leave the devil be, to leave evil alone, to allow this world to rot with all of its corruption instead of fighting, but that is what you have been called to do. You have been called to follow Jesus.

Where should you go? You need not go anywhere necessarily. There is no shortage of evil or corruption all around us. There is a great deal of evil within us, with our sinful flesh, that we can fight against. Peter could have been a disciple of Jesus within his livelihood of being a fisherman if Jesus hadn’t specifically called him to be an apostle. There are temptations and evil particular to being a fisherman and businessman that Christians are called to fight against and correct. All of us, no matter what our callings in life are, have temptations and sins and corruption that are particular to our situation. It is easy, of course, not to care. You will have fewer troubles if you only care about yourself. But that is not the point of life.

God revealed the point of life to Peter. It is to follow Jesus the Christ. He is at work in his kingdom fighting against the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature. The Holy Spirit is writing God’s Law on the hearts of Christians. The world is getting ready for the resurrection from the dead, and we all, as Christians, have our part. We are all members of the body of Christ. Therefore, this life that we have been called into as followers of Jesus is not a hobby, or a way to pass the time. Nor is it senseless or foolish. Nothing is more serious and practical.

Let God’s kingdom come. Let his will be done. Amen.

250126 Sermon on Jesus being believed or rejected (Epiphany 3) January 26, 2025

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 16:31:00 +0000

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I’d like to begin today by setting the scene for our Gospel reading. It is from Luke chapter 4, so this is towards the beginning of the story of Jesus. Not long before our reading Jesus was anointed with water and the Holy Spirit when he was baptized. Then he went out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. With our reading today he has come back to Galilee and Nazareth, which is his hometown.

Thus our reading today is a report of what was happening early on. People were just beginning to hear and know about Jesus. This was because of what Jesus himself was saying and doing. However, Jesus is not always believed in and accepted. At the end of our reading, the people of Nazareth wanted to throw him off a cliff.

In the sermon today I’d like to look more closely at Jesus’s sermon, which was based on a section of Isaiah. We will see how Jesus’s sermon was applicable to the people at Jesus’s time as well as being applicable to ourselves. Then I’d like to consider how and why Jesus was rejected. This, also, I think you will see, is applicable to us.

So, let’s take up the main point of Jesus’s sermon. Here is a portion of what he read from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” When Jesus was finished reading he said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus was saying that this prophecy was about him.

Let’s look more closely at this prophecy. It says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” We know that the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism. It says, “Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” This is a good, general statement about what Jesus does. The word “anointed” is the meaning of the word “Christ.” Jesus is the anointed one. The reason why he has been anointed is “to proclaim good news to the poor.” “Good news” is the meaning of the word “Gospel.” Thus we have a couple short statements that well describe Jesus: He is the anointed one, the Christ. He proclaims the Gospel, good news, to the poor.

Good news is always welcome to the poor. Poverty is a major hindrance to the enjoyment of life. It prevents people from doing what they would otherwise like to do. People might not be able to buy what they want because they are poor. People might be able to go to the doctor because they are poor. If it gets really bad, people might not be able to buy food. Poverty is the lack of power to do what you want.

Throughout the Gospels you can read about how Jesus helped people who didn’t have the resources to help themselves. People came to him who were in the grips of evil spirits. The evil spirits made them miserable, but they lacked the power to get them out. People came to Jesus who were sick with various diseases. If any of you have had diseases that don’t go away, you know how tiring and frustrating that can be. Helplessness in the face of a disease that is stronger than you can be very frightening. It might mean the death of you. Jesus helped people like that.

Let me pause for a moment to point out that Jesus continues to have good news for the poor. This has not stopped, nor has it been lessened from the reports of Jesus’s miracles that we hear about in the Gospels. A lot of people assume that since miracles like that aren’t very common, Jesus must no longer be at work, or that his work is strictly spiritual and therefore somewhat unreal. The truth is that Jesus’s work after the resurrection is stronger and more profound than anything he did before. The works Jesus does and will do are greater.

Let me give you a few examples. Jesus forgives sins. Maybe you have grown cold to that idea, but maybe I can refresh it for you by a simple question: What are you able to do to make up for the evil you have done? There’s nothing. You are powerless. You are poor. The good news that is proclaimed to the poor is that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

Or how about those diseases? How about that progressive onset of death that we call getting old? How about death itself? What can you do in the face of these things? Our options are severely limited, even with all our medical advances. The good news is that by his death Jesus defeated the power of death, and by his resurrection he opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Let me give you one more healing that I am especially looking forward to. What can be done with our evil minds and souls? What can be done with our anger? What can be done with our dirty minds, our coveting, meanness, sadness, apathy, coldness towards life, and a host of other evils? We are bombarded with commercials for various drugs, some of which might help somewhat, but they can’t ever get to the core. The resurrection means healing not only for our bodies, but also our minds and souls. Believing in Jesus is trusting him to do things that otherwise seem impossible.

So, to get back to our text: After he finished reading from Isaiah Jesus said, “I’m the fulfillment of what you heard. I preach good news to the poor. I set people free from unbreakable chains.” And, as it turns out, the people were quite receptive. “How interesting!” they said. “He speaks so well! Maybe I’ll sign up for his newsletter. It’s especially surprising since one of our own. He’s Joseph’s son, is he not?”

This is the point at which everything changed in the story. The change is so abrupt that it’s easy to miss. Everything was going fine, the people were enjoying Jesus, but then Jesus said some more stuff and they were no longer pleased. They started to push and shove him towards the brow of a cliff. What happened?

It's Jesus’s fault really. Jesus turned on them. After they started talking about him as the mere son of Joseph, Jesus knew that they would eventually be dissatisfied with him, and he told them so. Others—foreigners—would believe in him, but they would be left out in the cold. He brought up a couple Old Testament examples with the prophets Elijah and Elisha through whom God did miracles to foreigners, but not to his own people. This was what upset his hearers in his hometown. If he would have just left them be with their lukewarm admiration, they wouldn’t have had such a violent reaction—at least not at that point. Jesus got pushy, and they didn’t like that.

This is not uncommon. There are several examples in the Bible where people responded to the Gospel by saying, “How interesting. I would not be opposed to hearing more about that in the future.” However, the message that Jesus preaches is not just a pleasant way to pass the time or to be part of a community. Jesus’s message is “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” Another way of saying the same thing is: “Change your ways, change your mind, believe the good news that Jesus preaches to the powerless poor.” That is an all or nothing proposition. Either you will change your mind or you won’t. Either Jesus will have all of you, or you will reject him.

Jesus speaks this way in other places as well. It always make us nervous, because we are afraid to commit completely and totally. So, for example, Jesus says: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” That is being “all in” on Jesus. It is difficult and scary, but it makes sense if you think about it.

Jesus is the difference between total bliss and freedom on the one hand or total sadness and imprisonment on the other. Either Jesus sets you from all your enemies—even those that you thought were impossible to overcome. Or you are still stuck—powerless and impoverished—in the face of things much mightier than you. It makes sense that this must be an all or nothing kind of thing.

Jesus is not like an insurance policy that you stick in the filing cabinet until you have to use it. Jesus is Christ the king who is at work with the Gospel and sacraments. He is converting one soul at a time by the power of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of his kingdom is to destroy all the evil works of the devil. You don’t fight wars with insurance policies. Wars involve total commitment.

The people at Nazareth refused to be completely serious about Jesus. They thought he was interesting. They thought he was a good speaker. They would have told you that they were on his side! But they quit being on his side when he told them that their lukewarm approval wouldn’t cut it. Eventually their lukewarm approval would turn to criticism, because then it is only a matter of time before Jesus says or does something that doesn’t meet their complete approval.

It is easy to apply this to ourselves. We are not unlike those Nazarenes! None of us, including myself, are comfortable “losing our lives” as Jesus puts it. None of us are as eager as we should be to take up our cross and follow him. It is much easier to believe that merely being a fan of Jesus is good enough. And, if you think about it, how convenient! We can feel good about being a fan without having to live as a soldier of the cross, denying ourselves.

But this fakery only makes sense if there is no real war going on. There is a war. Jesus is our king. He is fighting against the devil and all evil, including the evil that is found in us, his Christians. The nature of the situation requires us always to repent and believe the Gospel. Repent and go “all in” with Jesus. You will not be disappointed!

250112 Sermon against cynicism for Christ's kingdom (The Baptism of our Lord) January 12, 2025

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:21:00 +0000

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Donald J. Trump will begin his term as president at noon, January 20^th. Have you been planning for what will happen January 21^st? Have you been making lists, getting everything ready, rehearsing what you will do for the day after the inauguration? Probably not. I haven’t either. I don’t think a lot will change with our new president. It isn’t really about him. I’m cynical about what elected officials can do in general. The people who hold the reins of power—the people who are massively wealthy, who can write the checks—won’t let too much change, unless it is to their own benefit. Things will probably keep going on like they have for a long time. I am not expecting any massive changes.

What about Christ’s kingdom? Is our attitude the same there as well? Our festival today is somewhat like Jesus’s inauguration as the Christ. Jesus’s baptism marks the beginning of his great words and deeds that are recorded in the Gospels. Immediately after his baptism Jesus was very busy. He was tempted by the devil, swamped by sick and demon possessed people, teaching in the synagogues, doing one miracle after another. Things looked like they were changing for the better, but then Jesus was arrested, crucified and died. That was when the cynicism began in earnest. Folks had wondered whether Jesus might have been the Christ, but he couldn’t have been since he died.

That was the end of the road for the vast number of people who had once believed in Jesus. At one point there had been many thousands who were interested in Jesus being made king by force, but any hope of that was gone when everyone could see him hanging dead on the cross.

Even after Easter the picture didn’t improve very much as far as the disciples were concerned. John chapter 21 seems to indicate that the disciples went back to their old livelihood of fishing. Acts chapter 1 tells us that the number of believers in Jerusalem was only about 120. That is a far cry from many thousands. Even with the great day of Pentecost, when 3,000 repented and were baptized—that was less than the feeding of the 5,000, or the feeding of the 4,000.

Cynicism is a way to protect yourself from being disappointed. Cynicism is when you don’t get your hopes up. Having your hopes dashed is painful. The higher the hopes, the more intense the desire, the worse the pain. To prevent getting hurt you can check yourself out. Things will stay the same. Why bother? Just go gentle into that good night.

This is a way to insulate yourself from pain. Disappointments will not hit you as sharply. But there is a terrible cost. With cynicism things will, at best, stay the same, but more likely get worse. If you won’t get involved, if you won’t change your ways, if you won’t hope for change, then nothing is going to change. It is forfeiting to the powers that be.

This defeatist attitude is disastrous in all areas of life, but it is especially devastating for faith in Christ’s kingdom. If we would not have hope in Christ, then we are left with how things are. Paul calls these the elementary principles of this world, to which we are enslaved. We are enslaved to the devil. We are enslaved to our desires. We are enslaved to pursuing mere self-interest. Our chains have been put on by ourselves, which are our fears and insecurities, our dread of pain and suffering.

How differently the bible speaks about Christ’s kingdom! Paul says: “For freedom Christ has set you free!” The Gospels speak of Christ “proclaiming liberty to the prisoners!” And indeed, Jesus set people free from all kinds of disabilities and ailments in the Gospels. The people loved that! We slaves love to get a little taste of freedom. But a lot of people thought that that kind of thing was over and done with when Jesus died, and even when he rose. The risen and ascended Christ remains at work in his kingdom, but a lot of people would like it better if he would do those old sorts of things that helped people along in their pursuit of their own self-interest.

But here is what we should realize: the work of Christ in his kingdom is not less after his death and resurrection, it is more. The work of Christ with his death and his resurrection, the baptism with which he baptizes, and the body and blood that he distributes is more. It’s deeper. It gets to the root. The root is evil itself, and Jesus reverses it. The seemingly invincible powers of sin, death, profit, power, and all the rest are not invincible. Jesus promises a reckoning for the powers that be who so often oppress and steal and murder and seemingly get away with it. They will be burned with an unquenchable fire. Everything will be turned upside down. The first will be last and the last will be first. John baptized with water; Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Whatever hopes we might have about Christ’s kingdom, they are inevitably inadequate. You want to be healed of an ailment, a defect, old age, and son. You want to be the man that you should be. You want to be the woman that you should be. “For freedom Christ has set you free!” These things and more are yours. If they are not already fixed somewhat in this life by the healing work of the Holy Spirit, then they will be completely fixed by the resurrection. The goodness of the resurrection is more than we can imagine. Paul says, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the imagination of the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.” Even if you try to imagine what Jesus’s kingdom will be like, you’re going to fall short. What comes to pass will be greater.

Cynicism, therefore, is incompatible with Christianity. Cynicism is managing your hopes so that you won’t get hurt when they inevitably don’t come to pass. If you are managing your hopes for Christ’s kingdom, you are simply being an unbeliever. If you believe that Jesus can’t or won’t help you, then you are an unbeliever.

Unbelief is by no means uncommon, even among those who would like to consider themselves to be Jesus’s disciples. We see that all the time in the Bible. We see that in particular with the Gospels’ accounts of the resurrection. Even the closest of Jesus’s disciples lost their faith when Jesus died, and they were slow to believe after the resurrection. They were flesh and blood, just like us, with all our hiccups and insecurities. However, we cannot let our doubts and insecurities interfere with what is plainly testified. Jesus’s kingdom is glorious, even if we lack the faith to believe.

Jesus’s kingdom is glorious among us. Let us not doubt that either. Whenever anyone comes to believe that the seemingly invincible powers are not invincible because Jesus is greater—that is a miracle worked by the Holy Spirit. Whenever anyone remains in the faith—that is an ongoing miracle of the Holy Spirit. These believers will one day be caught up together with the Lord in the clouds for an adventure that is too great for words to describe.

It does not please me, therefore, when I hear something that is quite common among us. It is quite common for people to comment on how large or small a gathering is—and usually it is how much smaller the gathering is these days. This strikes me as largely missing the point. It would like the people in Jesus’s day who could have scoffed at the smaller number who gathered after the resurrection. I could imagine that some of them must have said: “Do you remember how many people there were at the feeding of the five thousand or the four thousand? The attendance these days is greatly reduced.”

Christ’s kingdom is not about crowds or impressing those who have the ability to count. Christ’s kingdom is about setting people free and changing hearts and minds. This is always an individual affair. Each individual either remains enslaved in their unbelief or they are set free through faith in Jesus. Whenever a sinner repents, the angels rejoice, and we should too. The kingdom of God remains at work. It is glorious, but the glory is only apparent to those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

So as we consider the inauguration, so to speak, of Christ’s kingdom with Jesus’s baptism, we should cast away cynical thoughts. Cynicism is not very attractive or useful in general, but it is particularly inappropriate when it comes to Christ’s kingdom. Our problem is not that we have too low of thoughts and hopes and dreams. Our problem is that we do not think as grandly as we must if we are beginning to understand Christ’s kingdom. We are too earthly minded.

Therefore, I’d like to close with a passage that speaks to this. In Colossians chapter three Paul says: “If you have been raised with Christ, then seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

When Christ appears, you will appear with him in glory. That is more than enough for anyone who is hungry for that which is good.

241231 Sermon for New Year's Eve

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 15:51:00 +0000

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I have been a pastor for many years now, but this is the first New Year’s Eve service I have ever preached for. In Iowa neither of my congregations had services on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. If memory serves, I attended a New Year’s Eve service when I was a kid. However, my childhood congregation more often had New Year’s Day services. New Year’s Day is eight days after Christmas, which means that the focus is on the circumcision and naming of Jesus.

So tonight is the first time I’ve every preached for a New Year’s Eve service. As I considered the texts that you heard tonight, I was struck by how differently the Bible teaches compared to what is customary with the New Year. For example, New Year’s Eve is a well-known party night. A lot of people get drunk on New Year’s Eve.

Jesus says in our Gospel reading: “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.” Imagine Jesus coming to find people soddenly drunk. How can they open the door when he knocks? Losing yourself in food, drink, drugs, and other pleasures is an agreeable way to pass the time. It’s not nonsensical. It’s a way to cope, to forget the troubles of life, and to receive some comfort. It’s understandable, but how differently our Lord Jesus speaks in our reading tonight!

Another thing we associate with the New Year are New Year’s resolutions. It’s a time to set goals, make plans, and fix what we don’t like. If we believe in ourselves and don’t give up, we can achieve our dreams.

Compare this to our Old Testament reading. God says to his people: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” We do not naturally believe that returning and resting will do anything good for us. We do not believe that quietness and trust are our strength. We believe in ourselves. All that’s needed is to be sufficiently motivated. If only we could stay sufficiently motivated, then all our New Year’s dreams would come true, and we would be outstanding.

All of our readings tonight would have us look to someone else besides what we customarily look to for betterment. How can 2025 be better than 2024? Our readings encourage us to believe more firmly in God.

This has to do with the first table of the Law, the first three of the Ten Commandments. You should have no other gods. You should fear, love, and trust in God above all other things. You should not believe in other things, no matter how useful those other things might appear to be.

The second commandment is that you should not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Instead of misusing God’s name, you should use it well. God’s name is used well by calling upon it in every trouble, praying, praising, and giving thanks. But in order for anyone to use God’s name rightly, that person must believe that it will work. The reason why we do not pray like we should is because we do not believe like we should. We do not worship God the way we should is because we do not believe in him the way we should. Unfortunately, we believe that we can be better blessed spending our time and energy pursuing other things.

So how can we believe in God more firmly? There is only one way to do that. We must hear the Word of God that tells us about him. The Word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is living and active. It produces faith. Therefore, as the catechism teaches about the third commandment, we should not despise God’s Word, or assume that we already know it sufficiently well. If that were true—if you knew it well enough already—then your prayers would be much more fervent than they are currently. We should gladly hear and learn God’s Word so that we know God better, so that we believe in him more confidently, and so that we can better speak to him with our prayers and praises.

The first three of the Ten Commandments have to do with our spiritual health. God spoke these commandments for our good, for our benefit. It is good for us to believe in God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, because he is the only God. The other things that we treat like gods will disappoint us in the end, even if, in the meantime, we manage to get some pleasure or comfort from them.

We should be prepared, not just for 2025, not just for some small, momentary, change in our fortunes, but for meeting our Maker. We’ve made it to the end of 2024. What if 2025 is the last year in which we will live? What if 2025 is the year that gets chiseled onto our gravestone? What if 2025 is the year that Jesus comes back? Jesus said in our reading: “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” We must be prepared to meet to God.

To meet God well there is no substitute for believing what he has said. If you managed to climb all the mountains of the world, accumulated all the wealth, all the knowledge—whatever you could possibly accomplish—none of that can ever do what taking to heart what God has said will do.

And the good news is that what God has said is good. He has revealed that he is for us, and not against us. Paul says in our epistle reading, “If God is for us, then who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Paul is using sound logic. God is for you. How do you know that? Because you are so awesome, cool, healthy, and what not? No. You know that because he gave his Son, Jesus, to be your Savior. God’s good will towards you doesn’t depend on you. He is the one who acts. He is the one who saves. God’s Word teaches that your confidence should be completely in him. Even if you should end up with troubles, poverty, shame, or danger, Jesus remains the Savior. Even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, your Good Shepherd is with you. He will take you where you need to go.

In conclusion, God’s Word gives us the opportunity to reorient ourselves. Instead of looking for happiness in any number of things, look to God instead. There is nothing like God. There is no help like God’s help. Listen to what his Word says. Believe in him. Call upon his name with your prayers and praises.

Then you are dressed for action, ready for your master to come home from the wedding feast.

241225 Sermon on Jesus, the light, scattering the darkness (Christmas Day) December 25, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 16:19:00 +0000

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Jesus Christ is the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome. In our reading John puts it this way: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Again, Jesus is spoken of this way: “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” Here comes Jesus. Here comes the light.

One of the simple statements that the apostles use to describe a Christian is that a Christian has moved from darkness to the light. Peter encourages us to “proclaim the excellencies of God who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Paul says, “You formerly were of the darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.”

If the fruit of light is in everything that is good and right and true, then the deeds of darkness must be bad and wrong and false. An example of that was when Jesus was betrayed and arrested. One of the 12 did it. Judas had already been operating in the dark for some time. He kept the money for their little group, and he had been helping himself. He struck a deal with the chief priests and elders. He would lead them to Jesus so that they could arrest him, nice and quiet-like, when there was no one else around. Judas used an amazing sign. He would kiss Jesus when he greeted him. Then the soldier would know who to arrest.

Judas, with a band of soldiers and Jewish officials, came to Jesus either very late on Maundy Thursday, or, more likely, in the very early morning hours of Good Friday. He said, “Greetings teacher!” and he kissed Jesus, but Jesus said to him, “Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” Then Jesus asked the officials and soldiers: “Why do you come out against me with clubs and swords? I have always been public with my teaching, and yet you didn’t seize me when I was out in the open.” Then Jesus said, “But this is your hour, and the power or authority of darkness.”

What happened there was bad and wrong and false. Jesus was betrayed by his friend. Jesus was rounded up in the middle of the night, when the multitudes of people who loved him were asleep. Jesus’s enemies didn’t care whether what they were doing was honorable or not. They just wanted to win.

Darkness has its advantages. If you want to impose your will without anyone getting in the way, then operating in secrecy and darkness is the way to go. Jesus was arrested when most people were still sleeping, and already by nine o’clock in the morning he was nailed to the cross. The powers that be engineered the whole thing so that it would be over before it even began. Everyone, including the disciples, thought that it was a done deal. The authorities had used darkness, yet again, and carried the day.

Paul characterizes the time that we live in as being a time of darkness. The story of history has largely been a story of darkness. One fellow gets the better of another fellow. Now he’s king. But today kings don’t hold the power anymore. The people who hold the power today are in business. By and large, the story of business is darkness too. Somebody figures out some clever way to get more from his employees or more from his customers or he sabotages his competitors. Then he uses his ill-gotten gains to buy off politicians who will pass laws that will further his empire. The rule he follows is always the same: He wants more for himself and less for others.

We are largely powerless against these powers and authorities. Never before have human beings had such ready access to information with the Internet and all, but who can know what is true and not true? There is information, disinformation, misinformation. The darkness is bad enough already, but it is only made worse when false lights and false christs come along and say, “Trust us. We’ll fix everything for you.”

Jesus Christ is the light of the world; the light no darkness can overcome. Jesus has come for judgement. Jesus says, “This is the judgement: The light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, otherwise he would be convicted of his evil deeds. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been worked in God.”

Here is the choice: The light or the darkness. Do you want God to prevail in Jesus Christ or do you want to do what you want to do under the cover of darkness? It seems like it should be an easy choice, but doing whatever we want is awfully enticing. It’s how we first learned to lie and operate in the darkness. If you good enough at that kind of thing, nobody else needs to know the truth. When the light comes, you can’t hide anymore. You’ll be convicted. You’ll lose the shiny, white façade and be revealed as a sinner.

That’s how it is, strangely enough, for those who have been converted. Those who believe in Christ, who believe in the light, are exposed by that very same light as being evil. Christians should not hide their sins. That’s the old strategy of fig leaves and bushes from the Garden of Eden that won’t get you very far with God. Instead we should plead guilty before God like we do when we confess our sins:

I am a poor, miserable sinner. I have sinned with my mind, by the words I have spoken, and by the deeds that I have done. I deserve God’s temporal and eternal punishment. That is what the light reveals about me.

But the light is not merely like a searchlight or an interrogation light. It does not solely expose what is hidden or evil and to do nothing more about it. The light of Christ exposes, but it also heals and forgives. It obliterates the darkness so that it is no more. We are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

Jesus says as much in the same section that I quoted from earlier. He says: “God loved the world in this way, that he sent his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.”

God has sent his Son. He is the light. This light will save those who are in darkness, but we cannot remain in darkness. If we prefer the darkness to the light, then we are on the wrong side. Jesus heals. He’s also coming to judge. The powers that be in this present age of darkness believe that they are on top of the world. They believe that they can do anything they want whether their actions be honorable or dishonorable. But their time is limited. They better hope that they can live long lives, because that is all the good times they will have.

What is much more prudent is to embrace Jesus, the light and life of men, who has come into the world. As Paul encourages us, we should cast away the works of darkness. Whatever is bad, wrong, and false will not help us in the long run. Grace, mercy, and truth come from Christ. They radiate out from him like light from its source. You have something better with Jesus. Jesus will win. The light will scatter the darkness.

241222 Sermon on why Elizabeth and Mary are happy (Advent 4) December 22, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 16:11:00 +0000

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Our Gospel reading is appropriate as we approach the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Our Gospel reading describes something that happened not long before Jesus was born. Mary, Jesus’s mother, visited her relative, Elizabeth. Both Mary and Elizabeth were pregnant with very special babies. Mary had been visited by the angel Gabriel who told her that she would conceive and bear a son. She was to name him Jesus because he would be the Savior.

Elizabeth’s pregnancy was also unusual. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah were old and had not been given any children. Zechariah had also been visited by Gabriel who told him that he and his wife would conceive in their old age. The child was to be named John. Zechariah and Elizabeth did conceive about six months before Gabriel went to Mary.

So in our reading today Mary was pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist. Luke says that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She is filled with joy, and she speaks several blessings. She blesses Mary: “Blessed are you among women.” She blesses Jesus: “Blessed is the fruit of Mary’s womb.” She blesses herself. She rhetorically asks: “Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Her thoughts turn to her son. She comments on how her baby leaped for joy at Mary’s greeting.

Finally, Elizabeth blesses Mary for her faith. Perhaps Elizabeth’s thoughts turned to what it might have been like when Mary heard Gabriel’s message. Elizabeth said, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Not every woman would believe that she could conceive while remaining a virgin simply because the Lord said so. Mary did. She said to God: “Let it be done to me according to your Word.”

Elizabeth moves from one blessing to the next. Everyone is blessed. All are exceedingly happy. What I’d like to consider today is why they are so happy. I’d also like to pay attention to our own happiness. Happiness is important to us. We all would like to be happy. So, in fact, before we consider what makes these women happy, I think it would be beneficial first to consider what makes us happy. We can then be on the lookout for what might be different with these women.

There are a lot of things that can make us happy. Hunger being satisfied with food makes us happy; thirst, with drink. We have many desires and needs. We want and need affection, comfort, entertainment. We like to be right. We like to be the best. We like making progress. Getting richer is better than getting poorer. Getting stronger is better than getting weaker. There are so many ways to be happy, and we like them all. The more, the better; the more, the happier.

Now let’s consider these women’s happiness. What makes them happy doesn’t exactly fit the pattern we’ve sketched out. They aren’t getting stronger, richer, better. Elizabeth’s life didn’t get easier with her pregnancy in old age. Mary’s life was thrown into turmoil to a much greater degree. Mary became pregnant when she wasn’t married. Everyone would have assumed that the pregnancy was the result of fornication. Joseph, her fiancé, had no other choice but to assume that she had been unfaithful. An angel had to intervene to tell him otherwise. Mary would have had a hard time of it because most would not believe what sounds like a far-fetched story—that Mary was pregnant with the Son of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Consider, additionally, the several clues about Mary and Joseph’s poverty and powerlessness. When they came to Bethlehem they couldn’t get a room. If they had more money, they could have compelled someone to provide for them. Later, when the sacrifices were made in the Temple, the cheaper option of two pigeons was offered instead of the more expensive lamb. These clues indicate that Mary and Joseph were poor. The baby was born into poverty: “No crib for a bed” to lay down his sweet head.

If we place ourselves into Mary’s shoes, we can see how she lacked things that we regard as essential for happiness. So how can she be happy? How can Elizabeth be happy for her when trouble is on every side? She even makes the audacious claim that Mary is blessed over and above all others. The only explanation is that they were focused on things that aren’t often looked to for happiness. We might sum up all that they were feeling by saying: They were happy because the kingdom of God was coming upon the earth.

What is the kingdom of God, and why is it a good thing? We can’t hardly talk about a kingdom without talking about the king. Something you might keep an ear open for the next couple days is how often Christmas carols will sing about Jesus being the king, or the Lord: “Joy to the world, the Lord has come.” Or: “Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king.” The good news of great joy that is for all people is, as the angel declared on Christmas night, that unto us a Savior has been born who is Christ the Lord.

The work of Christ the King in his kingdom is made plain in the Gospels. Jesus did several things. He taught the Word of God that has always been calling people away from evil, away from the devil, towards that which is good and true—life giving and life protecting. Jesus taught people to believe in the only true God instead of the various false gods. Jesus acted with power, performing miracles. His many cleansings, healings, and restorations to life were a foreshadowing of the greater work he will do when he resurrects the dead.

Over and above all these things, but also at the very root of them, Jesus suffered and died. As our epistle reading mentions, he offered his body once for all. My favorite line of all the Christmas carols is the one where it says: “Nails, spear shall piece him through. The cross be borne for me, for you. Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the babe, the Son of Mary.” The king sacrificed himself. The result is forgiveness, righteousness, and life for everyone.

So if we return to the happiness and joy of Elizabeth and Mary, we can see that it is outside of them. The kingdom of God is coming. Happiness depends on the king, not on themselves. So long as their faith in this king doesn’t fail, nothing can take their happiness away. Whatever sadnesses might come, they cannot undo the march of progress the kingdom of God will make.

You can see this in both their lives. Both Elizabeth’s and Mary’s unborn baby boys would eventually be killed at the hands of evil men. Simeon prophesied to Mary in the temple: “A sword will pass through your heart.” Mary mourned at the death of her Son, but God will turn all mourning into gladness. Jesus died, but then he rose. Then his kingdom only entered a new phase, the song swelled to an even higher pitch. Joy will grow, even if, in the meantime, we pass through the valley of the shadow of death.

This joy is available to each and every one of you. All that is needed is to be like Elizabeth and Mary: Believe in Jesus’s kingdom. To believe is not some great challenge or a puzzle you have to figure out. It is only a matter of believing the testimony that is given about Jesus, and testimonies abound! Elizabeth gave her testimony in our reading. The angel gave his testimony on Christmas night. The apostles, evangelists, prophets, prophetesses, deacons, and deaconesses all gave their testimony, and they all say the same thing: Jesus Christ is Lord. He does all things well. He sets all things right.

This is good news, which comes to us from the outside. It does not place any demands upon us. It does not require any preparation. Think of all those people in the Gospels whom Jesus helped. Did the blind man have to start improving himself before Jesus would give him sight? No. The blind man remained as blind as a bat. The deaf man remained as deaf as a stone, until Jesus made them otherwise. The only thing that happened to them prior to their healings was that they were given hope in Jesus the king by the good news that was told them.

The same thing is true for us today. We have problems. We might have a bad reputation. We might be poor. We might be blind, deaf, lame, demon possessed. Believe in Jesus.

And let’s apply this to sin. One of the most frustrating parts about being a Christian is that we end up falling into sin, even though we really don’t want to—or at least a part of us doesn’t want to. What do we do with that? We almost can’t help thinking that we must clean ourselves up in order to become acceptable before God. That seems right. To do otherwise can make it seem as though sin doesn’t matter. We have to take our sin very seriously.

These are not altogether bad thoughts, but they can make us lose sight of the one thing that makes all the difference—the one thing that makes us happy with a happiness that no one can take away: Jesus is the king. He saves sinners. He baptizes you, you don’t baptize yourself. He forgives you, you don’t forgive yourself. The kingdom of God is on a roll with the preaching of the Word that Jesus is the Savior. What is asked of us is not a great burden: Stick with the king. Listen to his Word. Jesus will do everything he has promised. Jesus is going to win.

So you, like Elizabeth and Mary, may fully embrace the goodness of the kingdom of God that made them so happy that blessings were flying all over the place. The kingdom of God is the best, because Jesus is the best. No matter what is going on, no matter how disappointed you might be in yourself or in others, Jesus Christ is Lord.

“Come Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free.” Amen.

241215 Sermon on our reluctance to hate sin (Advent 3) December 15, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 17:11:00 +0000

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I remember being very distressed by splinters when I was a kid. Splinters are not terribly serious. You won’t die from having a splinter. They do cause a bit of discomfort, but what’s far worse, is that the splinter has to come out. To get the splinter out, the finger must be turned over to an adult. What might the adult do? Armed with a needle or tweezers, the adult must dig around in there until the splinter comes out. I remember asking, “Can’t we just leave the splinter in there?” I didn’t like how the splinter ached, but I more disliked the much sharper pain involved with getting it out.

I think this is helpful for what can happen to us spiritually. Just as it is by no means unusual that a kid gets a splinter while playing, it is very common to fall into sin. Just as a kid regrets doing what he was doing whereby he got the splinter, so also a person can regret having sinned. The advantage or the pleasure of the sin soon passes, and we are left with a dull ache. We’ve disappointed ourselves. We thought that we were better than that. Maybe we’d promised ourselves, “Never again!” and now look at what we’ve done. What a shame.

But besides that dull ache of disappointment, the splinter of sin doesn’t hurt too badly. It’s nothing compared to the much sharper pain of being caught. That is very embarrassing. So our natural reaction is to try to manage sin on our own. We’ll cover it up. We’ll lie about it if we have to. Eventually, with the passage of enough time, we’ll forget about it—and that’s a relief. If we manage to pass though this experience without too much pain, we might draw the conclusion that our sins didn’t harm us. We got a splinter, but—like we so hoped for when we were children—it didn’t need to come out. It seemed to have gone away on its own.

With splinters we can easily see the childishness of believing that it will just go away on its own. The splinter will cause infection. The poison of infection will spread. The more time passes, the worse it will get. The splinter must come out.

We are not as good at seeing how childish it is to believe that sins won’t harm us. Just as a splinter inevitably has an effect on the health of a finger, so also sins have an effect on the soul. Think back to the sins that you committed even when you were a little kid—3, 4, 5 years old. Sins darken the mind. They create a habit of lying. Already at a young age we can easily draw the conclusion that sins will not harm us so long as we do not get caught.

But sins are nasty and ugly, full of puss and consequences. Unlike splinters, which only affect the person who has them, sins affect others. One person’s nastiness draws out the nastiness of another. The bible shows that sin affects the whole community. The entire people of Israel needed to be cleansed when only a portion had sinned. Therefore we should not be so nonchalant to think that sins cannot affect a congregation, a classroom, a workplace, a family, or a couple. Sins are no child’s play.

However, a very powerful spiritual force fights against this understanding of sin. It is far worse enemy of Christianity than evolution or wokeism or whatever other boogeymen Christians might fear. This spiritual force does everything within its power to lull people to sleep with gentle phrases about the harmlessness of sin. It says, for example, “All this fuss and bother about sin is counterproductive. If we want the church to grow we must focus on other things! What’s the use of sticking with old fashioned morals when even the old fashioned couldn’t keep them? Or Jesus’s commands: aren’t they unreasonable? Show me one person who forgives, who gives, who is without anger or lust.”

And maybe I haven’t quite caught the tune that would make you shut your eyes to the seriousness of sins, but I know that tune is out there, because we human beings all have the same basic hope. Somewhere in all of us is the hope that our sins won’t matter. Our sins aren’t deadly. We can manage them without any great change. There is no need to go through the sharp pain of repenting them. Just leave them be and hope for the best.

When people believe that sins do not matter, that they do not cause much harm, then the devil has won. This is exactly how the devil wants us to deal with our sins. He wants us to believe that sins are fine or natural or funny or unimportant. Everybody does them, so what’s the harm? He’ll blabber on and on until he finds something that sticks. And he’ll find it too, because, as I’ve said, there is a part of all of us that wants to believe the splinter does not need to be taken out.

The devil starts to lose his grip on people when they move from not caring to caring. This happens when people start to hate the splinter, start to hate sin. So long as people believe that they can peacefully coexist with sin, they remain in the devil’s grip. But sometimes people get sick of the muck and guck and puss and stench of sin. People hate the lovelessness, the chaos, the shame, the hatred, the broken relationships. They get sick of that splinter that has caused them so much grief. They want the splinter out!

This is when tax collectors, prostitutes, drug addicts, liars, porn addicts, alcoholics, scrooges—losers of all kinds—might turn to Christ. They hate their life which has been ruined by sin. They want something else. They long for healing, and they are willing to humble themselves in order to get it.

The fundamental posture of all disciples is always the same. It’s the posture we see in people in the Gospels. People came to Jesus who were blind, deaf, lame, mute, demon-possessed—absolutely wretched. They said, “Jesus, help me!” It is the same posture of those who hate their lives, hate themselves, hate their sins, hate the splinters with all their puss and filth. “Jesus, heal me!”

When such people come to believe that Jesus forgives them, that Jesus died for them, that Jesus will make them better, they then hate all the more the devil with his practically infinite lies, all of which minimize the importance of sin. On the other hand, they begin to like what God has commanded and taught—stuff that they formerly might have rejected and fought against. They’ve been converted. They renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways, and they have embraced a new Lord and God from whom they want help. They no longer want to be on the side of sin and lies and false hope. They want to be on the side that fights sin, that’s true, that embraces the light, even though it means that they have fallen into the strong and terrifying hands of God. If suffer they must, then suffer they will! Suffering is by no means the worst thing. Health, life, truth—that is to say, God’s kingdom—this is what they want.

What I’ve spoken about today—a kind of insanely long introduction—is an attempt to get at something that otherwise might be difficult to understand about our Gospel reading. Our Gospel reading talks about how John the Baptist’s preaching was successful, particularly among those whom you’d think would be the most resistant. John was successful among the unwashed masses. Why did John the Baptist come to be loved by the tax collectors and sinners? Was it because John the Baptist told them that they were fine just as they were? That their sins didn’t matter? No. Just the opposite.

John hated sin. He wasn’t scared of it either. He didn’t believe that it was inevitable or invincible or any other garbage that the devil likes to say about sin. John himself couldn’t really do anything about sin, but he was an ambassador for Jesus, who was coming after him, whose sandal strap he was unworthy to untie. The Christ is the only one who forgives sins. He promises to wash away all the stains and puss and filth for the life to come.

So, to use the analogy we’ve been working with today, John was someone who would speak the truth. He would say, “That’s a splinter. That needs to come out. You’ll be sorry if it doesn’t.” Since we all know the pain of getting a splinter out, we can understand why some people hated John. They preferred their false belief to the truth of God’s Word that—even though painful—would have helped them.

But some people loved the possibilities that opened up by the Word of God that John spoke. They were so full of splinters, they were so sick of the consequences of their sins, that they embraced John’s baptism for the forgiveness of their sins. They didn’t want to go on with the misery of loneliness, helplessness, and hopelessness. They wanted health, life, and light. They wanted Jesus to be their king instead of the devil. Disciples of Jesus show up in the most unexpected of places.

All of us, including me, have our splinters. They are not cute. They are not harmless. Even if we manage to forget them, they don’t stop silently pumping out their poison. They have to come out. How? We can’t do it ourselves. We can’t get deep enough. We have to turn ourselves over to the adult, so to speak. We have to turn ourselves over to Jesus. That requires courage. What will he do? Is that a needle or a tweezers I see?

But don’t be too afraid. Jesus is good at what he does. He is the good physician who has come to heal those who are sick, who have need of him as a physician.

241208 Sermon on whether John the Baptist's preaching was "good news" (Advent 2) December 8, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 17:15:00 +0000

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Our Gospel reading today gives us a description of what John the Baptist preached. John preached repentance, which means, “Change your ways,” or “Change your mind.” John told people that God’s wrath, God’s anger and punishment of sinners, was coming. That’s why they should change their ways. If they have not been good, they will be judged accordingly. “The axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Some who heard John were persuaded. They repented. They wanted help for how to change their ways. John taught them what is in the Bible: “If you have two tunics, then give to him who has none.” Some people, who were pretty nasty and rough, wanted to their ways. Tax collectors, who were more like the mafia than our modern day IRS, wanted to know what they should do. John said: “Don’t collect more than what you are authorized to do.” Same thing with some soldiers. “Don’t extort money by threats and false accusations. Be content with your wages.”

At the end of our reading John the Baptist talked about Jesus. Jesus would be like John, only greater. John baptized with water. Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John warned about the coming judgment. Jesus will do the judgment. The winnowing fork is in his hand. He will thresh out the grain. The wheat will be gathered into the barn, but the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.

This was John’s preaching. Luke speaks of it as being “good news.” At the end of the reading Luke says, “So with many other exhortations John preached good news to the people.” Does what John preached sound like “good news” to you?

It might not. It is easy to be troubled by what John says. He says that God is wrathful and that he punishes. People will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Jesus is characterized along the same lines. The winnowing fork is in his hand. He will separate the wheat from the chaff. The chaff will burn. Is all this wrath and all this fire really necessary? Isn’t there a more civilized way?

Questions like these are unavoidable for modern day Christians. Most Christians refuse to speak as plainly as John the Baptist, because it seems like a very poor strategy. It can be scary for people to hear about God being spoken of like that. What’s more to the point is that it can sound unreasonable to talk about God like that. It doesn’t sound right that God, who is described as being loving, should punish anybody. Hell is described as a place of torment with an unquenchable fire. How can God be like that?

It is much easier to imagine a god (whom many people believe to be the true one) that doesn’t have wrath, who won’t torture or torment. Having a god like that sounds like a much better deal. A god that basically says, “Live however you want,” sounds nice. He sounds like he would be easy to get along with. And if God isn’t someone I can get along with, then why bother? I can live just as well without him.

Hearing rhetoric like this is quite common. Many people assume that it is because we have become more sophisticated in our modern times. We’ve discovered things, supposedly, that discredit the God of the Bible, making him much less believable. However, it is easy to show you that this is not modern or sophisticated. It is the way human beings have been since the beginning, which you can see in the Bible itself. We’ll briefly consider the story of Adam and Eve. You will see the very same impulses in them that we have in the twenty-first century.

This story should be familiar to you. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they did, they would surely die. But along came the serpent who introduced doubt. Why should they be forbidden to eat just from this tree? That’s kind of random and arbitrary. If they were God, they probably wouldn’t make a law like that. They’d let people eat from whatever tree they wanted.

Then the serpent explained that God wouldn’t punish them as he had said he would. They’d be fine. In fact, they’d be greatly improved! They’d be like God, knowing good and evil. So, having been convinced, Eve ate, and Adam ate too.

What comes after this is what I’d like you especially to think about: that time between their eating and before God came. Adam and Eve knew that something had changed. They were ashamed of their nakedness. But what had to be foremost in their minds was the hope that the serpent had been right. The serpent had said that no wrath and no punishment would come. If the serpent was right, then they could go on living like they had.

Notice what was “good news” for Adam and Eve during this time. It is the same “good news” that modern people believe in—but not just modern people, all unrepentant people of all times have this hope. They hoped that the God who had threatened to punish them for their sins didn’t exist. That God was completely intolerable to them. Maybe they could get on board with the idea of some other god that would be altogether different from this wrathful, punishing God, but they couldn’t tolerate a God who might intervene. But their hopes were dashed.

God showed up. God did care. God would punish. Adam and Eve showed the great sophistication of the human race, including modern humans, by acting the same way we all do when we have gotten caught. They acted like three-year-olds. They hid in the bushes. They stammered excuses. They tried to pass the buck. They did not care about anything except saving their own skin.

God—amazingly—did not give Adam and Eve what they deserved. He didn’t kill them that day, although he did pronounce curses against them. God’s anger was especially directed against the serpent, the devil. God spoke of the great violence that would happen between the serpent and his Son. The serpent would injure his Son’s heel, but the Christ would crush the serpent’s head.

Already with this first telling of the story of Jesus, there is wrath and punishment for sin. The serpent’s head would be crushed, ground into the dirt. God doesn’t just say, “Oh well, never mind.” The Law of God is not annulled as though it were unimportant. As Jesus says, “Not one jot, not one tittle of the Law will pass away until everything is fulfilled.” Everything was fulfilled when the wrath of God for sin was poured out on his beloved Son. The wrath was so severe that Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” As Paul says about Jesus, “He who knew no sin, became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Is this violent retribution good news? It depends on whose side you’re on. If you don’t want to change your ways or change your mind, if you don’t want to believe that God cares about what you do, if you want to just be left alone to live how you see fit, then this is not good news. “Good news” for you would be that God will ignore you and leave you to your own thoughts and actions. Then you can go on being your own god, so to speak, making up for yourself what is good and what is evil. The rules for wat is good and evil are quite simple. What is good is whatever is good for me. What is evil is whatever you don’t like. There is no reference to what is just or right. The refrain that is sung in every possible key is: “My will be done.”

The alternative is to say to God, “Thy will be done!” That is a scary prayer if you think about it! Adam and Eve couldn’t bring themselves to pray that prayer as they heard God’s footsteps in the garden. God’s will being done was the last thing they wanted. So it can be for us too! Maybe we have lots of tunics and we don’t want to give any of them away. Maybe we’ve been making our livelihood by cheating and fraud. Maybe we’ve created the life for ourselves that has no reference to God, his commandments, his promises, or the cross that Jesus gives to all of his disciples. That can be a pleasant life, and we might not want to change.

“Thy will be done!” turns our lives over to God. It is a prayer of repentance. It is a prayer for change. My life is clay. You, God, are the potter. Make of me the vessel that you see fit to make! This is the intensity of faith. We can’t foresee exactly what God will do. We can only believe that it will be good.

Believing that it will be good is the only way we can make any sense of the wrath that is to be revealed when Christ comes again in glory. None of us want to be burned as chaff. None of us want those we love to be cut down and thrown into the fire. But we are obviously dealing with righteousness, justice, and goodness that is far above us. Probably no amount of skilled argumentation will ever make us perfectly comfortable with John’s preaching, but maybe that’s in the nature of repentance and faith.

Despite whatever misgivings we might have, the preaching is actually remarkably clear. We are presented with two fundamentally different alternatives. Either we can repent and believe in Jesus, or we can hope that things will stay the same. Either you must cast in your lot with Jesus, or you must cast in your lot with the serpent who said that no wrath or punishment will come. They cannot both be true. Either Jesus is the king who will set things right or what the serpent was basically correct: “You surely will not be punished. When you die, that will be it.”

Hopefully you have heard enough about Jesus to know that you are much better off changing your ways, and casting your lot with Jesus, than remaining as you are and hoping God isn’t who has said he is.

241201 Sermon on Jesus's Advent as King on Palm Sunday (Advent 1) December 1, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 16:56:00 +0000

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“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!”

The Gospel reading today is when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. There are some unusual aspects to this story. Jesus told his disciples how they would find a donkey’s colt when they entered the village. They didn’t need to buy the colt. They would only say, “The Lord has need of it,” and the colt would be sent along.

The animal upon which Jesus sat is also unusual. Donkeys are already somewhat small animals to ride. A colt would have presumably been even smaller. Matthew, in his Gospel, tells us that the colt’s mother might have also been involved. I’m not sure what that would have looked like. In addition, this colt had never been ridden. That means he wasn’t broke. Nevertheless, Jesus was placed upon him and it seems to go fine as he rode into Jerusalem.

All these strange details are not just strange for the sake of being strange. They have Old Testament connections. Zechariah, a prophet who lived about 500 years before this, wrote: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; … humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” What was happening with Jesus was not accidental. Jesus is the king that Zechariah wrote about. The rejoicing of Palm Sunday was the rejoicing that Zechariah wrote about.

And these last two elements are really the key features. What is most important about Palm Sunday is that Jesus is the king, and that his disciples are recognizing him as such. That Jesus is the king is not always recognized by everyone. It is an article of faith. It is either believed or not believed. Presumably there were a lot of people in Jerusalem that day who did not believe that Jesus is the king. His disciples did. They were convinced by the signs that Jesus had done.

You are familiar with the signs Jesus did. These, also, were prophesied in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah lived over 700 years before Jesus, and he said that when the great king would come he would “open the eyes of the blind, the ears of the deaf would be unstopped, the lame would leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute would sing for joy.” Jesus had done these things and more. In fact, just before Palm Sunday he had raised Lazarus, who had been dead for four days. He was doing all things well. They loved it, and they were praising God with a loud voice. I would imagine that they were wondering to themselves: “What is he going to do next?”

Especially, “What is he going to do next as he enters Jerusalem?” Thus far Jesus seems to have spent most of his time in the north, in Galilee, far from Jerusalem, which was the center of power. The temple was in Jerusalem. The leaders of the Jews were in Jerusalem. Pontius Pilate, the Roman leader, was in Jerusalem. What was going to happen when Jesus, “The King of the Jews,” would come into contact with the powers that be?

I’m pretty sure that the disciples on Palm Sunday were thinking, “He’s going to keep on doing all things well! He’s going to be a good king!” Good kings set things right. They get rid of corruption. They help those who need help. They put down those who oppress. No more lying, cheating, and getting away with it.

Jeremiah, another Old Testament prophet, speaks of Jesus this way in our Old Testament reading. He says, “In those days and at that time a righteous Branch will spring up from David.” Jesus is that righteous branch. And what will he do? Jeremiah goes on: “He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

This is exactly what Jesus went on to do during Holy Week. You can read about that for yourselves. The first thing that Jesus did was he went to the Temple. He pushed out all the buyers and sellers and money changers. He caused pandemonium. He flipped over tables. He let loose their animals. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”

On the days following this the powers that be tried to entrap and ensnare Jesus. They needed Jesus to slip up with something he might say so that they could nail him. So they sent their sneakiest and best. They tried every which way to trick him, but it didn’t work. Just as the disciples had been hoping on Palm Sunday, Jesus continued to do all things well.

I think by the time of Maundy Thursday the disciples were almost drunk with excitement. Luke tells us a stunning detail about what happened when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Not long after Jesus had said, “This is my body which is given for you,” and “This is my blood which is shed for you,” Luke tells us that the disciples were arguing with one another over who was the greatest. They were in high spirits. They were already filling Jesus’s cabinet. Who would be secretary of state? Who would be attorney general?

Given the disciples’ eager expectation, you can perhaps see how the crucifixion, which would happen less than a day later, would crush them. It was cruel—even in the way it got carried out. It wasn’t a fair fight. Those in power never want a fair fight. They arrested Jesus in the middle of the night. They rigged their kangaroo courts in the middle of the night. Already by 9 o’clock that morning Jesus was nailed through his hands and his feet to the cross.

Those in power know how to get things done for their own advantage. They know how to do things in such a way where they come out on top and none’s the wiser to their evil deeds done in secret. History—but often an unwritten history—is filled with power crushing reformers. Those who speak the truth and fight for what is right are marginalized and eliminated. The winners have their perspectives written into the history books that glorify their deeds and ignore whatever evil they have done. Thereby they appear to have won, but appearances can be deceiving.

They better enjoy whatever they have gained for themselves by all their sneaking around because a time is coming when, as Jesus said, “Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the rooftops.” This will happen because the king is coming to judge. Again, as Jesus said, “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” It will be as Jeremiah prophesied: “The king shall execute righteousness and justice in the land.”

The disciples were not wrong with their thoughts about Jesus being the king. The disciples also were not wrong about this king doing all things well, setting things right, rooting out lies, and establishing justice and peace. Their only mistake was that they weren’t thinking quite deeply enough. They were thinking that Jesus would be merely an earthly king. Jesus is the king to which all powers must bow—even the powers of sin, death, and the devil. Jesus continued to do well on Holy Week. By his death and resurrection he set things right in such a profound and fundamental way that it is beyond our understanding.

If we lived at the time of these disciples we would rejoice—and rightly so—at Jesus’s opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, making the lame leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. These are very fine miracles. Often Christians wish that they could see some miracles like that to bolster their faith. But the truth is that the miracles that Jesus works now and in the future are greater.

Jesus works now by the Holy Spirit to turn the hearts of sinners so that they believe in the mercy of their Creator and Judge. The Holy Spirit produces fruit in the hearts of believers so that they have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. Instead of joining in with the powers of evil that seem to offer so much advantage for earthly power and for the indulging of our desires, Jesus’s disciples resist the ways and means of devil, the prince of this world. They work at not lying, not manipulating, not intimidating, not coercing, and so on. They work on following Jesus’s commands that promise blessings to those who have the guts to keep them. These are not small things!

And the miracles of the future will be even greater. They are beyond my ability to communicate them. Jesus, the king, helped so many people as we hear about in the Gospels. That same king will help us. He will give us new bodies that will be like his glorious, resurrected body—better, even, than the restored body of Lazarus. He will purify and strengthen our minds and souls with love and light. He will set all things right like a good king is supposed to. Great wonders are in store for us!

Therefore, we are not all that different from the multitude of disciples who rejoiced as Jesus entered Jerusalem. We, like they, might wonder, “What is he going to do next?” We, like they, might wonder, “What is going to happen when Jesus comes into conflict with the powers and principalities?” It looks like we’re in for show! They’ll kick up a fuss, no doubt, wanting to hold on to their wicked ways, but their days are numbered. The king is coming.

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

241110 Sermon on the extraordinary nature of faith (Pentecost 25) November 10, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 17:06:00 +0000

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In our Gospel reading we meet a woman with whom we might think we have little in common. She’s old. She’s a widow. She’s extremely poor. The most unusual thing mentioned about her is that even though she is poor, she made a contribution for the poor. Which aspect of this woman’s life would you like to emulate? Probably nothing. We want spouses who are living and helpful. We want money and power. However much we have, we are not interested in giving it away.

But whereas Jesus might not be all that impressed with us, he definitely was impressed with this woman. He called over his disciples and pointed her out. “She’s put in more than all the rest, even though other people put in much larger amounts.” Whereas we might be impressed by donations in the millions, Jesus was impressed by a donation that would be about $2 in today’s money.

We might not want to be like her, at least not at first, but Jesus admires her. That gives us reason enough to consider her. We should learn from this woman. She might teach us something we need quite badly.

The first thing we must consider is why this woman gave what she did. She herself was poor, and yet she contributed to the poor. How can this be explained? A person might simply say that she was insane, or perhaps even wrong to have done what she did. She shouldn’t have given that money. She should have kept it for herself. But Jesus doesn’t seem to think that she’s insane or that what she did was wrong, so there must be some other explanation.

It seems to me that the only reason why she could give what she did was because she didn’t think she needed it. We might think she needed it, but she didn’t. We aren’t given her exact thoughts, but maybe she believed that two more dollars would come to her in some other way. We are prone to think in terms of luck or karma, but I don’t think this woman believed in those false gods. She believed in the Lord God of Israel. She believed that he would give her that day her daily bread. She was free to give what she did, because she knew God would still take care of her.

This faith caused her to be like another creature whom God has made. She was like the birds of the air. Have you ever thought about what kind of life birds live? They’ve got their little nests, but that’s about it. Every morning they wake up not knowing where their food is going to come from. They do not have pantries or storehouses. You might think that they would be very worried about this, but they are not. The first thing they do when they wake up is offer up a cheerful song of praise to their Creator. A new day of grace awaits them. This woman must have been as cheerful and free as the birds.

Now you might ask: “How?” From a certain perspective it looks as though everything is going wrong with her life. She’s old. She’s poor. She’s powerless. She lost her husband. What more is there to live for? No great change in her fortunes appear to be forthcoming, especially if she keeps giving her money away. But these are ugly thoughts, prompted by our reason and common sense.

Faith has little to do with reason and common sense. The examples of faith that we read about in the Scriptures strike us very often as being close to insanity. This poor woman giving all she had to the poor can seem insane. The similar actions of the woman in the Old Testament reading can strike us the same way. She took the flour and oil that should have fed her son and gave them to Elijah. A classic expression of faith that defies not only reason but even morality was Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. Reason and common sense fight against faith because they operate according to different rules.

We are given this rule regarding faith: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” Those who believe are grasping and holding on to God, whom they can’t see. They don’t know where the path will go that God puts them on. They don’t know the quantity or the quality of the daily bread they will receive, but what is important is they know that the one who is in charge of their lives is their heavenly Father. They know that he loves them. He sent his Son to die as the sacrifice for them. If God has given his Son, his dearest treasure, how can he not give them whatever else they need?

Therefore, whether a Christian is rich or poor, healthy or sick, young or old, powerful or powerless, it is all the same. God is unchanging with his will and his promises. God will take care of them even though their circumstances might change.

Paul says in Philippians chapter four: “I have learned whatever the situation I am in to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Oftentimes that last part, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me,” is taken from its context and used for decorations or for sports teams. I’m afraid that when it is read apart from its context that our reason and common sense might interfere so that it is not understood correctly. “I can do all things” sounds as though I can do anything. If I can do anything, then I would like to be some kind of superhuman. I can have a fabulous life. I can win at all athletic contests. I will have a charmed life because “I can do all things though him who strengthens me.”

But as you heard the context of that passage, it is clear that Paul is not telling us that we can be some kind of superhero. Our reason might chime in here and say, “Here we go with all the hedging and managing expectations. Of course it sounded too good to be true.” But believe it or not, he is actually talking about something greater. A superhero is only happy when he or she is winning. What happens when the superhero gets old? What happens when the charmed life is no longer charmed? What happens when your spouse dies? What happens when your kid dies? What happens when you become poor? Included in the “all things” that I can do is to lose, to suffer, to have my life turned upside down.

Consider, again, the old woman. We know that she has suffered. We know that her husband has died. We know that she is poor. Being poor carries along with it all kinds of annoyances and irritations. Nevertheless, she cheerfully put in her last two dollars. God, who had taken care of her thus far, would continue to do so. Through faith in him she was doing “all things through him who was strengthening her.” And it was marvelous. Even Jesus was impressed.

This power to do all things, even to suffer negative things, through Jesus, is an important corrective for today’s world. We live at the end of a period of time when reason and common sense have been used to great effect. Technology has been developed through reason and common sense that enables us to do things that previous generations would have regarded as magic. We have accomplished so much. All of us are extremely rich compared to this woman who only had two dollars to her name.

Given all these abilities and all these accomplishments, you would think that we would be happy. But instead it seems that we should be swamped with sadness. There is so much hopelessness. There is so much despair. People wonder what the point of living is. Our birthrates are plummeting. Our liveliness seems to be withering on the vine.

Isn’t it strange that at the very time when we have reached the pinnacle of what human being have been able to accomplish thus far, that we are swamped with sadness? For what ails us, I do not think that more technology, more reason, and more common sense will help us. I have reason to believe that that would only make a bad situation even worse.

We have a spiritual problem. Spiritual problems need spiritual solutions. We need what human beings have always needed, which is God’s love. We need faith in this God who loves us, to set us free from our fears of suffering, our fears of loss, our fears of the paths that God might set us on, the outcome of which we cannot see. Faith in God’s love enables us to be cheerful, and sing like birds, not only when we are winning, but also while we suffer. Paul says “I can do all things.” He means that. Included in those “all things” are loss and sadness, while knowing that we will have the ultimately victory because of our God.

Jesus gives us great spiritual abilities. Jesus gives us the ability to say, “Even though I am a sinner, yet I am forgiven and holy.” “Even though I am poor, yet I am rich.” “Even though I die, yet shall I live.” Jesus makes the future bright!

Therefore, do not be afraid. Be bold and very courageous like this woman in our Gospel reading. The God who has taken care of you thus far, will take care of you until the supreme adventure begins in heaven.

241103 Sermon on Matthew 5:1-12 (Observation of All Saints' Day) November 3, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 17:16:00 +0000

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When we think about being blessed or being happy we usually think about wealth, abundance, security, contentment, and so on. Happiness goes together with strength, ability, and freedom. If we have the wherewithal and if we have the opportunity, then we can do what we want. If we should be constrained with our resources or freedom, then we might not be able to do what we want. We most easily and naturally believe that blessedness or happiness comes from being able to do whatever we want. We usually associate not being able to do whatever we want with sadness.

Did you notice how Jesus’s teaching was strange along these lines? What we usually associate with sadness, Jesus declares as blessedness or happiness. Let’s look at a few of the things Jesus said.

He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Is being poor ever good? It’s always better to be rich. Even if Jesus is not talking about money, doesn’t it sound better to be rich in spirit? Someone being rich in spirit sounds a lot more interesting than someone being poor in spirit.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn.” If someone is mourning, then things haven’t gone their way. Someone has died whom they would prefer were still alive. Something has gone wrong that they wish wouldn’t have happened.

“Blessed are the meek.” The meek are humbled. They can’t be impressed with their own importance. We enjoy the feeling of being impressed with ourselves.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” If I had to choose between being hungry and thirsty for righteousness and being full of righteousness, I would much rather be full of righteousness. Then I could feel good about myself.

From these examples, you can see how Jesus teaches strange things. If we would turn Jesus’s statements into their opposites, then they would make much more sense: Blessed are the rich. Blessed are those who are having a great time. Blessed are powerful. If the world would have its own set of beatitudes, or blessings, they would sound like this: “Blessed are the rich, because they can buy whatever they want.” “Blessed are those who are having a great time, because they are making the most of this life.” “Blessed are the powerful, because nobody is pushing them around.”

Don’t these worldly beatitudes make more sense? We more easily and naturally live our lives when we don’t have to rely on God. If we can see to things ourselves, then God doesn’t matter as much. What does matter is having the necessary resources and freedom. You better make sure you’ve got enough of that. And what must be feared above all else is lack and loss. Lack and loss are surefire recipes for misery and sadness.

That’s one way of thinking, and it’s pretty persuasive. It’s what comes most easily and naturally. But one of the ways that Jesus is spoken of in the Gospels is that he has come to “proclaim good news to the poor.” The poor don’t have anything. The good news is that they are going to get stuff. Where there was lack and loss there will be abundance and life. Jesus will bring this about. Or, at least, that’s the claim.

Is there a way that I can prove it? No, I’m sorry, I can’t. The promises of abundance and life in Jesus can be only either believed or disbelieved. Either Jesus is God and Lord and he will bring about what he has promised, or he is wrong. The poor aren’t blessed. Those who mourn aren’t blessed. The powerless aren’t blessed. Either the rules of life that are laid down by Jesus are how things are, or how things are is governed by the rules that we much more easily and naturally believe. Either a person will put his or her trust in Jesus or a person will put his or her trust in those worldly recipes for happiness.

Today as we observe All Saints’ Day we must consider this faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is how a person is a saint, which means a “holy one.” Only those who become holy are in heaven. Saints receive their holiness through faith in Jesus. They believe that he will keep the promises that he has made—promises like you find in the beatitudes. All of the beatitudes, or blessings, that Jesus spoke of contain promises. They are really glorious promises, if you will challenge yourself to think about what they mean and believe that they can actually come to pass.

He says, “Yours is the kingdom of heaven.” God’s kingdom in heaven can’t be described. The Scriptures say that it is beyond us, no matter how hard we try.

Jesus says, “God will comfort you.” How good do you think God is at comforting someone? You perhaps remember the comfort that comes from being in the arms of your dad or your mom or your husband or your wife. God will comfort those who mourn.

Jesus says, “You will inherit the earth.” World history is full of vain and ambitious men and women who have strained every fiber of their being to attain mastery over the earth. Jesus says you will inherit it.

“You will be filled with righteousness.” Instead of temptations being victorious over you, you will be victorious over temptations.

Jesus says, “You will receive mercy.” We hear about God’s mercy all the time, but now we only know his mercy by faith. What will it be like to have our empty sack filled up with the undeserved good things of God?

Jesus says, “You will see God.” The Scriptures emphatically state that no one has seen God. “No one can see God and live,” it says over and over again. What will it be like to see God?

Jesus says, “You will be called sons of God.” This is not a slight or an insult to you female saints. Jesus is the only Son of God. By being called “sons of God” Jesus is saying that you will be like him.

These are good promises. But then Jesus makes a different kind of promise. He promises us that we will be persecuted. He says that we will be reviled. That means that people will say that you are a fanatic. You are impractical. You are a fool about money. You are a fool to love your enemy. They will pronounce curses upon you that you will be poor and miserable and abused because you don’t follow the rules of this old world. That is what you will get for following Jesus.

It can be scary to be reviled and persecuted and to have all kinds of evil spoken against you. And this will not be done just by strangers. Elsewhere Jesus says that this will come from our nearest and dearest. Households will be divided. Families will be divided. This last promise is so bad, that we might think that we should just leave off with all this. It’s not nice. It’s disturbing. It’s divisive. Religion is supposed to be peaceful and serene.

Except it’s not. Jesus said, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Jesus is on the warpath as king against the devil and against all his falseness. Whenever Jesus drove out demons, they convulsed their victims and cried out and put up a mighty fuss. They didn’t want to lose control of their victims, and so it is with all the false rules and false gods that possess people today. They don’t want to lose their grip. They want to hold us captive. They don’t want us to believe in this who has come who proclaims good news to the poor.

But these false rules and false gods are bad. They don’t keep their promises. They couldn’t, even if they wanted to, because their power is limited. They only pretend to be almighty.

No matter how rich you are, no matter how powerful you are, no matter how many memories you make, no matter how good of a life you believe that you can make for yourself, none of these things can forgive your sins. None of these things can defeat death. None of these things can fill you with God’s love. None of these things can prepare you for seeing God. Only Jesus can do these things.

Believe in him! Are you poor? Will you become poor? Are you poor in spirit—kind of dumpy and something of a nobody? Believe in Jesus! He has good news for you even though you lack so much: “Yours is the kingdom of heaven.” Are you mourning? Are things not going your way? Did you imagine that your life would be altogether different? “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Thus and so you can do with all these statements of Jesus. There are promises in there for those who will believe.

Faith, therefore, makes all the difference. John says in his epistle: “This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” The saints who have gone before us all have this one thing in common: They believed in Jesus. You believe in him too. Believe, and then just wait and see how all the promises he has made will come true. Jesus keeps his promises.

241020 Sermon on Growing Up in the Love Christ Commands (Pentecost 22) October 20, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:31:00 +0000

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On my day off last week I was at my dad’s farm near Albert Lea. I was there to help with the harvest, but in a different way. My sister and her family were visiting from Florida. She has a son in the sixth grade who loves running machinery. So my help was not so much me doing stuff. I was more riding along, supervising, and coaching my nephew who isn’t quite experienced enough to run the tractor all by himself.

As I was sitting next to my nephew I couldn’t help but remember when I was his age. That was when I was learning how to run machinery. I was seeing the tasks we were doing through his eyes. Some of those tasks are intimidating: Backing up to wagons. Pulling full wagons. Gears could grind. Stuff could break. There is an element of fear. Stuff could go wrong.

Not all fear is bad. Fear goes together with learning new things. Fear happens when you leave the safety of what is familiar to master the unknown. Life without fear would be a life without challenge. That would be pretty boring.

It is not uncommon for people to think that being a Christian is pretty boring. When was the last time you were afraid to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus? Maybe never! But if that is your experience, then your experience would be different from the disciples we heard about in our Gospel reading. They were frightened by what Jesus said.

First of all, Jesus said, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” It says that the disciples were amazed. Maybe another way to say what was going on is that they were saying to themselves, “What are you talking about Jesus?”

But Jesus did not back down. He went on: “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” It says that the disciples were “exceedingly astonished.” “What in the world are you talking about? How could you say something like that?”

The third time the disciples are spoken of as being astonished or afraid is at the end of the reading. As I read that, try to picture the scene in your mind’s eye. It says, “And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.” Jesus is up ahead. Nobody’s walking with him. The disciples slink along behind. They’re afraid. They’re afraid to be Jesus’s disciples. New experiences are in store for them based on what Jesus said.

The challenge that Jesus says down for his disciples is not to cling to wealth. How does a person not cling to wealth? There’s really only one way: You have to be willing to give it away. You have to be willing to give more and take less, or maybe even to give it out freely for no services rendered. That is a new experience. No one has to teach us to snatch and grab and horde. We’ve been doing that since we were toddlers. As we get older we are often trained by teachers and authorities that what’s ours is ours, and we don’t have to give anything to anybody, and the more that we can accumulate for ourselves the better. Therefore, in the pursuit of ever-increasing wealth, you should give as little as you possibly can, and take as much as you possibly can, and that is how the game is played. I suspect that none of you have been frightened by this philosophy that I have just laid out. It is utterly familiar.

What might be frightening—if you are willing to take Jesus seriously—is his statement: “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” And again, he says: “How hard it is for anyone to enter the kingdom of God.” This is new. I thought it was easy to enter the kingdom of God. I thought no change was necessary to enter the kingdom of God—the church word for that is “repent.” I didn’t know I had to change. I didn’t know that I had to repent to enter the kingdom of God.

Now, one way that you could take Jesus’s words is that he is slamming the door on all who have wealth: “Get out and stay out!” But there is another way that you can take Jesus’s words. You can see them as a challenge to grow up. We can’t stay babies forever. We can’t remain in our merely natural state where we are grabbing, snatching, and hording. If you want to remain like that you are basically saying that you would like to go to hell, because hell is the place where people go who practiced their whole lives to be masters of snatching, grabbing, and hording. The only problem is that you, also, would be snatched and grabbed, and you probably won’t like that.

If we are going to enter the kingdom of God we have to become different. We have to learn from our teacher and master, Jesus, the ways of love. This will be something new. We have to learn about giving, suffering and bearing the cross. We are all naturally afraid of suffering and pain, but Jesus and the Holy Spirit can teach us that the fear of suffering doesn’t have to control our lives. If we suffer, we know that we will be comforted. Even if we die in our pursuit of love, we know that we will be resurrected.

These are not childish teachings. These are very grow-up, Christian teachings that require courage. These are the teachings of the Kingdom of God that will prepare us for heaven instead of hell. Heaven is a place of love. God dwells there, and God is love. The love of heaven is so pure and rich that we can’t even begin to grasp it. Maybe we could try by saying that everyone in heaven loves so purely and richly that they would do anything for you. They would suffer the loss of everything for you. But they won’t have to. Because heaven is the place where all things have been made new. It is the place where, as Revelation 21 puts it: “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

To arrive at the place where God dwells, where love dwells—what might a person give for that? Let’s say you have 100 million dollars. Is that what you are going to hold on to? It’s just a bunch of zeros in some Edward Jones account somewhere. You can’t even lie on it like the dragons of old who liked to sleep on their heaps of gold. You would rather have those zeros on a piece of paper than to be kind, to be generous, to be merciful? It’s a no-brainer which is better! That is not to say it isn’t a challenge—a change—which brings fear, but the challenge is worth it.

Suppose I said to my nephew: I know that you want to run the tractor, but just think of all the stuff that could go wrong! The steering could fail. You accidentally drive into the ditch. You could fall out the window and be crushed to death when the tractor rolls on top of you. Those are foul, ugly thoughts. They falsely inflate fears, which might cause someone to remain in immaturity, to remain in safety.

Jesus does not want his disciples to remain immature and without fruit. We all have to grow up. We all have to change. We all have to repent. We might be afraid, but let’s all agree that a boy learning how to run a tractor is a good thing. How much more, then, is a disciple of Jesus growing up in the love that Jesus teaches a good thing? Jesus’s teachings and Jesus’s commands set us on an adventure, but that adventure is totally worth it.

And you do not go on that adventure alone. If you get rejected, Jesus accepts you. If you suffer, Jesus will comfort you. If you die, Jesus will resurrect you. Therefore, there is no reason why you should ever give in to your fears. You, understandably, might be afraid to give away wealth. The voice of fear might say: “What if I end up being miserable?” Your wealth enables you to do a lot of nice stuff for yourself.

Or take another command of Jesus’s: You might be afraid to love your enemy. Enemies have been known to do some hurtful things. Don’t be afraid. Jesus, your teacher and master, teaches good things, not bad things. You can’t go wrong if you will take the risk of being obedient to him. But you can’t know that goodness until you take the plunge.

But suppose you try to carry out Jesus’s commands and you fail. What then? Should you wish that you had never tried in the first place? That’s a loser’s mentality. If you fail, then ask Jesus to forgive you. Then get right back up on that horse. It’s inevitable that a person will get bucked off while learning to tame a horse. How can we expect that it should be easy to tame ourselves? Or what kind of ride might we have if we make up our mind to love our enemy? Who knows what might happen!

On these adventures it's almost certain that mistakes will be made. Gears will accidentally be grinded. My nephew, by the way, didn’t grind the gears even once this past week. I was the one who accidentally grinded the gears—but don’t tell dad. On second thought, maybe you can tell him. I think he would forgive me.

Right next to the forgiveness of sins, growing up in love as Christ’s disciple and student is the best of things. It sets us on adventures already in this life, and those adventures will continue on into the next. Don’t be ruled by your fears. Put your trust in Jesus. He will protect you. He will pick you up when you have fallen. He is your Lord and Savior.

241006 Sermon on Jesus's commands requiring faith (Pentecost 20) October 6, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 06 Oct 2024 16:16:00 +0000

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Jesus’s commands can seem unreasonable and unrealistic. Let me give you an example. In Luke chapter 6 Jesus commands that we give to those who ask of us, and if our goods should be taken away that we should not demand them back. Upon hearing that we are to give to anyone who asks, and that we should not demand back what has been taken, there is a part of every one of us that rebels against this command. It doesn’t seem like it will work out very well for us. All our stuff will be taken away. So we don’t do it. We set Jesus’s command aside.

But there is another way of looking at it. A person could believe that Jesus’s commands are good. A person could believe that things will go better if we follow Jesus’s command, if we give to those who ask, and not demand back from those who take. God must be the biggest factor in this scenario. God would have to protect you. God would have to repay what was taken from you. Can you trust him? In order to accept Jesus’s command about giving and not demanding back we have to believe that God loves us and will take care of us. Jesus’s commands require faith. Hearing his commands with faith changes our perception of them.

We heard Jesus’s commands concerning the irrevocability of marriage and the unsuitability of divorce in our Gospel reading. Divorce is very emotional, painful, and complicated. Nobody gets married with the hopes of getting divorced. I won’t be covering all aspects of this topic in this sermon. Pastor Bertram and I would be happy to speak with you more about any questions or thoughts you might have one on one. For the purposes of our time together today, though, I’d like to look at Jesus’s commands regarding marriage and divorce as requiring faith.

When Jesus was asked about the permissibility of divorce I think his answer surprised both his opponents and his disciples. His opponents, the Pharisees, knew that Moses allowed for divorce. I think Jesus surprised them when he told them that that was an accommodation for their hardness of heart. A hard heart is an unbelieving heart. Husband and wife are not supposed to separate. From the beginning man and woman have been joined in marriage so that they become one flesh. What God has joined together, let not man separate.

It seems that the disciples were surprised by this command also. They asked Jesus about it afterwards. Jesus did not soften his stance on the irrevocability of marriage. If a husband divorces his wife and marries another, he is committing adultery against his first wife. If a wife divorces her husband and marries another, she is committing adultery against her first husband. Marriage, in God’s sight, is not ended by a certificate of divorce. It is ended by God when he brings about the death of one or the other of the spouses. If God ends the marriage, then the surviving spouse is free to marry another.

Upon hearing Jesus’s teaching our immediate reaction might be that all of this is way too black and white. What about this circumstance and that circumstance? And there might be validity to those circumstances. Not every divorce is sinful. Some divorces are justified. Jesus himself, in a parallel passage, says that divorce may be granted when adultery has been committed by the other spouse.

But we all know that not all divorces are because of adultery or abuse or abandonment. Many divorces happen because husband and wife do not get along. That is not unusual or surprising. We all have our sinful flesh that is as wicked as can be. We also have the devil who is always ready to blow any sparks he can find into a raging, consuming fire. Divorce is not irrational. It seems like it is a good solution to an all too common problem. Why should two people be chained together when they no longer want to be together?

Although this seems reasonable, it doesn’t seem to play out this way in actual experience. Becoming one flesh with someone is not merely biological or social or economic. As Jesus shows in our reading, God is involved in this union. God joins together. Divorce pulls apart. Those who divorce often feel lingering pains. Maybe some problems have been solved by the divorce, but new ones arise. The happiness that was hoped for doesn’t always come or doesn’t always last.

When Jesus teaches about the irrevocability of marriage and the unsuitability of divorce, he is actually showing us a way for happiness, for blessedness. If you have experienced difficulties in your marriage, or if you are currently experiencing difficulties in your marriage, then Jesus’s commands might seem to be offering the opposite of happiness or blessedness. It might seem as though Jesus is only making the situation worse. Now not only can you not have the hope of happiness from getting divorced, if you do get divorced, then you’ll have to feel guilty about it.

Although this might be a common way of hearing Jesus’s commands, it isn’t the only way. Consider again the commands that I began with. Jesus commands us to give to those who ask, and not to demand back from those who take. One could interpret those commands in such a way that Jesus intends to make us miserable. Jesus wants us to lose all our money. Jesus wants us to be abused by evildoers and have no recourse so as to defend ourselves.

But is this what Jesus really wants? Does he want us to be miserable? He wants just the opposite. He wants us to be happy and blessed. He promises that if we follow his commands that we will be blessed. Strangely enough, if we were to follow his commands we might end up with less money, but we will nevertheless end up with more. Undertaking Jesus’s commands with faith makes the scenario appear altogether different.

So it is also with Jesus’s commands about the irrevocability of marriage and the unsuitability of divorce. If you leave God out of the picture it can seem like the gloomiest of commands. It can sound like God is cruel and wants to take away all joy and happiness by keeping people stuck in miserable marriages. But that is not the only way it can be looked at. We can look at these commands with faith.

Looking at your marriage with faith is to realize that God has been and is completely involved. God has joined you together with your spouse. We know that because you have not just been dating or going steady. You have made your promises before God, to one another, and to society. You have promised that you will love and cherish this person for better for worse, for richer for poorer, and in sickness and in health until death parts you. Because God has put you together with this person, you know that that is where you belong. Because God has put you together with this person, you know that God will care for you even if you are going through some troubles.

Now, I wish that there weren’t any troubles. I wish that everyone always got along splendidly. I wish that everyone always had more than enough money so that they would never have to ask another person for money. I could wish for a lot of things along these lines, but my wishing wouldn’t make it so. We live in a broken world with much suffering. How should we respond to this brokenness? Jesus’s commands direct us in the way that we should go. His commands help to undo brokenness. We don’t have to sit idly by with brokenness, believing with the rest of the world that nothing can be done. We can demonstrate our faith by cheerfully giving when called upon to do so. We can demonstrate our faith by cheerfully looking to the future with the one to whom we have been joined by God to be one flesh.

I understand how what I have said could be painful for those of you who have difficulties in your marriage. To be cheerful about your marriage seems like something you gave up on a long time ago. You haven’t been looking forward with cheerfulness. You’ve only been trying to survive. But this is where Jesus’s commands can be the most helpful. Although you might not be able to see any light at the end of the tunnel or anywhere else for that matter, God is the creator of light. What might God do if you were to believe? What might God do if you joined yourself wholeheartedly to his teaching? There’s no telling what might happen—what adventures God might put you on—but I’m sure that it would be good!

There is no way for me to prove to you that obeying Jesus’s commands, being his disciple, will be good for you. The only way you can know that is by taking the plunge yourself. You have to believe that giving to the one who asks will do you good. You have to believe that not demanding back what was taken from you will bring you happiness and blessedness. You have to believe that Jesus will protect you and lead you in the way that you should go, even if that path might be filled with painful sacrifices and frightening challenges.

What is good for you to know, though, is that you are not stuck. Jesus’s commands and promises open up possibilities that are so often deemed to be impossible. Jesus is Lord. All things have been put under his feet. Therefore, there is always hope. Nothing that we do in faith will be in vain. Listening to Jesus brings us on the right paths that bring about love and healing.

Hopefully today you have seen that none of us believe as we ought. None of us are as convinced as we should be that Jesus’s ways. Therefore we can all change our ways. We can all repent and believe the good news that Jesus is Lord. Jesus forgives and will set right all that has gone wrong. In the mean time be led by Jesus’s good commands and promises.

240922 Sermon on being the greatest (Pentecost 18) September 22, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 16:05:00 +0000

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Jesus said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

Being recognized is a deep human need. Being recognized is when a person is accepted and appreciated for who they are. People can be recognized for all kinds of different things: “You are talented.” “You are hard working.” “You are funny.” It feels good to be recognized. Usually people cultivate their lives in such a way that they can continue to be recognized. Funny people enjoy being recognized as funny, and so they are always coming up with new bits. What do you want to be known as? Smart, successful, caring, hard-nosed, charming? You’ll do what’s necessary to continue to be known and recognized as such.

This is simply how we are. There would be no sense in trying to get rid of this impulse. We need to be accepted and appreciated. To try to do away with this would be as silly as trying to do away with sleeping, eating, or drinking. That said, the desire to be recognized can go awry.

For example, what often happens is that a person not only wants to be recognized, he or she doesn’t want others to be recognized. Let’s say a woman is pretty. Maybe she’d like to be the prettiest. That means she’d like it if nobody was even close to being as pretty as her. Or let’s say there are many children in the family. Which of them is the favorite? There can only be one favorite. To be the child that mom or dad loves most feels good. I think you can see where problems arise. Being the prettiest can bring about meanness and conceit. With favorites in families there can be lifelong resentment. It’s not hard to see how these things can be bad.

What is to be done? I think a lot of people believe nothing can be done. We have no other choice than to accept things as they are. The best will be the best and the worst will be the worst. Since that is the way things are, you should try your hardest to be the best. Then you’ll get that recognition you crave. If someone is not getting recognition, then it’s because they aren’t trying hard enough. If they tried harder, then they’d be recognized too.

This is a very powerful philosophy. It makes sense. It’s assumed to be correct. It’s everywhere. To learn something different, therefore, will require effort. You’ll have to learn new and different rules. Take Jesus’s statement in our Gospel reading. He said, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” To be first be last. It almost sounds non-sensical. Those are opposites of one another. If the first are last, then they can’t be first. The first are first and the last are last.

But Jesus helps us with what he says after that. “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” Being the servant of all throws a different light on things. It shows us a different way that we might use what has been given to us. What comes naturally to us is to use whatever we have to promote ourselves. We try to make the case that we are the greatest. But if we would serve, then we would use what we have for others—to lift them up, to do them good.

Consider something I’ve already mentioned—prettiness. It can seem to be something that is only good for the girl who has it, but it doesn’t have to be used that way. A pretty girl can give her prettiness to her man. She wants him to enjoy her prettiness instead enjoying her prettiness for herself or using her prettiness to distinguish herself from others. Or a pretty girl can love the girls who have not been given what she has been given. She can forget about her prettiness and associate with the lowly—not in some ostentatious, obnoxious, ugly way, but in a genuine, friendly way. Thereby she gives away her prettiness to those who are less so, and who might be somewhat shunned because of it.

Boys can do this too. Boys often value different things than girls. Athletic boys can hang out with non-athletic boys—bearing with them, not ridiculing them and demeaning them. Boys who know how to use guns or tools or other desirable things can take in those who don’t. In this way a boy gives cover to another.

You know how it usually goes, though, don’t you? A hierarchy is what comes naturally. The best are at the top. The worst are at the bottom. Those at the top differentiate themselves from the rest with their greatness. They are not like them. They are best. The rest are not. Those at the bottom should know their place and burn with envy. That’s the way it is—so so many say.

That’s not correct if Jesus is correct. Maybe Jesus is a fool. Lots of people don’t believe him. But he says that greatness is not when you use what you have for yourself. Greatness is when you are the last of all and the servant of all. Greatness is when you lift up others, when you help and improve others. The lowlier the people you can help, the better, because when you are helping really lowly people you are being like Jesus.

Think of the way that Jesus is. If ever there was anyone who is the best, then that would be Jesus. But how does Jesus use his greatness? Does he point at disappointing people and say, “Look at how much better I am than you!” “Look how sinful you are and how righteous I am!”

No. Jesus doesn’t do this. He could if he wanted. He truly is so much better and so much more righteous than we are. But he doesn’t use what is his to stare at himself in the mirror, admiring himself, comparing himself to those who do not have what he has. He uses what is his to help those who are without. He makes others better.

And there’s no one who’s too low for him. There’s no one about whom he says, “Ach! That one is too disgusting!” He rejects no one. The rejection is always on the other end. The sinner says he doesn’t want to associate with him. The proud one says, “I won’t have your condescension and charity!” But as far as Jesus is concerned, he is willing to be last of all. He is the servant of all. The word “all” means without exception. He will help you.

You can see how Jesus’s friendliness, Jesus’s reaching out, Jesus’s free acknowledgement, acceptance, and approval of people is beautiful, helpful, and good. Another word that we could use to describe all this activity of Jesus is “love.” Jesus loves us, therefore we should love others. The apostle John has written, “We love, because he first loved us.”

There are a lot of people who want to be recognized. They are aching for it. You can give them that. Now I’m sure you could come up with excuses for why you shouldn’t. I’m sure that if you used your eagle-eye glasses for fault-finding, you could find faults in anyone. Thank God Jesus didn’t do that to you. If Jesus were looking for faults in you, so as to excuse himself from help you, I’m sure he could have. But he didn’t. He loves you, so you should love others.

And, as I mentioned before, the lowlier the person, the better. The more like Christ you will be. So love that person whom you have found to be distasteful. Love that person from whom you will get no benefit in return. Jesus says that we should love even our enemies.

Jesus’s saying is a strange recipe for greatness: “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” You might be saying to yourself, “That won’t make me happy. That will make me miserable.” Don’t be so sure. Loving and being loved are the highest things in life. The more you love the more you’re loved. There’s no limit to how much you can love. Jesus says that he can become the water of life in us so that we become like a spring. A spring of water just keeps going and going. Life and love bubble up even unto eternal life.

To do the opposite of this cannot turn out well. This is an important warning. People think it is neither here nor there if they are as vain and conceited as peacocks. Not so! James warned us in our Epistle reading that jealousy and selfish ambition are demonic. Demons hate and hamper and destroy life. So do the proud and cruel self-promoters. Hell, because it is the opposite of heaven, would seem to me to be the place where there is no love—a truly terrifying possibility. No love!

You know how good love is, so don’t shut yourself up away from it. Do not strive to be the greatest by comparing yourself. Greatness is when you use what has been given to you to make other people better. Greatness is being like Jesus. Love like him. Be the last of all and the servant of all.

240908 Sermon on being "opened up" to God (Pentecost 16) September 8, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 15:09:00 +0000

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If you can imagine what it would be like to be deaf and unable to speak, then you might understand why Jesus said “Ephphatha,” which means “be opened” in our Gospel reading. Deafness and muteness close a person in on himself. It is difficult to take in the thoughts of others because you cannot hear them speaking. It is difficult to communicate one’s own thoughts because the speaking is not clear.

Hearing well and speaking well can easily be taken for granted. We don’t know a good thing until it's gone. Restoring losses like blindness, deafness, lameness, or muteness dramatically improves people’s lives.

Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 35 talks about changing lives for the better. Isaiah lived more than 700 years before Christ, but he talks about things that Jesus did: “The eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame man shall leap like a dear, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.” Jesus did many miracles having to do with precisely these ailments. Think of how their lives were changed for the better.

There are several videos on the Internet that show something similar. Perhaps you’ve seen them. The videos show little kids getting glasses for the first time, or hearing aids or implants for the first time. These kids already know mom and dad, but they had never seen them clearly or heard them clearly. The first time they can see or hear they are filled with awe. Joy comes over their faces. Sometimes there are tears. The world opens up for them. That’s life and liveliness. It is as Jesus said, “I came so that you may have life, and have it more abundantly.”

Jesus’s bringing of abundant life is, again, fulfilling what Isaiah wrote. All of Isaiah 35 is about the restoration of life that the Christ brings about. Dry, dead, and barren places like the desert will come to life and bloom. Fraud, violence, and death will be no more. The redeemed will enter into Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.

What features most prominently in Isaiah 35, however, is life with God. It says, “They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.” We heard at the beginning of our Old Testament reading these words, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’” Those are bracing words if you have the guts to believe them. “You will see God,” and “God is coming for you.”

If you think about it, isn’t it the case that we need to be “opened up,” so to speak, to this reality of God—that we should see him, that he’s coming for us? Blind people need to be opened up to the reality of seeing. Deaf people need to be opened up to the reality of hearing. It’s not like sights and sounds don’t exist when someone is blind or deaf, it’s just that they cannot perceive what’s actually there. So it is with God. Our inability or unwillingness to acknowledge him doesn’t mean that he doesn’t exist. To no longer be severely hampered—to no longer be blind, deaf, lame, and mute when it comes to God—requires a miracle along the lines of the man whom Jesus helped in our Gospel reading. We need to be opened up, otherwise we won’t even know what we are missing.

So it can be also for those who are physically blind, deaf, lame, or mute. Those conditions can be lived with. They are not fatal. It’s just that large swaths of reality and joy are withheld. We can be that way with God too. In fact, that is our natural predisposition. We by nature are closed off from God, and we think that’s just normal.

Consider your daily routine. It’s so easy to go through an entire day without hardly giving a single thought towards God. We just follow our routine: Get up, make coffee, take a shower, go to work or school, come home, watch Netflix, go to bed. God is there the whole time, but we have nothing to do with him. It’s as though we were blind, deaf, lame, and mute towards him without even knowing it.

I could almost see Jesus groaning over us like he did with the man in our Gospel reading. “Wake up you sleepy head!” I could see Jesus saying to us, “Be opened.” Life is more than food and drink. Life is more than work and vacation. Life is more than amusing ourselves to death. We can be as unthinking and uncaring as livestock, consuming what’s given to us, oblivious to the coming slaughter. That’s not how we are to be. We are much greater than the other animals. We have been made in the image of God. That makes us capable of high and divine things that we should take in, consider, and interact with. We can know things like truth, justice, mercy, peace, sacrifice, hope. On top of all these things we can even know God.

Now, I can hear some critics saying that all that stuff about truth, mercy, and so on is a waste of time and money. There are a lot of people—the most powerful people in our society—who think that jobs, money, business, technology, and so on are the only things that matter. All that other stuff is too high-falutin’. These people usually pride themselves for their practicality and for living in the real world.

They’re wrong! They don’t live in the real world. They’ve made for themselves a world that doesn’t have a Creator in it who daily and richly provides me with all that I need. The real world has God in it. The real world has God’s commands and curses, his promises and blessings. Just because a person is unable or unwilling to acknowledge that, doesn’t make it so.

Imagine if there were a blind man who didn’t believe that such a thing as sight exists. He’s utterly convinced of that because he’s never experienced it. Thus this arrogant man would like to impose his lack and his poverty on everyone else. So it is with those who scoff at God’s Word, who scoff at Jesus’s sacraments, who scoff at truth, love, beauty, and so on. Why? Because it’s work that’s important. Or amusements are important. Or it’s simply a matter of being anesthetized and vegging out to pass the time.

I know a lot of people like this. I know myself. I know that I can very easily pass my days without much thought regarding God. I know, as another example, that I do not love God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength, and with all my mind. A spiritually blind person might respond, “Well, no one can do that, so who cares?” But what if we really are supposed to? What if we really can? What if Jesus was sent to cure our blindness? What if Jesus is meant to open up in us a closed-off-ness that we just thought was normal?

Jesus says, “I came that you may have life, and have it more abundantly.” Jesus turns back the curses that hamper life. He heals physical blindness, deafness, and so on. Everyone can see the goodness of that. What is not realized as frequently is that Jesus opens us up spiritually to things we wouldn’t otherwise know. We wouldn’t otherwise know these things, because these things are only learned from the prophets, from Jesus, and from the apostles. Just as the blind man doesn’t know what it means to see until sight is given, so also we do not know what it is like to know God until Jesus opens us up to that.

We can know God by his Word. We can learn how to live with him in his creation from the Psalms. We can learn about our future from prophesies like Isaiah 35. We can begin to love God by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can think about God more often than never or twice a day. We can call upon him in prayer. We can restrain ourselves when we know that going further down the path of temptation would bring us into sin. We can begin to live a new life. What some can’t see or hear we can begin to see and hear.

But, as the apostle says, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now we know in part, then we shall know fully, even as we have ben fully known.” Paul is talking about how we only get an inkling in this life. I suspect an experience awaits us that is something like those videos that I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon. Those little kids never knew that they could see so well until the first time those glasses were put on their faces. They didn’t know how beautiful Mom’s voice was until they heard it. So it will be also for us.

What will it be like to see God? What will it be like to look Jesus in the face? Jesus opens us up to this hope with his Gospel. No one has seen God except Jesus who came from God. And yet, because of Jesus, we will see God in his holiness and splendor. I suspect that just a moment of that will contain more living in it than our entire life here below.

Therefore, do not be deceived. Don’t be tricked out of this healing. Jesus warns us against following those who are blind: “If the blind lead the blind, they will both fall into the pit.” Do not be blind to God. Do not be blind to truth, love, righteousness, sin, justice, redemption, and many other spiritual things. Our world is full of people who say that none of that matters. They are blind. They are closed in on themselves. “Ephphatha!” Be opened to God and to one another. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

240901 Sermon on Jesus's teaching concerning clean and unclean food (Mark 7:14-23) Pentecost 15 September 1, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 16:25:00 +0000

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Let’s begin by defining a couple words: defilement and sanctification. These words are opposites. Defilement is when someone is made unclean and unholy. Sanctification is when someone is made holy. Whether we are defiled or sanctified is of utmost importance for how God regards us. If we are defiled, then we are unacceptable before God. It’s like having something rotten in your home. It stinks. Put that stuff outside. It doesn’t belong in the house. That is how are we before God when we are defiled.

Being sanctified is the opposite. When we are holy, we belong with God. One of the ways that the Bible talks about holiness is by being properly dressed. When we are properly dressed we have no need to be ashamed. If we were found in our underwear, or naked, we would be ashamed. But when we are properly clothed we are acceptable. We can be seen. So it is for those who are holy.

Defilement describes a state of being where we have no business being together with God. Sanctification describes a state of being where we belong together with God.

Understanding defilement and sanctification is essential for understanding the religion that God gave to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai in the Old Testament. God wanted the Israelites to be holy so that they could be with him and he could be with them. To make the Israelites holy God instituted many laws, rituals, and practices. Moses wrote these down in Exodus, and, especially, in Leviticus. The entirety of Leviticus is God’s instructions for avoiding defilement and what is to be done if someone has become defiled.

One of the regulations that God gave at that time was about clean and unclean foods. Clean food could be eaten without defilement. Unclean foods would defile the eater. For example, beef and lamb could be eaten. Pork, shellfish, and several other animals would defile the eater. We won’t get into the whys and wherefores of this. You can read about that yourself in Leviticus 11. What I’d like to point out is that according to the laws God gave to the Israelites, there was such a thing as unclean food that would defile the Israelites if they ate it.

This is important background information for our Gospel reading. For the nearly 1,500 years, from Moses to Jesus, the Jews observed the distinction between clean and unclean food. But then in our Gospel reading Jesus says: “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Let’s apply Jesus’s words to unclean food. Unclean food is something from outside. It defiles. Is Jesus rejecting the distinction between clean and unclean food? Yes, he is. Jesus is even clearer, later, with his disciples when they asked him to explain himself. He said, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus Jesus declared all foods clean.) Jesus said, “All foods are clean.”

There seems to be an obvious contradiction between what Leviticus 11 says and what Jesus says in our Gospel reading. Leviticus 11 says that there are several foods that what will defile you. Jesus says, “Nothing from the outside can defile a person. What defiles a person is what goes out from a person.” The Pharisees and scribes—always quick to point out any faults they find with Jesus or with his disciples—thought that Jesus was taking away from what God had commanded. We heard in our first reading that nothing should be added or taken away from what God has said.

But instead of thinking that Jesus is contradicting the Scriptures or taking something away, it might be helpful to think of what he is doing as fulfilling the Scriptures. The Law that God gave to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai was binding for a time, but that was not meant to be an arrangement that would last for all time. Something new would take its place. This was, in fact, already prophesied at that time.

In Deuteronomy 18, which is at the same time as Mt. Sinai, Moses speaks of a mysterious Someone who is to come, who will be like him, but even greater. Moses calls this one the “prophet.” He says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brother Israelites. Listen to him.” Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Moses says, “Listen to him.” The people had listened to Moses. Now we should listen to this Prophet. Moses says so. So if Jesus declares that all foods are clean, then we should believe all foods are clean. Jesus is Lord.

In order to do this, however, you must understand who Jesus is. You must correctly identify him as the prophet spoken of by Moses. The problem with the scribes and Pharisees was that they didn’t believe, or didn’t want to believe, that Jesus is this prophet. They didn’t want to listen to him even though Moses told them that they should. Because they didn’t want to believe that Jesus is Lord, having authority over all things in heaven and on earth, they instead saw him as an enemy. They thought that he was contradicting Moses, taking away from Scripture, leading people astray. They became convinced that they would be doing God a favor if they got rid of him, and eventually they crucified him.

This question, of who Jesus is, is important and highly consequential for every human being—not just for those scribes and Pharisees. We know what they thought of Jesus. What do you say about Jesus? Your answer is of eternal significance. The Catechism teaches us the correct answer for what we should say about Jesus. It says, “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord.” That is the shortest creed in Christendom. What does it mean to be a Christian? Being a Christian is believing that Jesus Christ is your Lord.

When it comes to what we’ve been talking about today—defilement and sanctification—Jesus being your Lord makes all the difference. The Catechism goes on to describe Jesus’s lordship, what he does as my Lord: “I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.”

You can hear defilement language and sanctification language in that description of Jesus’s lordship. We hear defilement language when we are spoken of as lost and condemned persons. We are defiled by what is in us and what comes out of us. It is as Jesus says in our Gospel reading, “What comes out of a person defiles him… From the heart comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”

Does what Jesus says describe you? Do you have evil thoughts? Are you guilty of sexual immorality, which in the Greek is porneia, which is where we get the word pornography? Do you covet? Do you lie? Do you gossip? I, unfortunately, have done these things and more, which means that I am a lost and condemned person. As far as how I am in myself I am defiled and have no business being together with God. I should be swept out and put with the rest of the trash.

But there is sanctification language too—the opposite of defilement. The Catechism says that Jesus has redeemed me—a wonderful word! I am redeemed! I have been purchased. I have been won—not with gold or silver, but with the holy, precious blood and the innocent suffering and death of my Lord and your Lord. The sacrifice of this Lamb of God has brought about an eternal redemption so that all who trust in him will be clothed with holiness so as to live together with God.

In conclusion, defilement and sanctification might not be the most common words. But whether we are defiled or sanctified is of eternal significance. Whether we are defiled or sanctified determines our relationship with God. When we are living in sin and unbelief, we are defiled. When we call out to Jesus in faith and say, “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” we are sanctified.

The stakes have been raised, so to speak, from what was given at Mt. Sinai. Jesus reveals that our defilement is much deeper than we would otherwise think or imagine. It goes all the way down into our heart, the core of our being. But the remedy is also deeper. God has sent his Son to be the Lord who redeems us.

Jesus is the one about whom Moses prophesied. We should listen to him. What he has to say is not bad for us sinners, but good and life giving. As Jesus himself says, “I have not come in order to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through me.” Listen to him.

240811 Sermon on how we must eat Jesus, the bread of life, to be saved (Pentecost 12) August 11, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 16:27:00 +0000

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Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

Our Gospel reading today is the middle of a conversation that turned into something like an argument. The conversation is between Jesus and some Jews who were seeking him. The reason why they were seeking him was because they had been fed with the five loaves and two fish. That impressed them. They were ready to get on board with Jesus. Why shouldn’t he be king? Then we’d have loaves and fishes aplenty.

But when Jesus had been found, he put a damper on their plans. He said, “You shouldn’t work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.” Jesus would not only feed their bellies, but their souls too. There is a food that does not perish in the eating of it, but endures to eternal life. Jesus is that food. He says, “I am the bread of life.”

As you heard in the reading, this redirection of their intentions didn’t go over very well. They grumbled. They couldn’t understand him. They had liked the bread that they had eaten before. Why couldn’t he just make some more. That would make them happy. But Jesus as bread? What does that even mean and what are they supposed to do? Eat him? That’s ridiculous. They want bread made from barley, not bread made of flesh.

But Jesus’s goal wasn’t to do whatever needed to be done in order to be popular. When you understand that Jesus wasn’t trying to entertain the crowd, or seek their approval, but instead to speak the truth about his Father and about himself, then his words become more understandable. They become more understandable, but only to those who will believe. If you will not believe, then Jesus’s words will be strange at best but what is much more likely is that you will be repulsed by them. If you will believe, then what he says is simple and wonderful.

Let’s take his main statement, which begins our reading. He says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Jesus is the bread of life. Faith eats him. If you eat this bread, then you will not hunger and you will not thirst. This could be referring to physical hunger and thirst if need be. I wouldn’t put it past Jesus who fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fish. But physical hunger and thirst are not the only kind of lack we might have. Spiritual hunger and thirst are much more important. Spiritually we hunger and thirst after righteousness. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is another way of saying that we haven’t got any. We aren’t righteous.

We are well aware how damaging it can be to lack food and drink. We can’t live very long without them. What about righteousness? Can we live without righteousness? In a sense we can, but it isn’t much of an existence.

If we are living without righteousness then we are always needing to live in delusions and under the cover of darkness. We have to hide, so we aren’t found out. We don’t want to be exposed otherwise people will know what we are really like. It is very important to delude yourself about God, or about what happens when we die. If you are not righteous, then you cannot enjoy the thought of meeting God or being judged by him unless you make yourself forget all the stuff that you have done. Without righteousness we do well to stay away as long as we can, until we can stave off death no longer. Then our fear begins in earnest.

If a person was righteous, then he or she would not need to worry. It would be nice to have no fear. But many people do not believe that becoming righteous is possible. That’s understandable. Consult your own experience. Who hasn’t done shameful, embarrassing stuff? Don’t we all need to hide from the light lest our evil deeds be exposed? That sounds right to me. We’ve all blown it one way or another. But this is where Jesus’s words in our reading today are so important. They address this need that can seem so impossible to do anything about. Be that as it may, Jesus still says what he says.

He’s the bread of life. All you who hunger and thirst for righteousness—because you haven’t got any—may eat him and be filled. Then you are righteous. Then you can stand in the judgement. You need not fear the light. Why? Because Jesus was punished in your place for your sins, and he gives you his own righteousness as the Son of God in the place of your sinfulness.

I admit that the picture is strange. Jesus tells us to heat him because he is the bread of life. The Jews grumbled among themselves. What does he mean when he says that he is bread? How are we supposed to eat him? Our brains work the same way as their brains worked, so I think we can understand their confusion. But Jesus does not back down. He doesn’t apologize. He presses forward with his points and, if anything, gets only more extreme.

Extreme actions are needed to cure our lack of righteousness. It is not just saying you’re sorry. It’s not trying harder. Those are some not so extreme actions that come to mind. We must eat Jesus, the living bread sent from heaven. Desperate times call for desperate measures. We desperately need righteousness. Every other attempt will leave us hungry. Then the best we’ve got to combat our lack of righteousness is deluding ourselves or trying to stay in the darkness.

This is all completely unnecessary. Jesus lays out his Father’s will in such a simple way in our reading today. He says, “This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So simple: Look to the Son. Believe in him. You’ll have eternal life. Any sinner can grasp hold of that because he says nothing about making it up to God. He says nothing about paying for your own sins. If you know anything about yourself you know that you haven’t got that in you. Instead, it’s “Look to the Son. Believe in him.” That’s the Father’s will. You had no righteousness, but now, believing in Jesus, Jesus has fed you with himself as the bread of life. It’s as simple as that.

This reminds me of my favorite statement about evangelism. Evangelism is telling people the Gospel, which is the good news about Jesus. Someone has said that evangelism is like one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread. Beggars, as you know, don’t have any money. They can’t buy anything. No food. So when beggars get food they like it. They might even tell their friends where they found it.

So, also, with us Christians. We are beggars when it comes to righteousness. We haven’t got any. But then Jesus comes along and says, “I’ll be your righteousness. I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. Eat and be satisfied. Eat and live.” The beggar goes from hungry to full. Shouldn’t we beggars tell our fellow beggars where we got bread? They too may be forgiven. They too may be completely righteous through faith. Point them in the direction of Jesus who wishes to make himself known throughout the world by means of us beggars. We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”

240728 Sermon on the difference between imagined faith and true faith (Pentecost 10) July 28, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 16:28:00 +0000

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About a month ago we heard a reading that was similar to our Gospel reading today. In that reading Jesus and the disciples embarked in a boat to cross the Sea of Galilee. All of a sudden a great windstorm arose so that water was filling the boat. The disciples ran back to Jesus, who was sleeping in the stern, and said, “Don’t you care that we are dying?” And Jesus rose from his sleep, rebuked the wind and the waves, and there was a great calm. Then Jesus said, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Our reading today is similar. The disciples are again in a boat, although this time Jesus was not with them. Jesus had sent them across while he went up on a mountain to pray. In our reading today a strong wind arose, but it was not so strong that the boat was in danger of sinking. It just made for terribly hard work as they rowed against it. They rowed for hours until Jesus came to them walking on the water. The disciples assumed that he was a ghost. No human being can walk on water. Jesus told them that it was him. Don’t be afraid. When he got into the boat, the wind ceased.

Then Mark says, “The disciples were utterly astounded.” But I think that’s lacking something. Perhaps a more colloquial translation might be: “The disciples were out of their minds,” or “Their minds were blown.” But not in a good way—at least according to Mark—because he goes on to say, “They were utterly astounded, because they did not understand about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.”

Mark brings up the loaves. He is referring to what we heard about last week—Jesus’s feeding of the 5,000. Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish so that 5,000 men ate until they were full. The disciples didn’t understand this. Their hearts were hard. It seems that what Mark is saying is that after such a magnificent display of Jesus’s power nothing should surprise them—not even walking on water. The disciples didn’t get it. They were unbelieving.

The disciples’ unbelief is the aspect of both readings that I’d like to focus on. In both readings the disciples are identified as lacking faith. In the reading from about a month ago Jesus asked them, “Do you still have no faith?” And in our reading today the disciples’ hearts are described as being hardened. These twelve men were the people who were closest to Jesus. How could they have no faith?

Maybe they did—at least according to their own estimation. I suspect that if we could travel back in time to interview the disciples, we might find that they would not have agreed with Jesus’s and Mark’s characterization of them. I think if we were to ask them whether they had faith they would have said, “Of course we have faith!” That would be pretty convincing too. They had left their livelihoods behind. They had followed Jesus. They heard his teaching. They saw his miracles. These all seem to be very good reasons to believe that they had faith, and yet they didn’t.

This shows that there is a difference between saying you have faith or believing you have faith and actually having faith. I think these disciples would have said that they had faith and believed that they had faith, but when push came to shove they had no faith. This wasn’t the last time either.

When Jesus was arrested the disciples quit believing in him. The shepherd was struck and the sheep were scattered. This was despite their intentions and vows of allegiance. Just a few hours before, when Jesus was instituting the Lord’s Supper, all the disciples said that they would rather die than forsake him. Peter said that even if all the other disciples would leave him, Peter wouldn’t, but we know what Peter did a few hours later. When repeatedly questioned whether he was one of Jesus’s disciples, Peter finally said, “I blankedy-blank don’t know the man!” And the rooster crowed.

What we can learn from the example of the disciples is that even the “best” Christians, who have the best advantages, can fool themselves when it comes to the estimation of their faith. There’s no reason to believe that the disciples were being anything but sincere on Maundy Thursday when they said they were going to stick with Jesus no matter what. They believed their faith was very strong. What they believed didn’t matter. They lost their faith. They quit believing that Jesus could do anything.

The reason why I am focusing on the disciples’ unbelief is because we can be like them. We might like to indulge in thinking about the strength of our faith. We have our credentials just like the disciples. We’ve been members of this church for a long time. We’ve been taught. We’ve sacrificed. We’ve sent our kids to parochial school. And it’s not like these thoughts are altogether bad or untrue. The disciples had similar thoughts: They had left everything for Jesus. They learned from him. They didn’t give up following him. Certainly such actions are not bad or without fruit.

Where a disciple’s faith goes wrong, however, is when faith is put in anything besides Jesus. A false faith is a faith that’s in one’s own self, in one’s own actions, in one’s own feelings in one’s own estimation of faith. For disciples of Jesus the actions or feelings that we might believe in can be quite pious, having a lot to do with Jesus. Certainly the apostles’ thoughts and feelings were very much tied up with Jesus. But faith must be grounded in Jesus as the one who acts, as the one who saves. He can do anything. We don’t help him with our actions or feelings or estimations of our own faith. These things seem as likely to hurt as to help.

Therefore, as we see so often in the Bible, it is not uncommon for disciples to be humiliated. I know that’s a strong word. Being humiliated is related to being humble. Being humble is the opposite of being proud. Pride comes before the fall, so being humiliated is by no means the worst thing that can happen to us. It’s not fun, but if we will accept it, it can do us a world of good.

It was good for these disciples. It probably stung when Jesus asked how it was that they still didn’t have faith. I’m sure they were ashamed by how they got scared and ran away. This couldn’t have been how they had envisioned their faith journey. But their dreams of grandeur were not as pious as they appeared. They were a subtle replacement of Jesus being the Savior. Their complimenting of themselves, and their measuring of themselves as to how they were so much better than others—all these pleasurable thoughts weren’t worth a hill of beans. They learned that by bitter experience. They were humiliated. They couldn’t trust in themselves. They hadn’t stuck with Jesus. What was wonderful, however, was how Jesus stuck by them. He stuck by them when they were so foolish and ignoble and had so thoroughly embarrassed themselves.

This is an important lesson. What does it mean and what does it look like to be a Christian? Having become Christians do we now soar into the stratosphere on eagles’ wings? That would be nice! If you can pull it off, then good for you! But don’t be surprised if your experience should be like the apostles’ experience.

Your experience could be along the same lines as we heard about in our Gospel reading. We can get worn out. The disciples had rowed against that miserable wind for hours on end. We’re not at our best when we are tired. I wouldn’t be surprised if the disciples well remembered who it was that sent them on that miserable journey. Why had Jesus done this to them? Why had he made them so miserable? The long and short of it was that the disciples were not looking to Jesus for their strength, for their renewal, for their comfort, for their peace. That is why they were out of their minds when he showed up. They hadn’t been thinking of him.

Can’t you sympathize with that? I sure can. I do not think on Jesus as much as I should. I am particularly bad at thinking of him when I’m tired, when I’m worn down, when I’m looking for comfort. I don’t really believe that Jesus can do anything.

So it goes. I am always repenting. I’ve disappointed myself countless times. I wish that wasn’t so, but it is, and it’s not the worst thing. It’s shown me over and over again that I am not trustworthy. I cannot save myself. I have not graduated from God’s forgiving grace. I go crawling back again and again: “Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner!” I’d like to believe in myself, but my weaknesses and sins teach me that this would be a very foolish thing to believe in. If I am to have any hope of being judged as righteous before God, Jesus must do it all.

Maybe this resonates with you too. We can be friends, sharing our common love and trust in Jesus who saves disciples who are all too often disappointing. Jesus, on the other hand, never disappoints. Trust in him, not in yourself.

240714 Sermon on following the example of John the Baptist instead of Herod and Herodias (Pentecost 8) July 14, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 14 Jul 2024 15:27:00 +0000

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Be faithful unto death and you will receive the crown of everlasting life.

At the end of last week’s Gospel reading Jesus sent out the 12 apostles. They went out and did what Jesus told them to do. They proclaimed that people should repent. They cast out demons and anointed people who were sick with oil and healed them. The apostles were making a name for Jesus by doing the works Jesus had given them to do in his name.

Our Gospel reading today follows immediately after last week’s reading, and as you can recall, today’s reading was about the beheading of John the Baptist. Our reading today is linked in an interesting way with last week’s reading, even though they seem to be completely different topics. At the very beginning of our reading today it says, “King Herod heard of it.” The “it” that Herod heard of was the work of the apostles in Jesus’s name. When Herod heard of this, he immediately thought of what he had done to John the Baptist. His conscience was bothered, and understandably so.

Mark then goes on to tell the story of what Herod and his illegitimate wife, Herodias, had done. Theirs was a story of unbelief and unrepentance. They did not submit to the teaching that John the Baptist taught them. They resisted, each in their own ways. Herod might not have been quite so upset as Herodias, but he still put him in prison and was responsible for beheading him. Herodias was much more straightforward. She hated him.

She hated him because John had said that what they were doing was wrong. Herod and Herodias were not originally married to each other. Both of them were originally married to other spouses. Herodias was originally married to Herod’s brother Philip. But they wanted to be together, so they divorced their spouses and married each other.

John the Baptist told Herod that this was adultery. The 6^th commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery.” Marriage is a lifelong promise of love and faithfulness between husband and wife. God is the one who joins the two to become one flesh, and God is the one who ends marriages by bringing about the death of either husband or wife. Then the surviving spouse is free to marry another. When a person divorces their spouse without sufficient justification that is taking the place of God. God is supposed to decide when marriages end, not us.

I’d like to pause for a moment to take stock of our own understanding of these things in our time. God’s commands concerning divorce and remarriage are perhaps not well known, but they are certainly not well heeded among us. We have a problem also with fornication, which is having sex with someone to whom you are not married. Sexual experimentation with multiple partners is the norm. Living together with someone to whom you are not married is the norm.

Whether these things are normal or not is beside the point. God is clear. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not fornicate. You shall not have this special sexual relationship without promising lifelong faithfulness. God’s “no” to these things are so that he may say “yes” to a relationship that is deeper, healthier, and life-giving. Whether you or I like or dislike these commands, doesn’t change the fact that they are God’s commands. The appropriate response to God’s commands that we have not kept is to fear God and repent.

It is obvious that neither Herod nor Herodias feared God and repented. It is quite likely, in fact, that neither of them thought much about God at all. They justified themselves in their own sight, so that they could do what they wanted to do. When John the Baptist contradicted their justification of themselves, they probably didn’t think that God had anything against them. They probably thought that John was against them with some outdated, misplaced zeal for sexual purity laws. Thus they directed their hatred against John, when it was in fact God that they had a problem with. John was just the messenger. John was a faithful messenger, but Herod and Herodias punished him—first by imprisoning him, then by beheading him.

Such is the experience Christians will have who want to be faithful messengers of God. Jesus doesn’t keep this a secret. He says, “If they have hated me, they will also hate you.” If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, then you will take up his cross and follow him. The hatred of rebellious sinners that is really against God will be poured out on those who remain faithful to his Word.

The anger of rebellious sinners is understandable, if you will only consider how you yourself are. I don’t know of anyone, including myself, who likes to hear criticism of themselves. My first reaction is to strike out against the one who tells me I’m wrong. Although this is understandable as an immediate reaction, may God grant us grace so that we come to our senses. We should realize that we are not just dealing with flesh and blood. God is behind the faithful messenger. We should not be like Herod and Herodias, who did not come to their senses. They continued on in unbelief and unrepentance.

If we are looking for an example to follow, we should be like John the Baptist. He is an example of faithfulness. John loved God and Jesus. Because John loved God, he made it his ambition to please God. John was not ashamed of God’s commands or God’s promises. John believed that the surest way to happiness and eternal life was by following what God teaches in the Bible.

John was very brave. He condemned sin wherever it might be found regardless of the power or authority of the ones who were sinning. He called the highest leaders in the church at that time a “brood of vipers,” because they were a brood of vipers. He called Herod and Herodias adulterers because they were adulterers. This last diagnosis, even though it was true, resulted in his death.

John could have easily avoided death and a whole bunch of trouble if he would only have not cared about God’s commands or God’s promises or God’s kingdom. All that John would have needed to do was to say, “Never mind. No big deal. Let’s all just life and let live.” Immediately he would have been released from prison. If only John would have melted into the general population, who are quite baffled and cowardly when it comes to spiritual things, he wouldn’t have been opposed. John could have had a much more comfortable life.

But if John would have been like that, then he would not have been the bright and shining light that he was, leading people out of the devil’s kingdom into God’s kingdom. He would have left people just the way they were, lost in sin and unbelief. God’s Word would remain unused. John wouldn’t have accomplished anything that he did accomplish. John’s faithfulness to God’s Word helped an untold number of people to escape hell by repenting of their sins and believing in Jesus. John baptized an untold number of people for the forgiveness of their sins. He pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John was a good and helpful man.

You can be like John too. You are fully equipped with what John had. You have God’s commands. You have God’s promises. Those commands and promises bring about repentance and faith in those whom God has chosen. You can be a bright and shining light that helps people escape from the devil’s worthless lies and leads people to God’s truth in Jesus that saves all who believe in him.

But this will not necessarily be easy or painless. You will be tempted to please people rather than trying to please God. You must be brave in the face of opposition. There are so many ways that people might want to punish you for being different from the general population, for being proud of God’s commands and promises, which are the path to eternal life.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that you could share a similar fate as John the Baptist. You could be thrown in prison. You could have your head chopped off. That wouldn’t be the worst thing. If that is the way that God would have you meet your Lord and Savior, then let that day come speedily. You will have lost nothing and gained everything by being faithful to Jesus.

Martin Luther says in his famous hymn, “A Might Fortress is Our God.” God is a mighty fortress fully sufficient to save us in uncertain times. With the troubles we heard about last night in our nation, God’s commands and promises are still our faithful guide which cannot and will not let us down. A mighty fortress is our God, and he remains that way no matter what happens. Martin Luther says as much at the close of that hymn:

And take they our life,

Goods, fame, child and wife,

Though these all be gone,

Our victory has been won;

The Kingdom ours remaineth.

Be faithful unto death, and you will receive the crown of everlasting life.

240630 Sermon on God working contrary to expectations (Pentecost 6) June 30, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 16:22:00 +0000

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Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

A person might feel jealous hearing our Gospel reading today. There was a lot of healing. Jesus was told about Jairus’s little girl who was extremely sick. While he was on his way to heal her, a woman who had a flow of blood was healed. By the time that Jesus got to the house the little girl had died, and Jesus raised her from the dead. Jesus showed his great powers of healing. Some of you might like some healing for yourself, or for someone you know and love. Why can’t Jesus heal some more?

In my sermon last week I spoke of fighting or wrestling with God. Our reason is skeptical of there being any benefit for ourselves from engaging in this. How could we ever win? God is much stronger than us. And in a way our reason is correct. In the examples of the fighters and the wrestlers with God that I spoke about with you last week, the people didn’t come out of the contest stronger. They came out weaker. But, as Paul says, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” The bones that God has broken rejoice. These fighters were humbled, but they believed that God would exalt them. They came into the fight with an idea of what they would like God to do for them, they came out the other end with God having done something that was different from what they expected, but also something that was more.

What I’ve just described is what some people have called “the theology of the cross.” The cross that is being referred to is Jesus’s cross as well as our cross as Christians that Jesus talks about when he says, “If you want to be my disciple, then take up your cross and follow me.” The term “theology of the cross” is a way to summarize the strange way that God works.

Think of how God worked when the Father sent his Son to be the Christ. You might expect God to have sent him with great power and glory. Jesus is God after all. But you know what God does. He causes Jesus to be born in a stable. Away in a manger, no crib for a bed. Those are humbler circumstandes than you were born into. Even if you were born in a house, that’s nothing compared to Jesus’s birth. And the humility continued. He gave and gave.

Finally the Father had his Son nailed to the cross. To all outward appearances, from the perspective of reason, it was no longer possible to believe in this man was God’s Christ. It looked like it was impossible that he could be or remain king. He just became weaker and weaker until he died.

We, of course, know that God was accomplishing the most glorious and beautiful things through the bloody, gory cross. We know that God made peace between himself and sinners. Although God humbled Jesus to the point of death, even death on the cross, God has raised him from the dead. God has highly exalted Jesus so that his name is above every name. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven, and on earth, and those under the earth. Jesus Christ is Lord!

But who’d have thought it while seeing him gasping and crying out from the cross? Nobody! Not even his disciples could continue to believe in him. They thought it was all over and done with. Thomas, one of the twelve, wouldn’t even take his fellow disciples’ word for it. He was never going to believe in Jesus again unless he saw the marks and felt the wounds. So it goes. Such is the power of reason. Reason rises up against what God says and does, declaring him to be unacceptable.

Reason can strike out at the cross—the very core of our faith. To my mind there is no more direct way to disagree with Christianity than to say that what God did to Jesus was wrong. Perhaps you’ve heard this referred to as “divine child abuse.” It can have a ring of truth to it. Why did God do it like that? Why didn’t God just snap his fingers and make everything all better? Maybe you’ve wondered that before. If we were God we wouldn’t use that nasty cross.

So it is that reason and faith go their separate ways. Reason says that the cross is crude, ugly, unnecessary. Faith accepts and loves the cross because faith trusts in the God who put Jesus on that cross. Faith waits for the salvation that God has promised even if that salvation may tarry for a time.

Now let’s go back to the thought with which I began. I mentioned how some of you might be jealous upon hearing how Jesus did all this healing. You or someone you love needs healing. Our reason can be the enemy to our faith here. Our reason might ask, “Why doesn’t Jesus heal right here, right now, in the way that I want him to?” What’s his problem? Why doesn’t he do what I want?

To be a human being means that we have our reason. It is not strange that our reason should act this way. What makes a Christian a Christian, however, is believing that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord with all his forgiveness. Jesus Christ is Lord with all his resurrected power and glory. Jesus Christ is Lord with his cross, with his testing, with his waiting, with his wrestling, with his humbling, with his exalting. Jesus is who Jesus is. We can’t pull him apart and take those things that we like best about him and dump the rest in the garbage.

Maybe one of the things that you don’t really like about Jesus is that he hasn’t healed you, or that he hasn’t healed someone that you love. If you could, you’d dump that part of him into the garbage. Well, my advice is that if you feel that way, then you should say that to him! We talked about this last week as well. Your prayers don’t need to be polite. God already knows how you feel, so you might as well be honest about it. More prayers are better, not less. Tell him what you want. God will hear your prayer.

However—and this is a big however—he might not answer your prayers the way you want or expect. He might not answer your prayers the way that you would want to require of him. “If I’m going to pray to you, then you better do what I want.”

This is true even in the cases of healing that we heard about in our Gospel reading. I doubt very much that that woman with the flow of blood prayed that she would suffer from her condition for twelve years, that she would spend all her money on doctors, that she would be the victim of medical malpractice. When she touched the hem of Jesus’s robe, that was when the time was right.

I doubt that the father and mother of that sick little girl prayed that they wouldn’t get their request to Jesus on time, that Jesus wouldn’t get there in time, and that their little girl would die. They didn’t pray that their little girl would lose all the color in her cheeks so that mother and father would cry rivers of tears. I’m sure they prayed, “O God! Save our daughter!” And he did—just not in the way that they were expecting.

Nevertheless, at the end of all of this, despite their tears and sorrows, I am sure that all of these people whom Jesus blessed were better off than if they had been healed in the way that they were expecting. God does better to us that we would ever do for ourselves. But to believe that requires faith. Our reason might have all kinds of things to say to the contrary.

We can easily apply this to ourselves and our desires. All of us have things we want from God. We should make our requests known to him, firmly believing that he will answer our prayers. If, for no other reason, we should be confident because we know that God has given us Jesus. Jesus is God’s most precious treasure. If God has given us Jesus, then he has to give us every good thing.

But here’s the thing: We don’t know how he will do it. We don’t know if it will take twelve years. We don’t know if we will lose all our money. We don’t know if we or that person you love will have to die first before the healing will take place. But it will take place. And it will be glorious. You will be better off on the other end than if God would do everything exactly the way you want him to do. But to believe that takes faith. May God grant you such faith! Amen.

Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

240623 Sermon on lamenting to God (Pentecost 5) June 23, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 23 Jun 2024 16:23:00 +0000

Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

“When I am weak, then I am strong.”

“Don’t you care that we are dying?” That’s what the disciples said. The wind was too strong. The waves were too high. Some of them were probably trying to use anything they could find to bail out the boat. They were fighting for their lives. What was Jesus doing? Sleeping. Didn’t he care?

Our Old Testament reading is from the book of Job. Job had been a very good man. He loved his family. He prayed for his kids every day. Then his life became miserable. His property was destroyed. His children were killed. He lost his health. Most of the book of Job is made up of conversations between Job and his friends. They discussed how God could do this to poor Job. Didn’t God care?

In both of these situations you can tell that there were some pretty raw emotions. When the disciples said, “Don’t you care that we are dying?” they were yelling so as to be heard above the wind and the waves. Job, also, in his discussions, said stuff like, “Why did you do this to me God?” and “I wish I had never been born.” They were fighting with God.

Fighting with God doesn’t seem like it should be a good idea, but this is one of many instances having to do with our relationship with God when we should not be led by our reason. We should let our reason take the lead with many things in life, but not with our relationship with God. Our reason has a surprising amount to say about the topic of God. We naturally have ideas about how things should be, how God should be, what he should do. Our reason says that God should act in such a way where we don’t ever have to fight with him. If we are fighting with him, then things must be really bad, our reason says.

The Scriptures speak differently. The greatest figures in the Bible struggle mightily with God. Think of Abraham. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved. What a fight Abraham must have had!

Think of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob. One night Jacob was at the lowest point in his life. He was pretty sure that at least half of his family was going to be annihilated the next day by his brother Esau and his men. Then, in the middle of the night, a strange man shows up out of nowhere so that Jacob had to fight for his life. This was God. And God played kind of dirty—he popped Jacob’s hip out of joint so that he walked with a limp the rest of his life. Jacob, though—that wonderful man—wouldn’t let God go until God blessed him. And God did bless him. God gave him his new name of “Israel,” which means “wrestler with God.” The people of God in the Old Testament came to be called by this name, Israel, which means “wrestler with God.”

There are almost countless other examples I could give you. Wrestling—fighting—with God is not forbidden. In fact, it seem to be how we grow. But it’s hard. It’s deeply unpleasant. We don’t want God to act in such a way where we have to wrestle with him. We want what those disciples undoubtedly wanted. We want smooth sailing forever. Each day should be better than the one before. But then suddenly, out of nowhere, a great windstorm arises and you are in a fight for your life.

What are you going to say about that when that happens? Is it just bad luck? Has the wheel of fortune landed on bankrupt? Does God exist? Would a good and omnipotent God do such awful things? These are the kinds of thoughts that our reason comes up with in order to avoid fighting with God. We want a nice life, and if God isn’t going to help us have a nice life, then be done with him.

But this is the worst thing that we can do. Even with human relationships, the lowest point is not when there is fighting and wrestling. The lowest point is when the person despises the other, won’t have anything to do with them. There’s no fighting. There’s no heart-to-heart. The best to be hoped for is polite chit-chat.

There is a way to have a kind of spiritual chit-chat with God, too. The politeness reveals something terrible—a huge distance between the person and God. God never commands us to be polite with him, nor do the examples from the Scriptures bear that out. The disciples were not polite with Jesus. They screamed at him: “Don’t you care that we are dying!” And Job too: “I wish that I had never been born. I wish I had died while I was still in my mother’s womb.” Those are ugly thoughts. They are accusatory too. “It’s your fault, God!” “Why did you do this?”

The many examples of the greatest figures in the Bible give us permission to open our hearts to God and let him have it. This is called lamentation. We have a book of the Bible that’s called Lamentations. We have psalms of lament. King David, the greatest of the psalmists, composed the saddest songs. He said stuff like, “God, why won’t you answer me?” and “Why have you forsaken me?” and “Turn away from your fierce anger and be merciful to me!”

One of the benefits of using the Psalms is that they teach us a much larger vocabulary for our prayers and praises. Our vocabulary is very often limited because our reason tells us we need to be polite. I could imagine that God might get sick of all this politeness, just like we get sick of the cold politeness we receive. God wants our heart. The greatest commandment is that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. We need to open ourselves up to him. Tell him what you really think. And that might mean that you will wrestle with him and fight with him.

And what can we expect to happen when we wrestle with God? Our reason is very interested in this question. We want what’s best for us, and so will this wrestling and fighting business make us better off? The answer is that we will be better off, but not the way we would expect. We expect that we will become stronger, but what the examples from the Scriptures reveal is that we will become weaker.

Jacob, for the rest of his days, walked with a limp. Job finished up his conversation with God by saying, “Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Consider the words that Jesus spoke in our Gospel reading. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” Maybe before this ordeal they thought that they were doing pretty well, that they had a strong faith. After wrestling with God they discover that they had no faith at all.

Why should a person enter into a contest with God if it is only going to reveal one’s own weakness, helplessness, faithlessness, and so on? A person should do that because of this wonderful saying from St. Paul with which we began. He said, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul knew that when he was weak then he was strong because God had said to him, “Don’t worry about your failings. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

It’s God’s power that we want and need, not our own power. When I feel good or strong or righteous or whatever, that doesn’t mean that I really am those things. A windstorm could show up out of nowhere, and prove that to me. When I am weak, however, when I’m not relying upon myself, when I’m placing all my trust and hope in Jesus, then I am strong—even infinitely so, because Jesus is infinitely strong.

We see this play out in a wonderful way in our Gospel reading today. The disciples’ wrestling match with God—the disciple’s wrestling match with God’s wind and God’s waves—revealed that they were not as strong as they thought they were. Their terror during the ordeal revealed that their faith wasn’t as resilient as they thought it was.

But what does any of that matter? We don’t save ourselves by our own strength, nor do we save ourselves by our estimation of our own faith. Jesus saves! And through this experience the disciples were turned away from themselves and became completely captivated with Jesus. They tinkle with fear and say, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” That is the spot to be in.

I know that for some of you terrible windstorms have come upon you. Out of nowhere the smooth sailing is over. Learn from the Scriptures what to do. The Bible teaches us a different way, as we have talked about today. Open your heart to the God who has wounded you. That takes a lot of courage! Don’t let him go until he gives you a blessing, and you will be blessed. As David says in Psalm 51, “The bones that God has broken will rejoice.”

“Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” Amen.

240602 Sermon on why the Pharisees wanted to destroy Jesus (Pentecost 2) June 2, 2024

rev.michael.holmen@gmail.com (.) — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 16:27:00 +0000

Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

“The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against Jesus, how to destroy him.”

Perhaps you’ve noticed before that there are some people who like laws and rules, and there are others who don’t. Those who like laws and rules usually also like organization. They like to have their things in their proper places. They like to be on-time. Those are nice things that can be said about them. There are also negative things that can generally be said about them. They can be unimaginative and boring. They can be judgmental and rude. Those who don’t like laws and rules as much can be somewhat the opposite. They are often more flexible. They can be more fun. But they might not be as good at organization or getting tasks done.

Between the two, I think those people are more highly valued who like laws and rules. They often make better employees. They do as they’re told. And if the meaning of life is to have a job or to make money, then these folks are better. They’re more productive.

Among many of the Jews at Jesus’s time the purpose of life was to follow the laws of Moses. That can be hard for us to imagine in our money-soaked culture, but so it was. There were Jews whose stated ambition was to follow God’s Law carefully and zealously. That doesn’t sound like it should ever be a bad thing, but as we heard in our Gospel reading, these people became Jesus’s enemies. They hated him and wanted to destroy him. Why? Because he didn’t follow their rules.

The rules that were especially at issue in our reading had to do with the third commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” God commanded the Israelites not to work on the seventh day of the week. The Jews were extremely careful about keeping this commandment. They came up with well-organized lists of things that ought not be done because such things would be “work.” No work was to be done on the Sabbath.

You heard in our reading how the disciples were walking through the grainfields on the Sabbath. What were they doing? Work—according to the Pharisees. They were plucking heads of grain, rubbing off the chaff, and popping them into their mouths. They were harvesting and threshing.

And you might think that this is no big deal. It was just a few kernels. But you’d be wrong. Anyone who knows anything about rules knows that if you let them take an inch they’ll take a mile. These disciples were just harvesting a few kernels, but what if somebody else started to take handfuls? What’s to stop someone from getting out the sickle? Before you know it, the whole field has been harvested on the Sabbath! No! Nip it in the bud. Not even a single kernel is to be harvested on the Sabbath.

Then, in the second half of the reading, Jesus came into a synagogue on the Sabbath. There was a man whose hand was withered. They wondered whether Jesus might do the work of healing on the Sabbath. Lo and behold, he did! Just as they suspected. Jesus was a Sabbath-breaker.

We might understandably be critical of these Pharisees and immediately come to Jesus’s defense, but I think we can learn some important things if we look at the situation from their perspective. They were fully convinced that they were right. They were doing what they’d always been doing, and what they’d always been doing was to be extremely serious about the Sabbath. They liked to get things just right. They had read many books about it. They’d built up a vast knowledge of what was allowable, what was forbidden, and what might be in the middle. According to this vast knowledge they knew that Jesus was dead wrong.

This left them in a predicament—although it wasn’t really a predicament. Either they could forsake all their learning and all their practices and follow Jesus, or they could reject Jesus. It wasn’t a hard decision. Who was this Jesus anyway? Somebody from the sticks. Everybody knows that nothing good ever comes from Nazareth.

So the Pharisees were not troubled by their decision, but in point of fact they had made a terrible mistake. They believed that the world needed them and their organization. The world needed their books with all of their wisdom. They were wrong. The simplest Christian knows what the world needs. The world needs Jesus. Truth and goodness will only come through faith in him.

Jesus tried to help the Pharisees. He tried to show them that he was the Messiah, the Christ, the King. Jesus mentioned King David. King David and his disciples ate the showbread from the tabernacle that was supposed to be eaten only by the priests. The Jews had been waiting for someone like David, and here he was! Jesus and his disciples could take the liberty of plucking heads of grain just as David had taken liberty with the showbread.

Admittedly, that demonstration is a little subtle, but the other things Jesus said and did were not subtle at all. They were very direct. Jesus flat out said that he is the Son of Man—a messianic title. “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath,” he said, referring to himself. And Jesus showed his power by healing the man’s withered hand. He produced a miracle to validate what he had been saying.

But the Pharisees were blind. They weren’t literally blind, but what they should have seen they didn’t see. They should have seen that Jesus is the Christ, but they saw an enemy instead. They didn’t see a miracle; they saw a Sabbath-breaker. It’s like they were bewitched. Here Jesus was with all his grace and power, but all they care about are their stupid little rules. Their stupid little rules have never saved anyone, nor will they save anyone. There is only one Savior—Jesus of Nazareth. Everything else can and must be cast aside for this pearl of great price. There is no organization, no institution, no proud history that can stand in the way of the One whom God has sent. They were wrong.

Let’s now consider how this might apply to us. We can learn important things from these Pharisees who rejected Jesus. Imagine if Jesus would have taken a different tack with the Pharisees. Imagine if he come up to them and spoken their language, so to speak. What if he would have talked about how they, as the most fastidious Jews, were the real Jews. The other Jews were Jews-in-name-only. Those ignorant people didn’t even know what Rabbi Hillel had said about this or that... If Jesus would have talked with them like that, then Jesus would have been part of their club. They would have loved him as one of their own.

So it is with us. Imagine if Jesus were to sidle up to us and say, “I’ve been paying attention, and guess what? You’re the best. Yep. I love everything that you’ve been doing. Those other people—they just don’t get it. But you? You know what’s what. Keep up the good work!”

I think we might respond: “Well thanks Jesus! I always did think you were a pretty swell guy. I like how you think.”

Ridiculous! Jesus is God, not us. Jesus leads, Jesus teaches, and we follow; not the other way around. If we were to reverse this order it would be blindness and stupidity. If we were to reverse this order, then we would only agree with Jesus insofar as he already agrees with us. That is exactly what was going on with the Pharisees. They had no problem with Jesus except when he disagreed with them. When Jesus did disagree with them, they didn’t repent and change their minds. They went stubbornly ahead with their own thoughts and actions because they believed that they were right.

In our sad and decaying times the one thing that everybody has in common is that everybody believes they are right. The people on the right are completely convinced that they are right. The people on the left are completely convinced that they are right. The people in the middle are completely convinced that they are right. Everybody is completely right.

That isn’t surprising if you will think about yours. Nurturing the belief that we are so right and others are so wrong feels so good! We like that feeling. The Pharisees liked that feeling. It felt good to harrumph that Jesus was nothing but a lousy Sabbath-breaker. They enjoyed labeling Jesus as an evildoer. They enjoyed their hardness of heart.

Nobody has to force us into being blind and stupid, especially when it comes to the belief that we are right. We do that quite naturally. What is so unnatural that it requires a miracle of the Holy Spirit is for us to turn away from ourselves and the celebration of our own rightness, and to glorify, not ourselves, but the Son of God instead. That can be quite painful. These Pharisees would have needed to toss aside all those commentaries that they loved so much. They would have had to toss aside what made them most proud about themselves.

What beloved parts of your identity that you pride yourself upon need to be tossed aside?

Paul said that he regarded the best parts of himself to be a loss—the best parts of himself were garbage. These were not shameful things. They were things that others would admire, but Paul says they are garbage. Why? Why was Paul so hard on himself? Because knowing Jesus reveals that all that other stuff is garbage. Perhaps the things that we love best about ourselves are the exact things that we should most deeply repent. We aren’t prone to worship ourselves for the things we don’t like about ourselves. We are prone to worship the stuff we like. That makes us blind.

Open your eyes. The celebration of yourself will end badly. Glorify Jesus instead.

Jesus Christ is Lord! Amen.