Let the Religious Read Carefully (Luke 10:25-37)

August 14, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

Freddie Fender was going to fix his car himself.  He was tired of paying the high repair bills.  But Freddie did not read the instructions carefully, and after he was done with the job, it cost him twice as much to get it fixed right after he had fixed it himself.  Hilda Homemaker was a do-it-yourselfer too.  She was going to make a cake from scratch.  But baking was not her forte and she did not read the recipe carefully, so she left out some of the most important ingredients.  Thus, her cake fell flat in the pan and what was supposed to be an angel food cake, looked more like white brownies instead.  Harvey Handyman picked up a set of plans from the lumber company.  He was going to build himself the bookcase that he had always wanted.  But Harvey only looked at the pictures, didn’t even bother reading the instructions, and started sawing.  Though Harvey did manage to build his bookshelf, when it was finished it looked more like a rocking chair with shelves, rather than a the bookcase he had always wanted.

Though I realize that Freddy, Hilda, and Harvey may seem a bit comical to us, especially since most of us have had similar experiences in our lives, today these three fictional characters are teaching us an important lesson about being Christians.  And that lesson is simple, as Christians, it is very important for each and every one of us to read carefully the instructions of God’s word, learn them, take them to heart, and follow them carefully, because if we should try to be a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to our Christian faith, not only will it lead to a spiritual mess; it could ultimately lead to the spiritual disaster of eternal damnation.  This is why Jesus is teaching us in our lesson today just how important it is for us to read carefully.

Now, if you haven’t already done so, I invite you to open your Bibles to our lesson in Luke 10:25-37.  As you are opening to Luke 10, let me tell you a little bit about the do-it-yourself expert that comes to Jesus in our lesson.  He was an expert in the law; a religious do-it-yourselfer.  He knew a lot about his Old Testament Bible and he though he knew the way to heaven.  In fact, he felt that he was building his way there by himself through his own efforts at keeping God’s Law in his life.  So, when he asked Jesus for directions of how to achieve eternal life, he really wasn’t asking to find out the answer, he was asking to test Jesus and show Jesus that he, the expert, was already such a great guy who was already building his way to heaven that he didn’t actually need Jesus help.  Take a look at what Luke tells us, “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25–29, NIV84)

Interestingly, there are still a lot of do-it-yourselfers who are just like this expert in the law.  They do not read carefully or understand what the Lord has to say in his Word, so what they wind up making is more like devil’s food than angel’s food.  They buy their Bible because it has God’s plan for salvation, but then they do not read it carefully or they only look at the pictures.  They go through a lot of religious motions, but when they are done, they have nothing that will stand before the Judgment of the Lord, and they end up paying a lot more than they would have had to.  Some religious do-it-yourselfers even stay away from church because they feel that their plan is already better than any plan that God can give them.  Though they may sometimes come to church to hear what God has to say, after they spend their hour in God’s house they go back home and keep on building according to their own plans anyway. 

Now, I know exactly what you are doing.  You are mentally going through our membership roster and thinking that so and so is exactly like this.  Or you are thinking how you wish that this person or that person was here to hear what Pastor is saying today.  Though I admit that it would be nice to have those specific people here to hear this message from the Lord as he calls us to read word carefully, understand it, believe it, and follow it, what is most important is that we who are hear carefully read and understand what Jesus is saying to us today.  For the application he gives us is simple.  He wants us to read his Word carefully.  He wants us to study his Word regularly.  He wants us to grow in our faith so that we understand that we are sinners who are saved by grace.  He wants us to understand that we are saved only by the Lord’s plan of salvation and not by any plan of salvation that we may have come up with on our own.  He wants us to read carefully so that we are always seeking to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul, and strength, and mind; so that we are always seeking to live our faith by loving our neighbor as ourselves.

This is what Jesus wanted for the do-it-yourselfer, expert in the Law, and in his love, Jesus was patient with him as he asked the expert to take a closer look at the law he knew so well and read it more carefully.  First Jesus asked the expert what he knew about the law and how he read it.  The expert gave a beautiful summary of the exact heart of God’s law and the purpose of the Christian life when he said in verse 27, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.”  However, Jesus longed to help him read more carefully and understand more thoroughly.  So Jesus told this man the parable of the Good Samaritan, which Luke records for us beginning with verse 30: “Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:30–37, NIV84)

With this beautiful parable Jesus explained what a life of faith is all about.  It is not about obeying the law point by point to build a ladder to heaven.  It isn’t about seeking to follow a path to eternal life that comes from our own imagination.  Rather, it is about reading carefully the instructions of salvation that the Lord Jesus recorded for us in his word and allowing these words to grow in our hearts.  It is about reading carefully the instructions of salvation so that our faith in Jesus continues to grow and to permeate every part of our lives.  Then when God’s Word so permeates our lives we will naturally begin to put our faith into action as we live and serve the Lord by loving our neighbor.

Though this parable makes it clear that our neighbors are really anyone who is need of our help; anyone and everyone we come into contact with in our lives, it is very seldom that our neighbors are the ones who are beaten and lying beside the highway.  Yet it is interesting how so many religious do-it-yourselfers react to their neighbors like the Priest and the Levite did in Jesus’ parable.  Though they go out of their way to be kind and do good when someone is watching, so often, it seems, that behind closed doors, they neglect their own spouse when he or she is hurting.  They neglect the needs of their children and their family, crossing on the other side of the street, because they simply cannot be bothered to get involved with such domestic situations.  Though they are ready to champion all sorts of causes to send food, clothing, or medical supplies to the starving children of countries ravaged by famine, countries destroyed by hurricanes and earthquakes, even countries ravaged by incurable diseases, their own personal lives are filled with sins that keep them from seeing the needs of those around them or even helping those in need and serving them out of love for the Lord.

But what about us?  How often don’t we act in the exact same way as the religious do-it-yourselfers that I’ve been describing?  How often haven’t we walked on the other side of the living room rather than take time to interact with our spouse or our children when they have been hurting?  How often haven’t we ignored the obvious cries for help from our next door neighbor or our best friends when they obviously needed a sympathetic ear to listen or simply a shoulder to cry on?  How often haven’t we closed our eyes or pretended not to see someone who needed our help in one way or another?  Too often we have acted just like the Priest and the Levite in Jesus’ Parable, which is why he shares this parable with us.  For the purpose of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is not so that we are motivated to be nicer to each other, but it is instead to cause us to read more carefully and understand that we cannot possibly keep God’s Law on our own.  We cannot possibly keep all of God’s commands perfectly as he demands, because we are constantly stumbling and breaking them all.  Even if we should have a good day and keep most of them, as the Bible tells us, as soon as we break even one of God’s commands we are guilty of breaking them all.  Then, in that moment, all of our own do-it-yourself plans for salvation come crumbling down before us and we are left with no hope of salvation but one.

It is in that moment that the Lord our God lifts our heads up and asks us to read carefully the simple instructions of Salvation, “God so loved the World that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NIV84)  These are the simple instructions that our God laid out for our salvation.  Though we cannot possibly keep God’s law, Jesus did it for us.  Jesus loved us so much that he freed us from our sins by his death and resurrection from the dead.  Jesus loved us so much that even when we were his enemies he died to make us his friends.  Now, it is through that love of Jesus that faith grows in our hearts.  It is through that love of Jesus that we seek to live our lives out of love for the Lord.  It is because we have been saved by faith that we can now seek to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength and with all our mind.  It is because the love of Jesus our Savior now lives in our hearts that we seek to live our lives loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.  It is because of that love of Jesus that we now seek to read carefully God’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  For you see, it is only when Jesus love for us permeates our hearts and our lives that we live like the Samaritan did, showing love in our actions.  It is only when the love of Jesus permeates our hearts and our lives that we show love for our husbands, our wives, our children, and our families. 

This is the purpose of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan.  It is not a story to teach us how to live a Christian life.  Rather it is a story asking us to take a closer look at God’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  For when we read His word carefully, we find the story of our inability to keep his commands.  We face the facts that the wages of sin is death.  Yet we are confronted by the unimaginable grace that the gift of God is eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior.  Now, moved by that love, we seek to show our love for the Lord our God by living in love for your neighbor.  Though there are religious do-it-yourselfers who understand Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan as a “how to” manual of a Christian life, because we have carefully read it, we understand what it truly is.  It is a parable to show us how we cannot earn eternal life in our own way.  Rather we must rely on the Lord our God and his salvation.  Then, moved by the grace of our Savior we will naturally live our lives in love, serving the Lord our God, even as we show our love for him in how we love our neighbor. 

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Behold the Savior of the World! (Mark 1:4-11)

August 7, 2011

Dear friends in Christ.

When you think of John the Baptist, how do you think of him?  Do you think of him as an impressive figure?  Or do you think of him as just a regular kind of guy?  Do you think of him as a rugged outdoors sort of fellow?  Or do you think of him as a man who’s been softened by city living?  Well, when I think of John the Baptist, I think of him as a man who would do well living out West in cattle country.  Though he never kept sheep or goats, though he never drove cattle, he was a hard man who had a hard life.  He was a hard man who lived out in the wilderness eating locust and wild honey.  He was a hard man who wore clothes made out of camel’s hair with a leather belt wrapped around his waist.  But even though John was a hard man, he was also a privileged man.  For he is the only man, besides Jesus, whose coming was prophesied in the pages of Scripture.  He was the man who was chosen by God to be the forerunner of his Son.  He was the one who was fortunate enough to proclaim the message:  Behold the Savior of the world! 

Behold the Savior of the world!  This was the very message that John proclaimed as he pointed the people to their Savior.  As the Bible tells us, “And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:4–8, NIV84)

In essence, John’s mission was simply to point people to the Savior of the world, and this is what he did.  For there, in the desert on the other side of the Jordan River, John preached a message of harsh law.  He did not shy away from condemning sins, rather, he proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”  He did not falter when people made excuses for the wrongs they had done, instead, he applied the full weight of God’s Holy Law and crushed that sinner to pieces.  Not even when the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day came to investigate him did he back down.  For he went head to head with them condemning their sinfulness and their failure to see it.  Because of this, John’s fame spread and people from all over the region of Judea and Jerusalem came out to hear him.  Confessing their sins, they were baptized in the Jordan, assured of the forgiveness of sins, and pointed to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.

This is the same message we need to hear as well.  For even we Christians need to be reminded that our sins separate us from our God.  We need to be reminded that our sins are just like those round bails that we see on farm places throughout the countryside.  Though they may start out small as farmers begin to make their pass through the field, by the time that bail is ejected it has grown so enormous that no one could never hope to lift it.  It has grown so huge that if it rolled on top of you for any reason it would kill you.  The same is true for our sins.  Though they might start out as a few small sins of anger, jealousy, frustration, or even greed, they can grow larger and larger.  Before we know it, that small sin of anger has grown into a grudge you hold against another person.  That small sin of jealousy has lead to hatred.  That small sin of frustration has led to exasperation.  That small sin of greed has led to a desire for more and more, and before we know it, our sins have grown so huge and have wrapped so tightly around us that we are unable to move.  They have grown so enormous that we are crushed under their weight and can do nothing to be rid of them ourselves.

But that’s when John’s message of comfort comes to us as he points us to Jesus, the Savior of the world.  Take a look at what he has to tell us in verses 7 and 8, “7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7–8, NIV84). 

With these beautiful words, John points us to our Savior and the forgiveness he offers.  With these words we are reminded how Jesus was baptized by John on the day he began his public ministry so many years ago, which was the very reason that Jesus came to the earth!  He came to be the Savior of the world, just as had been proclaiming ever since he started preaching.   Mark tells us: “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:9–11, NIV84)

Though it doesn’t tell us in this Gospel, we learn from Matthew that when Jesus came to John to be baptized, John didn’t understand why.  Rather, John tried to deter Jesus by telling him that he, John, needed to be baptized by Jesus.  But Jesus simply told him, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”  For the thing was, by being baptized, Jesus was showing his connection to sinners.  Though he himself was sinless, he was identifying himself with sinners by giving himself to the work of bearing our sins.  As Luther points out: Jesus was here rightly beginning to be the Christ, the Anointed One, and “was inaugurated into his entire Messianic office as our Prophet, Priest, and King.”  For through the voice of the Father from heaven and the Holy Spirit lighting on Jesus in the form of a dove, all three persons of the Trinity were proclaiming that this Jesus was the Savior of the world. 

Thus, the one true God, the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit revealed that they were launching the culmination of the plan of salvation through Jesus our Savior.  The long period of expectation and preparation was now over.  The most momentous days the world would ever know, the three years of Jesus’ public ministry, culminating in his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension were now beginning.  Satan’s power and dominion were doomed, because the world’s redemption was at hand.  This, in a nutshell, not only was John calling on us to behold the Savior of the world, but the Holy Trinity was proclaiming the very same thing on the day that Jesus was baptized.  The Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were there calling on each and every onlooker as well as you and me to behold the fact that Jesus was the Promised Messiah, the Savior of the world.

What greater assurance could the Baptism of Jesus give us than the assurance that he is the Lord, our Savior!  For today, as we have heard the voice of the Father proclaiming that Jesus is indeed his Son whom he loves and with whom he is well pleased, we have been assured that Jesus truly is our Savior.  As we have witnessed the Holy Spirit descending upon him as a dove, we have witnessed the fulfillment of the promise that we would recognize the Christ by the decent of the Spirit upon him.  In short, as we have beheld the Lord Jesus, our Savior today, we have been assured that he is our only true Savior who has forgiven all our sins.

How incredible it is to know that as we behold our Savior today, we behold the very Son of God who freed us from the crushing weight of our sins.  Even though we were completely immobilized by the bails of our sins, Jesus came with the John Deer tractor of his grace and lifted those sins from us.  He loaded those sins onto the flat bed trailer of his forgiveness and hauled them away, never to be seen again.   Though we may have been trapped in the sins of anger and grudges, our Savior has freed us from them.  Though we may have been trapped by the sins of jealousy and hatred, our Savior has freed us from them.  Though we may have been trapped by the sins of frustration and exasperation, our Savior has freed us from them.  Though we may have been trapped in the sins of greed and an unholy desire for more and more stuff, our Savior has freed us from them.  Now since we have been freed from our own sins by our Savior Jesus Christ, how can we not follow his example and forgive our fellow Christians from the heart when they do us wrong?  How can we not remember that when we were baptized, each and every one of us was buried with Christ and rose again with him as new creations?  How can we not remember that when our Savior went to the cross, he went, carrying the weight of the sins of the world?  How can we not make the most of every opportunity to gather together as Christians in worship of the Lord our Savior?

Now that we have beheld the Lord our Savior, let us seek to live our lives in service to him.  Let us dedicate our lives to him so that we continue growing in his Word as we read and study the Bible both at home and in Bible Studies during the year.  Let us make the most of every opportunity we have been given to gather to worship the Lord our God and grow in our faith as we encourage our brothers and sisters in their faith.  Let us grow in our baptismal grace, fulfilling the promise that we all made on the day of our confirmation that we would face even death rather than forsake the Lord God our Savior.  Though we don’t know exactly what Jesus looked like while here on earth, today we have all beheld Jesus as the Lord our God and the Savior of the World.  We saw John point him out to us, we heard the Holy Trinity proclaim him, and we have been reminded of how he has freed us from our sins.  This is Jesus, our Savior, who was baptized at the beginning of his public ministry so that he might take on the all important work of redeeming us from our sins and winning us back to the Lord.  Behold him, he is your Savior.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Rejoice in the Lord's Salvation! (Luke 2:8-20)

July 31, 2011

Preached as one of the shepherds

Dear friends in Christ.

Glory to God in the Highest and on earth Peace to men on whom his favor rests!  These, dear friends, are some of the most beautiful words I have ever heard, because these very words came to me from the Lord through his angel messengers who announced the birth of his Son, our salvation.  But I’m getting ahead of myself; let me start at the beginning so that you can join me today and rejoice in the Lord’s Salvation.

I will always remember that amazing night when the angels appeared to us.  It was during the time of the Census that Caesar Augustus had issued; the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  It was a busy time with people traveling here and there, traveling to their own towns; to the birthplace of their forefathers so that they could register and be counted.  I remember how busy Bethlehem was.  Though normally Bethlehem was a quite village in the hill country of Judea, because of all the people, Bethlehem was filled to capacity and beyond.  About the best comparison I can think of is the small town of Sturgis in South Dakota.  Though Sturgis is normally a quiet town of roughly 5,000 people, during the motorcycle rally, the population of Sturgis grows to more than 35,000 people. The same was true for Bethlehem!  So many people had descended upon her to be counted that there was no room left anywhere.  In short, she was filled beyond capacity and the people just kept coming.  It kind of made me glad that I was out in the fields that night, keeping watch over my flocks with all the other shepherds.  We were away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  We didn’t have to worry about all the people coming and going or looking for a place to stay.  All was quiet by us as we lay down with our sheep for the night, until suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared before us and the glory of the Lord shone around us, and we were terrified! (Luke 2:8-9)

Now, I know that you know my story like the back of your hand.  I know that when you were little children in Sunday School you learned these very words from Luke 2 and you recited them during your Christmas service.  I know that now you come to church each and every Christmas to hear your children and other children recite these familiar words, telling you about the angel of the Lord appeared to us and how terrified we were.  But have you ever stopped to consider what these words are saying?  Have you ever stopped to consider how you would have reacted if you saw what we did that night?  Imagine for a moment that you are sitting on a hillside, watching over your sheep at night, getting ready to lie down and rest for the night when suddenly you see in the sky an angel from the Lord.  Though it had been dark just a moment ago, in the same way that a flash of lightning lights up the sky, suddenly the sky is alight by the glory of the Lord which is shining around you from the angel that has appeared before you!  But, unlike the lightning that simply flashes in the sky and then disappears, the light from the angel and the glory of the Lord keep on shining.  Now, I don’t know how you would have reacted, but I was terrified.  I was terrified because this was one of God’s holy angels, and I am a sinful man.  I was terrified because the light that I saw all around me was the glory of the Lord, and I was nothing more than a shepherd; a person considered to be an uneducated, useless thief, who wasn’t worth anything to anybody.  I was terrified because out in that quiet, Bethlehem night, the Lord had sent his angel to me and to my fellow shepherds who were also living in those fields, nearby.  But even though we were terrified, that angel spoke to us some of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard.  He said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10–12, NIV84)

Though we were shaking with fear, the angel essentially told us that there was no longer any reason to be afraid.  There was no longer any reason to be afraid because the long awaited Savior had been born that day.  The Savior whom the Lord had promised, who would wash away all our sins and make us pure and holy before the Lord our God; the Savior whose promise had been passed from generation to generation by father to son and mother to daughter was here on earth.  He had been born this night.  He wasn’t even that far away as he was lying in a manger with his mother and father right there.  He was born!  The Savior of the world was here!  Our waiting was over!  Our sins would be forgiven! Our Salvation was at hand!  We would be right with the Lord, and we were the first people the Lord had chosen to tell!  I don’t know about the rest of the guys but I was overwhelmed by the sight of the angel, the amazing message of salvation that he had just revealed to me, and then came the amazingly beautiful praises that I will never forget.  For as soon as the angel was done telling us the good news, “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:13–14, NIV84)

Then, as quickly as the angels had appeared, they were gone.  Yet their praises were still ringing in our ears causing us to rejoice in the Lord’s salvation.  You know that feeling you get when you have just heard the greatest news imaginable, the very news you’ve been waiting for you, the news that you can barely believe unless you go and see it for yourself? That is exactly how we felt.  After the angels left and went back into heaven we decided among ourselves that we would go to Bethlehem and see the Lord’s salvation with our own eyes.  We hurried as fast as we could, leaving our flocks in the fields, and we found them, just as the angel had said.  We found Mary and Joseph, and we found the baby Jesus, lying in the manger.  Do you remember that feeling of awe and joy that flooded over you when you first saw your baby after he or she had been born?  Do you remember that feeling of awe, joy, and wonder when you had the opportunity to hold your baby in your arms for the first time?  That is the exactly what we felt when we saw him, our Savior, the Lord’s Salvation, lying there in that manger!  There he was!  Our salvation!  Just as the angel had said!  He had been born!  He had come to earth!  The Lord’s promise to Adam and Eve was being fulfilled, and we were witnesses of it! 

I don’t remember how long we stayed.  I would have loved to stay standing there forever, simply standing in the presence of my salvation, but the time came for us to leave and go back to our flocks.  Yet, even as we were returning to our flocks we could not contain our joy over the birth of Jesus.  As we went back to our flocks we continued rejoicing in the Lord’s salvation and spreading the news to everyone we met about this child.  We were so full of joy that we were knocking on doors and telling everyone we could that their salvation was at hand because their Savior had been born on that very night!  All the way back to our flocks we were rejoicing, praising God, giving thanks to him, and spreading the news that the Savior was born, just as the angel had told us.

Greater joy has never permeated my heart than the joy that filled me that night, and to this day I still cannot contain my joy at the birth of my Savior.  To this day I must continue telling the good news of great joy that the angel revealed to us on that night that the Savior had been born to us!  But what about you?  Do you carry with you that same joy?  Do you continually rejoice in the salvation that the Lord your God has bestowed upon you?  Oh, I know that there are still roughly 5 months before you celebrate Christmas, but even now you can still live in Christmas joy, rejoicing in the Lord’s salvation.  You can still live in the joy of the Lord’s salvation, because it is the Lord who has freed you form all your sins!    While you were still his enemies, God sent his Son to be your Savior.  In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law.  This is the salvation that the Lord provided for us in Jesus Christ, his Son, our Savior.  In that little baby dwelt all the fullness of the Lord our God.  In that little baby was God’s solution to our sins.  And we know his story!

We know how he grew and how he lived his life.  We know how he was baptized, how he was tempted, just like we were and yet was without sin.  We know how he went throughout the land of Israel preaching and teaching the message of salvation through faith in him to all his people.  And we know how he gave his life for us on the cross.  Though he was the innocent Son of God, he willingly gave his life over to death to pay for our sins and was raised to life for our justification!  This is the good news of great joy that is for all people.  This is the message of salvation in which we rejoice today.  This is the message that the other shepherds and I brought to the people of Bethlehem as we returned to our flocks, and this is the message of joy that you now carry with you to the world.

Just think about the joy that you have in the message of salvation that the Lord has revealed to you.  It means that you have been forgiven of every single one of your sins.  No matter what you may have done or even left undone, the Lord your God has forgiven it and forgotten it for Jesus sake.  It means that when you fold your hands in prayer in the morning, in the evening, at meal times or any time, your prayers are heard by the Lord your God and they will be answered by him in his time.  It means that as you live your life here on earth Christ lives and that he watches over you and protects you.  It means that we have the sure and certain hope of eternal life waiting for us when the Lord decides that it is time for our lives on earth to come to an end, and it means that we are his ambassador to bring his message to the people who do not know. 

Just think about the joy that the message of salvation brings you when you realize what the Lord has done for you, and then think about all the people you know and you love to spend time with.  Do they know the same thing that you know?  Are they already rejoicing in the message of salvation with you so that you can be certain that you will not only spend your life with them but you will spend eternity with them as well?  Who do you know that may or may not know the message of salvation like you do? Think about all those people who do not yet know about the Lord their salvation.  Think about all those who do not yet know that Jesus has been born.  Think about the message of salvation in which you are rejoicing today and then go out and spread the message of salvation so that others might rejoice with you in the salvation that is theirs through faith in Jesus!  This is the assignment that the Lord our God now gives us—to tell others about the reason for the hope that we have! 

So as you go out that door, live in the joy of your salvation and rejoice in the Lord your salvation in the way that you live your life!  Live your life so that it is clear that you are a man or a woman of faith.  Live your life in the joy that comes from knowing that Jesus is your Savior and that you are his child.  Live your life rejoicing in the salvation that is yours through faith!  Then, as you live your life in that joy you will find people begin to notice that there is something different about you.  People will begin to notice the joy that you have and will want to know why you have it, and before you know it, you will have the opportunity to share the reason for the hope you have and rejoice anew in the salvation the Lord has bestowed upon you as you become a witness of that salvation.

What greater joy could there be than the joy that comes from knowing the salvation that the Lord bestowed upon his people at the birth of his Son, our Savior.  On that night, when the angels told us the amazing news, we could not help but go and see for ourselves and then spread the news concerning this child.  I pray that the message of our Savior’s birth and the salvation that the Lord bestowed upon you continues to permeate your hearts so that you live your lives in joy and witness as you rejoice in the salvation of the Lord your God through his Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN

Remain Faithful to the Lord (Daniel 6:1-28)

July 22, 2011

Preached as Daniel

Dear friends in Christ.

If you’ll permit me, I’d like to tell you a story this morning.  It is a story filled with danger, struggles, hardships, and yes, even a little adventure.  It is a story with which you are very familiar, because it is a story that you learned when you were just little children, and it is a true story, which makes it all the better.  For the story I want to share with you this morning is the my story—my story of the things I endured as I sought to remain faithful to the Lord my God.

The year was 605 BC (roughly 400 years before the Savior would be born) and the time for Israel’s captivity was at hand.  The captivity which the Lord had promised through prophets like Jeremiah, Micah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah began as King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land of Israel, bound King Jehoiakim with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.  (2 Kings 23:36-24:7; 2 Chronicles 34:5-8)  But not only did he take the king into custody, but he also took gold and silver articles from the Temple of the Lord, along with some of the young men from the royal family and nobility; “young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians.” (Daniel 1:4, NIV84)

I was one of those men brought to Babylon where I was trained for three years before I entered the King’s service, and where, from the moment I arrived in Babylon, I was challenged as to how I was going to remain faithful to the Lord.  For you see, Babylon was the city that Nimrod had founded some years after the flood.  It was a great city in the very area where the Lord had confused the languages of the people after they had tried to build a tower to their glory so that they would not have to follow the Lord’s decree to spread out over the earth.  It was a city and an empire filled with all sorts of wealth and riches, peoples and nations, pleasures and diversions, and even though the name Babylon carries the meaning of “gate of god” it was clear that the Lord God was not worshiped in this city.  Rather people were “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power.”  (2 Timothy 3:2-5 NIV84) 

Interesting, isn’t it that the people of my day fit the very description of people that Paul spoke about in his letter to Timothy.  Yet the truth is, the people of my day were no different than the people of Paul’s Day nor than the people of your day.  It was because of this that I determined that I would do everything within my power to remain faithful to the Lord my God, and from the very moment that I determined to remain faithful to the Lord, I faced one challenge after another.  If I had time today I could take you through each one of them and show you just how the Lord blessed me as a struggled to remain faithful to him.  But since we don’t, let me take you through the story that has so often been called, Daniel and the Lion’s Den.

The year was 539 BC.  66 years had passed since I entered into the service of the Babylonian government.  The Babylonian empire had recently been taken over by the Medes and the Persians, who quickly set about establishing their empire in the place that the Babylonians so recently ruled, and it pleased King Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom, with three administrators over them, one of whom was [me]. The satraps were made accountable to [the administrators] so that the king might not suffer loss. Now [I] so distinguished [myself] among the administrators and the satraps by [my] exceptional qualities that the king planned to set [me] over the whole kingdom. (See: Daniel 6:1-3, NIV84)

This was something that just stuck in the craw of the other satraps and administrators.  They couldn’t stomach the idea that a foreigner, a Jew, no less, someone who did not worship their god Bel or any of the other gods of the Babylonian Pantheon, could possibly be placed in a position of authority over them.  They plotted and the schemed, and finally they came up with the plan to trap me in my faithfulness to the Lord.  They persuaded the King to sign a decree, a law if you will, stating that no one could pray to any god other than the king for the next 30 days.  They did this because they knew my heart, and they knew that I would not listen to the decree or pray to the king let alone other gods. They knew that I would remain faithful to the Lord.  Now, I cannot say that I wasn’t tempted to stop praying in my normal way, when I learned of the decree.  After all, the punishment was death by lions.  But even though I was tempted to be less than faithful to the Lord, the Lord gave me strength and the ability to remain faithful.    So, I simply did what I had always done.  I went upstairs to my room where the windows faced east toward Jerusalem, and I got down and prayed like I always did.  This time, as I expected, I was “discovered” by the others and tossed to the Lions.

You know how it happened.  You know how the Lord sent his angel to close the mouths of the lions and protect me, but the truth is, it could have gone the other way.  The Lord could have decided to let me be devoured by those lions, and allowed me to die in his name.  If he would have allowed me to die there, I was ready to go because I trusted in the Lord my God and knew that the Lord my God had the power to rescue me from the lions, and even if he didn’t I would remain faithful to him because I knew that he would carry me to his side where I would live with him forever.  Though the lions were not able to make a meal out of me, they made a very delicious meal out of those who sought to be rid of me when the King ordered that they take my place in the den and before they even reached the ground they were overcome by the lions. 

Now, why am I telling you all of this?  I am telling this to you because my story is not all that different than your story.  Just like me, you live in a great city and a great nation filled with all sorts of wealth and riches.  You live in a nation filled with all sorts of pleasures and diversions.  You live in a nation that though it was founded on Christian principles and values, it is quickly becoming more and more godless.  You live in a nation where shrines and temples to false gods cover the landscape. I’m not just talking about those religions that are obviously false and have absolutely no connection to the true God; I’m also talking about those churches that are supposed to be Christian, but no longer teach a Christ centered message.  You live in a nation where Atheism, which is the belief that there is no god, and Agnosticism, the belief that one cannot truly know if god exists, are becoming more and more popular.  You live in a nation that has blessed you with the freedom of religion, but certain groups are working very hard to make sure that this becomes a nation that establishes the freedom from religion.  You are living in a nation that is not that much different from ancient Babylon and the Lord your God is calling on you to remain faithful to him. 

But how do we do that?  The answer is simple!  We remain faithful to the Lord by remaining in his Word, for it is only through the Word of God that our faith is strengthened and our faith grows.  Just think about how your faith grows when you are regularly in church and you are regularly hearing the Word of God.  Just think about how your faith grows and how it is easier to avoid certain temptations when you are regularly partaking of the Lord’s Supper.  Just think about how your faith grows and how you are better prepared to remain faithful to the Lord when you are reading his Word for yourselves on a regular basis.  Just think about how your faith grows when you do these things, because you are convicted of your sins, and assured forgiveness from Jesus Christ your Savior.  Just think about how the Lord works in your hearts and how the Holy Spirit strengthens your faith and gives you that stronger conviction to live for your Savior, simply because you have been in the word. 

These are but a few of the blessings that the Lord gives when we remain faithful to him.  He blesses us with the assurance of the forgiveness of sins.  He blesses us with the assurance of life and salvation. He blesses us with the assurance that not only are our prayers heard, but they are also answered.  He blesses us with the power for Christian living.  He blesses us with the association of fellow Christians who are facing similar struggles so that we can encourage each other and build each other up as we remain faithful to the Lord.  He gives us the ability to stand up against temptations through Jesus Christ our Savior, and when we feel that we cannot stand up he assures us that we can hide ourselves in our Savior who will fight for us.  Though there are times when we do fail to remain faithful to the Lord and we fall into sin that one sin is never the end, because when we turn to the Lord in repentance, he forgives us.  He washes us clean.  He lavishes his grace on us, and he enables us to stand faithful once again.

Though remaining faithful to the Lord was not the easiest thing to do in Babylon, it was a very important thing for me to do.  Not only was it important for my own salvation, but it was also important that I remained faithful to the Lord to encourage my fellow Israelites who had also been brought to Babylon.  The same thing is true for you today.  Because you are living in a world where your Christian beliefs are being challenged, it is all the more important that you remain faithful to the Lord.  Because you are living in a land where Atheism is becoming more popular, where sexual sins are becoming normalized, where sexual perversions are thought of as alternate lifestyles, and where certain groups are seeking to do all they can to legislate Christianity to the point of nonexistence, it is all the more important for you to remain faithful to the Lord your God.  Though you may not have been threatened with lions because of your faith, we all face different kinds of persecutions because of our beliefs.  Yet, it is the Lord who delivers us from those persecutions. Though sometimes he uses them to help us grow in our trust of him and someday he might allow those persecutions to take our lives as he did with so many of the heroes of faith in his Word, we know that when we remain faithful to the Lord it is the Lord who blesses us.  We know that no matter what we face in this life, heaven is waiting for us.  We know that no matter what hardships the Lord brings into our lives, he is the one who will deliver us from them, either in this life or in the life to come by his side forever.

This is why it is so important for us to remain faithful to the Lord our God, because the Lord is our salvation.  Though I know you know my story so well because you learned it as little children, I hope that it has been a blessing to you.  I hope it has been a blessing to you and an encouragement to you to remain faithful to the Lord who always remains faithful to you.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church -Le Sueur, MN