Seasonal Cry ... A Christmas Greeting

SEASONAL CRY

The Christmas Season comes each year

Bringing fun and excitement for some

But for others, loneliness and fear.

And it seems to depend upon the circumstances of that year

As to whether the season will be excitement or fear.

But the One who is Christmas, the One called the Christ,

Comes daily to bring joy and peace to each person’s heart.

It is a joy and a peace that upon Him alone depends

Not the news of the day … Not one’s health or wealth.

No, it depends upon none of those things that we might label merry and bright.

Rather it depends upon a Child lowly and long ago born,

Yet the true God Himself, taking our human form;

Born for one purpose … and that was to die

Upon a rough, rugged cross for sinners …

a sinner such as you,

a sinner such as I.

So peace with God is now our gift … at Christmas for sure,

but truly every day that we live.

Gratitude and joy is our response deep inside …

and a sincere “Merry Christmas!” our seasonal cry.

For in Christ this season and all seasons are moments and days

Filled with peace and joy …

for we walk daily in forgiveness …

and we live daily, blessed with eternal life!

A Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year be yours

in Christ Jesus!

                                                                                         (Roger A Rekstad - December, 2011)

A sermon I delivered some years ago at Emmaus Lutheran Church, St. Paul, MN.  The date was May 16, but of which year I do not remember.  Thoughts I shared then ... thoughts I share with you now ...

How are you?   It is question that we often ask … but just as often do not really want an answer.  It is simply a greeting … another way of saying “Hi!”  But seriously … how are you?  You need not answer aloud … but in your heart … in your mind …”How are you?”

In the familiar hymn, What a Friend We have in Jesus,” the second verse asks:  Have we trials and temptations?  Is there trouble anywhere?”  Very likely we might all nod our heads as a myriad of present day trials and troubles fill our minds.   For many … perhaps for you … there is a deep longing for peace … an earnest praying for peace. 

It may be that the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan weighs heavily upon your life.  It certainly does on the hearts and lives of many … those in the field of conflict … those waiting at home … those mourning loved ones who have met death in those distant lands.   Yesterday was Armed Forces Day … and we remember all those serving in the Armed Forces … and the risks they face and the risks their loved ones face with them.  Day and night, wondering how they are doing … if they are safe … hoping and praying for the best … but fearing the worst … heart sick to see them again.  Lord, may there be peace in those lands and ours … may our service men and women be safe … and may there be peace in our hearts.

Or the trouble may be much closer to home … conflict within the family.   For some it may be outright physical violence … for others an emotional battlefield … psychological warfare.  A spouse living in fear … unable to stay, but unable to leave … caught … trapped … and children  … children whose lives and futures are being threatened at the very core of their being … crippling them emotionally … disturbing them mentally … scarring them physically.  Lord, may there be peace in our home … in our family … may our parents and children be safe … and may there be peace in our hearts.

Or the trials may be within … hidden from all eyes … unknown by most people … even friends and family.  Deep within our hearts and minds … the struggle might be with fears that grab us and choke us … but fears that we cannot explain … fears that seem foolish when said out loud … fears that others might think are silly.  

  

Or the temptations may be our pet sins … secret sins … sins we hate … but sins we love … sins we can’t seem to stop … sins like … the judging of other people … the hating of another person … even wishing that they might suffer harm … the spreading of rumors and lies … the lustful desires of pornography … stealing … swiping … taking things … from a mother’s purse … a workplace desk or warehouse … or a local store shelf.

Or the trials might be with the one’s past … shame over things done … guilt over people hurt … anguish over the failures and mistakes and sins one has committed.  The desire to be forgiven … but the feeling that one is unworthy … that it is too much to expect God to forgive such things.  Lord, may there be peace in our minds … peace in our emotions … peace in our hearts.

Or the trouble … the lack of  peace may be anxiety … worry … fear … about how one is going to make it … make it financially with the loss of a job … make it alone with the loss of a spouse … make it alone in a new city and new setting and a new job, out of college, away from family and friends … make it now that one’s parents have divorced and you feel torn between the two, make it with the diagnosis of terminal illness of one’s spouse … or oneself.

Perhaps the temptation in the face of such things is to run away … to escape … to hide … to pretend it isn’t happening … that’s its not true.  The temptation to despair … to stay in bed and pull the covers over one’s head.  The temptation to become numb with alcohol or  some other drugs.

For the disciples of Jesus in our text these were troubled times … filled with trials and temptations.  These were confusing times … scary times … uncertain times.  Several times, Jesus had talked about things they did not like to hear  … he had said … “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets  about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.  He will be handed over to the Gentiles.  They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.  On the third day he will rise again.”  Luke then writes … “The disciples did not understand any of this.” 

And now … here they are in Jerusalem … and Jesus was saying that one of them would betray him.  He also was telling them that he was going away … that he would be with them only a little while longer … and that where he was going, they could not come.

 For the disciples of Jesus these are troubled times … Peter was told that before the rooster crows, he would disown Jesus three times.  In fact, Jesus has said that all the disciples would run away from him. 

To his troubled disciples, Jesus said … and Jesus says … “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, trust also in me.  In my Fathers’ house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the place where I am going.” 

Jesus knew well what it was like to experience trouble … to be troubled in heart and mind and soul … Just a short time ago Jesus had said … The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. … Now my heart is troubled … and what shall I say?  Father, save me from this hour?  No, it was for this very reason that I come to this hour.    

And in the Upper Room, after washing the disciples' feet … John tells us that Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.”  

Matthew tells us that in Gethsemane, Jesus began to be sorrowful and troubled … and he said … “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.  Stay here and keep watch with me.”  

And Luke writes:  “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of  blood falling to the ground.”

Jesus can relate to our brokeness … our trouble filled lives and our trouble filled world … He can relate to our anguish and sorrow … to our temptations and struggles … for he truly was tempted in every point as we are ... yet without sin.  

He truly stepped into our shoes and walked much more than a mile in our shoes.  Carrying all of the destruction and death that sin brings upon mankind and upon the world … even the eternal destruction of hell … Jesus walks to the cross … there to be lifted up as Savior of the world … there to stretch out His arms to show the extent of His love … there Jesus defeats sin and death, Satan and hell … there he rescues all mankind … and having won the victory by His suffering and death, He rises victorious on the third day. 

In our text … when all this is on the brink of happening … Jesus says … “All this I have spoken while still with you.  But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” 

Moments earlier Jesus had told them … “I will ask my Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever … the Spirit of truth.  The world cannot accept him, because it neither see him nor know him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” 

And in response to the question, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world,” Jesus replies … If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

And a little later Jesus says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

Whatever the trials and temptations … even if there is nothing but trouble everywhere … a nightmare of troubles …Jesus has been through the same thing .. faced the same troubles … and much, much more … and defeated them in His death and resurrection.  

He didn’t run from the cross, He didn’t come down from the cross … He went through them … and in them gained for us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.  He may not remove the crosses that loom before us, He may not take from us the thorns in our flesh … but He is with us … as is the Father and the Holy Spirit … and He says to you and me in this day and hour of our troubles … I have told you these things so that you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.

What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!  What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer.

Oh, what peace we often forfeit; Oh what needless pain we bear … All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer.

The Hope of the Resurrection

Death is ever present as we journey through this valley of the shadow of death.  The obituaries of newspapers large and small are never without the names of people who have died within just a matter of days prior to the time of publication.  Reporting on death by violence is a part of every television newscast.  The number of lives lost in just one tragedy is impossible to comprehend, sometimes involving the death of entire families and villages.

This week two servants of the Lord of Life have died.  Both were faithful servants who lived to bring the Good News of Christ's victory over death and the grave to a world of people who must ultimately face the reality of their own dying and death.  There is no way to escape death.  Sooner or later, each one of us reading these words will die.  It could be as soon as a matter of minutes or it could be decades away.  But come it will.

Very likely we have each had to deal with the death of loved ones as part of our life journey in this valley of the shadow of death.  Very often it is the death of grandparents and their generation that becomes our first dealing with the presence and reality of death.  Not that it makes it easy, but society has come to consider the death of the elderly as being natural ... a part of life we even say.

The death of people not yet in the "elderly" category seems all wrong, unnatural, unacceptable.  And the younger the person, the more unacceptable and much more difficult to even talk about by family and friends.

It was in the face of death ... the spiritual deadness with which we are each born and the physical death that soon follows ... that Mr. Kenneth Seevers and Rev. Richard Hamlow proclaimed God's Word of Life ... the Word incarnate of the virgin Mary, Jesus, the Christ.  It was Jesus, the living Word, who had brought them out of their own spiritual death into the new life of faith through the water and the Word, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.

They came to know that in Christ Jesus they would never again be spiritually dead, never again separated from their God and Creator.  They came to know and understand that physical death and the grave were no longer a threat to those alive in Christ.

All this they came to know and understand as they grew in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus had suffered and died for man's forgiveness and salvation ... and He had overcome death and the grave through His Resurrection.  They lived in the certainty that in Baptism they had been united with the Christ ... buried with Him in His death and raised with Him in His Resurrection so that even as Jesus lives eternally they also were alive eternally.

They knew that death could no longer harm them ... the grave could never hold them.  With Christ and in Christ they lived in true freedom as God's own sons and daughters.  They knew that when death would come ... no matter how it might come ... no matter when it might come ... their spirit would be with Jesus ... and their physical body? ... it would be as though it were asleep ... asleep in Jesus ... to be awakened by His voice at the Day of His Return.

This Good News they lived to share in full time ministry ... called by Christ Jesus to serve among the people and communities of the congregations and schools to which the Holy Spirit had called them.  They lived in the valley of the shadow of death as lights in the darkness ... reflecting the One who is the True Light and Life.

I was privileged to live for a while in their light and to know the unique blessings that the Lord had bestowed upon each of them and the unique blessings that flowed through them ... through their words and actions ... through their daily walking with us as His servants and ours.   They were blessed to be a blessing ... and that they were ...and that they continue to be ...

Their presence shall be missed ... but the lights of those whom they touched will continue to shine brightly and the blessings that flowed through Ken and Rich will continue to flow through those who now mourn their departure.

Until that Resurrection Day, may they rest in peace in the Savior's care.

Fix your eyes on Jesus!

How are you? How are you doing? How are you feeling?  How's your family?  

The question is phrased in many different ways.  From people who are close family & friends to people across the counter, the question comes to us.

And, of course, it seems to be an ongoing question that we are always asking ... of others, but also of our own self.

Certainly, there are times when the question is very specific ... How did the job interview go? ... How did you do on the exam?  But very often, perhaps even most of the time, it is much more general and much more vague ... How are you?

Sometimes we know right off what the answer is ... I feel awful!  Perhaps it is a nasty cold ... or the effects of chemotherapy ... or that ugly slip of the tongue that just injured someone for whom you dearly care.  We don't even have to pause to consider our answer because it seems to be screaming loudly from our entire being.

However, sometimes when the question is asked one is truly unable to come up with an immediate answer.  It may be that it is too early in the process or the situation for me to know how I feel about it ... or to understand what is really taking place ... or to realize what the consequences are going to be.   I may feel torn between a number of thoughts and feelings ...  there being certain aspects about which I am feeling positive and good ... but then there are little red flags popping up that give me pause and with the appearance of those flags, this tiny uneasy feeling that there be something very negative taking place here as well.

Having said all that, it seems to me that the whenever I consider the question ... whether I am asking it of myself or someone is asking it of me ... that the question itself sends me off in a less than satisfying and healthy direction.  "I" become the focus.  It becomes all about "ME."  Very quickly the question  places "ME" front and center.

And the truth be told, that is where I, by nature, want to be.   And I am not unusual ... that is where each human being by nature want to be.  Certainly sets the stage for conflict.  

And in that Garden of Eden, when the man and the woman crossed the line and sought to become the  "one" in the center of it all ... the "one" on the throne ... the "one" Creator ... to become "gods" ... there it might well be said that "all hell broke loose."  

From Paradise to hell in an instant ... from life to death in the twinkling of an eye ... eternal life to eternal death.  And, of course, conflict is immediately seen ... the man and the woman now in conflict with their Creator, their God, their Father ... seeing Him now as their enemy, one whom they do not trust, one whom they fear, one whom they hate ... they hated the sound of his presence and they hid.  Very soon it becomes apparent that there is no longer trust between the man and the woman as the man is ready to sell out everything and everyone for the sake of his own skin, his own self.  And Cain does no less.

St. Paul says, "in my flesh, I find no good thing."  No matter how when I look or how carefully I look, in my sinful and broken nature there is no thing that is good in the sight of God.  As Isaiah says, "Even our righteousness is as a filthy rag."  

How am I doing?   I am by nature spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, spiritually dead ... an enemy of God; that is, I am by nature one who hates God.  That is my real situation in life ... in spite of what the devil and the world and my own sinful nature may be telling me ... in spite of my winning the lottery, or the Boston Marathon, or the World Series ... in spite of my many toys and all the good times we are having ... in spite of all that seems to be the "abundant and good life."

And deep down within the recesses of our being, we all know this to be true ... that we are lost and without certainty and hope ... God's law speaks to each of us there, no matter how much we may try to hide it or deny it.   

God came to the man and the woman in the Garden ... finding them when they did not want to be found.  He spoke to them of Jesus, the One who would crush the liar under His feet and redeem and rescue the man and the woman from death and hell, bringing them back into the Garden relationship with the one and only God and Creator ... a relationship of love and trust as it once had been.  

In that moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the man and the woman were born again, brought from spiritual death to spiritual life.  Once again they were empowered to see God as their God and Creator, their Father ... and in a new light as their Savior and Redeemer.  By the power of the Holy Spirit they fixed their eyes on Him, they fixed their ears on His words, their hearts on His promises ... and in Him alone they were able to see and to find love and peace and joy and life and eternal salvation ... to find once again that "it was good" ... that God's words were true of His creation ... "It is good."

So it is with you and me ...  God has found us, spoken to us, opened our eyes, enlivened our hearts with faith and life, empowered us to see Him as our God and Savior, empowered us to fix our eyes on Jesus ... and to find that indeed in Christ "it is good."  Or as the Shunammite woman answered the question of the prophet Elisha in 2 Kings 4: 26, "It is well."( NIV - "Everything is all right.")  And in that same faith, with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, we sing, "lt is well, it is well, with my soul."

There's a war going on ...

So by year's end the United States troops will be out of Iraq and a war that has been part of our daily experience in one way or another will have been brought to an end.  But the wars nevertheless go ... in Afghanistan and other parts of the world ... and the men and women of our military are involved and often at great risk.
There's always a war going on ... somewhere.  
The war that presses harshly against my life ... the war that never ends ... the war that has me on the front lines 24/7 ... the war from which I can take no furlough ... the war of wars ... is the war within.  Paul cries out in from the battlefield of his inner war ... "What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

In his battlefield diary Paul writes, " For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ... For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ... So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,  but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. "


My battlefield diary expresses the same thing ... though not nearly as clearly and concisely as does that of Paul.  


And my cry is an echo of his ... "What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

It is by the grace of God that the Good News of God in Christ Jesus has reached my ears and heart and life so that I am empowered by the Holy Spirit to say and confess with Paul ... "Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!"

Monday, Monday!  A new day ... a new week ... but the same old battle and war.   However, in the midst of the battle and war there is also victory and peace in Christ Jesus.  It is as constant as the war ... as 24/7 as the war.  In fact, the life that is ours in Christ is the reason there is "the war."  Without the new life we have in Christ, without our being a new creation through faith in Christ, without the "new man" coming forth from the waters of Holy Baptism ... there would be no war.

So strange as it may seem ... and as weird as it may sound ... I am thankful for the war that is raging within.  It means for me that the "new man" in Christ is alive and well by the power of the Spirit and the grace of God through the nourishing food of Word and Sacrament ... and the "old man," my old sinful nature, does not hold sway, does not have control, does not have the last word.  Christ gives the last word, Christ is the last word ... He is life and He is salvation.  

"Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side."

Just how precious is Holy Baptism?

October 19, 2011 

"Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word." 

This is my prayer ... for He alone is able to keep me in His Word and faith unto the end.

I am looking for help and assistance with something with which I have wrestled most of my adult life.

I have discussed this with fellow pastors throughout the years and thus far have not been able to come to any peace regarding our stewardship of the Sacrament of Baptism,  ... the Sacrament entrusted to us by Christ Jesus Himself ... for us to administer in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

My struggle is not with what we believe, teach and confess ... or, perhaps it is ...

if one includes practice and tradition as a public expression of what one believes, teaches and confesses.

I am not at peace because I am unable to understand why we "tarry" (my viewpoint) in the baptizing of newborn children of Christian parents. 

In light of Jesus' command and promise it seems to me that it is crystal clear as to when Jesus would want to take these little ones into His arms and bless them through the water and His Word. 

In addition, knowing from Holy Scripture the state of all humans at birth, including, therefore, the state of my child; I know of no greater need that my child has from the moment of birth than the life and salvation which only Jesus can give ... Life and salvation which Jesus promises to give in Holy Baptism. 

Here in Baptism is the Real Presence of Jesus working though the Holy Spirit to do that which no human can do either for himself or for another ... 

"I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and kept me in the true faith ... even as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it united with Christ Jesus in the one true faith ..."

Almost always among parents and grandparents, family and friends there is great and eager anticipation of the sight and sounds of the newborn child.  There is the anticipated thrill of holding the child in one's arms, of kissing the wondrous face of this amazing creation, of speaking to the child tender and gentle words of love. 

If this is how sinful and weak Christian parents and family anticipate and then relate to the newborn ... how much more the heart of the One who died and rose for this little one whom He created and whom He now seeks to recreate in His image through Baptism.   How much more do the arms of Christ yearn to hold this little one and the lips of Christ seek to speak Words that are Spirit and Life into the ears and heart of this little one.

Should we not be straining at the bit to bring to this little one the greatest blessing of all ... the blessing of faith in Christ … saving faith that receives all other blessings that flow from the Father's hand ... the blessing of faith that God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit give through Holy Baptism?

I seek peace.  I seek to be corrected and enlightened from God's Holy Word regarding  stewardship of Holy Baptism in the Christian Church, regarding our practice and administration of Holy Baptism in our own LCMS and our congregations.   

I am torn

... on the one hand 

... it seems so very simple and clear as to the joy and excitement, the awe and humility, the worship and praise that springs from within our hearts as Christian parents who are able to bring salvation to our newborns within moments of their birth ... they need not remain in darkness and death, unbelief and the dominion of Satan for another moment as with anxious and joyful anticipation of their birth, with water and His Word in hand, we stand ready as Christ's servants to do His bidding in relation to this child for whom He died and rose again ...

but on the other hand

... I hear little of this matter and concern anywhere in the Church.  Rather, it seems to be good and proper to wait a few days or weeks to baptize our newborn children. 

Our preaching and practice seems to proclaim that it is God pleasing to baptize within a reasonable amount of time following the child's birth.   I wonder who decided that ... and who decides what is reasonable ... and does God agree with our position and practice?  Is His command not clear regarding His will in the matter of baptizing ... and does not He also make it very clear that “Now is the acceptable time” and “Today is the day of salvation.”

I fear that we do not stand in awe of God's presence and actions in Holy Baptism. 

As you can see, I am a bit of a mess.  I seek the counsel and wisdom from those so much more learned and wise in the matters of faith and God's Holy Word.  Thus I turn to you.

RAR