The information sign at the UCC church at the end of our street today reads, “God answers all kneel mail.”

As I walked “Wisconsin,” our black and white Newfoundland, through the cemetery I thought of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Marshfield, Wisconsin which is one of the few Lutheran churches which has kneelers.  I don’t know when or how the tradition started in the congregation.  The “old” church, which dated back to about 1900 or before had kneelers.  When a new church was being planned the committee wanted to continue the practice of kneeling went they entered the church, for confession and again following the Lord’s Supper.

In Matthew 8 a leper, and centurion knelt before Jesus.  In chapter 9 the ruler of a synagogue whose daughter had just died knelt before Jesus.  On the way to the ruler’s house a woman who had been suffering from a discharge of blood for twelve years touched the fringe of his garment.

The people in Matthew’s Gospel had no business coming near Jesus or anyone else. According to the law, skin disease, death, and a woman’s menstrual period made them unclean.  When Jesus touched them or was touched, he became ritually unclean.  But in every case Jesus healed them reversing the flow of uncleanness to cleanness.

On Sunday morning, we confess, “we are by nature sinful and unclean.”  Therefore, it would be “good, right and salutary” that we all kneel that we might rise to sing, “This is the feast of victory for our God, Alleluia.”

 

I,m currently reading through Proverbs and came across the following in chapter 23: 29-35.  I don’t have any particular reason for posting this, but it does describe a truth.  Who is suffering?     Who is uneasy?     Who has arguments?     Who has complaints?     Who has unnecessary wounds?     Who has glazed eyes?— 30         those who linger over wine;         those who go looking for mixed wine. 31 Don’t look at wine when it is red,     when it sparkles in the cup,     going down smoothly. 32 In the end, it bites like a snake     and poisons like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things,     and your heart will speak distorted words. 34 You will be like one who lies down while out on the sea[c]     or one who lies on top of a mast. 35 “Though hit, I feel no pain;     though beaten up, I don’t know anything about it. When I wake up,     I’ll look for wine again!”

 

On June 25^th, 1530 the German and Latin editions of the Augsburg Confession were presented to Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.  It was signed by a number of leaders from German cities and regions.  Since it was too dangerous for Martin Luther to appear at the Diet (meeting), the Augsburg Confession was written by Philip Melancthon and endorsed by Luther.  It consists of a brief summary of the points in which the reformers saw their teaching either agreeing with historical teachings of the Christian Church or disagreeing with the Roman Catholic Church at that time. A few weeks later, the Roman Catholic authorities rejected the Confession.  In 1531, Melanchthon defended the Lutheran stance in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. In 1580 when the Book of Concord was dawn up, the unaltered Augsburg Confession was included among the principal Lutheran confessions.

Prayer of the Day:

Lord God, heavenly Father, You preserved the teaching of the apostolic Church through the confession of the true faith at Augsburg.  Continue to cast the bright  beams of Your light upon your Church that we being instructed by the doctrine of the blessed apostles, may walk in the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

Today is John the Baptist’s birthday, at least according to the church calendar.  He was six months younger than Jesus, so when the church assigned Jesus’ birthday to December 25, John was given June 24.  I don’t know why it isn’t the 25^th.  Since he was likely born somewhere between 7 BC and 4 BC he would now be about 2020 years old.

On Facebook, I requested recipes for locusts and wild honey.  Some bees are making their home in a hole in old pine stump in my front yard, but no lead on locusts.

John was a surprising late birth to Elizabeth and Zechariah.  When the angel appeared to Zechariah in the temple, he asked, “How shall I know this?   I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”  And for not readily believing Gabriel, who had been sent from God to bring him this good news, Zechariah was unable to speak until the child was born.

Elizabeth stayed home the first five months of her pregnancy, “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”  However, the next month she had a visit from her much younger relative, Mary, who herself was pregnant following a visit from Gabriel.

Thus, God set in motion our salvation.  How else shall we respond except to leap for joy and magnify the Lord?

Almighty God, grant that we may know this salvation and serve You in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.

 

Paul wrote to Timothy, “Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.”  Martin Franzmann wrote in his hymn, “Preach you the Word and plant it home to men who like or like it not, the word that shall endure and stand when flow’rs and men shall be forgot.”

Preaching the Word when men like it not or even when you yourself would soon as not, is a theme running through the lessons for this Sunday.

In Jeremiah 20: 7-13, the prophet accuses God of deceiving him.  He has become a laughing stock.  His close friends are plotting against him.  All he seems able to preach is violence and destruction, in return he is denounced.  He determines “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name.”  But when he does, a burning fire rages within him and he can’t hold it in.”

I saw on Facebook this week an article about a church in North Carolina which is going to try not mentioning God in hope of attracting more people.  The question is, will they be able to say at the end of the day, along with Jeremiah, “Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord!”  or will they hear the Father say, “whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”

Preaching the Word is not a guarantee of success in numbers.  But Jesus says, even in the face of opposition and betrayal, we are not to fear, for the Father who knows when a sparrow falls to the ground certainly knows our situation.

Preaching the Word, is of vital importance.   Paul wrote to the Romans: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  The Word is the difference between life and death.

 

Before the heat of the 90 + day set in I spent a couple hours gardening; that is, harassing the weeds enough to set them back a week or so.  Snapdragons, Petunia, Vincas, Sunflowers, Elephant Ears and tomatoes are all coming along.  Salmon colored Daylilies are at their peak while Cone Flowers are hitting their stride.  Easter Lilies have finished blooming and the Surprise Lilies wait for the end of July to leap out of the ground like Flamingo feet in the air.

God set us humans in a garden.  But gardeners should be under no allusion that we can recreate Eden, though we strive to do so. We garden between Eden and the new heaven and new earth where the water of life flows bright as crystal from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.  On both sides of the river the tree of life grows with its twelve kinds of fruit and the leaves providing… healing. (Rev. 22:1-2)

The garden is the scene of our Fall, but also of our resurrection for it was Jesus who not only prayed in a garden, but was buried and rose to new life in a garden.

One year I expressed to my neighbor June Launhardt that things didn’t turn out as I had hoped.  June said, “Well that give us something to work for next year.”  So, we garden in hope according to the promise of Genesis 8:22, “As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, they will never cease.”

 

We were returning from a Sunday morning in Hillsboro, Il. We’ve out and about on four consecutive Sundays.  We’ll be back in Hillsboro on July 2, and then at Prairietown on the 9^th.

Becky said, “You’re doing what you always wanted to do.  You’re a circuit riding preacher.”

Me, “But I’m glad I’m not doing it by horse.  I like mine under the hood.”

Becky was right.  Since I retired, sort of, in 2003, I’ve been running around and preaching or filling vacancies which are often less than a year.  She also mentioned that it was good to get out of the city and into the country.

It takes patience to let God work things out according to his plan.  In the late 1990’s I began thinking about doing smaller churches, since it seemed that God wanted me to do large ones for most of my ministry.  Also, to do something in a diverse cultural setting.

I should point out that for me prayer is thinking about things.

God has granted my thinking-about-things -prayers.  As the Psalmist says, “I will walk in the land of the living.”  In my case, that’s no small miracle.   I’ve been running around and preaching for the last 14 years.  And I’ve served in a largely African -American congregation with some members originating in West Africa.

Psalm 116, says, “What shall I render to the Lord for his benefits to me?… I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”

Well, psalm writer, I couldn’t have said it better.

 

Pentecost 2, 2017, Hillsboro, Il.

Matthew 9:35-10:4

Crowds.  Great crowds. From Galilee in the north to Judea/Jerusalem to the south and all up and down the eastern side of the Jordan River from the sea of Galilee to the Salt Sea, they came to follow him.  Sometimes we need to get away from the crowds, so he took his disciples up a mountain and taught them, “Blessed are those who recognize their spiritual poverty, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied; Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  He continued, “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” What other light do we have, but him who is the light of life? He taught them to pray, “Our Father in heaven, holy be your name, your kingdom come, Your will be done…forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven others.”  And he said, “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.”  All his teachings within the circle of his presence as Immanuel, God with us. The one who would save us from our sins for with him is forgiveness of sins.

When Jesus came down the mountain there were the crowds.  And out of the crowd stepped a leper, a man with a skin infection, one who should have stayed far away.  He kneeled before Jesus and said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”  Jesus reached out and touched the untouchable man and said, “I will; be clean.”  Then an army officer came beseeching him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.”  Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”  But the officer said, “No, no, I am not worthy, only say the word.”  Jesus said the word and the man was healed at that very moment.  He went into his disciple Peter’s house where Peter’s mother-in- law was cast into bed by a fever.  He touched her and she got up and began to serve him, as we are called to do.

In our text this morning Matthew reports, “Jesus, kept on going around all the cities and villages to teach in their synagogues and preach the Good News of the God’s reign and heal every illness and ailment.”  Our Savior, that’s your name, went about teaching the good news that, God was reestablishing his ruler ship in the world.  As Becky and I go about on Sunday mornings, I am in wonder of the Gospel proclaimed in the churches names.  Last Sunday, Trinity Sunday, we first went to Trinity Lutheran in Iuka located at the end of Trinity Lane.  Then to Faith,  Lutheran in Flora, where again we confessed our faith in the Triune God.  We belong to a congregation named, Resurrection.  What gospel is in those names.

But then Matthew tells us, in our text, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.”  The crowds were made up of descendants of ancestors whom God had freed from slavery in Egypt, of whom God had said, in our Old Testament reading, “you yourselves have seen how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.  You shall be to be a treasured possession…a kingdom of priests; a holy nation.”  But now these descendants didn’t feel as if they were flying on eagles’ wings.  They didn’t seem like a treasured possession.  Nor did they see themselves as God’s priests; a nation sacred to God. Literally, the crowd  felt like they were flayed and throw down, dejected and being kicked around. There are times in our personal lives and in our life as a congregation that we feel harassed and helpless against forces we can’t overcome.  I know that all those gospel – named churches I listed above have gone through times like what Jesus saw in the crowds before him.

Matthew says they were like sheep without a shepherd. A high school textbook of our oldest son contained a painting of a flock of sheep with no shepherd in sight.  They had grazed their way to the edge of the cliff overlooking a broad valley below them.  And some of the flock had already fallen over the cliff and landed on a ledge below them and were now trapped.  They were looking up at the rest of the flock.  Worse was yet to come, because above, the painting showed more sheep grazing their way up toward the edge.  And soon they would be pushing up against the sheep already on the edge and more of the flock would soon going tumbling down.

When Jesus sees the harassed and helpless, he is filled with compassion.  His heart goes out to us.  He doesn’t abandon us, for he was born Immanuel and as we heard last Sunday, “I am with you always to the end of the age.”

Because in the epistle lesson Paul throws three fast balls right past us.  We were weak, unable to come to God. Strike one.  We sinners.  Strike two.  We were enemies of God. Strike three.  But Christ stepped to the plate in our place.  He belted each accusation out of the park.  Weak and ungodly?  “Christ died for the ungodly.”  Sinners?  “God shows his love for us in that…Christ died for us.” Enemies of God?  “God reconciled us to himself by the death of His Son.”

Now Jesus points his disciples, including us, his 21^st disciples, to look at the outside world.  There we will see, that, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”  One of the things I noticed in the last few weeks traveling through Illinois was that the wheat field had ripened and turned golden.  Then last weekend the harvesting was well underway.  Jesus says, “Think of the world as a vast wheat field waiting for the harvest.”  But this isn’t our field or our harvest.  That belongs to God.  But laborers are needed to get the harvest ready.  The first thing Jesus says to us disciples is to, “pray, earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers out into his harvest.”  Then Jesus, who took our place in his dying and rising to life, now sends us out to take his place and carry on his ministry.

Our Savior commissions Our Savior Lutheran Church to carry on his work.  Us? Weakened as we are? Yes.  Look whom he sends out in our Gospel lessons, Peter and his brother Andrew; James and his brother John, who wanted to call down fire and brimstone on a village who wouldn’t let Jesus stay overnight.  There was Philip who found his friend Bartholomew.  It was Bartholomew who wondered if anything good could come out of that hick town of Nazareth. Let’s not forget doubting Thomas.  And Matthew, a hated and crooked tax collector. There’s another James and a person named Thaddeus.  Rounding out the twelve was a Simon, who belonged to a group called the zealots who were dedicated to getting rid of the Romans even if it took terrorist means.  And Judas, who would betray Jesus to his enemies.

If Jesus can send these out to continue his ministry, then surely, he can use us.  And he does.  So again, today we will leave with the assurance that the Lord blesses us, and keeps us.  We shall live under the beams of his shining presence and will receive grace upon grace.  He will look upon us and in him we have peace.  Lord, grant us faith to believe Your promises.

 

 

 

 

The Entrance psalm for Sunday is psalm 67:4-7.

Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you!…

I would have liked vs. 1&2 to be included.  One translation reads, “O God, have compassion on us and bless us, and let Your face shine upon us, to make known Your way upon the earth, and your salvation to all the nations.”  These verses would have given the reason for the double refrain, “Let the people praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.”

God’s compassion is picked up in the Gospel lesson, “When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

The Psalm for the Day, Psalm 100 also finds a tie in.  We are called to “serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!”  “It is he who made us and we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”  Therefore, to paraphrase v. 4, we can enter the church doors with thanksgiving and sit in the sanctuary with praise.  Because, “His steadfast love endures forever, and he is faithful to all generations.”

We pray: Almighty, eternal God, in the Word of your apostles and prophets You have proclaimed to us Your saving will.  Grant us faith to believe Your promises that we may receive eternal salvation; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

Psalm 84 is about being in the Lord’s temple.  Vs. 10” For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.”

As I read the Psalm this morning on our back patio, I thought of how often I liked to take a break from the office and walk through the church.  I generally didn’t do anything spiritual.  I would pick up a stray bulletin, straighten a hymnal, study the stained – glass windows.  Yet, there was something peaceful and settling about walking about in the Lord’s house.

There were a couple times when as Psalm 73 says, I was seeking to understand something, “until I went into the sanctuary of God…”   On vicarage at Grace in Oshawa, Ontario, I struggled with the statement in the creed, “descended into hell.”  It’s based on I Peter 3:18-19, in mind a rather vague statement.   But a sense of resolution occurred when I walked about the sanctuary.  The other occasion was when I was considering the call to Immanuel, in Marshfield Wisconsin.  I didn’t want to take the call, yet I didn’t feel comfortable turning it down.  Saturday night I took the envelope with the call documents and literally tossed them on the altar at Zion, Albert Lea, MN.  The answer didn’t come that morning during worship.  However, while making some hamburgers at home after church, I was discussing my dilemma.  Becky said, that my discomfort in turning the call down was maybe a sign I should take it.  So, I did.

The other take away is that one does not know when, how and through whom the Holy Spirit will work.  So be alert and open for surprises.