Saint Athanasius Lutheran Church

The church is a mess. She is fractured. The number of different denominations and independent churches is in the thousands. Unbelievers look at the church and see division, turmoil, confusion. They see a church that has lost her way. And yet as great a mess as the church may be, the church is beautiful at the same time. With the beauty of holiness. Not because we've made her holy -- clearly we haven't, we can't and we never will! She is holy because Jesus has washed His Bride, cleansing her with His blood and making her spotless, without stain, wrinkle, or blemish.

Wouldn't it be great to have a man of Macedonia all your own? A vision from God to tell you what to do! Maybe. But what makes you think you would listen anyway? Paul did, but... would you? I ask because God has already told us lots of things to do in His Word, and we don't do them. Well one of those things God has told us to do is pray. To pray in Jesus' name isn't some magic formula -- it is, rather, to pray as Jesus would pray; as He did pray. With faith in His sonship, and of your sonship in Him.

Today, lots of people hear the Word of God. Lots of people hear of Jesus and His Word. But... well... that's not really how I want to live, what I want to do. So, as Jesus said, they hear but do not believe. So the Good Shepherd comes. He who knows the good pastures, the good waters. Follow Me, He says. So you can leave this place today and live in confidence, that whatever comes, however it comes, whenever it comes, your life is secure. You belong to Him. Here His voice, follow where He leads, and rejoice!

Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? This is one of those questions that there is no right answer to. Like, have you stopped kicking the dog? If you say yes, you admit that you had been doing that, but stopped. If you say no, you are saying you still are, that you haven't stopped. So what's Peter supposed to say? Of course, he knows the answer is supposed to be yes. But he also knows that he kind of said that before, and well, you know what happened. He loved Jesus. He wanted to be with Jesus. He did. He meant what he had said before. He did. He just couldn't...

Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. Thus spoke Thomas. Doubting Thomas, if you like. Which is a name a bit unfair, really. They all were doubters that day. Unbelievers, if you like. So when Thomas said, I will never believe, what he meant was this... I will continue to believe... to believe what I know. That Jesus is not alive. Which means they were all dead that day, at first. But then someone with the key came.

No two Easters are the same. Because the world changes. But not only our world changes, we change. And our church changes. So while no two Easter are the same, at the same time every Easter is the same. The same truth, the same joy, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The triumph of life over death! That is the truth we celebrate today that makes all the difference, through all the times and places and changes that happen in our world and our lives and our church.

The book of Deuteronomy is Moses' words to the people of Israel when they are on the border of the Promised Land. Because he's not going in with them. This is as far as Moses goes. But after again teaching the people all the words of the Lord and going over their history, God also shows Moses the future to speak to them -- what will happen to Israel after he is gone. They will enter the Promised Land. But just as can happen with us, when life is going good, when you have all you need and then some, you can get lazy, you can forget about God.

In saving His people from the clutches of Egypt and the bondage of their slavery in that country, God broke the will of the Egyptians with ten plagues. One by one He showed that He was the one and only true God. He wanted His people freed, and freed they would be. But for this last and greatest plague upon Egypt, Israel would not just sit back and watch in wonder -- they would be part of it. Of course, as we have been considering all this Lenten season, that exodus and those passover lambs -- as great as it was -- would be surpassed by a greater exodus, and by a greater lamb.

Mr. Irrelevant. That's the name given to the last player chosen in the NFL Draft. The one nobody really wanted. The one all the teams and all their experts passed over, time and time again. For the scribes and chief priests, Jesus is Mr. Irrelevant. He is the stone that the builders rejected. The guy at the other end of the Draft, though, the first player chosen in the first round, he's the man. That's Paul. He did everything right.

There are two things God is concerned with -- your sin and your salvation. Your sin, which hurts both yourself and others, which separates you from God, and which robs you of the life God has for you, both your life now and your life forever... and your salvation, which is God dealing with the issue of sin, healing the damage inflicted by sin, which includes dealing with death, bringing you back together with Himself, and restoring you to life -- a full and meaningful life now, and a life that will last forever.

Familiarity breeds contempt, they say. That was certainly true for the younger son in the parable Jesus told today. The prodigal son, as he has come to be known. The father is the only one consistent throughout, the only one we can count on in this story. His love for his sons never wavers. He receives harsh words and insults from both. Yet his love for them is steadfast. Perhaps it is even so in the church. And our Father says, Come in! You are welcome here. Most welcome. So come to the feast! My baptism has mad you My child, my absolution has washed you clean, and now there is the food you need to live.

A volcano erupts deep under the Pacific Ocean and a tsunami wipes out an island. A tiny virus infects the world. A construction error causes a structure to fall, crushing many people under its weight. Today, Jesus tells us how we should react -- I tell you... unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. When these kinds of things happen, it is an opportunity for us not to look at them and try to figure out why it happened to them... but to look at myself and what's wrong with me, and know it -- even worse -- should have happened to me.

We praise people when they do something well, when they achieve one of their goals, or for a certain accomplishment. And if the accomplishment is big enough or of particular note, then memorials are built, songs are written about it, days set aside to remember the event, so that the praise won't be just for a day or two, but be passed down the generations. So it was for Israel's exodus out of Egypt. But -- and you know the story -- God divided the sea so that Israel could walk through it on dry ground. So Israel sang out it, A hymn of praise.

Dr. Jeremiah has taken the spiritual temperature of Jerusalem and it is not good. They are sick. He knows the medicine they need, but they do not want it. The people did not repent. So God kept His Word. The city of Jerusalem was destroyed, the Temple leveled. So Dr. Jeremiah is making a house call to us this Lent, and calling us to repent and receive the medicine we need. The medicine our Lord has here for us. So the season of Lent... well, it's like our yearly spiritual physical. We're sick with sin. We can ignore it and die, or we can repent and live.

It started out okay. Better than okay -- it was good. Better than good -- Jacob and his family were being well taken care of as guests in the land of Egypt. But then time rolled on. The new Pharaoh and the people of Egypt began to wonder... who were these foreigners living in their land? For they became much more than a family, but a people, a nation. One that had to be reckoned with. One that could turn against Egypt. And the people of Israel, the children who had descended from Jacob, cried out to the Lord. Lord have mercy! And we read that God heard, God remembered, God saw, and God knew.

The devil really thinks he's something. And why not? He's got a perfect record. I'm not sure of the exact number, of how many people lived between the time of Adam and Eve until the time of Jesus, but however many it was the devil was undefeated. So when Jesus arrives on the scene, why expect any different? But Jesus did not go down. That is important for us to remember. If you try to go toe-to-toe, mano a mano with the devil, you will lose. And when you go down know that the Valiant One is on your side. You are forgiven.

Ash Wednesday is our yearly reminder, you didn't get away with it -- whatever "it" is. Whatever sin you did, whatever sin you continue to do, God sees and knows. Whether you have an ugly black cross on your forehead or not, you didn't get away with it. Not with God. Ash Wednesday is our reminder: you can't pull the wool over God's eyes. And so today is a day of repentance. Ash Wednesday is for repenting what Thanksgiving is for giving thanks. To bend the knees not of our bodies but of our hearts and say: Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

The verses we heard from the book of Hebrews today praise Moses. Twice it tells us that Moses was faithful in all God's house. But ask Moses, and he would tell you a different story. Moses knew he was nothing. He knew he had his good moments and bad moments, and he knew he was a great sinner. And for this he would not enter the Promised Land of Canaan. But Moses did enter the Promised Land -- just not this one. Not the one of this earth. The kingdom not of Israel, but the kingdom of God. That greater Promised Land Moses would enter, because of the prophet coming after Him, the one greater than him.

His brothers hated him. All eleven of them. They didn't just curse him, they wished him dead. And they didn't just wish him dead, they actually began plotting how they might do that. Joseph loved his brothers. They weren't his enemies, even though they treated him as their enemy. Time heals all wounds, some would say. But God heals all wounds, Joseph would say. The Word of God that had been with Joseph and working in Joseph all those years. Could you be like that? Like Joseph? Maybe yes, maybe no. For when you look at your life, who are you more like: Joseph? Or his brothers?

The Christian lives in two kingdoms. Two kingdoms that do not think alike, do not act alike. The kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God. Yet live in both every Christian does. But it is perilous. We are to see and use and enjoy the things of this world as good gifts from God, while at the same time not become too attached to them, not living for them, not relying on them. Whether they be people or things or accomplishments. Which, as you know, is not an easy thing. Yes, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord... but then Jeremiah also said Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.