ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH, GARRETT, IN
  Zion Lutheran Church Garrett, Indiana
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Sermon for Septuagesima (2023)

2/9/2023

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In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grumbling is nearly the opposite of thanksgiving. It’s one thing to be thankless in response to what we receive. It’s quite another to go on and grumble, complain that what we have isn’t good enough, what we experience isn’t what we wanted, or doesn’t fit with our idea of what we deserve. Grumbling focuses on what went wrong in our judgment, rather than perceiving what went well. The secular world – to counter much of the complaining in work culture, I think – has made a trend of talking about ‘gratitude’ and ‘mindfulness’ in the abstract. There might be something to it, but a Christian can see even more clearly. We know the source of our gifts. We know Who to thank for our daily bread each day. Thankfulness is appreciation for what we do have and the good we have experienced, guided in the recognition that all of it came to us out of God’s pure Fatherly divine goodness and mercy.
It’s not as though grumbling makes us feel any better. It’s all too common to hear someone giving voice to his or her discontent. It’s contageous, and most people don’t even recognize how frequently their words are grumbling, just like the people in the Old Testament. It is worth considering why and how often we give vent to our frustrations… The words we say can snare us, echoing out to the world and then back in through our own ears to the heart. It’d like a feedback loop for a microphone, warping our heart’s perspective about the world, and causing even more suffering because we start to believe the discontent. Do you know anyone whose complaining has made them happier in the long run? Yet the sad truth is that… from within and without, all the day long we face temptations to discontent, to grievance, to coveting what that which is impossible. It’s hard to tune out the echoes of discontent from others.
Two examples are given in the readings today. In the Old Testament, we hear the example of God’s people as they wend their way home. Although they had already been set free from slavery, rescued with mighty signs and wonders by the living God Himself, and were being brought miraculously to a land for their own possession, they grumbled. Rather than recognize the immense gift they were being given, the people framed their thinking about their situation in terms of unmet desire. Without recognition of the gifts they’d received… No wonder they were wretched. Mat
Or consider the gospel reading, the parable, how those hired early in the day agreed for a denarius. They were welcomed to work in the vineyard, and received exactly what was promised. It was a good deal. Their discontent came in trying to take the vineyard owner’s place, in judging the imagined worth of their work in comparison to the others who were called later in the day. They complained because the Lord of the vineyard didn’t judge as they judged, didn’t act according to their designs.
And thanks be to God for that. The hero of the parable is not the complainers, however loudly they make themselves miserable through grumbling. The complainers wouldn’t have had anything at all if they were on their own. The parable is about the generous grace of the Lord of the vineyard. It is written: “1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” It is an undeserved mercy that the master of the house goes out to bring people into his vineyard at all. Yes, there was labor during the day, but it wasn’t the work that brought people into the vineyard. The reward at the end of the day was given generously, graciously, to those who were in the vineyard, irrespective of what they had been able to do. The Hebrew people wandering in the wilderness, for all that they suffered during the journey, they had been liberated from slavery and were actively being brought to a good and plentiful land of their own by the Lord of Creation Himself. We need perspective… this was all a gift, not a transaction. Without the gracious self-giving of God, what good things would there be in life at all?
So too you. When we are tempted by our covetous desires to slip into a spiral of grumbling complaint, it’s not a fun feeling. It may be that our words are not only harmful to ourselves by warping our perspective, but also become a thankless affront to the Lord God who gives us daily bread for each day. Instead of grumbling about why the world isn’t the way WE want it to be, we could ask ourselves: “why are we given anything good at all?”
After all, we daily sin much, and despite how clever we may think we’ve been, we are not lords of much. The workers in the vineyard weren’t chosen to go into the vineyard because of some merit or worthiness in themselves – they were day laborers, servants who wouldn’t remain in the vineyard for longer than a day. The Hebrew people were not led out of Egypt because of their own worth – they were slaves – they were brought out because God was faithful to His covenant and promises. In all these cases, it was the Lord God, the lord of the vineyard, the One to Whom this vineyard belongs – He gives out of His Fatherly divine goodness and mercy. On account of His Son, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, we have God’s favor. Jesus paid the price to welcome you into His kingdom, not with gold or silver or with any of our works under the sun, but with His Holy precious blood. The credit goes to Him. In the parable, this vineyard is the kingdom, the covenant of God’s grace, resurrection to life eternal. The generosity of the vineyard owner is the twist in the parable, an illustration of God’s grace in Christ Jesus – given as a pure gift, to be received through faith.
That changes our perspective on things. Seeing what we do have in life as a gift, from God who loves and gave Himself for us, who has promised His ongoing favor on account of Christ, that is cause for confidence in the face of whatever happens. God is for you, who could be against you? When we pray in the Lord’s Prayer for ‘daily bread,’ we do so in the confidence that God will provide because of what Christ Jesus has done. The Small Catechism puts it well, something like this: “God gives daily bread to everyone with our prayer, even to all evil people, but we pray for daily bread so that He would lead us to realize this, that we receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Or consider the words of Proverbs 10:3 “The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.”
So let your words be thanksgiving, recognizing that we have been given much as a gift of God’s grace. Let those words of thanks, directed to the Triune God, echo out from us, and resound in our ears. Let your words of thanksgiving to God be an encouragement to others to see how gracious He is in providing good for us at all.
And of course we will do the work of the vineyard – whatever vocation you are called to, working within the will of the Lord of the vineyard. Such a labor is gentle, joyful even, for you who are called into these vocations have been welcomed in to the kingdom already, as more than workers... we are heirs, fellow citizens with all the saints of God who are in Christ Jesus. Let his judgment – the generous judgment that your sins are forgiven, be enough. In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
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Sermon for Advent 1 Ad Te Levavi (2022)

11/28/2022

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The basis for today’s sermon is the gospel reading, from Matthew chapter 21[:1-9] , where it is written: “4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’””
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The right and proper office of a king is to save his people. To do that which they cannot, to uphold the lives and good of the people by establishing justice, rewarding the righteous, and punishing the wicked. Jesus rides into Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry, “9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”” They were singing Psalm 118, according to the custom on Passover week[, much the same way that we have hymns we sing on certain holy days like Christmas or Easter or the like]. They were chanting a psalm for the coming Messiah, the “Son of David” Who was to be the king and the savior alike. They may not have realized how fitting it was. Whether or not they fully understood Who it was among them, in chanting “Hosanna!” they spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, asking the King Christ Jesus for just the right and proper office of a King: to save his people.
The word “Hosanna” means “O Save us!” This plea to the Lord God is echoed through time and history, as we need the saving and the Lord God had redeemed us His people time and again. Consider what Jeremiah the prophet says: “7 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 8 but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”” God had saved His people once from Egyptian slavery. Jeremiah foretells how God would, and did, save His people from captivity in the north countries of Babylon. How much more then, at the crucial moment in all of history, does the Lord God save His people from slavish captivity to death and hell? The promise was that the promised “righteous Branch” [/Kingly Messiah] would reign on the throne of David forever, and save His people according to that Kingly office.
So it is that Jesus, King of the Jews, comes to Jerusalem. His majesty hidden, laid aside for a time for a time, cloaked in our humble human flesh. Isaiah 53:2 says of Jesus: “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Or in Philippians 2[:7-8] it is written: “7 … [He] emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[a] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” In the course of His saving work, Jesus humbled Himself, and did not fully use His divine attributes or display all of His divine majesty. Even fulfilling prophecies according to His Kingship, He does so in humble form. All “4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet [Zechariah [9:9]] , saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’””
Therein we have great hope. Christ our King works to save His people through humble means. All too often we are tempted to fear and love the majesty of things in the world... the power money seems to have, or the glitz and glamour of fame and reputation. We get so worked up, anxious about what the kings and rulers of the world are doing. The idol we fear is often “what are they up to?” We fear they can harm us, as they in their power are anything but humble. Yet Christ is King, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They would have no power apart from His permission and patience. The Lord is sympathetic to our fear and does come to save us, but we ought to learn to trust that no matter how evil the world seems, we know that Christ Jesus is still King. He rules even now, and He does hear and answer our plea to save us.
As King, Christ Jesus saves His people through humble means. To Jerusalem He came, to save his people from the ultimate wages of sin, by His cross and passion and death and resurrection. In this humble way He saves, by dying and rising. In this humble way He comes to us even now in bread and wine, word and water. Humble means. Faded bread and thin wine are the Body and Blood of God, given you to eat and drink. God’s kingdom comes among us even now.
We have to be told about this. It is not something we would think of on our own. It says: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you….” God is at work; We pray that He would reveal to us how He is at work among us. When Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus tells him: “And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 16:17). We need to hear this to have our eyes/ears opened to it. If all you see is the tense dramas of a voters meeting or the gossipy worst-possible constructions we poor miserable sinners project onto one another, you’d miss the holy Christian church entirely. God is present in His Word. Where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is among us. Angels kneel and adore Christ with us as heaven touches earth here in the holy communion. The demons flee in terror at the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray : “Thy Kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer… and How does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.
All that said, it means that the Kingdom of God is among us even now. Christ came humbly, mounted on a colt, the foal of a donkey once in time and history. He did His work by the cross and the empty tomb. He rose and ascended, and is still actively reigning over all things even now. However the news cycle rages and storms, it will not change the fact that Christ has already triumphed. Eternity is His, and because He is risen, it is yours too, because you are Baptized into His death and resurrection. So we do not lose heart. We have a strong encouragement and comfort in the reign of Christ the king among us. What can they do to you, that Christ has not already overcome?
So also we look to our conduct in the present-day rule of Christ. The Epistle reading from Romans 13 points out: “11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
So also ought to straighten up our act, and straighten up our heads, looking forward to our King Who hears our Hosannas. He came once in the days of His crucifixion. He rules even now, especially His church through His means of Grace. And our King Christ Jesus could come back at any moment. We don’t know when it is. Don’t be wasting time with quarrels or bad blood. Christ comes among us even now. Salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. God is at work in history, even in your life now. He will not let “them,” whoever that is, prevail. He sees and knows your distress, and will see you safely through, according to His wisdom. He will bring you even more through death into life, because you are baptized into His death and resurrection. Call out to him and pray for His salvation, asking for His ever present mercy to you. God grant you ears to hear what the prophet speaks: O Daughter of Zion, your King comes to save you. In the name of + Jesus. Amen.


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    Pulpit & Pen

    Rev. Christiansen serves as pastor at Zion Lutheran. Here are selected writings, sermons or newsletter articles. 

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