Building Healthy Families, and Knowing Your True Father's Character - Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Lent

Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 30^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Building Healthy Families, 
   and Knowing Your True Father’s Character

Audio of the Sermon available HERE.

   Which son are you more like?  Are you more like the younger, the black sheep, the self-centered party-boy?  Or are you more like the hater, the older and “holier than thou” brother, who silently resents his father, and gets angry when his younger brother comes home, and is forgiven? 

   Neither, I hope.  As baptized sons and daughter of God the Father, I pray you aren’t very much like either brother. 

   This “Parable of the Loving Father” – that is its proper name, much more accurate than “The Prodigal Son” or “The Parable of the Two Sons,” - this parable is fundamentally about salvation, about God’s attitude and actions to save us sinful human beings.  Remember, Jesus tells this parable, along with the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, in response to the Pharisees and scribes.  Those older-brother-like religious grumblers were complaining because Jesus was hanging out with tax collectors and other “sinners,” and even eating with them.  Jesus’ main point is to reveal the loving heart of His Father, who, despite what we deserve, does not give up on saving us from ourselves.  We will come back to this glorious theme in a moment. 

   But first, we who have been saved by grace through faith, who have been found by the Good Shepherd and brought back into God’s fold by His forgiving blood, we can also learn a bit about Christian living from this parable.  We can learn about how to be good sons and daughters, good fathers and mothers, good brothers and sisters, even if from this parable we learn from two very negative examples. 

   The Parable of the Loving Father is mostly teaching us about God’s gift of salvation, but since the God who redeems sinners is the same God who created the world and humanity, and who has built the order of family into His Creation, it shouldn’t surprise us that there are useful points of comparison between how we should live as His creatures, and how we receive new life, as citizens of the new heavens and new earth that Jesus will reveal, someday soon.   

   If we could learn a bit about how to build and maintain better families, that would be really good, really good for our lives, and really good if we could spread this wisdom around to our friends and neighbors.  Because it’s painful to watch sin and foolishness shatter families and break down our society.  It’s depressing to see damage caused by degeneracy, the willful rebellion and pursuit of pleasure that younger brother exemplifies.  Love of virtue is mocked by today’s dominant culture, and this mocking affects us all. 

   It’s also brutal to see hard-heartedness prevent reconciliation and joy, as older-brother types demand a pound of flesh and more, before they will be reconciled to a relative who they think has broken the rules.  Real, no-strings-attached forgiveness is very rare today.  Indeed, when the world gets around to deciding something is a actually a sin, then free forgiveness for the repentant is forbidden.  A price must be paid by the guilty, demands the world. 

   Degeneracy and hard-heartedness are both bitter plagues upon the human race.  But we know a better way.       

   The two brothers in the Parable of the Loving Father share a very similar problem.  Neither believes that their father is wise, or that he knows and wants what’s best for them.  Both suspect that dad is holding out, not giving them his very best. 

   The younger son thinks curbing the desires of his flesh for the pleasures of the world is boring, and he is ready to wish his father dead in order to satisfy his lusts.   

   The older son is willing to work the company-man route, but in his heart he thinks Dad doesn’t really care for him.  Certainly his father doesn’t give him the credit he deserves for toeing the line and following the rules.   

   Neither brother believes their father wants what’s truly best for them, or even knows what is best for them.  Which makes sense, because they are both, along with all of us, descendants of Adam and Eve.  You remember them, right, our first parents, who fell for the serpent’s lie about God holding back His best from them.  “You will not surely die,” he hissed, when Eve explained why they could not eat of the forbidden tree.  “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Satan insinuated that God was holding out His best from them, and they fell for it.  And so all their descendants are likewise susceptible to disbelieving their parents good intentions, and also prone to disbelieving God’s good intentions.   

   Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.  Only God is good, and so there is no good apart from Him, no true good outside His Way.  And the Lord God always gives us what is good and perfect, because there is no shadow of turning with Him.   

   We have been brought to trust in the unchanging Father who held nothing back, but gave His very best, His eternal beloved Son, in order to rescue us.  This trust, this faith, changes us.  We are no longer of the flesh.  We are new creations, in Christ, by God’s grace.  We are far from perfected, but neither are we lost in sin, helpless to fight against evil.  For Christ has rescued us.  He has given us the Holy Spirit in our Baptisms.  He teaches us.  He feeds us, with His Word, and with His very Body and Blood.  So, we are not doomed to ping pong back and forth between the dissolution and destruction of the younger brother and the loveless legalism of the older brother. 

   So, what might we learn from this parable for our daily life in family and society?  “Honor your father and mother” is a good place to start.  God gave you life, through your father and mother; we honor God by honoring our parents.  And kids start out life in large part wanting to love and honor parents.  Our culture posits as a given that teenagers and young adults will despise and rebel against their parents, but this is not necessarily true, in particular for those children who are brought up in the teaching of the Lord.   

   We who are parents and grandparents might also remember what Paul said: do not exasperate your children.  Raise them up in the fear and knowledge of the Lord, and love them.  We give time to what we love, be it our families, or our jobs, or our hobbies, or our vices.  There is no higher earthly calling than to fulfill your roles in the family: husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the Church, and laid down His life for her.  Wives respect your husbands, following their God-given leadership as the Church follows Christ.  When God grants a husband and wife to be parents, then husband-and-wife–hood morphs into father-and-mother-hood.  The one-flesh union is still the hub, but the one-flesh marriage now serves the good of the children, to the glory and pleasure of God. 

   Hear this truth, which the world and our own sinful flesh so want to deny:  Whatever your place in your family is, there is nothing more important for you to do with your time than fulfill your calling to love your family.  Don’t let school, or job, friends, self-actualization or entertainment fool you into thinking there is something better in this world than the family God has given you.  And if your family is so messed up to have thrown you out, which does happen sometimes, then please know that God has given you a new family to love, in your congregation.  Because God has made family the center of life, He goes out of His way to grant each one of us a safe family in which we can love and be loved.    

    By God’s grace, working through a concerted father-and-mother effort, the importance, the faith, the values and goals of the family will be clear to everyone, and obviously pursued in the day-to-day by the parents.  In such a blessed state, the children will be much more likely to believe that the heads of the family are truly seeking what is best for them.   

    As in the family, so also beyond, for community and society and nations are all built upon the foundation of the family.  Leaders, those given authority, whether fathers and mothers, mayors, governors or presidents, all leaders need, according to God’s ordering of the world, to demonstrate integrity and concern for those in their charge.  This is true for families, for communities, for nations.  If those charged with leading lack integrity, if they demonstrate by their actions that they have pursued authority only to inflate their egos and pad their bank accounts, well, then trust and commitment of the followers will be lacking, and the society will falter.  Stop me if you think I’m talking about the last 20 years or so of American history. 

   Life in this world can be better, or it can be worse.  The closer we align ourselves with the order that the LORD has given to His creation, the better our day to day life will be.  If men dare to be men, and women dare to be women, if we dig into the Scripture to learn each day what this means, good can and will result.   

   Life in this world can be worse, or it can be better.  It won’t be perfect.  

   Except.  Life will not be perfect, except when you see life through the lens of the Loving Father.  Following God’s orders, the ways he has established for men, women, family and society to be, this will make this life less chaotic, more productive.  We can avoid a lot of pain.  These are good things.  For when chaos doesn’t reign supreme, the Church has a better opportunity to tell the story of the more important family, so that more souls can hear and believe the fantastic Good News of the Loving Father.   

   This is the message of the Parable of the Loving Father.  The Pharisees and scribes are offended by Jesus, who cares for and even eats with sinners.  Their error is two-fold.  First, they deny their kinship with the tax collectors, for we were all brought forth in iniquity.  There is no descendent of Adam who is righteous in and of himself.  No, not one.  Second, they misunderstand the character of the Father.  God is just, and demands justice.  He is also loving.  Indeed, God is love.  So, our loving God does what it takes to achieve and gift the justice, the righteousness, that He requires, through the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, our Lord.   

   Your eternal family is perfect, because your Father is perfect, and your Savior, His Son, has perfected righteousness and holiness, for you.  By His perfect life of love and His substitutionary death, (His death in place of your death), Jesus has achieved the redemption that finishes, makes perfect, God’s plan to save you.  No earthly father or mother loves as much, nor in the manner, that God has loved this broken world.   

  God really does love you this much:  If you wander from His Way, He gazes down the road, to see if you might be coming home.  No matter how far you have wandered, as long as you are still drawing breath, the Father is holding His breath, hoping you will come to your senses and return home.  God is looking forward to welcoming you with the best party ever. 

   And, for any older brothers out there, no matter how caught up in the Law and your ability to keep it you are, God is really coming out to plead with you to give up on earning His love, and just come into the party and rejoice.  For what was dead, is now alive.  What was lost is found.  Sinners are turning to God, and that is worth celebrating, in heaven and on earth.

   As sure as Jesus Christ lived, loved, died, rose and ascended on high, this is how sure your place in the Father’s eternal family is.  So rejoice, for Christ is real, Christ is risen, and He rules on high, for you.  Rejoice, and love your family, most especially by reflecting and speaking of Christ to them, so that together, you can rest in His forgiving love.   

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

 

Seven Words about God’s Hatred of Sin, and His Glory in Mercy - Sermon for the 3rd Sunday in Lent

Third Sunday in Lent, March 23^rd, A+D 2025, Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches, Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Seven Words about God’s Hatred of Sin, and His Glory in Mercy
Ezekiel 33:7-20, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Luke 13:1-9 

Audio of the sermon available HERE.

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy, be gracious to all who have gone astray from Your ways … Seven Words about God’s Hatred of Sin, and His Glory in Mercy.

 1. God hates sin, but it is His Glory to have mercy on Sinners. 

And so, first, preachers better preach.  This is the message of the first three verses of our reading from Ezekiel: So you, son of man, I’ve made a watchmen for the house of Israel whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning for me.  As the hymn says “Preach you the word, and plant it home, to men who like, or like it not.  Through Ezekiel the Lord gives us a call for fearless faithfulness in proclamation.  No shirking, no skipping the unpleasant parts. 

 

It’s not easy being a faithful watchmen for the House of Israel.  Even stick in the mud confessional Lutheran pastors want to be liked by the people that they serve.  But we are called to love, not to like.  I am not called here to be liked by you, but to share the love of Christ with you.  And real love is truthful, truthful about who we are, and truthful about who Christ is. 

 

For the sinner, that is for each one of us, the message about sin needs to be specific,  specific to my sins and specific to your sins.  We need to talk about real sins. We need a specific personal condemnation of the sin that remains in us, for the sake of then hearing a specific and personal Gospel, good news, for you.  So that you will:

Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Joel 2:13)

 

2. God hates sin, but it is His Glory to have mercy on Sinners. 

The LORD has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from his way, and live! 

 

And so, second, be perfect, as your father in heaven is perfect.  The message of the rest of our reading from Ezekiel is just this: You must be perfect.  If the righteous man or woman betrays their righteousness and does evil, then they face death.  If the wicked man or woman turns from their sin and makes everything right, makes restitution and puts things back as they should be, well, then they will have life.  You see perfection is God‘s standard in His Law.

 

 The righteous may protest: “We’re trying so hard. We’re doing so well generally.  How can you ask us to be perfect?

 

The wicked made despair:  “How could I ever pay for what I’ve done? How could I make restitution for all the things that I’ve done wrong?”  You might even find yourself both protesting and despairing, as you consider your life.

 

God is not unjust. He created us to be righteous, to be perfect, and so we are to be righteous and perfect. God‘s standard is not unjust just because we cannot fulfill it.  And yet, God does not desire our death, but that we turn from our sin and live. 

And so, since we can’t do achieve or maintain righteousness, he gives us His righteousness. We need His righteousness, which is received by faith. This is why the prophet Habakkuk declares “the righteous will live by faith.”  Faith receives Christ and His perfect righteousness, this is our life, today and every day, and so

Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Joel 2:13)

 

3. God hates sin, but it is His Glory to have mercy on Sinners. 

So third, do not despise your baptism. Ancient Israel was baptized, in a way, as they escaped from Pharaoh’s armies through the waters of the Red Sea, that were pushed up on either side of them.  Through this rescue, ancient Israel was made to be God‘s special people, His chosen, precious, blessed people. 

 

You are baptized with an even better baptism.  For by your baptism into Christ you have been made to be a child of God.   You have been clothed with Christ’s righteousness.  You’ve been given the Holy Spirit.  You are adopted by the Father in heaven. 

 

So do not be like Israel, who despised their baptism so quickly.  Shortly after the rescue at the Red Sea, they were complaining and turning away and worshiping a golden calf.   It’s kind of like this:  If you were to take a job working for the Denver Broncos, how would it go if, on your second day of work, you showed up in a Kansas City Chiefs jersey?  Not well, I think. 

 

When the baptized live like the world it is as if we are changing teams, abandoning the family that God has called us into.  If we mouth all the right words on Sunday, but live Monday through Saturday as if we know nothing of Christ, we are despising our Baptism.  If we do not treat others with the kindness with which Christ has treated us, if instead we are cruel and selfish, we are despising our Baptism.  If we speak badly of the Church to our non-Church friends, if we are living with our significant other without marriage, pretending that God doesn’t know just because the pastor doesn’t know, we are despising our Baptism. 

 

Perhaps worst of all, if we treat Baptism like a lucky rabbit’s foot, and abandon the services of God‘s house altogether, if we quit reading, quit hearing, quit praying God‘s word, well that is to abandon our Baptism.  Repent, and

Return to the Lord, your God.  Yes, this may be scary, but repent and confess your sins, and return, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

 

4. God hates sin, but it is His Glory to have mercy on Sinners. 

So, fourth, do not despise the Lord’s Supper. Those baptized-in-the-Red-Sea Israelites were miraculously fed by God day after day in the wilderness.  Heavenly bread, the manna they just picked up every morning.  They were also given water from a rock, and Paul tells us that rock was Christ.   

 

You who have been baptized into Christ have been given access to a much better miraculous meal, spiritual food and drink that is Christ himself, His Body and His Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.  Do not despise the Supper.

 

How would you and I despise the Supper.  If we neglect to come and receive it.  Or if we reject the Word and refuse to believe, refuse to declare what Jesus says that this is his Body and Blood.  I mean, we don’t want people to think we are a bunch of weirdos, believing such things. 

 

We also despise the Supper if we receive it while we’re living in unrepentant sin.  Paul warns against unworthy eating and drinking, For the Supper is even more holy than the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and Temple.  Just as entering there unauthorized could kill, Paul tells us that to receive the body and blood of Christ without discerning the body to receive the body. Blood of Christ, or to do so while clinging in unrepentance to a favorite sin, such eating and drinking is not blessing but dangerous.  Communing unworthily is bad for you.  It doesn’t kill immediately, because God is gracious and merciful, desiring to bring us to repentance, that we can come to the table in faith.  He wants you to:

Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Joel 2:13)

 

5. God hates sin, but it is His Glory to have mercy on Sinners. 

So, fifth, do not imagine that “they” are worse sinners than you.  Do not imagine that the people who are not here, or the people who are not members of a church are bigger sinners than you and I.   Jesus talks of some hicks, Galileans, who came to the big city, and Pilate killed them in the Temple.  And also of some big city Jerusalem Jews, who died a sudden and evil death when a tower fell on them. 

 

It was easy to think that there must’ve been something particularly wrong with those people who suffered such violent deaths.  But, no, says Jesus, God is not less angry with your sin.  Unless you repent, you too will perish.  When our Lord and master Jesus Christ said, repent, he meant that the whole life of the Christian would be one of repentance. Humility about who we are and daily dependence on Christ and his mercy: this characterizes the life of a Christian, so repent, and

Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Joel 2:13)

 

6. God hates sin, but it is His Glory to have mercy on Sinners. 

And so sixth, even the fig tree must produce fruit or else.   Or else it will be cut down. But, what does this even mean?

 

The fig tree is a symbol for the nation of Israel for the people of God.  Israel, God’s fig tree, was  called to live faithfully to repent from their sins.  They were expected to bear fruit in keeping with repentance,  fruit of love for the neighbor, fruit of praise for God. 

 

We are reminded that true Israel does not consist of those people who simply share the blood of Abraham.  Rather, true Israelites are those who share the faith of Abraham.   Abraham was definitely a sinner. He definitely failed again and again.  But he did not refuse to repent when God confronted him in his sin, and he believed the promise the promise of a seed a seed that would come from his own body, a Descendent of his who would be a blessing to all nations.  His faith in that promise was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham lived each day in that faith in that repentance, and so in that righteousness. 

Jesus, with this short parable about the fig tree, is warning the Jews of his day not to think that they are right with God just because of their bloodline.  This warning is also good for us.  Just because we show up and we are in church does not mean that we do not have things to repent.  We too are called to produce fruit of repentance in our lives, so

Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Joel 2:13)

 

 

7. God hates sin, but it is His Glory to have mercy on Sinners. 

Finally, seventh, the fig tree has been cut down, and so also the fig tree has born fruit.  In Jesus’ short parable, there is an owner who wants to cut down the worthless fig tree that eats up the soil and takes the water and use the sun, but produces no fruit.  The vine dresser intercedes for the fig tree and asks for one more year.  Give the fig one more year, and then if it doesn’t bear fruit we’ll cut it down.  It’s hard to say if this parable was actually told a year before Good Friday, but it’s certainly possible, perhaps even probable. I think it’s the point that Luke wants us to get.  For Jesus in the end is Israel, the only faithful Israelite.  Israel distilled down to one man, who was entirely faithful.

 

We skipped over the manure in the parable, no reason to get into disgusting things.  Except that Jesus didn’t skip the manure.  The filth of Israel’s sin, the filth of my sin and your sin, He bore all that to the tree.  What he did not deserve, to be cut down for not bearing fruit, he gladly suffered, for us.  And so, He alone is the fig tree that bears fruit for salvation.  Because death could not hold him. He rose again on the third day.  So sin and its power over you and me is destroyed, in Christ.  In him, by trusting in him you are righteous and holy, and you will be faithful.  For you are a child of God.

 

This is the joy that Jesus look forward to, the joy of having you and presenting you to His Father.   

O come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Because he is seated there we can live for him, not in order to gain our salvation, but because He is our salvation. 

Because He is seated at God’s right hand, we are free to live for him. We joyously live for him because we know he is our salvation. 

Because he is seated there at God‘s right hand we can die for him. We can give our lives over to the One who has given us life in His own death. 

Because he is seated there we can always, in repentance, and also in confidence,

Return to the Lord, our God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Joel 2:13)

In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday in Lent - In Memory of Julie Smith

Sermon for the 2nd Sunday in Lent
In Memory of Julie Smith
March 16th, A+D 2025
Our Savior's and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
The Good Shepherd Seeks His Own

Audio of Sermon available HERE.

Julie Mae (Parlin) Smith

Born September 29^th Year of Our + Lord 1953,

at the Lutheran Hospital in Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Baptized into Christ December 15^th, A+D 1957,

at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Custer, SD.

Confirmed in Christ June 2^nd, A+D 1968,

at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Custer, SD.

Transferred in Christ January 8^th, A+D 1984,

to Redeemer Lutheran Church, Burnsville, MN.

Married in Christ July 24^th, A+D 1997, in Chamberlain, SD.

Reaffirmation of Faith in Christ November 22, A+D 2015,
at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Custer, SD.

Final Earthly Holy Communion in Christ February 12^th, A+D 2025,

at the Custer Care and Rehab Center, Custer, SD.

Died in Christ March 1^st, A+D 2025, at Monument Health Hospital, Rapid City, SD.

Soli Deo Gloria – To God Alone Be Glory

Dear fellow members, with Julie, of Christ’s Flock: Grace, Mercy and Peace to you,

from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 

   The day after Julie died, the Bible Study we did at “Christians with Altitude”, our youth group, was something I call “Rebuild the Bible.”  We imagine a situation where somehow we’ve lost all our Bibles, and we need to reconstruct God’s Word as best we can from our memories.  That Sunday evening we tried to collectively remember everything we could about Jesus.  While we pray fervently that we never lose God’s written Word, this is a good exercise, to test what we have in our brains and hearts.  We took five minutes for everyone to write down what events or truths they could remember, then went around the table, offering them up one at a time, as I filled the white board with everyone’s contributions.  The youth did excellently.  They quickly captured a great deal of the life, ministry and teaching of Jesus.  Of all the things they remembered, there was only one error, an error that wasn’t really a mistake.  On one of his turns, Logan Olson offered up that Jesus carried a lamb on His shoulders.  After we were done, I asked the group if there were any mistakes on the board.  The kids studied the list…   

   “Does the Bible tell us that Jesus literally picked up a lamb and carried it on His shoulders?”  Logan got up and pointed out the painting of this very scene, that hangs on the wall next to the whiteboard.  It’s a super common image in the Church; we even have a wood carving of the same (here) tucked into a niche in the pulpit Our Redeemer.  But that event is not literally recorded in the Gospels.  And yet, in a deeper truth, the image of our shepherding Lord finding lost lambs and carrying them home is all over the Bible. 

   Psalm 23 declares the LORD is my shepherd, who leads me to cool waters.  Our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel 34 is all about God promising to come and shepherd His flock Himself, since the human shepherds He had appointed were failing at their calling.  Paul exhorts the Elders of Ephesus to shepherd, or pastor the flock of God, amongst whom they had been appointed as Bishops, or Overseers.  Peter in his letters, the Book of Revelation, and of course Jesus Himself in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, all talk about Christ Himself being our Good Shepherd, who finds and protects and rescues us. 

   Who is Julie Smith? Or maybe still Julie Parlin, for some of you…  Most of your never had the opportunity to meet her.  Not yet, anyway.  She was a dear friend to many, and also dear to me, even though I only knew Julie on this earth for about 15 months.  Most importantly to say today, she is for all of us a dear sister in Christ, who left this world with a simple, peaceful faith in her Good Shepherd. 

    Julie’s life, or better said, the work of God in Julie’s life, is also a vivid example of our relentless Good Shepherd’s desire to save.  For He never stopped pulling Julie back to Himself, pursuing her across years and across the country, through good times and tough times, until He finally brought her all the way home.

   Julie expressed her desire to only have a simple graveside service, no church funeral.  This committal service is on the calendar for May, and that will be fine.  But Julie’s sudden passing is fresh, and for some of you, personally painful.  Even more, her life is a great story, one that we all need to hear, because the same Good Shepherd is pursuing all of us, and our hearts need to be reminded of this joyful fact.  And so we will honor Julie’s request, no funeral service.  And, today at our regular Sunday Divine Service we will also honor Christ and celebrate His work in her life.  And I know Julie doesn’t mind; now that her soul rests in the peace and glory of her Savior, she isn’t bothered by anything at all. 

   In Julie’s life, we can see how God works, always through His Word to create and sustain faith, and also through people, sinners like you and me, bringing that good Word and other signs of God’s love into the lives of sinners.  God serving sinners, through the efforts of other sinners, sinners like you and me. 

   It is always a bit startling to see up close how the LORD God Almighty works through such simple means and through such unlikely servants to deliver His gifts and draw souls to Himself.  It is startling, surprising, and wonderful to get a glimpse of the Good Shepherd at work, fulfilling His promises. 

   Julie was born in Hot Springs, and sometime during her early years, her family came into the orbit of the venerable Rev. Uecker and Our Redeemer congregation in Custer.  Baptized at 4, confirmed at 14, her classmates in Catechism and Public School could probably fill in a lot of rich details.  Along the way, Jesus was laying a firm foundation in Julie, which would serve her well in the decades to come. 

   Everyone whom I’ve met who knew Julie remarked about her cheerful nature.  I can attest as well.  At the same time, we know how we begin the service each Sunday, “O almighty God, merciful Father, I a poor miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities…” There is no question that Julie knew God’s Word and her own problem with sin.  But the Good Shepherd does not leave us in our sins.  We are taught to confess our sins, so that we can once again hear the Good News that forgives our sins.  For Jesus lay down His life to take away our sins, and give us His righteousness, His goodness and holiness, in return.  This basic message, Law and Gospel, God’s rebuke and correction, followed by God’s mercy and forgiveness, this Great Exchange is the heart and soul of Christianity, and leads to wonderful things, in this life, and much more, wonderful things in the life to come.  This Gospel, delivered through Words, Water, Wheat and Wine, is the good pasture and the cool water that the Good Shepherd provides His beloved flock, day after day, year after year. 

   And that’s a good and necessary thing, because life in this broken-by-sin world can be rough.  I don’t know many details about Julie’s life, and that’s not what we are here for.  But in order to see what Christ overcame for her, I do want to lay out a few challenges that we can easily identify from her story. 

   Whatever else, good or not so good, that happened in Julie’s life, we know that her father Darrell died when she was 34.  Then her only brother Thomas passed when she was 37.  Julie was joined in Holy Matrimony to Albert Smith at age 44, but then had to say goodbye to her husband when he died, four years later.  Julie moved back to Custer and cared for her mother Helen for a few years.  Helen died when Julie was 58.  Julie was all alone; she had no family left in this world. 

   But, of course, Julie was not alone.  Jesus had not left her, and she still had friends who cared for her.  It appears that at some point Julie had stopped attending the gatherings of Christ’s flock, but in 2015 she re-affirmed the faith of her baptism and confirmation, and rejoined the congregation e) at Our Redeemer. 

   When I was installed as pastor here in 2021, Julie was on the list of people who were receiving our Sunday bulletins by mail.  Since 2011 Julie had been living alone on her family’s beautiful, but isolated place here in Custer County.  I imagine that the pandemic, which isolated all of us to one extent or another, may have been especially challenging for Julie.  I’m not sure.  But I do know this: the Good Shepherd had still not forgotten about Julie.  He continued pursuing her, through friends from town and friends from Church. 

   As the new pastor at Our Redeemer, I was fairly useless in my attempts to connect with Julie.  But God had brought our retired Pastor Anderson back to Custer, and he spends his time just running into people around town and talking to them.  He ran into Julie one day when they both had appointments at the clinic.  Bob spoke with Julie, and so helped keep a connection with her.  God through retirement also brought Lois Stokes back to town, a childhood friend of Julie’s from church and school.  Monica McGowan, who ended up being Julie’s caretaker, never forgot about her, nor did Ida, Isabel, or Marcia, and God only knows how many other people who kept reaching out, and kept praying for Julie.    

   With Lois Stokes’s help, I finally met Julie face to face in late 2023.  Living alone is hard, and Julie’s health wasn’t the best.  But she greeted me with a big smile, as if I were Rev. Uecker who baptized her and taught her the faith, or Pastor Anderson, who always had a good word for Julie.  And in a sense I was those men, for all of us were simply forgiven sinners called by Christ to seek out His people and deliver God’s Gospel gifts to them.     In the bit more than a year that I was privileged to visit her and bring her God’s Word and Supper, Julie always received those gifts gladly.  The Good Shepherd knows how to care for His beloved. 

   Julie moved into the Assisted Living home in Custer, (Wedgewood for many of you), and that was great for her.  She made new friends with the staff and other residents.  Her Custer friends could more easily visit her, and they did.  And, oh the joy on the handful of Sundays when we were able to pick up Julie and bring her to Sunday services!  Back in the room where she was Baptized, gathered with the Flock, singing the praise of the Savior, feasting together at His Meal, specially delivered to her in the back pew. 

   The picture on her insert is from last December, when a bunch of us from Our Redeemer went caroling at Wedgewood and the Nursing Home and the hospital.  We were there for everyone, but Julie received us as if we came just for her.                         

   The last time I saw Julie in this world was February 12^th.  She had moved over to the Nursing Home, and ended up in the room right next door to Ella Goldammer.  I was able to bring Julie to Ella’s room, and a new friendship quickly formed, as they chatted while I set up for Church.  We confessed and prayed together, and sang a little.  We heard the Good News of Jesus’ Cross and Resurrection, we received His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of all our sins.

   Julie told me she had a bit of a cold, and by the end of the service she was coughing a little.  She admitted to me she hadn’t told the staff yet, so I got her permission to tell them for her.  In a day or two I heard that influenza was tearing through the Nursing Home.  Later we heard she had been taken to Monument in Rapid.  Julie was carried home by her Good Shepherd on March 1^st.  To the end, she had friends visiting and praying for her.  To the end her Savior was seeking her, and now she is with Him, forever and ever. 

   The Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected, is always seeking you.  As Peter reminded us this morning, all of us, like sheep, tend to go astray.  But God is always working, through His Word, through the love of friends, family, and brothers and sisters in Christ, always seeking us, always ready to clean us up from whatever messes we’ve gotten ourselves into, always working to bring us home. 

   You are sometimes the one who needs seeking.  And sometimes you are called to be part of the Good Shepherd’s search party.  God grant us all repentance, faith, humility and wisdom, to gladly accept His call to come home when we wander.  And God grant us courage and energy, to pray, to dare to befriend, to dare to seek, to dare to get involved and share the love of Jesus with others, the other lambs He is seeking.                 

   Through it all, God will gather His flock, today, tomorrow, and forever and ever, Amen.   

Christian Stewardship, a Gospel Affair - Sermon for the 1st Sunday in Lent

First Sunday in Lent, March 9^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Christian Stewardship, a Gospel Affair

Christ Jesus and His Christians Steward the Gospel,

by Rejecting Temptation and Rejoicing in Our Father’s Care

 Audio of the Sermon is available HERE

·      Fully rely on your heavenly Father for all things,

trusting in Him as a little child trusts her dear father. 

·      Bring an offering and come into His courts.  

·      Bring the first-fruits of the harvest which the LORD has provided you. 

·      Worship the LORD God, and Him only,

for He is your Creator, Provider, and Redeemer. 

·      Set not your heart on the passing things of this world,

for your Savior is preparing a place for you,

an eternal home in His presence, in His glory. 

   I noticed that our Old Testament reading for this first Sunday in Lent teaches us a lot about stewardship, about properly receiving, understanding and using all the good and perfect blessings the unchanging Father of lights pours down upon us.  Christian stewardship is important, and so I try to teach about it when our readings provide opportunity.  During the last couple months of every calendar year, I normally try to spend a Sunday focusing on Stewardship, and then also share with you our “Cheerful Giver’s Annual Reflection Guide”, to help you be intentional about your stewardship in the coming year.  But in 2024 I did not get that done. 

   Should I do it now, as we plunge into Lent, the six week pilgrimage to the Cross which we walk together, every year?  Maybe?  But it doesn’t seem very “Lent-y” to me. 

   Then I realized that Jesus also teaches us about Godly stewardship through His fasting and temptation by the devil.  And, we are called to be good stewards of all that the LORD gives us, every day, including during the season of Lent.  So, why not?  Let’s do it.   

     In our Deuteronomy reading, Moses is giving final instructions to Israel, before his death and Joshua’s taking the wheel.  Specifically today, Moses is telling Israel how to receive and utilize the fruit of the harvests the Israelites would soon be collecting in the Promised Land, and that “how to” instruction starts with first-fruits giving, giving to the LORD first, before using the harvest for anything else. 

     You remember that Israel’s harvests had been a daily miracle, for 40 years.  Each morning while Israel wandered in the wilderness, God provided Manna, a fine, flaky bread-like wafer, with a hint of honey flavor.  The Israelites were to collect just enough for their daily bread, and not keep any for the next day.  On the day before the Sabbath rest, they collected twice their daily need.  And so, for 40 years, God’s people had a daily demonstration that He was the Provider for their every need.  Israel was not always thankful for the Manna, but they at least couldn’t easily forget that God was the One providing for them.

   Now, as they entered the Promised Land, the Israelites daily miraculous reminder would end.  As God drove out the wicked pagan inhabitants before them, Israel would again be planting and cultivating crops, and collecting harvests, in the normal farming process. 

   I’ve heard that farming is a lot of work.  It is certainly a task that one might take pride in accomplishing, or conversely complain about, especially when it goes badly.  As they returned to farming, God was concerned that Israel might forget that He is the LORD who provides their harvests.  God would still be providing, only now through regular farming, instead of miraculous Manna.  So Israel would remember this truth, Moses instructs them to bring the first-fruits of every harvest to God as an offering, before they used it for themselves. 

   It wasn’t that the LORD needed their wheat and barley, their grapes and olive oil.  No, Israel needed to understand God’s provision correctly.  First-fruits giving is for the good of the believers, for the health of their faith, for the good of their spiritual life.  Israel needed first-fruits giving, and so do we.  Even though God does not give His New Testament Church the same specific rules and details about our giving that He gave to ancient Israel, first-fruits giving is just as important for us today.  We have never seen miraculous Manna.  And most of us are far removed even from the growing and harvesting of crops.   We can easily forget that God is the One providing for us, day by day. 

   Most of us receive cash wages or salaries, and buy our daily bread at Lynn’s, or Krull’s, or Walmart.  How often do we stop and consider that God is still the One providing our every need?  He does this through the work of other people: farmers, food processing plant workers, truck drivers, store clerks, and dozens of others who contribute to the provision of our daily bread.  God works through all of these folks, to provide for you. 

   First-fruits giving, setting aside our gifts to Lord before we use our money for our other needs, is a wise spiritual practice.  Regular, weekly or monthly giving, done as we gather for Divine Service, is a healthy way to be reminded that God is our Creator, our Redeemer, and our daily Provider.  The miracle of forgiveness that the LORD gives us in these gatherings will give us eyes of faith.  Eyes of faith see clearly, and appreciate more fully, all the blessings God showers on us.   

   Whatever we have, we receive from God, and as His children, we are called to steward it well.  Stewardship includes receiving your gifts thankfully, and using them wisely and well, as a child of God, as a believer in the Giver of every good and perfect gift. 

   In His 40 day fast and His temptation by Satan, Jesus shows us what such Godly stewardship looks like.  And the shape of Satan’s temptations teach us a lot about the bad stewardship that we are so prone to, that we are called to avoid. 

   Satan’s first temptation is for the very hungry and physically weakened Jesus to use His divine power to turn stones into bread to fill His belly.  This connects closely with the first-fruits giving Moses instructed ancient Israel to do.  If we forget about God, life can quickly devolve into a lowest-common-denominator existence, which is to worship the god of our stomachs.  If, as much modern economics assumes, we think of ourselves as nothing more than consumers in a system, striving to maximize our consumption, we might build an impressive market society that drives us all to work hard and be very productive.  But the stuff of this world cannot fill the God-shaped hole that is in the heart of every unbeliever. 

   Jesus knows and shows us the better way.  The Son knows that His Father understands His physical needs as a human being, and Jesus trusts His Father will provide.  It was, after all, the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness to fast.  Jesus trusted that God had a good reason for His hunger, and knew the Scripture that taught the higher priority: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Deuteronomy 8:3) 

   Failing to recognize that the support of the physical needs of this life comes from God is dangerous, for it can lead to forgetting and falling away from the one true God.  He is the One who truly loves you and provides for you, in the way He knows best. 

   Satan’s temptation for Jesus to gain earthly power and glory by worshiping the evil one brings up a point I like to make about Christian stewardship: When the New Testament speaks of stewardship, it is usually speaking about stewardship of the Gospel, of the good news of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension, for the salvation of sinners. 

   God does provide for our physical needs, as He also does for the unbelieving world.  But the treasure, the one gift that Christ Jesus left to the Eleven Disciples, and to His Church, was not wealth, or abundant food, or beautiful buildings.  The only treasure Jesus left was His Word, His Truth, the Law and Gospel message of salvation.  Pastors are public stewards, administrators of this Gift.  Every Christian also shares a part in the stewardship of the Gospel.  As important as care for the body is, the Church’s top stewardship priority is to receive, understand and use the Gospel rightly. 

   Satan tempted Jesus to forfeit the true Gospel in order to gain earthly glory.  Jesus easily defeated this temptation.  But this has always and continues to be a temptation for the Church.  To compromise God’s Word for the sake of getting more people in the door, to shade the Truth in order to appear successful to ourselves and the world, is the worst possible betrayal of God, and of each other.  Such false church growth is enticing, in particular for the servants of the Church, who often can enrich themselves and inflate their egos in the process.

   The compromises Satan and the sinful world demand are well known.  God in His Word is very clear about what thoughts, words and deeds are sinful.  But the world and the sinful natures of members of the Church love to whittle away at this list.  They like to remove certain sins, in order to make Church comfortable. 

   And while we’re at it, isn’t the Bible’s teaching about the utterly sinful nature of every descendent of Adam counterproductive?  Couldn’t we attract more people if we allowed that our sinfulness is not really so bad?  Why don’t we instead say sin is a problem, but one that we can overcome, if we really try. 

   And does the Christian Church have to insist that there is only One True God, and that there is only one Way of Salvation, through Jesus Christ?  Wouldn’t we get along better, couldn’t we collaborate  and help more people if we allowed that other religions offer salvation as well?   

   Sadly, far too many preachers and churches have succumbed to these temptations, which in truth are the worship of Satan, dressed up in Church-y clothes.  God grant that we never succumb to these lies.   

   Jesus shows us the better way: His firm clinging to the Truth of Scripture, even when it was unpopular, caused many early followers of our Lord to walk away.  In the end, His faithfulness to the Word and the Gospel plan are what got Jesus killed.  But in this faithful stewardship unto death, Christ won new life for us dying sinners.   

   Jesus’ final temptation shows us the importance of stewarding our status as children of God.  We should cling to the details of God’s Word, accept His definition of sin, and the exclusivity of salvation through the Cross and Resurrection of Christ.  Very well.  The sinner who trusts this Gospel from the heart receives forgiveness, life and salvation.  He is adopted by the Father as His beloved child, for the sake of and through Jesus Christ.  But children of God can still be tempted to unbelief. 

   In the third temptation, the Devil was not suggesting a formal denial of God and His teaching.  Rather he subtly promoted an unbelief which seeks to manipulate God.  Dear children do not treat their dear fathers like candy dispensers.  Likewise, Christians don’t put in a quarter’s worth of prayer and pious words, in order to then feel justified to demand the sweets that we want from God.  As Jesus said, “It is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ (Deuteronomy 6:16) 

   Thanks be to God, we are not saved by our own good stewardship.  Jesus’ stewardship is our salvation.  He refused to worship His stomach, or anything else but His Father.  He made good use of God’s Word, and the life He had the Son of God and the Son of Mary.   His perfect stewardship of God’s gifts led Him to be faithful unto death, for us. 

   We should be, and we want to be good stewards of all the gifts Christ died to gain for us.  But we rely not on our good works, not on our good stewardship.  No, we rely on God’s super-abundant grace.  God has even connected the power for good stewardship in our lives with the very reception of Christ’s forgiveness.  As we confess our sins, many of which involve bad stewardship, the Lord both forgives us, and renews our hearts, so that we can be better stewards going forward.

   Bad stewardship is the failure to rightly receive, understand, give thanks for, and use well the myriad gifts the LORD showers on us.  Bad stewardship leads us into a destructive cycle, a downward spiral, as the sinner tries harder and harder to find love, satisfaction and peace in things which cannot offer them.  Bad stewardship leads us farther and farther from God, who is One true source of love, satisfaction, and peace.

   But good stewardship leads us in a virtuous, blessed cycle, as the saint, the holy child of God that is every believer, rejoices more and more each day in all the blessings our Giving God showers upon us, and uses them to promote the growth of God’s Kingdom and love the neighbors God has given us. 

   Through it all, most especially we rejoice in the gift of Christ Jesus and His victory over sin, death and the devil.  Jesus started that battle with Satan at His temptation, and finished it, won the battle, on His Cross.  Jesus is the ultimate Good Steward, for our salvation, and for His Father’s glory, Amen.