Purple Garments - Sermon for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 28^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Purple Garments - Luke 16:19-31, 1 Timothy 6:6-19

Sermon Audio available HERE.   

This sermon uses the hymn "Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart," as a frame.  It is Lutheran Service Book 708.  

1.     Lord, Thee I love with all my heart;I pray Thee, ne'er from me depart, With tender mercy cheer me.Earth has no pleasure I would share, Yea, heav'n itself were void and bare,
If Thou, Lord, wert not near me.
And should my heart for sorrow break, My trust in Thee can nothing shake.
Thou art the portion I have sought; Thy precious blood my soul has bought.
Lord Jesus Christ, My God and Lord, my God and Lord, Forsake me not! I trust Thy Word. 

   It is not sinful to be wealthy, to have great material blessings.  But it is eternally foolish, and wicked, actually, to love your wealth more than the LORD who gave you all you have.  Likewise, it is a grave sin to love your money and comfort more than the human neighbor the LORD has given you to love and serve.  In fact, we should see the neighbor in need as among God’s greatest gifts to us.  They are, like you and me, sinners for whom Christ died.  So, the opportunity to serve them binds us into an ever deepening fellowship with them, and with God and His angels, and with His whole Church, in heaven and on earth.  True and eternal joys are found only in this fellowship with God and all His people.    

    “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” is a tremendous hymn.  Do you know it well?  I have not picked it much during my 4-1/2 years serving you as pastor; I think I unconsciously avoid it.  You see, it was one of the last hymns that I sang with my mom, in the nursing home in Forsyth, Montana, before her brain tumor took away her voice. 

    Shelee, the kids and I were visiting her in the Forsyth nursing home, sometime in 2003.  Mom still understood us fine, but she couldn’t speak well.  But she could still sing hymns, which she had always loved to do.  My sister Barb knew this, and so brought along several copies of TLH.  One hymn we chose was today’s Hymn of the Day.  My mother didn’t need a hymnal.  Ever since, singing “Lord Thee I Love…” is a bit nervy for me; I’m never sure how I’ll react.  Shortly after my mother’s death, I was back in Kramer Chapel at the seminary in Fort Wayne, and just as I was headed up for communion, we began to sing “Lord Thee I Love…” for a distribution hymn.  Well, the congregation sang it; I couldn’t sing.  Because I was weeping.  All the way up to the altar rail, while I received Christ’s Body and Blood, back to my pew, and for several more minutes.  Life in the Body of Christ is like that, from time to time.    

      “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” is the suggested Hymn of the Day for today’s readings, although the connection is not overwhelming.  When we get to the third stanza, you’ll notice why it was selected.  But on the surface, it doesn’t really seem to fit that well with the theme of today’s readings, which are very much focused on the right perspective and use of material wealth, along with the right perspective we are called to have about helping our neighbors.  But the right foundation of faith which will lead to a right use of wealth and a joyful love of neighbor is there in the first stanza:  Earth has no pleasure I would share, Yea, heav'n itself were void and bare, If Thou, Lord, wert not near me.

    Here we find the firm foundation for right Christian living: the clear understanding and hearty agreement that nothing compares to the treasure of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ and His forgiving love.  Earthly wealth is really nice, and needy people can really be a bother.  It’s hard to not love your stuff too much, and it’s easy to love your neighbor too little.  Getting these two things right is impossible, really, unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus is your greatest treasure.  And He is. 

    Every good gift comes down from the Father of lights, (James 1:17).  Your nice car, all your nice things, all the money in your retirement fund, all of it comes from God.  Praise the Lord for all His benefits to us.  But even more, every perfect gift comes down from the Father as well, and THE perfect gift is Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, God in human flesh, God on the Cross, God bursting from the tomb, the God-Man Jesus, reigning on high today, for you.  He lives and reigns for your forgiveness, for your salvation, in order to have you with Himself, in glory, forever and ever. 

    By the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we love the Lord with all our hearts.  At the same time, knowing our hearts are as yet imperfect, we also pray: Lord Jesus Christ, My God and Lord, Forsake me not! I trust Thy Word.  And fear not, the Word made flesh will not forsake you!  So, reveling in this promise, this joy, this peace of the Gospel, we begin to see our wealth and our neighbors differently.    

 2.     Yea, Lord, 'twas Thy rich bounty gave, My body, soul, and all I have, In this poor life of labor.   Lord, grant that I in ev'ry place, May glorify Thy lavish grace, And help and serve my neighbor.  Let no false doctrine me beguile; And Satan not my soul defile. Give strength and patience unto me, To bear my cross and follow Thee. Lord Jesus Christ, My God and Lord, my God and Lord, In death Thy comfort still afford.

    O.k., now here we have some more obvious teaching about Christian stewardship, on the right use of material blessings, in light of the Good News of free forgiveness, given to sinners in Christ Jesus.  Yea, Lord, 'twas Thy rich bounty gave, My body, soul, and all I have, In this poor life of labor. 

    As we already quoted from the Epistle of James, every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.  And that last bit, “In this poor life of labor,” reminds us that Jesus calls us to be pilgrims and sojourners in this world, to hold on lightly to our earthly blessings.  For they are fleeting, and unreliable.  Whatever we might be tempted to trust and treasure most, our health, our stock portfolio, our home, all these things can disappear in the blink of an eye.   In the world you will have trouble, promises Jesus, but fear not, for I have overcome the world!  (John 16:33) 

    I am but a stranger here, heaven in my home!  And heaven, that is, life in the visible presence of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, will be better than anything we could ever know in this broken world, better than we can even imagine.  Every pain relieved, every sorrow forgotten, every tear wiped away, forever and ever.  My heart faints within me! 

    Hearing and clinging to this promise, we begin to have the mind and the eyes of Christ, and so we see this world more clearly.  And the clearly most important thing in this world to Jesus is humanity.  People.  Especially the poor and humble and hurting.  Lord, grant that I in ev'ry place, May glorify Thy lavish grace, And help and serve my neighbor.  

    The rich man in Jesus’ parable today had become blinded by his blessings, by the enjoyment of his material wealth.  So, he overlooked and neglected the greater gift, which was poor, sore-covered Lazarus, lying at his doorstep.  Or, perhaps he thought he was serving Lazarus well, by allowing him to lie at his doorstep.  What better place to beg, than at that door, through which all the rich man’s similarly rich friends would have to pass, coming and going from his lavish dinners.  See how I’m helping Lazarus! 

    Not until he arrived in Hades, in Hell, did this rich fool realize his error, his foolish sin.  Too late, he understands that the treasures of the earth are a very poor trade for the final reward of eternal suffering, of being justly cut off from every good thing, forever.  Lord, protect us from such foolish greed! 

    The Apostle Paul tells Timothy, and us this morning, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Martin Schalling, our Reformation era hymnwriter, suggests that the love of money is heresy, false teaching.  Have you ever thought of greed as false teaching?  It is.  Indeed, in a sense, an ungodly affection for to material blessings is near the root of all sin, for it flows from the serpent’s first lie:  Did God really say that you may not eat from some tree in this Garden?  (Genesis 3:1)

    Satan beguiles Eve and her negligent husband with the suggestion that God was holding back His best from them.  That He forbade them to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because He didn’t want them to be as wise as He.  And the tree and its fruit were a delight to the eyes, much like the glitter of gold, or the allure of fame, or the figure of a woman who is not your wife are all temptations to us now, good gifts, twisted into forbidden objects of our sinful desires. 

    Our first parents gave in to this lie.  Don’t you fall for it.  God is not holding out on us. He has always and only sought our good.  It is the falsest of teaching to suggest otherwise.  And should we need convincing, wisdom teaches us to look once more to the Cross, and see that God gave His very best, and not for holy people who deserved His love.  Amazing grace indeed, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring us to God.  (Romans 5:8 and 1^st Peter 3:18).  Any suggestion that there could be anything more valuable in the universe is absolutely false teaching.  And so with our hymnwriter we pray to the LORD: Give strength and patience unto me, To bear my cross and follow Thee.

3.     Lord, let at last Thine angels come, To Abram's bosom bear me home, That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber keep, My body safe in peaceful sleep, Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me, That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face, My Savior and my fount of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I will praise Thee without end.

   “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.”  Do you remember why purple cloth was a unique mark of wealth and power in the ancient world?  So much so that at different times and places, kings tried to forbid anyone but the royal family from wearing purple? 

    The reason is that in the ancient world, purple dye only came from the excretion of a certain Mediterranean sea-snail.  The coastal city of Tyre, just north of Israel, was the center of the purple dye trade.  The process of making purple dye was difficult.  Thousands of snails were needed to make just a few ounces of dye.  A pound of dye was worth half the year’s salary of a Roman soldier.  And so, only the wealthy and powerful could wear purple.     

    Do you know why Our Redeemer Lutheran Church’s funeral pall is purple?  A funeral pall is a large piece of fine fabric, made to cover the casket of a Christian during their funeral service.  The tradition is to cover the casket just before the funeral procession enters the Nave, while we recite from Romans, chapter six: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” (Romans 6:3-5)  

    A Christian funeral is a celebration of the completion of the dearly departed’s Holy Baptism.  The work God publicly began at the font is publicly proclaimed to be finished, as we lay the Christian’s body to rest, and rejoice that their soul already rests with Jesus.  Because of this association with Baptism, and because of John’s Revelation, where he describes the faithful in heaven as being clothed in white robes, washed in the blood of the Lamb, (Revelation 7:9-17), funeral palls are normally white, often with gold decoration, a simple cross, or perhaps an image of the Lamb of God. 

    But ours at ORLC is purple.  We’ve had it for many decades.  So many that no one seems to remember how the decision was made to purchase a purple pall.  It is beautiful.  And very unique.  I’ve made a little project out of asking other pastors, professors, and, of course, funeral directors if they’ve ever heard of another Christian congregation with a purple funeral pall.  So far, no one has. 

   White is the predominant tradition, and this makes sense.  And yet, our pall is beautiful, and there is no Biblical law saying we have to make them white, or even have them at all.  So, this one is fine, and it’s useful as a visual aid today, to go with Jesus’ teaching about the rich man clad in purple, and poor Lazarus. 

   Sadly, purple fabric can be part of a rich fool’s self-destruction, cutting himself off from God forever, by worshiping money, fine clothing and rich food.  Thise rich man was eternally foolish, ignoring God, and proved his unbelief by his disdain for Lazarus, his hurting neighbor. 

      But there is certainly a good Biblical way to understand the symbolism of a purple pall.  For purple is the royal color, and Christians are royal priests, as Moses promised in Exodus, (19:6) and St. Peter declares in his first letter (2:5-9).    Purple fabric also makes proper garments for God’s chosen and beloved children.  For God’s Son, Jesus, was dressed in royal robes and mocked by Roman soldiers.  The Eternal King of the Universe was crowned with thorns, and then suffered and died.  This Christ did, in order that even His executioners, and also you and I, could be rescued from our sins and false belief.  Your good King died, so that you can take the crown He has for you, so that you can be part of the royal family of the Kingdom of God, rejoicing in every good thing, forever and ever singing at Jesus’ feet. 

    So, it is appropriate that we, in harmony and concord with Lazarus, and with all the faithful who have gone before us, should sing and pray of that blessed day when we too will join those who already rest in the nearer presence of Christ.

 Lord, let at last Thine angels come, To Abram's bosom bear me home, (just like Lazarus!)

That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber keep, My body safe in peaceful sleep, Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me, That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face, My Savior and my fount of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I will praise Thee without end.

 And all God’s people said: Amen. 

 

Called to Serve - Sermon for the Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
September 21st, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
Called to Serve 
Ezekiel 2:8 – 3:11, Ephesian 4:7 – 16, Matthew 9:9-13

Audio of the Sermon can be found HERE. 

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

  Jim was a medical doctor, who taught himself Greek, before he sold his practice, and followed Jesus’ call. 

    Dave was a machinist turned businessman, who made precision tools and parts for the manufacturing world.  His business was very successful, employing many people, and guaranteeing Dave a comfortable future.  Instead, he sold his business, and followed Jesus’ call.

    Gifford and Len were engineers, with nuclear power backgrounds, before they left their careers behind and followed Jesus’ call. 

    Another was a funeral director, to my shame I don’t remember his name.  But he left that important vocation, and followed Jesus’ call. 

    I don’t think there were any IRS agents in the 2000 Summer Greek class at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.  No tax collectors.  But I was classmate to a bunch of men who left well-paying careers, or even highly valuable private businesses, to go back to school, late in life.  Not-so-young men, their brains less flexible, who now needed to learn two languages, that both require learning new alphabets.  Languages with way more tricky grammar than English.  My classmates included dozens of heads of households who sold homes and moved their families across the country, because somebody suggested they should consider becoming a pastor, they were moved to pursue it, and the seminary and their district president agreed.  Leaving success and financial security behind, they came to Fort Wayne to learn how to preach nothing but Christ, and Him crucified, to preach God’s truth, whether the hearers want to listen, or not. 

    At least, that’s what we were supposed to be thinking.  

    From the prophet Ezekiel this morning we learn that the LORD God Almighty has one basic expectation of His preachers: take the Word that I give you, and proclaim it.  Preach it, holding nothing back, to men and women who may like it, or may hate it.  Because it is by the preached Word, by the plainly spoken truth, sometimes whispered in inner rooms, sometimes shouted from the rooftops, by this preached Word alone, the Holy Spirit is building the Kingdom of God by filling it with forgiven sinners. 

    And so, when Paul wants to teach the Ephesian Christians about the gifts that God gives to His Church, we get this strange list:  First Apostles, then Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers.  Preachers, all of them.  God’s greatest gifts to His Church did not include gold, or power, or the praise and appreciation of the world.  Quite the opposite actually.  God’s best gifts to His Bride were men called and sent by God to speak the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, for the conviction, repentance and conversion of sinners. 

    God’s strange gifts and strange Way of building His Church create challenges, for the hearers, and for the preachers.  For the hearers, it is easy to ignore, or misunderstand, or despise the preached Word.  Protect us from this, heavenly Father! 

   Christ’s teaching is often uncomfortable, and never popular with the world, nor with our sinful nature.  St. Paul, serving as a prophet, predicted the day would come when people would have itching ears, that reject the plain Word of God, desiring to have their itch scratched by a less confrontational message, (2 Timothy 4:3-4).  We live in Paul’s fulfilled prophecy.  Many contemporary ears won’t listen to the exclusive claims of Christ.  “Who are we to say that Christianity is the only way to get right with God?”  Well, we don’t say that; Jesus does.  God’s true Word proclaims: there is no other name given under heaven, by which we must be saved, except the Name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, (Acts 4:12).   

   Others, wounded by a world that constantly isolates and divides, just want Church to be their happy place.  To quote an 80s sitcom, we all want to go to a place “where everybody knows your name.”  And there is a sentimental half-truth in this itch; God did create us for community, for family, for close, loving relationship.  But merely having a place where everybody knows your name, whether in a dingy Boston bar, or in a cozy neighborhood church, can at best only put a temporary band-aid on our loneliness and feelings of pointlessness.  The solution to human loneliness comes only after God calls you out, by name, confronting your faults, the sins that sully the name your parents gave you, sins that fuel your isolation. 

   God through His Word, through His preachers, calls it like it is, revealing all that is wrong with our own names, in order to give us a New Name.  Only in and through His Son Jesus can we know, and be known, in a way that is free from guilt and lasts eternally.  And so, by His truth joined to water, by the power of His Word and the Baptisms of Jesus, God has given you a new name:  Beloved child, Christian, holy one.  All the believing baptized revel in the comfort of being clothed in an eternally good name, the name that washes away all the stains on your character and life, and makes you part of God’s family, forever.  

   The challenge for preachers is similar to the temptation we all face to treat salvation like a visit to a neighborhood watering hole.  Like Norm, waddling across the bar to get to his corner stool, everybody, including preachers, wants to be liked.  But, as we learned from Ezekiel, being liked is not on the list of the Lord’s basic requirements for His public servants.  “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them… But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted… Speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse,”(Ezekiel 3:4, 7, 11).

   That preachers be liked is not God’s priority.  Rather, the Lord wills they be faithful, and that they make themselves heard.  The Lord is not looking for impressive men, only for men who will hear and believe, and then follow and speak His Way. 

   St. Matthew is a prime example.  In the eyes of first-century Jewish culture, none of the Twelve
disciples was a likely candidate to be God’s spokesman: fishermen, uneducated country boys, a revolutionary zealot or two.  But it can’t get much worse than Matthew.  He was likely a bit more educated, and relatively well-off.  As a tax-collector for the Romans, Matthew was in a position to become quite wealthy.  But everybody who wasn’t personally benefitting from a tax collector tended to despise them.  Working for the enemy, and often enriching themselves in the process, tax collectors were seen as sick people, perverted in their priorities, self-excluded from the people of God.  Tax collectors were hardly the type of person the Jews would turn to for Godly wisdom and truth.  Would you call up your IRS auditor and ask them to tell you about the nature of God, or the way of salvation? 

   And yet, to show that everything that gets done in His Church is ultimately His work, done through unworthy servants, Jesus chooses Matthew.  And Matthew goes on to write His Gospel, a magisterial tome, that the Church has honored by placing it first in the New Testament writings, ever since the Church started gathering them into one volume.  Jesus showed mercy to Matthew, and became His sacrifice, the One who suffered in order to pay for all Matthew’s sins, and call him into important service to God’s mission. 

   The LORD seeks the sin-sick through the preaching of His Law, which condemns sin and sinners, and the preaching of His Gospel, through which He declares us righteous in His sight, by faith in Jesus.  Matthew clearly teaches us about the Office of the Ministry that Christ established.  He also proclaims the mystery that that God’s Good News of the rescue of sinners through the blood-bought forgiveness of Jesus includes that Gospel combined with Water, and with Bread and Wine.  Go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching.  Take eat, take drink, my Body and Blood, for the forgiveness of sins.  (Matthew 28:19, 26:26-7)  Hidden miracles, apt to be disregarded by the world.  But do not disregard them; this strange mission approach is the only Way God has revealed for sinners to be saved. 

   The warmness of the relationship between preacher and hearer is not God’s primary concern- because whether you and I are chums has no eternal consequence.  Only the Message of Christ effects that blessed miracle of grace.  

   Now, too be sure, the goal is not for the preacher to be disliked.  When pastor and people are united in their understanding, proclamation and life together that flow from the Good News of Jesus, there is often great love felt and displayed.  Through 21 years of preaching I have been disproportionately blessed.  Not universally, but most of the time I have been blessed with congregations and members who treated me kindly, better than I deserve, for the sake of the Gospel we share.  Praise be to God. 

   The blessing of a truly happy church family flows from our collective faithfulness and connection to Christ through His Word.  Our proper shared goal is that Christ be correctly and frequently proclaimed, from this public pulpit, and in our private conversations.  This is our goal, because it is God’s goal, His chosen means to deliver His gifts to sinners.  

   Which brings us to your various roles, the ways you are called to share the Word of Christ in the callings God has given you.  The readings for the feast of St. Matthew unsurprisingly focus us on the preaching office, the call to the Holy Ministry, and on those men who have been called to publicly proclaim the Gospel in the stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is meet, right and salutary, for you and for me, that we have spent a few minutes reviewing the form of the ministry Christ has established, its content and its function. 

   The Bible is very clear about the problems that inevitably result when we choose to ignore God’s plan, the Way of being Church that He has ordained for us.  When we are faithful to His instruction, we can be sure that blessings will result.  God’s spoken Word does not return to Him void, without achieving the purpose for which He sent it, (Isaiah 55:11).  When the Church ignores God and insists on trying different ways that we have dreamed up ourselves, or simply aped from the world, we can expect for things to go haywire, sooner or later. 

   But public preaching is not the sum and total of God’s call to serve, in and for His Church, and in your daily lives.  Called and ordained preachers have a particular role to play, and so do all of you.  Every Christian has many contributions to make, depending on one’s various callings, and on one’s season in life. 

   You are all called to confess Christ in your daily lives, by your manner of living, and by your way of speaking.  To live unselfishly and humbly is a firm foundation for attracting people to Christ and His Church. 

   Conversely, if we Christians are seen to be harsh, greedy, mean-spirited, participating in the worst sins of the culture, then we will be an obstacle to anyone considering the faith.  But, if we are seen to care for our families, our children, our elderly parents, for everyone God has given us to love, that will speak volumes to an unbeliever, wondering about this “Christianity” thing.  Fathers and mothers are clearly called to be home-preachers to their children.  All of us are to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light, and to be ready to give the reason for the hope that we have, with gentleness and respect.  And we are all called to pray for God’s mission daily. 

    There are concrete, earthly needs which enable us to gather here on Sunday to proclaim and praise Jesus: a warm, dry room is very helpful.  Bread and wine and musical instruments and hymnals all cost money.  We can think of many more things, and all of them require that everyone contribute, and some people lead.  Nobody has to serve the congregation in a special way all the time.  But all of us need to consider how we might support our shared ministry with our abilities, our time, and our financial blessings.  Just as Jesus on the afternoon before He was betrayed sent two disciples ahead of Him to prepare the Upper Room for the Passover, so also there are relatively mundane tasks that we are all called to share in, so that God’s Word can go forth in this place. 

   St. Matthew in His Gospel shows how our God works through the things of this fallen world, in order to rescue a people, and to have them living with Him forever in the new heavens and new earth.  Jesus uses the envy and hatred of priests, Pharisees and scribes to achieve His goal of winning forgiveness for every sinner.  A few loaves and fish are used to feed a great multitude, and to point us to a heavenly feast, and the Host of that feast, who died and rose to purchase our entry.  Earthquakes and darkened sky proclaim the world changing event of Christ’s suffering and death.  And a tax collector turned disciple and Apostle shows that the love of God in Christ can grant eternal healing to any sinner, and even put them to great use in sharing the mercy of His Kingdom. 

Let us pray:  Lord Jesus Christ, we praise and thank you for rescuing Matthew from his sin-sickness, the same soul-disease that would destroy every one of us, apart from Your merciful salvation.  In Matthew’s Gospel, You have revealed for all time the form of Your Church, her mission, and the means You have ordained for expanding Your Kingdom.  Keep our ears ever open to hear and grow in Your Holy Word.  Grant us eyes to see and hearts to pursue the opportunities for service that You set before each one of us.  Help us to see all people in the same way You saw Matthew the tax-collector, as a soul redeemed by Your blood, simply in need of hearing Your merciful Good News.  Raise up faithful pastors to preach publicly, and confident people who speak of Your merciful Gospel in their day-to-day lives.  Help us to see the many ways we are privileged to share Your mercy and participate in Your Mission and Ministry.  Most of all, as You have promised, be with us to the end of the age, until that Day when we see you face to face, with the Father and Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever, Amen.               

Unexpected Glory - Sermon for Holy Cross Day, September 14th, A+D 2025

Holy Cross Day
September 14^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Unexpected Glory 
Number 21:4-9, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, John 12:20-33

Audio of the Sermon can be found HERE. 

In the Name of Jesus, the Crucified One.  

   Do you have a glory problem?    

   Speaking for myself, I have at least one glory problem.  They are pretty common.  I’ve got one with church buildings.    

   The first time we lived in Spain, back in the 90s, at the request of the Marine Corps, I may have spent a lot of time visiting churches.  Shelee will attest that I could not get enough of seeing those marvelous structures, often built in tiny villages.  Hundreds of little pueblos in Spain boast tall church buildings that we simply couldn’t build today, imposing stone sanctuaries built four, five or more centuries ago, erected by a slightly-above-subsistence society, working with crude tools, lifting with block and tackle.  It was, to me, endlessly glorious to wander about and contemplate those edifices.    

 

  My mother Agnes came and visited us in Spain, and I enthusiastically dragged her to see any number of Spanish churches, including the Cathedral in Sevilla.  The Seville Cathedral is the largest Gothic style cathedral in the world, and overall one of the largest church buildings ever built, by any metric.  It is immense.  And full of gold and silver, mostly from Peru.  It is a phenomenal space, with flying buttresses, and stone pillars as thick as California Redwoods, which soar into vaulted arches.  There is jewel encrusted artwork in every corner.  I eagerly showed Mom around, pointing out the architecture, the gigantic rose windows, the statuary: quite a place.  My southern-Minnesota German Lutheran mother, with uncharacteristic quiet, patiently took in my tour.  At the end she stopped me for a moment and asked: “But don’t you think it’s a bit much?” 

   Agnes of course, was right. It is a bit much.  I am definitely not against beautiful church buildings, nor am I against the people of God investing money, even significant sums, into beautiful things to adorn the worship of Christ.  But sadly, the Cathedral in Sevilla belongs to Mary, and only secondarily to her Son.  And the Gospel in Spain, the land of the Counter Reformation, has long been and continues to be buried under layers of works righteousness and mystic superstition. 

     The Seville cathedral is filled with fantastically valuable processional crosses.  But it’s hard to argue that it truly glorified the Holy Cross of Jesus to pour out the vast sums of wealth that were spent building the Sevilla Cathedral.   Because the true Gospel is only rarely proclaimed there, if ever.  And that is the thing, really:  If we aren’t proclaiming the truth of the Holy Cross, then nothing else we do has any real value.     

   I am tempted to fall too much in love with church art and architecture.  But we here at OSLC/ORLC don’t seem likely to face the temptation of too much gold and silver coming our way, leading us to glorify ourselves in our building, and remove the true Holy Cross of Jesus from the center of our proclamation.  Still, we certainly have our own temptations to find glory in all the wrong things.  We inherited the tendency to see the wondrous things of God’s creation, or the impressive products of human innovation, and fixate on them.  We can end up worshiping these created things.  But, in Christ we are called and we are taught to rejoice in the gifts of this creation, and worship and thank the God who gave them to us.   

     It’s not that the Lord does not want us to enjoy the creation, or share in His glory.  He created us precisely to share these things with us.  But not at the expense of sharing Himself with us, which is ultimately the nub of the problem:  If we seek glory in anything else but the Lord, we are cutting ourselves off from Him. 

     What glorious things tempt you to put them before God?  Men often are drawn to seek glory in the love of a beautiful woman, and women in the affection of a handsome man.  Both are good gifts, to be received with thanksgiving from the God who made us men and women, in order to complete, love and serve one another.  Marriage and family are glorious, when they are understood and received as one of God’s highest gifts.  But if our pursuit of such glory leads us to corrupt God’s plan for sex and marriage and family, if what God made to be the primary place of service to another we instead turn into a tool for self-serving and lust, then the glory of marriage and family can quickly turn to dust. 

   A hard-earned profit, gained by offering goods and services to others, and done to provide for one’s family and community, this is a God-pleasing pursuit.  But of course, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Rich and poor alike are prone to seek glory in wealth, and so forfeit the riches of Christ. 

    Academic success, physical prowess, beauty, style, musical talent: name the area of useful human endeavor and you can quickly identify ways we corrupt it by seeking our own glory.  High-achievers are especially at risk: the fear of failure and rejection and the lust for glory are the opposite sides of the same coin.  Do not be afraid to seek excellence, to pursue success, only do it as a wise child of God.  Pursue excellence as one who knows the Source of every good, and who wisely stays connected to that Source daily, so that you never forget where your true glory is found.    

   All of this is to say nothing of the human capacity for seeking glory in evil, in depravity, in perverting the natural order of things, and calling it good.  Finding personal satisfaction and an ugly glory in abusing, hurting and even killing others.  Such evils are the opposite of God’s glory, but that does not stop us human beings from believing in these opposites. 

    And, while the world has always worked to put such tempting evils before our eyes, our day is especially evil in that every depraved thing is constantly available to our eyes, through those screens that are never far away.  God grant us wisdom to fill our eyes and ears with good and godly things, and avoid the images of evil that constantly surround us every day.     

   For us, gathered together here today, perhaps the strangest, and most dangerous temptation to self-glory is to glory in our Chirstian piety, to seek to display our holiness and good works, as a means of convincing ourselves and others that we are pleasing to God because of all the good we have done.  Fighting against this particular false way of glory was a primary focus for Jesus when He visibly walked the earth.  He was always pointing out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and calling them, and everyone, to the way of repentance for sin, and trust in God’s grace, the true way of the Gospel.          

   It is completely and typically human to seek glory in all the wrong places, to get puffed up when things go well, and forget the God who is the Giver of every good gift.  This is normal, typical, and hard to change, so hard we may just give up and give in. 

   But the Lord doesn’t care about what is normal and typical with us.  He wants us to find glory, in Him.  He wants us to recognize our foolishness, and His strange mercy.  Why else would God declare a sculpture of a bronze snake on a pole to be the salvation of rebellious sinners, who themselves have been bitten by fiery serpents as punishment for their sins? 

   Who else would disregard, no, who else would intentionally offend the piety and the intelligence of the elite of society, in a foolish attempt to save them with a scandalous story?  Who would declare God’s glory to be found in a horrible, shameful death, a naked body nailed to a Roman cross?  Who else would cap His salvation plan by allowing Himself to be displayed as utterly degraded and defeated, , the Snake on a pole who gives eternal life?  

   Your Savior would.  And He has.  Because this is what it takes to truly love you, to love you to death, and to a new and glorious life.  God does want to give you glory, true glory, so that your sins be washed away, and your eternal death sentence be vacated, once and for all. 

   It stings to have impressive people scorn you, and we will struggle to the end of this earthly life with the natural desire to be considered great and impressive now in the eyes of the world.   But keep your eyes on the Cross of Jesus.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, dying and rising for you, by keeping your ears full of His Word.  From Genesis to Revelation, the Cross of Jesus is the heart and center of the whole Bible, because it is there that the Lord has revealed His glory.  For the Bible teaches us that God’s glory and joy is to save us from ourselves, through the shedding of His own blood.  Keep your eyes on Jesus, by kneeling at His altar, to receive the glorious fruit of His Holy Cross, His true Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. 

     This is the drama of the Holy Cross, the remarkable struggle that started the day the serpent beguiled the woman, and continues on until the Father determines that the time has come to bring His plan to its eternal conclusion. 

     You were drawn into this drama when you first heard the Word of Christ, and when you were washed in the Triune Name.  In this drama, you and I are still part of the problem, with our misguided glory seeking.  But you are also part of God’s victorious plan, for the believer in you is truly seeking good things, for the sake of God’s glory, and the good of your neighbor.  The glorious drama of the Holy Cross cuts through our lives, confronting us, redeeming us, changing us, and flowing through our lives into the lives of others. 

     The light and momentary afflictions we are called to face today do not compare with the glory of knowing that Jesus is still seeking and serving you.  The struggles of Christian life are nothing compared to the wonder and joy of having a ringside seat as the Holy Spirit recreates a sinner.  The Giver of Life does His saving work with the most unlikely story, the story of God bringing glory out of shame, and life out of death.  

     And so, since this God is for you, what can the world do to you?  Nothing, really, because you know that the uncomfortable work the Lord continues to do for unbelievers, drawing them to Jesus, He also continues to do for you, day by repentant day, bringing to completion the good work He has begun in you. 

   True joy and peace are found in this strange plan of the Lord, who took the most despicable executioner’s tool and turned it into the Holy Cross, the sign of forgiveness, life and salvation, delivered to you, by the blood of Jesus.   Rest in His glorious peace, speak about His mercy amongst yourselves every day, and be ready to give the reason for the hope that that is in you, speaking of God’s true glory, with humility and respect. to anyone who asks. 

In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

A Big Heart - Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 7^th, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer 
Lutheran Churches                      
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
A Big Heart 
Psalm 119:32, Deut. 30:15 – 20, 
Philemon 1-21, Luke 14:25 - 35

 Audio of the Sermon available HERE.

I will run in the way of your commandments, [O Lord], when You enlarge my heart!

      Does this Psalm verse remind you of the Grinch?  You know, the Grinch who stole Christmas, that green, grumpy guy who lived in a cave on Mt. Crumpet, up above Whoville, the home of the simple, joy-filled Whos?  The Grinch and the Whos were neighbors, but our green-furred, mountain-dwelling friend did not consider the Whos to be good neighbors.  The Grinch loathed them, with their joyous celebrations and constant cheerfulness, especially at Christmastime.  Their glad songs disturbed his dreary dreams, melodies wafting up from the village in the valley, a sound of happiness and joy that the mountain dweller simply despised.  The Grinch had no love for his neighbors, and finally this void in his soul drove him to act, to try to steal Christmas.  He slithered into town on the night before Christmas, the Anti-Claus, and took all the gifts and decorations, and the Christmas food, trying his worst to ruin Christmas, so that the happiness of the Whos wouldn’t hamper his morbid mid-winter mood. 

      You may remember the problem: the Grinch’s heart was two sizes too small.  No room there for joy.  And since he had no room for joy, the joy of his neighbors gave him great pain.  His too-small-heart drove him to try to ruin Christmas.  Except that he couldn’t.  Much to his surprise, despite the loss of their gifts and garlands and great food, the Whos celebrated Christmas anyway, with peace and joy.  Because their Christmas wasn’t about things, it was about love, love which caused joyful songs to ring out, even though the Grinch had stolen all the outward trappings of the holiday. 

      This love-surprise changed the Grinch.  Standing on the mountain top, sleigh filled with all of Whoville’s stolen packages and decorations and dinner, the Grinch was suddenly transformed, his heart was enlarged, not two sizes, but three.  Love came to him. 

    In December we sing that love came down at Christmas time.  In the case of the Grinch, love came up, from the valley, to his mountain cave.  Love came from outside him through the singing of the Whos, love which entered into him and changed him.  This change on the inside then caused a change on the outside.  The Grinch’s heart was enlarged, and he began to love his neighbor (one of God’s chief commandments, by the way).  He slid back down the mountain, returning all the toys and turkey and tinsel.  Love transformed him in the twinkling of an eye, from the Grinch who stole Christmas into the Christmas Party Patron, the slicer of the roast beast.    

      I will run in the way of your commandments, [O Lord], when You enlarge my heart!  The story of the Grinch has much in common with our Epistle reading, Paul’s letter to Philemon, a Christian in the Mediterranean city of Colossae.  Paul is returning Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave, a runaway slave converted to Christianity by Paul while he was in prison, either in Caesarea, a Roman coastal city in northern Israel, or perhaps in Rome itself.  The Apostle was returning Onesimus to his earthly owner, Philemon, a fellow baptized believer, and Paul did what he could to make sure Philemon wouldn’t be a Grinch to Onesimus.  Philemon has a legal right to punish Onesimus, but Paul wants to make sure his heart is big enough to receive Onesimus back with grace and kindness.  Have a heart, wrote Paul, don’t be a Grinch. 

     The stories of the Grinch and Philemon have much in common, although there are more moving parts in the drama Paul addresses, and the thing at risk is not just an animated Christmas party, but a real life choice between the way of life and the way of death.  There are also more players in Philemon’s story, most especially One Big Character, who isn’t mentioned in the Grinch story.  Overall, the problem in the letter to Philemon is harder, and so also the solution is better.  You could even say that it is Divine.

     The problem Paul addresses is harder and more complicated than Dr. Seuss’s problem of unwanted Christmas joy ascending Mt. Crumpet.  Paul isn’t worried about just one grumpy green guy picking on a town full of nice people.  Onesimus and Philemon each have grievances, and each have guilt.  They are real sinners in need of the real Word of God, to correct, and renew their hearts.    

   Like Philemon and Onesimus, in our lives we are all Whos; all of us have our Grinches who torment us.  And, at the same time, we are all Grinches, in small ways and some not-so-small ways.  We are all prone from time to time to be irritated by and even wish to crush the joy and goodness that we see in the Whos that live around us, who for some reason we just don’t like.  To use the language of the Bible instead of the language of Dr. Seuss, all of us have neighbors who fail to love us, and all of us fail to love all our neighbors.  All of us tend to find the speck in our neighbor’s eye, while ignoring the log in our own.  We notice, point out, and try to correct the perceived faults of others, without acknowledging or addressing our own faults. 

     So Paul is understandably concerned about sending Onesimus back to his earthly master Philemon, and Onesimus no doubt doubly so.  I’m certain they both spent a lot of time counting the cost of bearing this cross.  And yet Paul and Onesimus do it, because they trust that the Third Party to all our neighbor problems will perform the heart expansion surgeries necessary to bring a good result. 

     In the Grinch story, the Third Party to every squabble on earth is never mentioned.  The Third Party is implied, yes, if you remember that Christmas is always about God sending His Son to become a human baby, Jesus in a manger, born to be our Savior.  I do not know if Dr. Seuss was being subtle, not explicitly mentioning God in the Grinch, or if he was bowing to the preference of American culture, the preference to never hear about God, except when and where we choose.  No matter.  Hollywood and modern psychology can insist all they want that all our problems are just between us people, problems to be worked out by us, no divine intervention needed nor desired.  But God, who gets the first and the last word, says that every problem between humans is also a problem between those humans and God. 

     Every horizontal conflict you have is also a vertical conflict.  Every difficulty with a neighbor is also a difficulty between you and God.  To offend the neighbor is always also to offend God, because we are all His creatures.  He has a claim and a concern for all people, in fact the neighbors you have are given to you by God.  He created you, and them, and He cares for you through them, and He desires to care for them through you. 

   This is just how it is, this is how God created the world.  The issue behind every instance of un-neighborliness is the constant choice God calls us to be making between right and wrong, good and evil, life and death.  But our hearts are too small to make the right choice every time.  This is our problem, the problem that causes strife in this world, and within our families.  And this is our problem with God, a problem that we cannot solve, because no one can perform heart surgery on himself.    

    The cure for our too small hearts must come from outside us.  In this detail Dr. Seuss is right on track, for Grinch’s heart is enlarged by love that comes from outside him, through the Word of the Christmas songs the Whos sang, despite Grinch’s theft.  This outside-in way of transformation is the way it is, the way we need, the way of salvation God loves to follow. 

   Our profound, complicated problem with un-neighborliness, that is to say our problem with sin, can only be cured by God coming to us.  This is the content of Paul’s ministry, bringing God to people through the Word of Christ, the message of forgiveness and reconciliation, the Good News of free forgiveness for repentant sinners, in Christ Jesus.  Through this exterior Word, the Holy Spirit comes to souls, and changes them, transforms them, from the inside out.  He enlarges their hearts by revealing God’s own heart, which overflows with mercy and love. 

   God began fully revealing His heart at the first Christmas, sending His only Son, to be the One who would have a heart big enough to tackle all the world’s problem with sin.  We see God’s heart in Jesus’ ministry, as He healed, comforted, forgave and fed.  God most especially revealed His heart when Jesus, in loving obedience to His Father, gave His all on the Cross, to pay for and wash away our sins.  Now, He gives us His loving heart by joining us to Himself, uniting us to Himself through the power of His Resurrection, and the power of His Word.  Washing over us in Baptism, filling our Bodies in the Supper. 

     As he sends Onesimus back to Philemon, Paul builds on this foundation, rejoicing in the work God has already done in Philemon, and then praying that this God-given change will lead Philemon to choose to do the right thing.  Paul writes:  Grace to you and peace [Philemon],  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.   I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, and I pray that the fellowship, the communion of your faith may become effective for the realization of all the good that is among us in Christ.

     Notice Paul refuses to appeal to God’s law, even though Paul says that he could, and that he is bold enough in Christ to command Philemon to do what is required.  Nevertheless, Paul prefers to appeal to Philemon’s Christian heart, even referencing the love Paul knows Philemon has already shown to others.  Paul’s prayer is primarily that Philemon’s fellowship of faith, or communion of faith, will be effective for good.  Paul relies on the reality of Christ joining Himself to Philemon through faith in His forgiving love.  Paul is asking the Holy Spirit to move Philemon to receive Onesimus as a brother in Christ, and not merely as a runaway slave. 

    Paul bases his prayer and his appeal to Philemon on his union, his communion, his fellowship with Jesus, because Paul knows the power to love our neighbor comes from outside us, from God through Christ.  For by His fellowship with us, by His communion with us, Jesus changes us, from the inside out, renewing and enlarging our hearts. 

      Paul is asking Philemon, and by extension you and me, to do nothing more in our treatment of others than what God has done and is doing for us.  God does not speak badly of you, because by your faith in the Lord Jesus, He sees you as a forgiven, sinless child.  God does not mistreat you.  Indeed, because of your fellowship, your communion with Christ, He loves nothing more than to shower you with love.  God forgives you because Jesus has paid the full price, He took away all your sins by the blood He shed at Calvary. 

    Paul reminds Philemon of this remarkable Good News, and so the Apostle is God’s heart surgeon, preaching the Good News to enlarge Philemon’s heart, and yours, so that he and you will rejoice to love your neighbor just as God rejoices to love you, with mercy and forgiveness. 

    One of the deepest pleasures of serving as your pastor is seeing how God gives His people big hearts, and so you go out of your way to care for others.  Right now, this is most obvious in the life of David Hill, an elderly ORLC member, who has been struggling for some months now, and has been hospitalized for the last couple weeks.  Faithful Christians, from Our Redeemer and from other congregations, have sprung into action to come alongside David in his illness, and in his difficult transition from living independently to living dependently.  Many souls are stepping up, as David deals with a move into an assisted living facility, and with the illness that is assaulting his body.  Visits, going to meetings, taking care of David’s cat, helping him understand the path ahead of him, bringing God’s Word, praying for David, praying with David.  Big-hearted Christians, loving their neighbor: what a privilege to watch it happen. 

     Strictly speaking, we don’t actually know how Philemon treated his returned slave Onesimus when he reached Colossae.  I suspect he treated him well; it is hard to imagine this letter being received as Scripture by the Church, if Philemon had ignored Paul and abused Onesimus.  But in the end, how well Philemon responded is not the main point.  Even if Philemon didn’t completely come through, the Good News for you is that God has and always will come through for you.  The heart of God is big enough to forgive all your sins, and welcome you home, no matter how far away you run, no matter how badly you fail.  All of this, and an eternity of joy and glory, all because of and through Jesus, the One who poured out His extra big heart, for the life of the world, Amen.