Preaching

God vs technology…and God won

/ The Pastor

Merry Christmas everyone!

I have to tell you about a God moment that I had yesterday right before I started preaching.

The text I was preaching on was John 1:19-28 (but I “warmed up” the congregation with John 1:1-18).  On Thursday I found what I thought to be a good opening illustration and copied it into the manuscript.  It wasn’t the best but it still worked.  I then wrote the opening part of the sermon before getting into the “meat”.  The main part was a biblical exposition of John which I did not write out word for word (that was the part I knew very well).  I saved the sermon on my computer and then transferred it to my Kindle (as I sometimes do).

Sunday morning ~ Everything went well at Belmont (8:30am worship), but when I got to the pulpit at Salem (10:15am worship) God decided to show me that he has a sense of humor ~ and more importantly that God is in control.

As the lector was reading the lessons I turned on my Kindle and pulled up the sermon.  I then placed my Kindle in “sleep mode” until I would “wake it up” in the pulpit.  So far so good.  Nothing unusual.

Then…well…God happened 🙂

I got into the pulpit and read the Gospel text and then proceeded to open the cover of my Kindle.

It was locked up.

Nothing worked.  It just stared at me as if to say “Hey buddy…you’re on your own.”  A moment of panic set in as I tried to determine what I was going to do without letting the congregation know there was a problem.  I knew I couldn’t go on with my opening part of the sermon since I didn’t know it well enough but I did know the main part of the sermon (“the meat”) like the back of my hand.

And then I got it…God didn’t like my sermon opening.

So…on the fly (and by the power of the Holy Spirit)…I began preaching…and the words just came out.  As I got going more, I got into the sermon and before long my Kindle problems were a distance memory.  After worship I got more good comments about that sermon than I have received in a long time…and from people who normally don’t comment.  Praise be to God!!!

I told this story to someone and they suggested I have a backup copy of the sermon on hand next time.  Sounds like a logical suggestion but part of me is not too sure I want to do that…

You see…on Sunday, God was in control…and I like that.  Isn’t that the way it should be?

edh -|—

P.S. Following worship my Kindle started working perfectly 🙂

Sealed and marked

/ The Pastor

This past Sunday (yesterday) the Gospel text was from Matthew 22:15-22.  It is the text where the religious leaders are trying to trap Jesus by asking him whether it is lawful to pay the tax to Caesar.  After Jesus asks for the coin used for the tax and after quizzing the quizzers on who’s image and inscription is on the coin, Jesus says:

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s“.

Jesus never directly answers the question.  He never says whether it is lawful or not.  Jesus simply states what is truly important; leaving the quizzers speechless.

So on Sunday I talked about being marked.  The coin was marked and so are we.

How?

We are “sealed with the Holy Spirit and MARKED with the cross of Christ forever.” (from the order of Baptism in the Evangelical Lutheran Worship book)

So what does this really mean for you and for me?  What does it mean to be marked?

(1)  It is about placing a claim on something (or someone).  You claim a brand new car by putting a license plate on it.  You claim a household pet by putting a collar/tag on it.  God places a claim on us in baptism through the mark of Christ ~ the cross.  God says to you through baptism, “You are mine“.

(2) The mark says something about the claimer.  A car license plate says a lot about the person who claimed (bought) the car.  An animal tag says something about who owns that pet.  The mark of Christ, the cross, shows us how serious God is about us.  Jesus went to the cross, an instrument of torture and death.  The cross shows us how much God loves us.    Indeed…the mark says a lot about God’s love for you.

(3) Lastly…marking something says something about the claimed. You don’t mark something if you don’t intend to claim or redeem it.  You only mark something that has value.  The very fact that Jesus went so far as the cross and that through baptism we are sealed and marked with the sign of the cross, says that we are valuable (to put it mildly).  God has claimed us and through faith in Christ, God intends to redeem us.

So at the end of the sermon I invited people to come forward to the baptismal font to receive the sign of the cross on their foreheads.  I told the people that this is  NOT because their mark from their own baptism has worn off, but rather this is a simple reminder that they are claimed by God.

One by one people came forward.  I dipped my finger in the water; making the sign of the cross on their foreheads, I said these words: “Child of God, you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and MARKED with the cross of Christ forever.” It was a very powerful moment for me; to see most everyone come forward to acknowledge their gift of baptism.

As Martin Luther told people, I encouraged people whenever they splash water on their face, let the water remind them of their baptism.  Make the sign of the cross on your own forehead and say, “I am baptized“.  What a great way to start your day.

Reflect on your own baptism today (and everyday for that matter).  Consider the MARK God has placed on you.  Contemplate the fact that God considers you valuable.  Ponder the lengths Jesus went to in order to show how serious he is about you.  And rejoice in God’s love for you.

What an awesome God we have!

edh -|—

What we need to hear

/ The Pastor

2 Timothy 4:2-5
“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

There are many reasons to stay in the word; to study it and meditate on it but the one that concerns me today is the very thing that Paul warns young Timothy about.  There are so many “gospels” floating around out there.  There are so many “preachers” out there leading people astray; saying things to people that “their itching ears want to hear.”

The problem is that what people WANT to hear and what they NEED to hear are two completely different things.

What we hear so much about today are what prosperity gospel preachers are trying to tell people:  If you live right you can be successful and happy in this life.  They hold up the Bible, quote scripture and give you 7 ways to have your best life now.  People may WANT to hear that message but it is not what they NEED to hear.  Happiness now is fine but there are two keys problems:  (1) Jesus never, ever promised that things would be great in this life (he actually told his disciples that they would experience hardship and persecution) and (2) When this life is over then what?

What we NEED to hear is that God, through Jesus, has over come this world.
What we NEED to hear is that Jesus has reconciled us to God through the cross.
What we NEED to hear is that there is hope beyond this life.
What we NEED to hear is that we have nothing to fear in this world with God.
What we NEED to hear is that God is madly in love with you and with me.

Prosperity gospel preachers do not preach this message but rather disguise the Good News with something that people can use now to be happy and successful.  As Paul warned, the time has come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.

So we need to be even more diligent.

Let’s take Paul’s charge to Timothy and make it our own.  Stay in the Word; meditate on it; study it and remain faithful to the Word.  “…keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. “  Tell people what they NEED to hear, not what they WANT to hear.

May God be praised in all we say and do.

Preach it brothers and sisters!  Amen!

-edh-

The gate (key)

/ The Pastor

The Gospel text for this Sunday (May 15) is from John 10:1-10.  This is the account of Jesus saying “I am the gate…“.  Call me goofy but this great scene from the Princess Bride came to mind.  There has got to be a way to use this in the sermon 😉

Enjoy

-edh-

Pack rat hunting

/ The Pastor

I did something yesterday in worship that I had never attempted before…

…I preached the sermon from my Kindle.

I knew I was able to send Word documents to my Kindle for reading later but it never occurred to me to send my sermons to this piece of technology.  I have always been fairly low tech in worship but now I am finding myself moving into the realm of high tech (if you want to call preaching from a Kindle “high tech”).  I do have friends that preach off iPads and laptops (laptop seems too cumbersome to me and I haven’t justified the plunge to an iPad yet).  I know that there are pros and cons to preaching from technology, but I am liking the pro side of this so far.

One of the reasons I made this move to try preaching from my Kindle was a realization.  Behind my desk and to my left sits a file cabinet.   The top drawer is filled with old sermon manuscripts.  I have 5 years worth of sermons sitting in there waiting…but waiting for what?  In my nearly seven years here at Salem (I haven’t put 2010 or 2011 sermons in that file) I have never once opened that drawer to look for an old sermon.    If I have been curious about a previous sermon I have always looked it up on my computer (but even that doesn’t happen that often.  Every sermon I preach is a fresh sermon…never recycled).

So I started asking my self…why am I keeping all these printed sermons?
Why am I wasting all this paper; printing sermons off every week?
What is preventing me from throwing all those old sermons in the recycling box?
Maybe I am keeping them for some selfish reason.
Maybe I am keeping them because they really aren’t my sermons; they belong to God so what right do I have to throw them out.
Or…maybe it’s simply the pack rat in me coming out in force.

I am thinking it is the “pack rat” reason 🙂

But still…it almost seems sacrilegious to throw a sermon in the recycling bin.  I guess I could reason that they are being reused in God’s creation; doing some good by saving some trees.  That works…I like that.

In any case…whether I fully make the plunge and preach each week from my piece of technology (whatever that turns out to be) or use a combination of high tech and low tech I am thinking I am going to start recycling in my office sermon drawer at some point, but not quite yet.  I still need to go pack rat hunting.

-edh-

By the grace of God

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

I have been a pastor for just over 6 1/2 years now (hard to believe sometimes).  During that span I have never woken up on a Sunday morning feeling sick (knock on wood).  I have woken up tired after getting to bed late the night before or just not sleeping well, but I have never been sick on a Sunday morning…until yesterday.

When I went to bed on Saturday night my stomach wasn’t feeling that great but I figured I would sleep it off.  As the night wore on I wasn’t getting better.  I wasn’t feeling nauseated but I was still in the bathroom a few times (I won’t elaborate on that).  After a very long night my alarm went off at 5:30am.  I was shot.  I had absolutely no energy.  I laid in bed and prayed, “God…I have no energy.  There is no way that I will get through this morning on my own power.  I feel like crap.  Please grant me the energy I need to lead these two worship services this morning.  I need you.”

After some arguing with myself I finally rolled out of bed.  My programmable coffee maker was doing its job so I made a bee line for the kitchen for a cup of coffee.  I couldn’t drink it…believe it or not the coffee just didn’t taste good.  You know something is wrong with me when I can’t drink coffee.  I got ready and headed over to the church.  I got into the pulpit and ran through my sermon.  I could feel the lack of energy in the sermon and I prayed again that God would give me the energy that I needed so that God’s Word would be preached despite Satan’s best efforts to keep me from doing so.

At about 7:30am I went back to the house and laid down on the couch (I need to leave for Belmont Lutheran Church by 8am).  I tried not to fall asleep because I knew I might not wake up until it was too late.  I laid there in a fog and prayed some more.  I finally got up at 7:50am.  My stomach was feeling a little better and I had a little more energy (but still not 100%).  My wife was concerned about me driving the 8 miles out to Belmont but I assured her I would be fine.

Worship at Belmont began at 8:30am and I was feeling good.  Not once during the worship service did I think about not feeling well.  My energy seemed to return and I preached the sermon with my normal energy and passion (at least that is what it felt like to me).  Worship at Salem was at 10:15 and I was still going strong.  Salem’s annual meeting followed worship and then our famous potluck.  I got home after 12noon and was out like a light by 12:30pm for a 2 hour nap.

So my streak continues…by the grace of God.  There is no way I could have survived Sunday without God by my side.  I know that if I were sick enough that I couldn’t go, someone would have stepped up and worship would have still happened.  But on Sunday God wanted me there and so it happened ~ by the grace of God.

-edh-

Unbelievable forgiveness

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

This week I am continuing our Old Testament sermon series by talking about the story of Joseph and “unbelievable” forgiveness.

In Genesis, chapter 50, Jacob dies and Joseph’s brothers get nervous.  They are nervous that Joseph will unleash his fury since Jacob, the family patriarch, is now gone.  So they tell Joseph that their dear ole dad has said that he is supposed to forgive them the wrongs they had done to him.  The brothers then throw themselves down on the ground before Joseph and vow to be his slaves.

Joseph weeps.

I have never really thought about why Joseph is weeping.  But now I am wondering if Joseph is sad because after all these years of providing for them in Egypt his brothers still believe Joseph doesn’t really forgive them.  When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in chapter 45 he gave no indication he was going to lash out at them even though Joseph had the power to do so.  But Joseph told his brothers not to be distressed or angry with themselves; this was part of God’s plan.  Joseph showed nothing but love towards them by taking care of them through the terrible famine.  Now…after all these years…the brothers still don’t believe Joseph really forgives them.  If I were Joseph I think I would be sad as well.

I wonder if God weeps when we doubt his amazing forgiveness.  I mean…there are times when I wonder if God actually forgives ALL my sins.  Surely there is something that God holds on to.  Surely there must be a limit to God’s patience.  Forgiving ALL my sins?  That almost sounds to good to be true…almost unbelievable.

But God says, “What more do I need to do to prove it to you?  My beloved son, Jesus, died on a cross and rose from the grave to forgive your sins.  I would think that would be proof enough.”  And yet we have our doubts from time to time.  God’s forgiveness of our sins, at times, almost seems unbelievable…there must be a catch.

But there is no catch.

When we go to God in confession, through Jesus Christ we have forgiveness…period.  No strings attached. That, my friends, is pretty amazing.  Unbelievable?  Nope…it’s true.  Through Jesus Christ we have forgiveness of ALL our sins.

So don’t be afraid and don’t be distressed.  Go to God and know his amazing love for you…forever and ever.  Amen.

-edh-

Up and down

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

I have an up and down week coming up.

Tomorrow is Sunday (so that is naturally an up).  At the country congregation I serve (Belmont Lutheran Church) we are celebrating the sacrament of Holy Baptism.  It is one of the favorite things I get to do as a pastor.  I get stand up there with the family and sponsors sharing what baptism means; encouraging them to follow through with their baptismal promises and then pour water on the baby’s head in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  It is a wonderful time and one I truly cherish and look forward to.

Also tomorrow I am continuing my sermon series in the Old Testament with the story of Abraham (but I am only preaching that sermon at Belmont…more on that in a bit).  The story I am focusing on is chapter 22; when God commands Abraham to sacrifice is son, his only son, the one whom he loves.  I know, I know…it seems strange to preach such a text on a baptism Sunday but the sermon focus was planned long before the baptism and the baptism was planned without any thought to the sermon focus.  But I think God brought both of these events together for his glory.  I am excited to see how all of this plays out together.

At Salem (instead of the sermon on Abraham) we are hearing a faith story from a saint of the congregation.  David had a stroke back in June of 2010 and has traveled a difficult road.  I have always known him to be a man of faith but the stories I have heard him tell me have given me goose bumps.  Finally…back in December…I asked David to share these stories with others and he agreed.  So tomorrow I am going to “interview” David as he shares his incredible journey.  The only down side is that we won’t have time to hear all his stories.  I guess people will just have to go and visit David to hear more…which he won’t mind.

Now the down part.

On Tuesday I am burying a saint of this congregation who died on Thursday night.  When Cindy went in for surgery back in November we expected her back in town in 5 to 7 days…that never happened.  She never got off the ventilator.  After a long battle her body finally began to shut down before she went home to meet her (and our) Lord.  This is going to be a hard funeral for many  but I know Cindy and she is going to want to truth of the Gospel proclaimed…so that is what I am going to do.  Funerals are bitter sweet for me; I mourn the loss of the deceased and mourn with the family, but I also get to proclaim the Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus in the midst of mourning (and to some who probably haven’t heard).  I don’t look forward to people dying but I look forward to God using me during these times.

So its going to be an up and down week for me but I know that God will be glorified in all of this.  I know that God will use me to proclaim the Good News of Jesus.  I know that God will not leave us.  And I know that God will continue to sustain us.

Up or down…God is faithful.  How can we not praise him for that?

-edh-

Being challenged and stretched

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

These past few weeks have been a lot of fun.

Wednesday, January 5 we started a small group study/sermon series on Old Testament stories.  The format is that a group would gather on Wednesdays at 5pm to read and discuss an Old Testament story and then I would preach on that story the following Sunday.  Up to this point we have talked about: The creation story, Noah and Abraham.  The Old Testament stories that are coming up in our study are: Joseph, Moses, The book of Judges, David, Daniel and The book of Job.  This small group is scheduled to end right before Ash Wednesday.  I wasn’t exactly sure how this study would be received but so far there is a group of 5 people getting together every week and we are having a great time exploring these stories.

I don’t come each week prepared to lecture on the story but rather I have a couple questions in mind.  The group then takes those questions and a fun discussion ensues.  I have learned a lot from hearing different perspectives.  I have learned a lot about the faith of the group participants.  I have heard questions that I have never thought of before.  And…maybe…gained a couple pounds (one of the participants is an excellent cook and baker and has been bringing treats for us).

There is nothing quite like gathering with a group of people to read, study and discuss scripture.  I have read these stories many times but hearing from others has challenged me in ways that I would not be able to do on my own.  I can hardly wait to see what is coming next.

-edh-

Strange sermon prep situation

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

I am experiencing a strange sermon prep situation…

I have been a pastor now for about 5 1/2 years.  Over that time I have written many sermons (not including the ones I wrote during my year of internship) for Sunday worship, funerals, weddings, holidays, Lent, etc.  I guess one could say that I feel somewhat comfortable writing a sermon (even though I have my moments when I get stressed out).

But this week I am experiencing a first.

Today is Thursday and I have three sermons to write, but the strange thing is that I am writing 2 funerals sermons at the same time.  I have a funeral tomorrow (Friday) and one on Saturday…both out at Belmont.  I was working on these yesterday a little bit and found myself confusing the two; getting the two families mixed up.  I found myself working on funeral sermon #1 and then suddenly I would think of something for funeral sermon #2 and vice versa.  And all of this is in the context of trying to prepare a sermon for Sunday.  It should not be a big deal since the basic message of the sermon is the same, but when you are speaking and ministering to a particular group of people in a particular place in a particular context…it is definitely a big deal.  I know what I want to say for each sermon…I just need to pull the messages out of my head…untangle them and put them on paper.  Easier said than done.  God help me.

I just need to focus on one thing at a time.  I need to get to my office and get the funeral bulletins ready and then write my Sunday sermon (since Thursday morning is my normal Sunday sermon prep time).  After lunch I will work on funeral sermon #1 and only that one and then work on funeral sermon #2.  Hopefully I can keep everything straight.  It should be an interesting day.  And I pray nothing else happens to mess up my schedule (can you hear me chuckling).

In any case…say a prayer for me that I can stay focused and that the Good News is proclaimed.  I don’t want Satan to use this craziness to distract me from want needs to be done.

Have a great day and God bless!

-edh-

P.S.  Oh ya…and I have to try to focus on all of this while a winter snow storm is going on.  Oh well…it can never be too easy…can it 🙂