Out Like a Lamb

I know I shouldn't complain about it. I mean, I'm Canadian, right? Snow and ice should simply melt at my steely gaze, right?

It's been a long, cold winter this year. I realize Michigan is no different from the rest of the US and Canada in having an exceptional winter (compared to the past ten years, at least), but it has really worn on us. We can't wait for the sun to start shining more and warming up the land. We can't wait for the grass to start growing and trees to bud. The warmth will be received joyfully!

Thankfully, we leave March behind today. There is an old saying that, weather-wise, March will be 'In like a lamb, out like a lion,' or, 'In like a lion, out like a lamb.' Of course, it's just a saying and it's not something you set your clock by, but often enough it is true. This year it is most certainly the latter, in both cases. March began with a cold and snowy few days. I know that because the phrase came to mind at the start of the month. At the time, I was cynically thinking to myself that with the way this winter has gone it would be no surprise if March goes out like a lion as well. Thankfully, this year we have a balance - in like a lion and out like a lamb.

Out like a Lamb. I'm not one to make enormous connections between the sacred and secular, but it is hard not to make a connection when you're in the midst of the Lenten season, considering the journey of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, to the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. Next week is Holy Week, which is the most edifying time in the whole year for me. The extra services wear me down, and the intense service planning, sermon preparation, and other regular duties of being a pastor also contribute to my fatigue, but nothing compares to the immense peace (now that's an oxymoron!) and comfort I take in my Savior's suffering, death, and resurrection for the forgiveness of my sins. They are taken away by the Lamb, and I rejoice in the new life he has given me.

One of my favorite Lenten hymns is Paul Gerhardt's A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth (#438 in Lutheran Service Book). I believe copyright restricts me from posting the full text of the hymn here, but I'll end here with a snippet from the second verse:

"Go forth my Son," the Father said,
"And free my children from their dread
Of guilt and condemnation.
The wrath and stripes are hard to bear.
But by your passion they will share
The fruit of your salvation."

April Newsletter Article

I get to write for our congregational newsletter every other month, here is the coming offering:

I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;
the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
Exodus 15:1

Dear Brothers and sisters in Christ, making the Lenten journey from Ash Wednesday to the Resurrection of the Lord is no simple task. I suppose in one sense we can look at as a simple passing of seven and a half weeks, but we all know there’s more to Lent than that – Lent is as much a spiritual journey as it is a unique period of time within the church. We hold many extra services throughout the season, we hear more of repentance and faith, and above all else we focus upon the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Lent we are preparing for the three holiest days of the church year – from Maundy Thursday to Easter Sunday morning (I know that’s four calendar days – but from beginning to end it’s more like two and three quarter days). These are called the holiest days of the church year because in them we travel with Jesus through the most important time of his life – his passion and resurrection. On Maundy Thursday we will find ourselves with the disciples in the upper room, not just watching and listening with them, but eating and drinking with them the body and blood of our Lord for the remission of our sins. On Good Friday we stand with John, the beloved disciple, and Mary, Jesus’ mother, at the foot of the cross, not just watching our Lord give himself up as the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world, but also listening as he speaks and prays from the cross. Finally, on Easter Sunday, we will be there with Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, the three women who sought to anoint Jesus’ body, when they discover that Christ is not dead, but he is indeed risen from the dead!

That Easter Sunday indeed, dear friends, will be full of joy and gladness. We will be surrounded not just by hundreds of fellow Christians here at Zion and Christ The King – we will be celebrating Christ’s resurrection with the whole Christian church of every time and of every place. We will sign our Alleluias with the whole company of heaven and we will feast as God’s children should feast, because he has made us his children and won the victory for us!

Our celebration will not be unlike the celebration of God’s people, Israel, when God delivered them from certain death at the hands of Pharaoh’s army. In fact, I suggest you read it yourself by way of preparation for Easter! The first 15 chapters of Exodus are full of incredible hints, or shadows, that reveal themselves in Christ and the New Testament church, especially at Easter. The Passover, and then the delivery across the Red Sea on dry ground and the defeat of Pharaoh’s army, his horses and riders, are a picture of the redemption God has accomplished for us in his Son and delivers to us as we live our baptism. Daily, our sinful nature is drowned in baptism so that the New Man may arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever!

Make your plans now; I encourage you, to gather together with us at Zion to travel through the holiest three days of the church year. We will join our voices with the children of Israel – with Christ’s beloved church – and we will sing praise to the Lord together for he has triumphed gloriously! Our sin, our death, and the devil have been thrown into the sea – they have been defeated forever by Jesus’ resurrection! He is risen!

To Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, Amen.
Pastor Bakker

Sermon Lent 5 (Series B)

Baptism and the Cup

Mark 10:35-45

5^th Sunday in Lent, 2009 B

Zion Lutheran Church

Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Pastor Jonathon Bakker

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. The Holy Scripture for our consideration this 5^th Sunday in Lent is the Gospel from Mark.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to [Jesus] and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if there is anything I have tried to be sure to emphasize to you in the sermons this Lenten season, it has been to pay close attention to the Scripture readings, so that we may take seriously the penitential and hopeful nature of this time in the church year. Last week we had a bit of a reprieve – not that the message changed, but that the Gospel showed us the rationale behind God’s sending of his son. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Today we have the same message, but this time our Lord tells us the price.

As we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the twelve, and us, must learn exactly why what is about to take place must happen. We must learn this because it reveals the depths of the love God has for us – that he did not merely send his Son to live among humanity in human form – but that he sent his Son to suffer and die on behalf of sinful humanity. He must suffer and die, so that we may have life.

That we are sinful is clear. Intellectually, we know that we have sinful natures and we also know that we daily produce fruit keeping with our fallen roots. Our need for forgiveness cannot be measured by mere human instruments or scales. Our need for forgiveness can only be measured by its price – the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

We acknowledge our sin and sinfulness every time we gather for our services and even daily in our own lives and it is good and right for us to do so. Yet even as we make our confession, that same sinful nature works in us to rationalize the things we have thought, said, and done. It is not enough for our Old Adam to have his way with our actions; he must also have his way with our mind and turn us against ourselves. You see, the Old Adam hates absolution. He knows that he is powerless to stop our confession, but he rises up within each of us to dull the significance of that absolution. He leads us to soften, in our own minds, the severity of what we have done so that we will, in turn, value God’s absolution even less.

The wages of sin, however, is death. There is no softening of the demands of the Law, even though we have much skill in fooling ourselves. Just because we do, or feel, or think the same thing repeatedly does not make it any less serious. Just because it does not hurt someone, or just because it only hurts you does not mean it is not wrong. Sin is always deadly, and the devil, the world, and the Old Adam in us will work until our dying day to convince us otherwise.

Even the apostles struggled with sin, which is just one of the reasons this Gospel is so important. They were with Jesus when some went to ask him a question about his kingdom. Like so many others, it sounds like they were expecting an earthly kingdom. Did Christ ever promise an earthly kingdom? No, but here are James and John, the sons of Zebedee, asking for the prime seats in that kingdom. The other apostles hear and become jealous, speaking against the brothers amongst themselves. Even if Jesus had come to build and earthly empire, and even if the two brothers were given the seats and the right and left, could you foresee any two siblings, even the sons of Zebedee, agreeing over which one should sit on which side of Jesus?

There was no storing up for themselves the rewards in heaven; they sought earthly glory and thought that Jesus would deliver it to them. The other disciples fell for it as well. Even if they were unsure about what was to come, they did not want to be left out of the glory either. So Jesus explains to them, in great detail, that earthly glory is the last thing in store for him and his followers. There is a great price to be paid and Christ alone will pay it.

‘You do not know what you are asking,’ our Lord begins. ‘Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?’ Naturally the brothers say that they are able – they figure that any price is worth being seated with Jesus in his kingdom, but they do not know what it means. Drinking the cup and being baptized are things with which we are familiar, at least in one sense. We daily live in our baptism as we struggle with the Old Adam and we rejoice in the forgiveness of sins delivered in the cup or our Lord’s body and blood. These things mean more when it comes to Jesus, especially when it comes to the events surrounding his passion. Jesus’ baptism did not forgive his sins – he is sinless and had no need for forgiveness. Jesus was baptized for us, for the forgiveness of our sins. Our sins are washed away in that holy flood and drowned, but in Jesus’ baptism he took our iniquity upon himself and bore it to the cross. The cup, likewise, is not forgiveness for Jesus, but instead the opposite. The cup is the wrath of God against sin, to be poured out upon the Son of Man as punishment for the sinfulness of the world. The brothers think they can handle it, but they will learn otherwise.

Jesus tells them that they will indeed drink the same cup and be baptized like him, but he cannot give them the seats at his right or left – they are for those for whom they have been prepared. Now he was speaking to James and John, but the message is for all of us. Those who are bound to Jesus will follow after him. In the grand scheme, this is good news; but in the short term, this makes for a difficult future. The disciples were clearly not worried about being associated with Jesus. Not yet, anyway. He was popular and had a following. There were certainly detractors, but those who were against Jesus were key members of the establishment – they all stood to be displaced when Jesus would take control of the kingdom, and replaced by Jesus’ followers. The very next event in Jesus’ life is Palm Sunday – Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We will hear about that next Sunday, but today’s message of baptism and the cup foretold something much different than the disciples expected.

It is easy to fall into the same pattern of thinking as that of the disciples. We do not worry ourselves day in and day out, wondering whether or not we will receive eternal life in the kingdom of heaven with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – at least I hope we do not. We cannot, however, confuse that glorious future inheritance with some kind of present glory.

Jesus response to the disciples turns their focus away from themselves toward his work. He says, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.’ It sounds simple enough, and there is certainly a blessing attached to baptism and the Lord’s cup, but in the case of these disciples Jesus was also foretelling their futures – they too would lose their life for the sake of the Gospel. He then goes on, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be greatest among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.’ Remarkable words, because they turn the hopes of all of the disciples upside down. The marks of Christ’s kingdom in this earth are not glory or power, but rather mercy and service.

In this world we live under the cross. Being a Christian gives no earthly advantage or glory. In fact, more and more, it brings you under fire and ridicule. It is easy to stand up and proclaim your faith within these walls, but it is quite another thing to speak your beliefs outside this place. Your hands may be tied by your work place, your boyfriend or girlfriend might call you old-fashioned or a prude, or you may find yourself the target of ridicule. There is nothing glorious in this world about being a Christian – all the glory is for the world to come. Do not lose heart, for the church is at her best in the midst of strife. God does not allow the whims of humanity to obscure his witness. Earthly glory is not our goal or even our hope – it is not to be so among us who follow Christ. Instead, we serve and show mercy. We turn the other cheek. We do not return evil for evil. When we show mercy, when we serve our neighbor, God glorifies himself.

Jesus reveals this at the end of today’s Gospel, with some of the most remarkable words ever recorded. ‘For even the Son of Man,’ he says, ‘came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ Here our Lord puts things in the clearest perspective. He reveals the full price of humanity’s redemption. He reveals the depths of his great love for humanity. God himself in the flesh does not seek to glorify himself. His glory is in serving humanity, and he serves humanity above all else through his suffering and death upon the cross. No greater price could have been spent for our salvation and no greater mercy could he have shown than giving himself, totally and completely, into death in order to win the forgiveness of our sins.

The Father himself placed upon Christ the burden of our iniquity. He gave his own Son as our ransom; the holy one for the transgressors, the blameless one for the wicked. Nothing but his own righteousness could cover our sins. We could never have received forgiveness, life, and salvation, unless we were united with incorruptibility and immortality. And how could that happen unless incorruptibility and immortality become that which we also are? Christ became man to give us all of these things. Our Lord redeemed us through his own blood, giving his soul for our souls and his flesh for our flesh. He also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and man, joining God to man by means of the Holy Spirit and joining man to God by his own incarnation.

The price of our forgiveness can only be measured by its cost, and that cost reveals the depths of the love God has for us. So take heart – your sins are forgiven. Receive God’s absolution with thanksgiving, because it was bought for you. We have surely been baptized with his baptism and we drink from the same cup. This, dear friends, is the great love God has for us. His own Son came to earth as a man, not for power, not for authority and not for glory. He came to serve, he came for the cross, he came to be the ransom and pay it to rescue all of us.

To Christ alone be all the glory, forever and ever, amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, amen.

Contemporary sexuality

Now there's a post title that will put me on top of the search engines!

Seriously, though, the topic of human sexuality is frequently at the surface among the students at my campus ministry. Not because they're having wanton sex (I hope!) but rather because of the university culture in which we live. I will definitely be posting, from time to time, on particular aspects as they happen.

Abortion, adult 'toys' and such, homosexuality, date rape, 'hooking up', etc. These subjects regularly appear in articles in the campus newspaper and stir up discussion with my students. If pastors and parents had firsthand knowledge of what students face when they come to college, I believe they would prepare them much more carefully. While I don't think you should be watching dirty movies with your youth group, sexuality should not be taboo. Parents should want their children to learn about this from themselves, not from their son/daughter's new boy/girlfriend. Not everybody has the same beliefs when it comes to sexuality, so if you want your children to share your beliefs, you should openly (and regularly) talk to them about it.

A case in point of divergent views of sexuality can be found here. The Pope has received quite a bit of criticism for stating that condoms will worsen, and not improve, the AIDS problem in Africa. His detractors see condoms as a (relatively) cheap, convenient means of protection against AIDS, not to mention birth control. I agree with the Pope on this one for several reasons. First, condoms do reduce the risk of AIDS transmission but they are not 100% effective - there are complications that come about because of improper use, and the latex itself is not an impermeable barrier to a virus. The failure rate of condoms based on average use is about 10% - that means that if you have 10 sexually active couples, all using condoms every time they engage in sexual intercourse, odds are the one of those couples will be pregnant by the end of the year. The same can be said for the transmission of AIDS. Condoms might slow it down, but it is like putting a balloon on the end of a leaky faucet - it's an incomplete solution. More troubling to me, however, is the apparent connection people see between condoms and what I like to call sex without consequences.

Sex without consequences does not exist, no matter how folks try to rationalize it, de-humanize it, and industrialize it. The surest way to contract a sexually transmitted disease is to engage in sexual intercourse. The surest way to become a parent is to engage in sexual intercourse. The surest way to bind yourself to another for life is to engage in sexual intercourse.

The first two of those - about disease and pregnancy - should make logical sense to anyone. The last point - about binding yourself to another for life through sexual intercourse - is something I believe has been lost in this culture. Now, I'm not talking about the commercials I saw in the 1980s about 'when you sleep with someone, you're sleeping with everyone they've ever slept with'. What I'm talking about, however, is that we have been created in such a way that men and women both desire physical intimacy with one another. You could say that we were 'wired' for one another.

Our 'wiring' is not so simple, however, that all we desire is physical. We were also created for community - a relationship is never purely physical; it is more than a meeting of the flesh for mutual pleasure - the meeting of the flesh produces a union between two people, and the consequences of the loss of this understanding of sexuality are immense. Ignorance of the emotional component of relationships wreaks a havoc on people that I see regularly. The collateral damage is serious. It forms a pattern for future relationships believed to be meaningless, but with every so-called meaningless encounter comes new wounds, unfulfilled hopes and needs, and a lonely suffering that turns people in on themselves. Men become angry, and it forms a pattern for how he treats women. I can't speak for what it does for women, but I would imagine they suffer as much or more than men from 'no-strings' liaisons. Broken relationships, now and in the future, are the inevitable result.

This is relevant to the discussion of methods for fighting the transmission of AIDS in Africa because the problem is not that people aren't using condoms. That would be like saying that wearing a seat belt makes it safe for you to crash your car. When you drive your car, you do so defensively and carefully, and you wear a seat belt just in case something bad happens. A seat belt is a preventative measure that drastically reduces your risk of injury or death in the unlikely event of an accident. Giving away condoms is like encouraging people to drive dangerously, but giving them a false sense of safety by telling them to buckle up first. The fact is that in a crash, a seat belt gives you a statistically better chance at survival, but it is no guarantee that you will not die.

The real solution to the AIDS problem is not the elimination of unprotected sexual intercourse (again, who believes that auto fatalities will disappear when nobody drives without a seat belt?), rather, it lies in a shift in the cultural understanding of humanity and how we relate to one another. The solution is not abstinence either (true, nobody will die from car accidents if nobody drives, but it's a little ridiculous to think that nobody will drive). Human sexuality needs to exist within the proper context - marriage. Pregnancy creates all kinds of questions and difficulties for the unmarried, but for the married it is (mostly) a joyful thing. The emotional component of sex brings husband and wife together in a unique way - only they know each other so intimately. The disease component could clearly be spread within marriage, but the spread of disease would be limited to spouses and children - vastly reducing those rates while cultivating a more healthy understanding of the relationships between men and women.

Condoms may slow the transmission of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, but it does nothing to help the people suffering in the midst of these epidemics to experience sex with the best consequences - as God intends it.

Sermon Lent 3 (Series B)

A New Temple

John 2:13-22

Third Sunday in Lent, 2009 B

Zion Lutheran Church

Mount Pleasant, Michigan

Pastor Jonathon Bakker

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord, Jesus Christ, amen. The Holy Scripture for our consideration this day is the Gospel from St. John, which you just heard read.

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business. When he had made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. And he said to those who sold doves, ‘Take these things away! Do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise!’ Then his disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house has eaten me up.’ So the Jews answered and said to him, ‘What sign do you show to us, since you do these things?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ Then the Jews said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, so many things take place at the same time in this Gospel that it is difficult to grasp them all at once. To begin, Jesus steps into the temple and sees businesspeople there, profiteering from the temple activities. There were sellers of animals for the various sacrifices and there were moneychangers, exploiting the temple and the pilgrims who visited there. Jesus made a whip out of cords and drove them all from the temple – the merchants and their wares. Their tables were overturned. ‘Take these things away!’ Jesus said, ‘Do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise!’

John confronts us with a difficult picture of Jesus in this Gospel; it’s a far cry from the images we most often associate with our Lord. We usually picture Jesus as polite, meek, and peaceful – not a disturber of the peace. We do ourselves no favors, though, to forget that in addition to the many miracles he performed, aside from the children he blessed, and beyond the generous healings he accomplished, our Lord’s life was also surrounded by violence. His was born in a crude manger, and his family was forced to flee to Egypt for his own safety when he was just an infant. During his life he was plagued by detractors and had to constantly watch for those who wanted to take and kill him before the appointed time. When that time finally did arrive, we cannot also forget the violent nature of his death.

We must consider our Lord in his entirety, not assuming for a moment that he was acting against his nature. Indeed, he took such great offense at the marketplace in the temple because of his righteous nature. It brought a passage from Isaiah to the minds of the Apostles. ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ The purity of the temple was of the utmost importance. After all, the temple still had a purpose during Jesus’ life – in fact, it should be said that the temple was more important during Jesus’ life than it had ever been before. It was important that the temple and everything associated with it be carried out as properly as possible, but we will return to that later.

There is more to this Gospel that bears our attention. If Jesus’ outburst in the temple was difficult to understand, the words he gave by way of explanation to the Jews must have sounded downright absurd. The Jews were looking for a sign – even though his shouting should have been explanation enough – they wanted an explanation for his outburst in the temple. ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’

In those words, Jesus gave them a sign, but they did not see it for what it was. They did not recognize Jesus as the Son of God when they heard his words or saw his actions. Even the apostles did not understand the meaning of the whole situation. At least that is what John tells us. The evangelist does not hesitate to offer an explanation for Jesus’ words, remembering how it took Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead for him to understand it all himself.

Remember, friends, as we move through Lent, that this is a season of repentance and focus upon God’s word and the gifts he gives us through that word. The Scripture readings for the Sundays in Lent are prophetic – they are to teach us not only that there is judgment in store for those who ignore the words of God, but they also reveal to us how we are to see Jesus as the Savior who is the fulfillment of the Scriptures; how he is the fulfillment of that judgment in our place. Two weeks ago Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was at hand. We were to repent and believe the Gospel. Last week he predicted his death and resurrection, only to be rebuked by Peter. Jesus returned the rebuke to Peter, calling him Satan. Peter was expecting the Son of God to rule in glory, rather than die upon a cross. Today we have another prediction of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but this time more subtle. It was not immediately evident to anyone what Jesus meant when he told them he would raise the temple in three days.

This is why the temple was so important – it provided the people with the foundation upon which they were to understand Jesus’ death and resurrection. There was nothing arbitrary about the period of time from the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden until Jesus’ death and resurrection. Throughout that entire history God was preparing humanity for salvation, but he could not accomplish that salvation until humanity was ready. A pattern of salvation had to be established so that rebellious humanity would not rebel when it mattered most.

God began to illustrate the blueprint for humanity right there in the Garden of Eden when he made a promise to the wicked serpent about Eve’s offspring and that of the serpent – how the serpent would strike the heel of her offspring, but the heel would strike the serpent’s head. It continued through the patriarchs as we heard God make his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through their seed, all nations would be blessed. It continued when God’s people found refuge in Egypt from a famine, and then were brought up from slavery in Egypt, foreshadowing Christ’s own sojourn and return from there during the early part of his life. There are countless similar pieces to the overall pattern – tiny details, like the Psalmist speaking of his enemies casting lots for his clothing, to enormous thematic parallels, like the rise and fall of the nation and kingdom of Israel. In themselves, all were significant historical events, people, and situations, but their meaning is only fully understood when we consider them in light of Jesus’ fulfillment.

The pattern that is important today is that of sacrifice. Humanity had been making sacrifices to God from the very beginning. Even before the fall into sin, Martin Luther believed that God instituted sacrifice when he put Adam in the Garden of Eden and gave him Eve. For Luther, God’s instruction to eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the means by which Adam and Eve made their sacrifice. After the fall, humanity lost the capacity to live without sin, and sacrifice was never again so clear cut and straightforward. God would guide humanity, however, throughout history, so that we might know and recognize Godly sacrifice when we see it. One of those more critical moments in the Old Testament is recorded in the Old Testament reading – the Ten Commandments are certainly curb, mirror, and rule, but they are certainly also an exhortation for sacrifice. One cannot fear, love, and trust in God above all things without denying himself and all other gods. God’s name is not honored unless every other name is forsaken.

God bound his earthly presence to those tablets of the Law, and had them placed in the Ark of the Covenant. With the inception of the priesthood, God intensified Israel’s sacrifice. Not only were they to make sacrifices in their daily lives by living according to the Ten Commandments; God commanded further sacrifices for when they failed to do so, and still other sacrifices of a more general nature at other times. By the time the temple was finally built in Jerusalem, sacrifice was centralized there, but the people did not all live there. It was a big deal for Israelites to leave house and home and make their way to Jerusalem for one of the major festivals. Away from Jerusalem they were away from the sacrifices and the benefits of those sacrifices. Humanity was to see sacrifice as propitiatory – it was to reconcile fallen humanity to God. The only problem, as the author to the Hebrews would note, was that the sacrifices never ended. Even the Day of Atonement – the one day of the year when the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies to complete the cleansing of all of God’s people – even that sacrifice would have to be repeated again every year.

All this sacrifice, all this blood, was not without purpose, however. It was all part of the plot God had been revealing to us from the very beginning. There were countless sacrifices with little lasting effect, but eventually there would be a final sacrifice that would complete the task, that would strike the head of the serpent for good.

We in the church know that Jesus was this final sacrifice – the events surrounding his own crucifixion make it obvious. It took place just outside of Jerusalem, it happened during the Passover, and the great curtain in the temple – signifying humanity’s separation from the presence of God – that curtain was torn in two. We see it clearly, but it was not so obvious to those living then. All of this explains why it was so important for the temple to be cleansed by Jesus and rid of corruption. Not only were the marketers taking advantage of others by buying, selling, and changing money within the walls of the temple – their very presence undermined the purpose for that sacred space. The temple existed for the people of Israel, and certain parts of it also for Gentiles, so that they could seek forgiveness from God for their sins. If the temple and the prayers and sacrifices that were to be taking place within were subject to desecration, not only would the sacrifices be corrupted by ritual impurity – the whole system would be a corruption of the sign and shadow of the final sacrifice Jesus would soon accomplish on the cross. That is why the temple was so much more important during his life – the temple itself would find fulfillment in Jesus’ death.

Jesus cleansed the temple as a sign to the Jews, though many did not recognize it. He then went on to give even further explanation of what the temple was by making reference to his own coming sacrifice, but nobody would understand him until after the sacrifice had been made. Jesus knew what others didn’t, yet he told them anyway so that they would understand once the events had finally taken place.

So there we have a tidy explanation of Jesus’ words and actions and what they meant for the people who saw and heard him, but why do they remain important for us today? There are many other instances in the Gospels of Jesus predicting his death and resurrection, and in most cases he does so with greater clarity than he does in this instance. Today, dear friends, there is more to Jesus’ words than that he will rise from the dead. What is so significant about this Gospel for us is Jesus’ relationship to the temple. He doesn’t simply cleanse the temple – through his life, living as the pure Lamb of God in preparation for his own sacrifice, and through his death, where he suffers the guilt of every sin on our behalf – Jesus replaces the temple.

God no longer restricts his favorable presence within the inner sanctum of the temple – God has humbled himself to dwell in a new temple – human flesh – the Word became flesh and made his temple among us. God is flesh; God dwells with humanity; he gives access to forgiveness and holiness not only to the ethnic sons of Abraham but now to all those who by birth share in the same humanity of our Lord. This includes all of us; if you have flesh, then you share in Christ’s humanity.

Never forget this, dear friends, for this is the point of Jesus’ words today; this is the point of his incarnation and his death and resurrection. Jesus’ humanity opens heaven to us who are human just like him. When we suffer, when we feel pain, when we feel guilt, we do not need to seek forgiveness and holiness in some faraway temple. Our Lord accomplished salvation on the cross at Calvary in Israel, but we need not look for him there; he distributes salvation differently. God is not far from you – he is as near to you as your baptism. He is as close to you as the word of absolution. He is with you in his own flesh and blood. Our Lord does all of this for you; to calm your pain; to sooth your suffering; to forgive your sins; and to grant you everlasting life.

To Christ alone be all the glory forever and ever, amen.

The Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, amen.

Teaching Greek

Something I really enjoy about being a campus pastor is the opportunity to minister and counsel young men who may be considering going to seminary to become pastors. Being only three years out of seminary, I enjoy reminiscing about the chapel life, classmates, classes, professors, dorm life, and other aspects of that time in my life. Being a 'Johnny come lately' to the decision to enter seminary myself (I did so at the end of my third-year of university), I can also relate to the questions they have about theological education, being a pastor, etc.

It's a tough deliberation for a lot of young men and I cannot make the decision for them. I'm as forthright as can be about the realities of the workload (of both seminary and of being a pastor), the likely debt load, and the frustrations that exist for pastors, but I also love being a pastor and I am outspoken in that regard as well. A huge part of helping young men make such a decision for me involves educating them as well as I can so that whatever decision they make, it will be based on prayer, information, and experience, and not only a gut feeling one way or another.

So I teach Greek. Every Thursday this semester I've been introducing three young men to Koine Greek to give them an idea of the academic rigor of seminary education. Admittedly Greek is more of a means than an end when it comes to theological education, but it helps nonetheless. It also offers opportunities to segue into related theological matters that come to them or me in our sessions.

I enjoy this teaching and interaction with the young men who may or may not end up studying at the seminary. It gives them a real chance to see what they may be getting themselves into, and if they decide that seminary is not the right option for themselves, the church still needs well read and educated laity to serve as congregational leaders. It's a win-win, and I even get to keep up my Greek!

Spring Break

This week happens to be CMU's spring break - only a few students are in town. It's a great opportunity to do some work that I can't do when they are around, but even more than that it's a chance to rest and 'recharge' for the rest of the semester. Graduation is May 9th this year. In between now and then we have planned or are planning the following:

LSF (Lutheran Student Fellowship) Lock in
Spring Dinner
Cystic Fibrosis Fundraising Bowl-a-thon
End of Year BBQ
CMU Commencement Ushering
Local Elementary School fundraiser
At least one more Game Night

And I'm sure more will come up! Between that and the regular schedule it will be a busy two month stretch. I'm using the extra time during the break to write a sermon, prepare several Bible studies, and - tomorrow - clean my study. I haven't seen the top of my desk since we returned from the Hurricane Relief Trip we took to Houston in January. I always function better all around with a clean desk, so I'm looking forward to it. When I figure out how it's done, I'll post a picture of my study here.

The name...

I chose the name 'Central Sanctuary' to reflect two things: the intersection of Christian ministry and the academic community.

'Central' is a reference to the university campus where I serve. Central Michigan University is one of several state schools here in Michigan. There are 20,000 students here, and the major programs are education and health professions. My wife and I really enjoy the football games here, and the team does pretty well too.

'Sanctuary' is a reference, in several ways, to the campus ministry which I serve. A sanctuary is a holy place where God makes himself present for his people, and that is most certainly a good description of Christ The King Lutheran Chapel. Our chapel is located literally in the geographic center of CMUs campus - thousands and thousands of students walk by every day when classes are in session. We are a sanctuary on this campus, a holy place, a place where God makes himself present to deliver the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation won by his Son on the cross.

We are, truly, a 'Central Sanctuary;' an island in the midst of dubious waters - the surface is calm, but underneath there is a churning force at work all around us that strives to keep travelers from taking refuge in this holy place. Why are the waters so coarse around us? It could be for any number of reasons, but I believe that it is because we preach Christ and him crucified as the only Savior from sin, death, and hell. Still, it is to be expected. Academia has different goals and objectives from the Christian church. As the academy bends and reflects the culture, its goals change with it. Our calling, however, never changes. We are always here in the middle of it all to deliver Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins.

A new blog

Greetings to you in Christ Jesus from a campus pastor in Michigan!

"Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few." That's how Despair.com describes blogging, and I'm okay with it - this is a venue for me to write about my experiences and ideas concerning campus ministry as a Lutheran pastor. It's a pretty narrow focus.

I've had a few blogs of a more personal nature in the past, but haven't posted much of anything on them in a long time. It's time again to start. Like other pastors, this blog will be a bit of a blend of my personal and professional life - it is truly difficult to make a separation between them, and I think that should be reflected in blogging - but my intention is to lean more to the campus ministry side of things.

Welcome!