From the 'You get out of it what you put into it' files...

Thanks to Adriane Dorr for this quotation...

Why are you in college?  The rationale behind the quotation targets the underlying desire society has for the bachelor's degree, and puts in perspective two radically different ways of thinking about the things we believe we should have.

The rationale behind sharing this with you is not to make you wonder whether you belong in college or whether you should have your piece of the American dream via home-ownership, but rather to have you consider your own way of thinking about college, especially if you are a student right now or considering becoming one soon.

Before you go to college, know and be comfortable with your reasons for being there.  For the driven student who excels in self-discipline and determination, college is a great place to acquire the knowledge, experience, and connections that can leapfrog you into your future career.  For the lackadaisical student, however, it may not be for you right now.  There is no shame in seeking employment and saving for the future straight out of high school; there is no shame in taking responsibility for yourself and looking after your own obligations.  Such experience may well be the best incentive there is to go to college, apply yourself, and get a better job when you're done!

Have you ever been tempted...

Not a lot of traffic on the old blog this year...it's been a busy semester, but nothing like a time of stopping and starting again to get back on the wagon!

I'd like to begin by drawing your attention to a posting very relevant to the material I typically cover here.  This one has to do with academic honesty, and the simple advice I would echo is this: be honest!

People can cheat their way throughout so much of life - not just school - but in the end we all know the empty feeling that accompanies success at the expense of integrity.  Do your best, and do what is right!

Read more.

Welcome Back Sunday Sermon: Pentecost Proper 16A

Who am I?

Matthew 16:13-20

10th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16A), 2011

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 comes from the Gospel of St. Matthew, which you just heard read.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, life is full of questions and answers. Some are of minor significance. Did you take out the garbage? What time is it? Where’d I leave my car keys? Others are repetitive. Did you do your homework? What are you going to be when you grow up? What are you going to major in at school? Then there are the big, once in a lifetime questions. Is this the year the (Detroit) Lions make the playoffs? Will you accept this job? Will you move halfway around the world to work for us? Will you marry me?

And then you have the questions posed by Jesus to his disciples in the Gospel. ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is? Who do you say that I am?’ These are not questions you ordinarily hear. Even though most are very interested in what others think of them, hardly any would actually go so far as asking such a question. Hearing the answer could be an unpleasant or deflating experience. Yet Jesus persistently asks what people are saying about who he is. And it isn’t as if he doesn’t already know, or hasn’t been revealing it ever since his Baptism in the Jordan River; the question is whether the disciples have come to understand it from all that they had seen and heard.

Most of them had been there from the beginning. They heard the Sermon on the Mount; they witnessed many healings; they watched him calm the storm while at sea; and they were sent out by him to proclaim the Kingdom. They listened to the parables; they asked him questions about the parables; they distributed bread and fish to feed thousands. They also saw and heard all of the other amazing things that Jesus did and said. All of that formed the background for Jesus’ questions. ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ People’s perspectives were limited. Some had only heard the parables. Some had only seen him cast out demons. Still others had only experienced a healing. Naturally, the responses varied. Some said John the Baptist, some said Elijah, and still others thought he was Jeremiah or one of the prophets. All of these were tremendously important Biblical figures, and based on a limited exposure to Jesus’ teachings and actions, one could understand why the people would respond this way. Jesus, however, was not satisfied with those answers.

‘But who do you say that I am?’ Who do the disciples who follow me say that I am? Peter, one of the very first disciples Jesus called, and often the first to speak up, said it all. ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ You may appear to be merely a man, but you are most certainly also God. Jesus blesses Peter in response, because it was not flesh and blood that revealed that truth to him, but the Father who is in heaven.

That confession Peter made, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, would be the rock upon which Jesus’ church would be built, and not even the gates of hell could have a chance of triumphing against it. The keys of the kingdom were then given to Peter and the disciples. The keys are the responsibility to bind the sins of the unrepentant as long as they do not repent, and the responsibility to loose, that is, to forgive the sins of the repentant in Jesus’ name. It is this same responsibility that rests like a yoke on the shoulders of every pastor. Each Sunday you gather here, repenting of all sinfulness in thought, word, and deed, and each Sunday your pastors will use the loosing key, proclaiming you forgiven in Jesus’ name.

This is what make’s Peter’s confession so important – without the God-given understanding and trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, there is no loosing of sins. When Peter makes that confession, the floodgates of forgiveness open forth and you see that Jesus came not as a great teacher, not as a fantastic miracle worker, but as the Savior of the world who would die on the cross and rise from the dead for each and every one of you.

But Peter’s confession is not his alone – to confess actually means to same-say; to speak as one – Peter’s confession is and must also be the confession of each and every Christian of all times and of all places. This is a very important consideration for all of you, especially for those beginning the semester of classes tomorrow at Central. I pray that you will bear this closely in mind. The world, the devil, and your own sinful flesh will stop at nothing to attack and erode this confession in you. They cannot defeat Jesus or destroy his church, but they can and do wage war with those who follow him by faith, and there are few points in a lifetime that present a greater threat to this confession than the time spent in college. Minds are opening and growing, eyes are wide open, new friends, new teachers, and new ideas are all around you. Pay close attention to what you are hearing, and consider it in light of your confession.

Be aware of who you are, and be even more aware of whose you are; you belong to the Christ, the Son of the living God. It is through him alone that you have the hope of everlasting life, and that confession, given to you through baptism and strengthened in you through his body and blood, binds you to him, and him to you.

Six chapters earlier in the Gospel, while preparing the disciples to preach for the first time, Jesus illustrated the significance of confessing him. ‘Therefore whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.’ Today Peter speaks the content of that confession, even as Jesus himself is preparing for its fulfillment in his death on the cross and in his resurrection from the dead.

To confess Jesus is to be confessed by him before his Father in heaven, which is an amazing biblical concept. You are saved by the faith you confess in Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Son of the living God. This flies in the face of the common misconception that Christianity, like every other religion in the world, is morally based. Christians care about morality, and our morals are most certainly formed and influenced by our faith in Christ, but moral living is not the goal or hope of Christianity. Eternal living – everlasting life with the Holy Trinity in heaven is what we hope for, and this is not something earned, but something given. Those who confess Jesus in this world are confessed by him before his Father in heaven, and receive eternal life. Even the confession is also a gift – Peter did not speak as he did from his own flesh and blood; his confession was revealed to him from the Father in heaven.

This teaching of forgiveness through Jesus’ death and of receiving eternal life is foreign to human nature, and we are prone to doubt. We will always want to turn our focus inward and look to ourselves for confirmation of that faith or to ensure that we are actually worthy of such a gift. Such doubts are baseless; but they plague us nonetheless because of sin and sinfulness. Do not give the devil room to do his evil work in your head and in your heart. Remember the great confession that you have been given, and remember how our Lord gives it and keeps you in it; you are baptized and forgiven. You hear it in preaching and the Word. You are strengthened in it as you eat and drink Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. These are the means by which God wages battle against sin and unbelief, and he gives them to you every Sunday. Receive these gracious gifts and confidently live the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. To believe this, and to confess this, is to have life everlasting.

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.

30 Days of Music

Another Facebook game - take thirty days, posting one item each day for 30 in a row.  I know that I would never remember to do that, so I'm going to do that on this blog, working a bit, saving the post, and so on, until it's done.  Then I'll post it here and put it up on Facebook.  Just make sure to come back every day for 30 days. :-)

day 01 - your favorite song
Choosing one song is very difficult.  Like so many others, it changes regularly.  I suppose that my favorite song right now, the one that I keep going back to, is 'Reminiscing' by the Little River Band.  Now, to be fair, I'm talking about the band when John Farnum was singing lead, because he's one of the best male vocalists in modern memory.

day 02 - your least favorite song
You would think that after the last one, this would be easier, and it was.  I hate that song by Shaggy where he's like 'I didn't do it.'  I've never even bothered to listen to the whole song long enough to figure out what he didn't do.

day 03 - a song that makes you happy
'For Once in My Life' by Stevie Wonder.  He's simply a fantastic entertainer!

day 04 - a song that makes you sad
Garth Brooks, 'To Make You Feel My Love'.  What's sadder is that I'm no Garth Brooks fan.


day 05 - a song that reminds you of someone
Finlandia

day 06 - a song that reminds of you of somewhere
'Somewhere Beyond the Sea' by Bobby Darin

day 07 - a song that reminds you of a certain event
'Nun Danket Aller Gott' - Siegfried Karg-Elert

day 08 - a song that you know all the words to
'Lady' - Kenny Rogers.  As long as nobody asks me why I know all these words, we can still be friends, okay?

day 09 - a song that you can dance to
'That Sunday, That Summer' - Nat King Cole
 
day 10 - a song that makes you fall asleep
Songs don't make me fall asleep - I can't sleep if I'm thinking of a song, actually.  I used to try, but always failed.  I love listening to music before bed, but have to turn it off before I hit the lights.
 
day 11 - a song from your favorite band
'Sinking Ships' - Sloan

day 12 - a song from a band you hate
Anything by REM, but especially the song about it being the end of the world as we know it.  Ugh.

day 13 - a song that is a guilty pleasure
AC/DC - Highway to Hell.  It's my ringtone.  Yes, I like the raised eyebrows when people hear it and wonder aloud, 'is that...on your...?'  :-)

day 14 - a song that no one would expect you to love
I can't think of anything.  I'm pretty predictable.

day 15 - a song that describes you
'I'm a work in progress.'  I don't know who sings it, and it's a country song, but it sure describes me.  That, or 'Creep' by Radiohead, because I'm a creep.
 
day 16 - a song that you used to love but now hate
'Hangin' Tough' by New Kids On The Block
 
day 17 - a song that you hear often on the radio
'Old Days' - Chicago
 
day 18 - a song that you wish you heard on the radio
'Old Man River' from Showboat.  Great song.
 
day 19 - a song from your favorite album
'Paranoid Android' - OK Computer (Radiohead)
 
day 20 - a song that you listen to when you’re angry
Holst: The Planets (Usually Mars, sometimes Uranus and Saturn, too)

day 21 - a song that you listen to when you’re happy
Most any song will do, but to balance the above, Jupiter from the Planets.

day 22 - a song that you listen to when you’re sad
Haven't been truly sad in a while, but I have enjoyed the fourth movement of Mahler's 5th Symphony at such moments.  Also Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.
 
day 23 - a song that you want to play at your wedding
I didn't play anything at our wedding, but I was very glad to have, 'Lord when you came as welcome guest' for the sermon hymn; sung to 'Resignation' tune.  It was great!

day 24 - a song that you want to play at your funeral
So many to choose from.  Literally, so many.  Gerhardt's Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me; For All The Saints'; Jerusalem the Golden; I Know My Faith is Founded; The Day of Resurrection; Of the Father's Love Begotten; O Come, All Ye Faithful; Come Ye Faithful Raise the Strain; Awake my Heart with Gladness; O Sacred Head Now Wounded; The Bridegroom Soon Will Call Us; Dear Christians One and All Rejoice; Salvation Unto Us Has Come; etc. etc. etc. etc.
How about this - I want substantive hymns that will comfort anyone who comes.  Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, What a Friend We Have In Jesus, The Old Rugged Cross (is that hymn even about Jesus?), and Great is They Faithfulness do not have the sturdiness, the teeth, if you will, to cut through the shroud of death surrounding anyone.  Sing of life when I die; sing of Jesus' life when I die.  Don't sing about your feelings, please.
 
day 25 - a song that makes you laugh
Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite.
 
day 26 - a song that you can play on an instrument
I think my favorite on the trombone was the Hindemith Sonata - that was a killer!  Loved it!

day 27 - a song that you wish you could play
I wish I could still play that aforementioned Hindemith!
 
day 28 - a song that makes you feel guilty
Anything by Rod Stewart - I hear it and feel guilty of a crime against taste, sensibility, and my ears!

day 29 - a song from your childhood
'Dreamer' by Supertramp.  Also sung by my father when we wanted something unrealistic, and when it involved us being bratty, it was sung sarcastically :-)

day 30 - your favorite song at this time last year
Michael Buble, 'Everything'

Sermon for Pentecost 7 (Proper 13)

He Feeds You Forever

Matthew 14:13-21

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (A), 2011

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 text for our consideration comes from the Gospel of St. Matthew which was just read.

When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food." But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." And they said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." He said, "Bring them here to Me." Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus’ important work in this Gospel text could be summed up in one word – miraculous! Feeding five thousand men, besides women and children, cannot be seen as anything other than a miracle when you consider that Jesus did so with five ordinary loaves of bread and two ordinary fish. However, when you think of the other miracles Jesus performed during his life and compare them to this miraculous feeding, the other ones seem to be at least a bit more spectacular.

For instance, would it not be more impressive to be healed by Jesus than to be fed by him? Imagine being able to see or hear, for the first time in your life, because Jesus healed you. Wouldn’t that be spectacular? That is not to say that being fed by Jesus isn’t amazing as well, but compared with being able to speak or to walk when you have never been able to do either of those things before, it does seem to fall a bit short. Given the choice, would anyone want a meal instead of a healing from Jesus? If one of you were lying on your deathbed, would you ask that Jesus give you some food or would you want him to make you better? Would you not trade a miraculous meal for a miraculous healing?

Then again, receiving a miracle from Jesus, whether it is in the form of a healing or a meal is not really up to anyone. The feeding of the five thousand may not seem so impressive as a miracle when compared to the other things Jesus did during his life, but remember that it is the only event, besides the events of Jesus’ Passion, that is recorded in every one of the four Gospels. For some reason, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were compelled to include this particular miracle in all of their Gospels.

What makes this even more noteworthy is that this was not a life and death situation. It is not unlike the first miracle Jesus performed during the wedding at Cana, when he turned the water into wine. The wedding guests could have gone without more wine, and these thousands of people with Jesus at this feeding could have gone home hungry. None would have been that much worse for being sent away hungry that night. The reading even says that Jesus had already been, “moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” Nobody was in danger of starving to death. There must have been a deeper significance to this feeding then, besides simply filling hungry stomachs with food.

When you listen closely to the language Matthew used to describe what Jesus did, that significance becomes clearer. He ‘took’ the bread. He ‘blessed’ it, he ‘broke’ it, and he ‘gave it to the disciples.’ Those words should sound familiar to anyone who has grown up in the Christian Church.

“Our Lord, Jesus Christ, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, ‘Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you; ...this is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”

Dear Christians, the great significance of this miraculous feeding is that it looks ahead and prepares the way for the greater miracle that Jesus provides when he gives you heavenly food in the Lord’s Supper. He fed five thousand people then from what seemed to be an inadequate supply of bread and fish, just as he continues to feed the whole Christian church throughout the world today with what seems to be ordinary bread and wine. The food that Jesus gave the crowd then was for the sustenance of their earthly lives, but the food that he gives you now is his precious body and blood – heavenly food – that gives you eternal life.

All of a sudden, this miracle of feeding the five thousand is not at all unspectacular, because it proclaims to you that the Lord will feed you forever. The Old Testament reading from Isaiah says the same thing. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” The five thousand in the text left the cities and places where they lived to go see Jesus when they heard that he had gone to a deserted place. He healed their sick as he had compassion on them, and he filled their stomachs when they were hungry. The disciples had suggested that the crowd be sent away to buy food for themselves, but Jesus gave them food that they could never have bought. They did not need to buy it, for he provided it from himself.

The very same thing, and even more, could be said of you as you gather here, week in and week out. You come because you know that it is here that Jesus comes to you. This place is all but deserted during the week, but when our Lord speaks his word through the pastor and gives from himself in the Lord’s Supper, you come. You come and you are fed from Jesus himself, just like the multitude in the Gospel reading, only it not just earthly food that he gives you. He also gives you the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and everlasting salvation.

Friends, the food is the miracle, and the feeding is the miracle. The miracle is not that our Lord fed those people one meal; it is that he feeds you every meal. Undeserving though you are, his compassion for you is the same as it was on the crowd from the text. He knows the chronic, terminal ailment of sin from which you all suffer, he heals your sickness of sin, and he still feeds you.

The Psalm appointed for today is the 136th Psalm. Every verse ends with, the mercy of our Lord endures forever. Today you are reminded that his mercy also feeds you forever. The five thousand he fed with the five loaves and the two fish were merely a foretaste of how he would eventually feed all of you in the Lord’s Supper, and how he will one day feed you eternally in heaven. He still feeds you the things you need for this daily life, and he continues to feed you with the food that will carry you to that eternal life. With such a truly magnificent miracle taking place right here every Sunday, you never need to think about trading food from Jesus for anything else, because as you receive the food that is Jesus, you receive it all; everything Jesus has and everything he is is given for you. Nothing could be more spectacular.

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

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

Socially mediable!

We are really kicking our use of certain forms of social media into high gear in order to more conveniently communicate with our membership.

On Facebook, look for Pastor Jonathon Bakker, Lutheran Student Fellowship at Central Michigan University, Christ The King Lutheran Student Fellowship Alumni Association, and Zion Lutheran Church, Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

On Twitter, follow:
@zionmp - Zion's feed
@CMUCTKLutheran - the Chapel feed
@CMULSF - all the latest and greatest news for our Lutheran Student Fellowship chapter
@pastorbakker - my feed

We still have our websites:
www.zionchristtheking.org
www.lutheransatcmu.org
www.internationalsatcmu.org

We look forward to staying connected with you!

Back in the saddle again...again!

Well, it's been just over a month since the last post, and what can I say, this is an exercise in starting and restarting again.  There are some things knocking around in my head, and when they're ready to fall onto the keyboard, you'll see them here.

The last month has been a blur of family vacation, and Vacation Bible School at our church.  Now it is time to hunker down and focus on the coming academic year at Central Michigan University.  It is year six for me, and I am really looking forward to meeting the new group of students, and especially excited to see all of the returning students and catch up with them on their lives and what they've been up to this summer.  I'm also very excited about the planning for this coming year.  We have a lot of concrete ideas already, and I feel more organized at the start of this year than any previous year.  I pray that our efforts are well received by those to whom we are reaching out with the Good News of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection for the forgiveness of their sins, and I also pray for the leadership of our Lutheran Student Fellowship, who will be the engines that keep the activities going!