Immanuel Lutheran Church - Benson

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

This verse is read every year at Christmas time, so we naturally equate this with Jesus, even though we know that Isaiah spoke these words hundreds of years before Jesus was born.  So we need to ask what was Isaiah’s situation and why did he speak these words.  Only then can we understand why, in the early days of Christianity, our forefathers read this verse and thought of Jesus.

We pick up the story in Isaiah 7.  Isaiah has been called to be a royal prophet, speaking as advisor to the king.  When Ahaz was king of Judah, they were under siege by a unified army of Aram and Israel.  And, of course, everyone in Judah was scared to death.  However, we are told that these two armies could not form an attack on Jerusalem because of the city’s location on a mountain.

God sent Isaiah to Ahaz to share God’s view on the situation, so that Ahaz wouldn’t do something that would, in the end, ruin the kingdom of Judah.  So Isaiah and his son Shear-jashub (which means “a remnant will return/remain” and is a screwy name for a kid) met up with Ahaz at the main water source of Jerusalem.  Obviously the king was inspecting the water supplies for the city.  After all, when you’re under siege, you want to know how long you can withstand.

At this meeting, God reveals the reason for this siege - the two kings joined together because Pekah, the king of Israel, wants one of his relatives to be king over Judah.  And God also reveals the answer to what Ahaz should do - wait out the siege.  God calls Ahaz to stand firm in the faith that God is in charge of all of this, and to listen to this prophet, and do nothing.  Just wait. 

God provides Ahaz with a sign to prove that this is the right thing to do, and the sign is a young pregnant woman.  “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14b).  What is so special about this?  There were a lot of women getting pregnant back then.  It’s what happened to young married women back then, and happens a lot today.  Naming the child something to do with God is also nothing out of the ordinary, and Immanuel means “God with us.”  This is a name that any woman would have named her son, as a reminder of God’s presence with the people through all generations.  So what’s so special about this?

God, through Isaiah, tells Ahaz that this child will grow up.  And that’s what is so special about this woman and her child.  In a time of war, God tells us that this child will grow up, and by the time the child is old enough to know right from wrong, the two armies that are currently outside the door will be dust in the wind. 

Then the Lord tells Isaiah that he should have another child, because by the time that child is old enough to say, “my father,” or, “my mother,” the two armies would be wasted away.

But then in 8:5 we read that Ahaz did not listen to Isaiah.  So the power of God to destroy these armies will also sweep over Judah and ravage that country as well as Aram and Israel.  This ended with the death of Ahaz, and the apparent end of the Davidic line. 

However, Isaiah’s job as a prophet wasn’t at an end becausee Ahaz died.  Before he died, Ahaz had a child, and this child will grow and continue the Davidic line of kings.  This is the child that Isaiah speaks of in this verse - this child of promise that will rule the Kingdom of Judah in God’s name, just as David, Solomon, and all his ancestors did before.

The child will be called Wonderful Counselor because he will inherit the wisdom of Solomon, to be judge and arbitrator for these people.  He will be called Mighty God because he will rule in God’s name, not for his own benefit, but for the widows and orphans who need God’s care.  He will be called Everlasting Father because he is of the line of David, whose line will rule for all time.  And he will be called Prince of Peace because, as verse 7 continues: “His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.  He will establish and uphold it [the kingdom] with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.”

Isaiah is speaking this word of hope to a people who have been promised that the line of David will continue for all time, and at the death of Ahaz feared that the kingdom would falter and die.  But Isaiah tells them that because it is God’s will, the kingdom will go on forever.

And hundreds of years later, when Jesus of Nazareth preaches, teaches, heals, and saves, people will look back onto this teaching and wonder, “Is Jesus of this line?”  And both of the genealogies we have of Jesus (Matthew ch 1 and Luke ch 3) trace Jesus lineage through King David, squarely placing him in the line of Davidic kings. 

And when Jesus died, his followers were frightened about the perpetuality of the new Kingdom that Jesus inaugurated.  But because Jesus was raised from the dead, we, like the first followers, know that Jesus rules this Kingdom forever, fulfilling God’s promise to the ancient Isrealites and to us that the line of David will continue as king forever.

So, today, let us thank God for the Kingdom, both left- and right-hand kingdoms that we live in, and the gracious Lord who rules in God’s name, who cares for us and for all in his land, the King, the Son of David, the Son of Man and Son of God, Jesus our Christ.  Amen.

“When I am afraid, I will trust in you.  In God whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?”  Psalm 56:3-4

This world is a scary place.  There are so many things to frighten us, make us go diving under the bed.  We like to believe that there are no monsters in the closets, that the things that go “bump” in the night are just our imagination.  But then we read the newspaper.  We hear about all the horrible things that people do to one another, and we wonder how this could be.

We usually believe that the world was better when we were younger, in that blessed golden age of innocence before the bad people started doing all these bad things.  But Psalm 56 reminds us that there was no innocent time.  One of my favorite writers, Annie Dillard, phrased it this way: “There were no formerly heroic times, and there was no formerly pure generation.  There is no one here but us chickens, and so it has always been…” (Dillard, Annie. For the Time Being. Vintage Books, 1999).

But how do we survive in this world, with all the chickens and all the wolves?  We put our trust in God, the One, true Lord of all.  We have heard it from our parents, and from all generations, that our God is a God we can trust.  It has been passed on to us for so many people from so many places that our God is a God who keeps promises, that no matter what may happen to us in this life, we are never far away from our Lord and our Savior.

We know this to be true because God raised Jesus from the dead.  Jesus lived a faithful life, trusting in God, and was killed for it.  But God proved to all the world that Jesus lived the way God requires because God raised him from the dead.  And now we, who have been baptized into Jesus’ life and death are also joined with him in his glorious resurrection.  We know this because God has promised this to us.  And God’s words are trustworthy.

God’s promises are sure, and always will be.  God’s promises have been and will be sure and true longer than anything else in this world.  We trust in God because only God has the power to give us life and security.  No other thing in this world can do that: no amount of money, or other people, or any government can give us what we need - life and security. 

We know the power of “flesh” as the psalmist calls it.  We are well aware of how much other people can hurt us.  But we also know that when we are afraid, we trust in our God because God’s promises mean so much more than all the things of this world that threaten us.

So the next time that you feel frightened, remember and give thanks to God that no matter what happens to us now, we have a loving Father who cares for us forever!

John 15:12
Jesus says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

When my brothers and I were small, we fought a lot.  If you have kids, or remember your own childhood, you can probably imagine the hi-jinks that three young boys can get into, which only escalate into full-blown confrontations.  Our parents used to tell us that we have to get along.  It wasn’t a suggestion, it wasn’t an option.  It was a command.  But of course, there was no way that we would “get along” for more than 15-20 minutes at any one shot.  Someone would always do something to upset the other two, and the brouhaha would follow.

Because of growing up with two brothers, I always look at these commands in the Bible with a little bit of skepticism.  Jesus commands that we love each other just like Jesus loved us.  It sounds so simple, the way Jesus says it.  If we look at Jesus’ life, his ministry and his teachings, and ultimately his sacrificial death, we will see ways that we should treat one another.

But what we see in the Gospel of John are some of the most exciting, miraculous events that have ever been.  Jesus turns water into wine at a strangers wedding simply because they ran out (John 2).  Jesus clears the money-changers and sellers out of the temple complex so it can be a place of pure worship (also John 2).  When the Pharisee Nicodemus comes to visit, Jesus patiently explains the will of God to him (John 3).  Jesus even blesses the (ewww) Samaritan woman at the well (John 4).

Jesus is not doing the things that we think of when we hear commands like this.  We think of loving each other as taking care of those close to us, our family and friends.  We can usually love them without too much trouble (unless they are three young brothers).  But Jesus even in the first three chapters of John’s Gospel is expanding the “each other” to include everyone we meet and everywhere we go.  The stranger, the place of worship, the enemy, and even the people we are supposed to despise.

We’re supposed to treat the stranger like family, and the enemy like friend.  And that is very hard for us.  Sometimes it’s even difficult to treat family like family!  But we cannot hear this command and miss the forest for the trees.

Sure, this is a law.  It is a command.  We are ordered to do this, loving each other.  And it’s very hard to order someone to feel an emotion.  But love isn’t just a feeling.  Love is a verb.  It’s an action.  It’s what we do.  And we are always told what to do and what not to do.  So no matter how we feel, we are commanded to love each other whether you like the other person very much or not at all.

But this is also gospel for us.  We can only love each other because we are loved.  We are loved by Jesus so much that we are entrusted with this sacred mission of caring for the world and all the strangers in it.  We are (or should be) taught to love in our families, so that when we grow up we can show that love to others.  We form an attitude of love, so that anyone we meet comes away knowing that someone, if only for an instant, loved them.

This is like that old lesson I learned about dating.  If you go out on a date with someone who is nice to you but mean to the wait staff at the restaurant, they are not a good date or a good possible partner.  For us, our love is not just to our family and friends, but to the people we meet in everyday life - our coworkers, the people who bring us our food and clean up after we’re done, the people we chance to walk by on our way to and from.  These are the people that we need to be commanded to love, because we can so easily ignore them.

So because we are loved, we can and should love everyone we meet.  And while this might be as impossible as my brothers and I getting along growing up, we can live and learn into it, just like my brothers and I eventually started to get along, and now rejoice in our close relationship.

So, today, give thanks to God for the love you receive from our Lord, from parents, spouse, children, friends, neighbors, and everyone who you know is looking out for you.  And ask for help in caring for those you meet today, whether you know them or not.  You can still show them love!    

This is the sermon that I preached on August 31, 2008.

The readings were Exodus 3: 1-15, Romans 12: 9-21, and Matthew 16: 21-28.

Our Gospel reading this morning is a very Lent-themed verse, with Jesus speaking of his upcoming crucifixion.  But now that we are after Easter, how do we look at the crucifixion?  How do we view the cross and the one who died there after we have seen him risen from the dead?  And how do we take up our own cross to follow him, the one who died on a cross to set us free?

Most of all, though, this passage troubles me because I have heard this command of Jesus used in so many wrong ways.  People who suffer abusive relationships will defend their abuser by saying that suffering at their hands is their “cross to bear.”  But that is thinking about human things, not divine things.

But then what does it mean to take up our cross?  What is this divine suffering?

First of all, it is suffering that we must endure, nt suffering that we choose.  Even Jesus did not want to suffer as he did.  Remember, he prayed in the garden that the cup be taken away.  Paul spoke of  thorn in his side, a suffering that he would not even define, that he prayed to have removed, but it never was.

Secondly, it is suffering that leads to greater life.  It is the recognition that we are sinners and need God’s love and forgiveness.  It is not suffering that leads to depression or despair.  We may feel sorrow or sadness for ourselves and our dreadful condition, but we know that God is with us even through our suffering.

And third, it is suffering that happens to us as a result of our commitments.  What we do and who we are leads us to this suffering.  Teenagers will always suffer because they are growing up to become the adults they will be, and their commitments will be put to the test.  

Jesus suffered on the cross because his commtment to God’s law led him to challenge the rulers of his time.  Taking up the cross was not divine abuse - God did not kill Jesus.  Pontius Pilate killed Jesus.

In fact, one of the greatest questions in all my years of studying was whether Jesus HAD to die.  Jesus came to change peoples’ minds.  He wanted to return people to the loving grace of God.  If more people would have changed their minds and followed Jesus, would they have put him to death?  Well that is a question that we will never know.  But what we do know is that Jesus chose to live faithfully to God’s will, and he was killed because he challenged the powers of his day that would not change.

And our natural human reaction is like Peter’s, to evade the suffering.  We do not want to suffer at all, even though we know that some suffering helps us.  Much suffering can be avoided, but there is some suffering that we must endure, and that suffering builds our character, and gives us hope, as Paul says in Romans 5.

So how do we build that character that leads to hope?  How do we take up this cross?  How do we view the suffering of our Lord, and our own suffering, now that we are post-Easter, after the resurrection, knowing that suffering and death could not keep him down?

We see the cross as a sign of the hope that we have now in our own lives.  Like a street sign that directs our traffic, the cross is our sign to direct our life.  We put the cross before us to remind ourselves of the one who suffered and died there, and why he died and what his death means for us. 

He died because he was faithful to God and not to the sinful, degrading powers of his day.  Those pors killed him by hanging on the cross.  But God raised him from the dead to show those powers that their end is near, and to show us that this man Jesus was true, right, and the one to whom we should look for direction in our lives.

Like him, we should live a faithful life, following God’s will for our lives in this world even to the point of death.  We live in a relatively safe society.  There are not many crucifxions going on today.  And at least for now, FOX has not aired their new reality show, “Lions Eating Christians.”  But we still suffer for our faith: people will still deride us, make fun of us, and ridicule us for our faith.  And if we challenge the powers of this world, those powers that seek to demean, destroy, cripple, and keep all people down, we will surely be viewed as a threat just like the one who died on the cross before us.

But we endure all that suffering, knowing that our Lord endured suffering for us.

This is how we take up our cross: We follow Jesus even if the rest of the world thinks it is wrong.  We heal the sik, care for those with less, visit the lonley - and all those things that Paul speaks of in our reading for this morning.  We become the hands, feet, and heart of the one who suffered to give us hope.

Thanks be to God!