Brent Kuhlman

Last Sunday / Proper 29                                  Immanuel Lutheran Church
23 November 2008                                           Louisville, NE
Installation of Rev. Jon Sollberger

                                               + Jesu Juva +

St. John 20:19-23

We are control freaks.  From individuals to congregations.  Can’t help ourselves.  Addicted to control.  Determine outcomes the way we want.  And if anyone asks what we want, we tell them.  “Here’s what we want.  And we want it now!  And if you can’t or won’t be controlled then we’ll just   . . . , well, you know!”  Some people even enable us in our control freak ways.  Take a survey.  Assess what you want.  And then go out and get it.

A dead Jesus was the last thing in the world the disciples wanted.  A suffering Jesus was bad enough.  But a dead and buried One?  Unthinkable.  Inconceivable. Peter categorically scolded Jesus when He preached that suffering and dying sermon.  “Been listening to your sermons Reverend,” Peter said.  “There will be no more of that!  Do you understand me?  Let me spell it out to you Reverend Jesus since you seem to be one of those they all warn us about: Christs don’t die!  As the future bishop of Rome and as long as I’m in charge there will be no more sermons like that!”  Thanks to Peter Malchus got his ear sliced off to keep Jesus from being arrested.  And then Peter went full denial mode once he realized he had absolutely no control of this Jesus. 

But Jesus had to be betrayed, suffer, and do the Good Friday job.  There was nothing the disciples could do to stop it.  The salvation job was out of their control.

Thank God!  Let you or any of the disciples run the salvation show and it wouldn’t have happened.   You would have kept Jesus off the cross.  And then the salvation job would be up to you.  And what a disaster that would be!  A hellacious catastrophe!  It’s a fearful thing to try to control Jesus and not get your way.  Didn’t want a dead Jesus?  Well, He died.  And there was nothing you, Peter, or anyone else could do to keep Him from laying down His life to justify the ungodly.

And now, the freshly risen from the grave Jesus comes into the fear-filled room.  Who let Him in?  Did He knock?  He sure didn’t.  Just came right in.  He’s in control.  Remember? 
 
The salvation job was done only by Him.  Now He bestows the benefits of His dying.  To the disciples He says:  “Peace be with you.  You’re forgiven.  Of everything.  And here’s proof.  Look at my hands and my side.  My Good Friday wounds.  All for you.  That’s where the forgiveness comes from.”  

It all comes as gift.  Outside themselves.  Originates with Him.  His words of peace give what they say.  The disciples are forgiven.  And all their fear turns to joy.

They’re only beggars.  At the receiving end of His words, wounds, and peace.  All out of their control.  Thank God!

Then another word of “Peace.”  And with that more giving with His words: “As the Father has sent Me so now I send you.”  Sent ones.  Apostles.  Apostolic ministry. 

With the Holy Spirit. He breathes.  “Receive the Holy Spirit.” A Holy Spirit filled office bestowed to speak Holy Spirit Lord and Giver of life words.  Peter, James, John.  Gottberg. DeLoach.  Walz.  Werling.  Porath.  And now for you here at Immauel:  Sollberger.  

Voices like John the Baptist.  Crying out Christ’s Holy Spirit filled word of forgiveness according to His mandate and institution in this desert of a world.  “If you forgive any one’s sins, they are forgiven.” 

What are your sins?  Got a few do you?  Oh, more than meets the eye?  Some you’d rather not mention?  Many you’ve forgotten?  Some you know very well?  Sins that you feel in your heart?  Ones that keep you up at night?  The ones you love to do?  And every one of them, you can’t control, domesticate, or answer for yourself.   

And so for you, Sollberger’s been put here to proclaim Christ’s word of forgiveness.  In fact, He’s commanded by Christ to speak Christ’s word of forgiveness. “If you forgive any one’s sins, they are forgiven.”  And the sinner who hears Christ’s word hears Christ Himself.  “He who hears you, hears me,” is what Jesus promises (Luke 10:16).   

Christ’s words.  Christ’s breath.  Christ’s Spirit.  His breath and His Spirit are in the words:  “I forgive you all your sins.”   Sollberger will so gladly declare them to you.  He’s been sent by the Lord to do just that.  And when He speaks them to you, firmly believe that you are forgiven before God in heaven.  For in the words “I forgive you all your sins,” Christ Jesus is dealing with you Himself in all His Good Friday way.  Christ’s words are Spirit and life.  Alive with His Spirit to deliver what His words say:  absolution.

There you learn that you’re not in control.  Simply beggars who say:  “Amen.  Thanks so much.”  And that’s the strength of faith.  For then, you are nothing and Jesus is everything.

Salvation’s achievement.  Salvation’s bestowal in the forgiveness of sins in the Spirited Word of Jesus.  All gift from Him.  Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion.  Coming from outside yourselves.  And for these gifts coming to you from Him Jesus instituted the Holy Office.  And that’s going on when the Lord puts a man into it.  To speaks Christ’s words in the church. 

The church.  Pastor and people.  Shepherd and flock.  Not one without the other.  The old Roman error of Trent is that the clergy run the show.  The counterpart error is to say, “No the people run it.”  Both are wrong.  It’s not Sollberger’s church any more than it’s Walz’s or Werling’s.  Nor is it the laity’s church.  We don’t run the church.  It’s the Lord’s church.

Thanks be to God it’s not up to us.  Instead, it’s all gift.  That’s how the Lord controls His church.  He gives gifts.    Pastors come and pastors go.  What’s certain and sure is the Lord and what He gives. 

That’s Good Friday.  That’s Easter Sunday.  All for you.  And now He uses another pastor to dish out the holy gifts that bestow what He won for you.  The Lord answered your prayers for another pastor.  And so today we pray large prayers of thanksgiving for the Lord providing us Pastor Sollberger.  To speak the Lord’s words of forgiveness: “If you forgive any one’s sins, they are forgiven.”

And to that we beggars confidently say:  “Gift given.  Gift received.  Amen.”  What could be more happy and joyful than this?  In the Name of Jesus.     
 

Proper 29 / Last Sunday in the Church Year              Trinity Lutheran Church
23 November 2008                                                          Murdock, NE

                                              + Jesu Juva +

1 Corinthians 15:20-28

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead!”  Nothing more comforting than this.  After all, you can’t take what’s left of your investment portfolio with you to the grave.  By the time the Stock Market finishes its plummet, you may not even have an investment portfolio!  Even the best of all health insurance and health care, the finest of all doctors and surgeons, cannot stop what will come to all of you.  When your life starts coming to an end and when the end comes,  there’s no more consoling fact that this: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead!” 

Now there’s a Messiah!  He is Jesus the Christ!  He went deep into death.  It swallowed Him whole.  Dead and buried Jesus was.  In Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and his friend were very sad.  “We had hoped that Jesus would redeem Israel.  But now He’s dead.  And all is lost.”

Wrong!  Dead Wrong! “For Christ has been raised from the dead!”  Jesus turned the tables on death.  Made Himself known in the breaking of the bread.  He died.  He was buried.  But now His is risen!  He lives!       

This fact is the all-controlling truth of all history.  His resurrection does not do away with His Good Friday dying.  No, it establishes it!  You really are forgiven!  Truly you are saved!  Why?  Because the raised from the dead Jesus died for you!  He is risen!  But His wounds are still showing!

Adam’s sin brought death to us all.  But Jesus, the second and last Adam, the head of a new humanity, brings the resurrection to us all.  Jesus is the “first fruits of those who are asleep” in the graves.

Death is a defeated enemy.  A defeated power.  When He rose from the grave that Easter Sunday, Jesus tore open death’s belly.  He shattered death’s jaw into a million pieces. 

And all of that for you.  For your salvation.  For your resurrection from death’s dark grave. 

Baptized in Jesus’ Name – fed with His most holy Body and Blood – death cannot hold you! 

Why?  Because of First Fruits Jesus!  “Because Jesus has been raised from the dead!” 

He has taken the lead in the resurrection.  First Jesus.  And then on the Last Day when He separates you as sheep from the goats, you too.  Raised in glory.  Following His lead. 

That’s why Christians who are buried in the cemetery are not called dead.  They are called sleepers!  “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits OF THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP!”   When you die and when we tuck you into bed for a final time in the cemetery, you are a sleeper who will surely rise again. 

After all, people who sleep, are just lying down for a while but not forever.  People who sleep wake up and rise again.  So when Scripture uses the term “sleep” in reference to death, it indicates the future resurrection of your body on the Last Day.

After all, First Fruits Jesus, has already got the resurrection ball rolling.  Christ, our Head, has risen.  He is seated in glory at the Father’s right hand.  You who cling to Jesus by faith will follow after Him as His body and His members.  Where Head Jesus goes and lives, there you His body will all the members will follow and abide. 

When a baby is born the head comes first.  Then the body follows.  Christ the Head has come out of death’s grave.  And you, His body, follows. 

No need to worry!  You are safe and secure in Jesus.  Whether in life or in death.  When death comes and our body rots in the ground it is only a sleep.  Soon the morning will come when First Fruits Jesus will say:  “Time to get up you sleepy heads!  It’s resurrection day!  What you always had by faith in Me, now you see with your eyes and experience fully with all your senses! Enter and enjoy My Father’s kingdom!”

All for you now and always.  Your future is in God’s hands.  “For Christ has been raised from the dead!”  

In the Name of Jesus.
     
 

Proper 28 / Second - Last          Trinity Lutheran Church
16 November 2008                     Murdock, NE

                                                       + Jesu Juva +

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Lock your doors.  Install security systems.  Video surveillance.  Neighborhood Watch program.  Ask the sheriff’s department to patrol more often.  Keep the flashlight and a baseball bat close to the bed.  Or perhaps you’d rather keep the shotgun handy.  Why?  So that thieves don’t break in.  So robbers don’t run off with your possessions.  So that you’re prepared.  Don’t prepare and you’re taking a big risk.  You could lose a great deal.  And not just material stuff.  Maybe even your life.   

Many people choose to ignore the fact that there will be a Last Day.  Purposely pay no heed to that Jesus will come to judge the living and dead.

“Be prepared for that day?  Are you kidding me?  He’s never coming back!  You ring necks are always trying to dominate and control people!  First of all, you make up this Jesus you talk about.  And then, all this Last Day chatter from your vile mouth is precisely how you clergy types try to manipulate people.  How many centuries has it been since Jesus supposedly ascended and abandoned the whole world?  Come in glory with a bunch of angels and in the clouds?  Yeah right!  And I’ve got a bailout package to sell you from Hank Paulson!  I’m at peace with my life Reverend.  Everything is just fine as long as I have my big screen plasma, the remote, a twelve-pack, my toys, my fun, and another twelve pack.  Now get lost Reverend and let me sleep it off.” 

Could you care less too?  Do you believe Jesus is a liar too? 

Then the consequences will be disastrous.  Insist on not preparing and when the Day of the Lord comes the destruction will come upon you so fast that there will be nothing you can do to escape it or stop it.  Like the labor pains that hit the pregnant mother.  All of sudden they’re there.  Boom!     

So, “let us not sleep as others do,” the text says.  “Now is the time to be alert and sober.”  Yes indeed.  We live in the last days.  Jesus will return in glory on the Last Day.  That’s a for sure. 

When will the Day of the Lord happen?  What season of the year?  What day?  What hour?  We don’t know.  The coming of the Day of the Lord is as incalculable as it is certain. 

But “you know full well that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”

You “are not in the dark.”  Jesus the Light shines brightly.  And His wounds are showing.  Like rubies.  In His resurrection glory.  Jesus died for you.  Rose for you.  God loves you.  He does not hate you.  He is not angry with you.  For Christ’s sake you are forgiven.  Of anything and everything!  No sin can condemn you because of Jesus.  The abundance of His mercy is incredible.

You know full well that the Day of Lord is coming.  You’re not in the dark about this.  After all, Jesus gives you a preview of that day right now.  He comes hidden in the Word you hear.  He Himself says you’re forgiven.  That’s the Absolution.  And so too the Supper.  His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins is what He promises.  Judgment Day in miniature.  Judgment Day ahead of time.  Right here and now He stands before you with all the angels, archangels and with all the company of heaven.  He stands and His Good Friday wounds are showing.  He speaks peace.  And His words of peace do and give what they say.  So that you are not destroyed in God’s wrath but saved in His mercy. 

Before the Last Day comes Jesus provides you with the breastplate of faith and love.  And the helmet of hope’s salvation.  Faith, love, and hope:  divine defensive and offensive weapons so that the Day of the Lord does not overtake you like a thief.  So that you’re ready when it comes.

Until then there’s faith in Jesus.  The Jesus who did the Good Friday salvation job for you.  Love.  A fruit of the Holy Spirit that flows from faith in Jesus.  The life of service to the neighbor.  And that may even include a talk about Good Friday Jesus.  Hope.  Another Holy Spirit-filled fruit that grows from faith in Jesus.  The salvation that you have already in Jesus by faith is what you hope to see with your eyes on the Last Day.  And that hope will not disappoint.  For Jesus keeps His promises.

Faith, love, and hope.  Sober living for the last days in which you live.  Whether you’re alive or six feet under at the coming of the Day of the Lord, you will live with Jesus.  He’ll come for you one more time.  He will come to judge the living and the dead.  And His wounds will still be showing!  And where there is forgiveness of sins from His Good Friday wounds, there is the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.  All for you.  For Christ’s sake.  That’s for sure!  That’s exact! 

In the Name of Jesus.          

 
 

All Saints’ Sunday                       Trinity Lutheran Church
2 November 2008                        Murdock, NE

                                                  + Jesu Juva +

St. Matthew 5:1-12

“Saint.”  Who’s a saint?  Men and women long dead whose relics are enshrined in ancient cathedrals?  People who are so super spiritual that they’re exempt from sin? 

The Scriptures gives a different answer.  Saints are believers in Jesus Christ.  Saints are sinners who are forgiven by the shed Blood of Jesus the Lamb.  Forgiven for Jesus sake a sinner is a holy one, a saint.  That’s why the blessed apostle Paul writes to the “saints in Corinth” or “to all God’s beloved in Rome, called to be saints.”  In other words, saints are Christians – forgiven for Jesus’ sake sinners who believe in Jesus.

Saints who die in the faith are in heaven before the throne of the Lamb Jesus. Total attention is on Jesus the Lamb.  Singing hymns of high praise to Jesus.  Saints are also here on earth.  That’s you and me who believe in Jesus.  And the angels, archangels, and the whole company of heaven join us today in singing and praising Jesus the Savior. 

Whether in heaven or on earth, saints are not self-made.  In other words, you don’t make yourself a saint.  Sainthood is not an achievement.  It’s a gift.  From the Lord.  Saints are sinners who are whitewashed in the Blood of the Lamb.  Saints are sinners who are cleansed and purified by the Lamb’s most holy word of forgiveness. 

And so Jesus preaches on the mountain.  Beatitudes.  Blessings.  His words declare what He is and what He gives.  Jesus speaks of Himself first and foremost in this sermon on the mountain.

Jesus is the One who is poor in spirit.  He alone is totally dependent on His Father and He receives whatever the Father gives Him.  And so the kingdom of heaven is His. 

Jesus is the One who mourns.  Well acquainted with grief He is.  He weeps at Lazarus’ grave due to the peoples’ doubting.  He weeps over Jerusalem for her unbelief.  And yet He is comforted by the Father who turns His grief into the eternal joy of the resurrection from the dead. 

Jesus is gentle and meek.  He is not ashamed, as the Most High God and Prince of Heaven, to humble Himself so that He is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin.  So that He is born of the Virgin in backwater Bethlehem.  Gentle and lowly in heart Jesus is.  Rides into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey.  Resolutely going to Calvary.  To Him all authority in heaven and on earth in given.  And so as God’s only begotten Son He inherits the earth.

Jesus is the One who says:  “My food is to do the work of Him who sent me and to accomplish this work,” (John 4:34).  He is thirsty to do the Good Friday job.  He hungers to win the world’s salvation.  So He is filled.  His Good Friday dying has won for you the very righteousness of God. 

Jesus is the merciful One.  He is merciful to you.  He could care less about Himself.  He does everything for you.  For your good.  For your salvation. 

Jesus is the One who is pure of heart.  With single-minded obedience He held fast to His Father’s Word and will.  And when assaulted by Satan’s temptations to not go to Calvary and to get off the Cross, He remains.  His heart is set on dying for you.  And He did.  He suffered and died under the death sentence that belonged to you.  Crucified and risen for you, He sees His Father’s face in glory everlasting. 

Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  He makes peace for you with the Father by His bloody sacrificial death.  Now you are reconciled to the Father.  Now you are sons of God.

Jesus, of course, is persecuted for righteousness’ sake.  In the shame of that suffering He bring you to His kingdom.  It’s the kingdom of heaven.  Like the prophets of old Jesus is reviled and falsely accused.  Yet for the joy that is set before Him, He endures the Cross so that His reward is our reward.

All that Jesus is He is for you.  His blessedness is your blessedness.  Jesus the Blessed One who comes in the Name of the Lord and, in His Cross, blesses you.  That’s precisely why He says in John 14:  “I go to prepare a place for you.  I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am you may be also.”  And so in the Book of Revelation it is announced from heaven:  “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord . . . that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them,” (14:13). 

And so today, All Saints’ Sunday, we are reminded that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.  We do not walk alone on the road to heaven.  You are saints here on earth and you share in a blessed, sweet communion with those whose rest is won.  Some of you come to the divine service today with the memory of a parent, grandparent, brother, sister, or friend from school who died in the faith.

These believers are at the same altar with you today.  For there is another side to this altar that the human eye cannot see.  Sitting on the other side of this altar are all those who have died in the Lord.  We eat and drink the Lamb’s Body and Blood.  They feast at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His eternal Kingdom.  Suffering and shame are gone.  Tears are wiped away.  Their joy is everlasting.

The words of the hymn we sang are true.  “We feebly struggle, they in glory shine.”  But you are one with them in the Lord Jesus Christ.  They were redeemed by the Lamb’s Blood and so are you.  There were baptized into Christ and so are you. 

Today you are given a glimpse of the future that awaits you.  And with that sneak preview comes the encouragement to press on.  To run the race set before you with all the endurance the forgiveness of sins gives.  After all, the Lord is faithful.  He will bring you, for Christ’s sake, into His heavenly kingdom.  “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”  Indeed.

In the Name of Jesus.   
 

Friday of Proper 25 (Reformation Day)                                   

Funeral of A.J. Washington 31 October 2008

                                                           + Jesu Juva +

Job 1; 19; John 11:21-45

Job knows what it’s like.  One day his life is as normal as yours.  And then all of a sudden blow after blow after blow.  Livestock stolen and destroyed.  His employees murdered in cold blood.  And then the biggest shock of all: his sons and daughters are enjoying a party and having a grand time.  But a violent desert windstorm hits the house.  The house collapses.  All his children, tragically, are killed.  Horrible. 

Job knows what it’s like.  After being notified that he’s lost all his children, his faith is shaken but not extinguished. Job gets up . . . and . . . remarkably . . . he worships God.  Tears his clothes.  Shaves his head.  Falls to the ground.  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised,” are his astonishing words.  “May the name of the Lord be praised.”  And also the words we heard earlier:  “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  Job would have us believe this too as we mourn A.J.’s death.

The Lord had good use for Job.  An object lesson for all of us.  That in the most tragic times we can praise the Lord’s Name and believe in Jesus no matter what.  That the Name of Jesus is to be glorified.  Even in the midst of such a tragedy like last Sunday.  

Mary and Martha know it too.  Little brother Lazarus is very sick.  Deathbed sick.  And then it happens.  He dies. 

And what’s Jesus up to during this time?  He purposely stays away.  Even after Mary and Martha put out the 911 pastor call.  They expected instant pastoral roadside service.  And so when He shows up, four days after the burial, both sisters let Him have it with both barrels:  “Lord, if you had been here, our bother would not have died!  We called your cell.  We sent you numerous text messages!  If you would have shown up in time, this wouldn’t have happened!”  Frustrated.  Hurt.  Angry.  Understandable from our point of view.

Jesus has another thing on His mind.  He wants Martha, Mary, you and me to believe in Him.  That’s right, believe in Him as the Savior.  And He’ll use the death of Lazarus so that He is glorified.   

Can you believe in a Jesus who purposely avoids making the prompt pastoral sick call?  Can you trust a Jesus who seems to act so casual around death, even the death of his best friend?  The people at Mary and Martha’s house have their doubts:  “This guy can heal the blind!  But why didn’t he keep his friend from dying?”  Perhaps you’ve asked:  “Where were you Jesus last Sunday evening?”  Maybe you’ve given Jesus the what for:  “Lord, if you had been there on that road or in that car, A.J, Dillon, and Tyler would not have died!”

Martha knows from her Sunday School lessons that her brother will rise again on the Last Day.  And so do you.

And that’s when Jesus throws out one His best sermons ever.  He’s looking for faith.  So He turns her attention, our attention, her and our frustration, grief, anger, hope, and expectation, all of it, TO HIM.  He gives us a big dose of Himself! 

Check out this promise to Martha and to all of you:  “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.”  Did you catch that?  Not, “I will be the Resurrection and the Life some day in the future,” but “I AM, right here and now, the Resurrection and the Life!” 

Then He unpacks it.  Explains what He means.  Get a load of this.    “The person who believes in Me right now even though he drops stone cold dead will live, and the person who lives and believes in me will never die eternally.”

Death is only a temporary nuisance to Jesus.  Like falling asleep.  Just like when Jesus woke up Jairus’ daughter the way you wake up your little girl in the morning before school.  “Talitha coum.  Get up, honey!”  That’s all death is to Jesus, a sleep from which he will awaken you.  That’s because of His Good Friday work for you.

And then comes the biggest question you can ever be asked.  It’s the eternal life or death question.  Jesus asks Martha, you, me:  “Do you believe this?”   That’s the faith question.  “Will you trust me?  With your brother’s death?  Even with yours?” 

Then it’s off to the tomb.  Jesus barks out directions.  “Take away the stone.”  But Martha objects.  She doubts.  “Lord, it’s been four days since the burial.  The body stinks.”   Jesus snaps right back:  “Didn’t I tell you that if you’d just trust me, you would see the glory of God.” 

And then He rips off this prayer:  “Father, I’m so thankful that you hear me.  I know you always hear me because we’re on a Father-Son basis.  But I’m praying this out loud for the sake of all these doubters standing around here who refuse to take me at my words.”  And then Jesus yells into the tomb:  “Lazarus, come out!”       

And lo and behold the once dead and buried Lazarus walks out of the tomb alive.  Wrapped up his burial cloths.  And Jesus, still barks orders:  “Loose him and free him.”  Lazarus raised from the dead.  A sneak preview of your own resurrection – you who believe that He is the Resurrection and the Life.

John the Evangelist doesn’t record Lazarus’ reaction to all this.  No words of Lazarus are ever recorded in the New Testament.  But I suspect his first reaction may have gone something like this:  “Hey!  What in the world is going on?  You mean I’m going to have to die all over again?  Thanks a lot Mary!  Thanks so much Martha.  Thanks to all your doubting Jesus made an object lesson out of me for you.  Let me tell you something ladies:  you can trust Jesus with everything.  Yes that’s right, absolutely everything.  Even when I die again.  You can trust Him with my death and yours.”

So can all of you.  After all, Jesus died for A.J.  Good Friday-ed you too.  All your sin is answered for because of His Calvary dying.  Now He is the Resurrection and Life.  Death is a defeated enemy.

With a Jesus like that you too can mock death just like St. Paul:  “O Death, where is your sting?  O Grave, where is your victory?”  “Thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Indeed.  Jesus.  A big dose of Him is what’s certain and sure. 

In the Name of Jesus.