Bloghardt's Reflector

Notice the difference:  The Father is for lost things - lost people.  The Pharisees exist for themselves. 

Jesus lives for others.  Not a one lost - not a sheep, a coin, not a you, not a me.  He shows us how God is - God is for sinners, for failures, for those who can’t get by on their own.  

God is for the lost, for the hurting, for the helpless.  God is for those who cannot help or save themselves.

God is like that.  He has every reason to be angry, but rather delights in steadfast love.  Here is God who passes over the sins of His people - He pardons them and remembers them no more.

Here is the God who saves you from your sins - by living a perfect for you.  What you can’t do, Jesus does and what He does He does on your behalf and in your place.

Then, He suffers, so you won’t suffer.  He takes on the punishment of your lost-ness.  He dies and shields you from all the anger, wraith, hatred, and hell that God has for what you have done and haven’t done.  Jesus takes it all and gives you His resurrected life.

Jesus is calling us today of the Pharisee’s religion.  He’s calling us  to stop thinking of God the way we have thought of God in the past and to start looking at Jesus alone.

This is how God is, He gives up His life for sinners - for you and me.  In Christ, He doesn’t love one color or age or nationality more than another.  In Christ, He’s for Jews and Germans, He’s for Italians and Greeks. He’s for IRS Agents, prostitutes, garbage men, for men like Michael Jackson, and rich CEO’s.  In Christ, He’s for the lost. He’s for you and me.

The Pharisees didn’t think they were lost.  They thought they were on just fine on their own.  If anyone was in God’s church, they were. 

And because they didn’t realize how lost they were, they didn’t understand that they needed a Savior, just as much as the tax collectors and sinners.

Which takes us to today.. Where we are... In this place.. After fifty years of being a church.  Not bad.. Not bad at all. Fifty years is something to thank God for...

But there’s the temptation, right before us, to think as the Pharisees did.  That we are in, we are fine, if anyone is in heaven, it’ll be us.  I mean, after all, we are Lutherans.  

But do we still know, do we still understand, that we have no hope outside of Jesus?  Do we comprehend the peril that our sins put us in?  Do we understand that our sins separate us from God - each one, every single sin, creates a chasm between us and salvation that we cannot by ourselves jump or make up for.

Have we forgotten as a church, as Lutherans, that we on our own, are lost.  Lost to God and lost to one another.  

Have we forgotten that we are the sinners?  We are the murderers, abusers, tax collectors We are the adulterers, thieves, and robbers.  We are the haters of God, the idolators, the perverts, and the reprobates.  

And if you sit up in your chair and say, “no that’s not me...”  Well, then..think about how you have lived.  What part of your life are you thinking is clean enough to stand before Almighty God?  

None of it.  For apart from Jesus, all you have is our sins and our death.  You are like the tax collectors and sinners.   Apart from Jesus, you are the one who are lost.  You are the one who needs to be found by God.

Turn from your sins.  Really turn.  Be horrified by them.  Run from them.  Apologize to those you have wrong.  Don’t expect them to change or get annoyed they aren’t up to your level of Christianity.  Let all of that go and hear the Gospel...

“And when he has found his lost sheep, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when the Shepherd comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'

For today, Jesus has found you.  He found you in your baptism, He found you in the Word, He found you in the Absolution.  

You are the lost sheep.  The lost coin.  And there is joy in heaven, more joy than over the ninety-nine Lutherans who don’t need to repent.  Joy over you.

And that there is joy in the presence of the angels means that the One who is in the center of the angels, the Father is rejoicing.  

They were lost.  I found them!  They are mine.  My children.  My Sheep.  My lost coin.  They know they need me.  Apart from Me, they’d be lost.  But, I have found them in my Son.

Dear Saints of God, be the church that spends the next fifty years always ready to receive others - old members like me, or young members like the ones at VBS this week. 

Let this place be a hospital for sinners - where the poor, the lame, the sick, the children who can’t tend to themselves, people who haven’t anywhere else to go, are welcome.  Be ready to welcome the Michael Jacksons of the world - those that no one wants around.  Be for them.

But, first, be for the little ones.  Welcome the little ones like you did in VBS this week.  Can you imagine the joy in heaven when the little ones heard the Gospel at VBS this week?  

Can you imagine how happy the Father was to have the little lambs singing to Him?  Little strays, some of which, don’t get to hear about Him from their parents.

Then, think of those around you.  Think of how loving you can be to them by just saying, “You know.. This world is tough, it’s brutal, come with me to where I go to recharge my batteries, to hear the forgiveness of sins.  Come with me to church.”

“No one will judge you there.  Everyone at my church is there for the same reason:  They are sinners who need forgiveness.”

 Can you possibly be more loving and respectful than that?  You don’t have to quote them a thousand Bible verses, just a, “Come and have Jesus eat with you at my church.  He wants to help you and I do too.”  

Whether they listen to you or not, love them that much.  Receive them like Jesus has received you.

Our little church cannot exist for herself.  If that’s what we think we are doing here - gathering together and then in fifty years we’ll be gone and the building will be sold to someone else.  If that’s what we think, we need to repent of living only for ourselves today.

No, St. Mark is here for us sinners to receive gifts from Jesus and then pass that forgiveness and life to those around us!  To little ones in VBS, in Sunday School, at youth group, at the conferences the kids go to.  

Then to older ones by talking to our neighbors, inviting them to Seniors, Lydia Guild, Ruth Guild, Bible Class, and anywhere where Jesus is having Supper with us.  

For Jesus eats with sinners.  He eats with us.  He wants to eat with them too.  

Let’s be that church who is always welcoming others - even those who don’t look, sound, or talk like we do.  

Let’s be the church that passes the faith on to others - to little ones and to older ones too.

For today, the Father is rejoicing.  For today Jesus is doing the unthinkable again - He eats with sinners.  He rubs elbows with the wrong sort of people.  Tax collectors.  Sinners.  Gentiles.  He hangs with the likes of you and me.

Take eat His Body, given for you.  Take drink, His Blood, shed for you for the remission of all your sins.  

Yes, there is joy today - in heaven and in this place.  For lost sheep have been found.  Lost coins have been located.  And you and me, with all our sins and failures, we are forgiven.  In the name of Jesus. Amen.