Palm Sunday with Rite of Confirmation

The text for our meditation on God’s Holy Word is the Old Testament lesson appointed for Palm Sunday. I bring you grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

During the Rite of Confirmation these two young ladies will publicly affirm their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and confess that what our Lutheran Church believes and teaches—is also their personal confession of faith.

And they will make three solemn promises: that they will hear God’s Word and receive the Sacrament of the Altar regularly—that they will live their lives according to God’s Word—and that they will suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from the confession and faith of this church.

In other words, very simply, they will promise to follow and serve Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior throughout their days.

Each of us who are confirmed members of this congregation have made the same confession and the same promises. And this promise to follow and serve Jesus impacts every part of our life for it calls us to yield ourselves and our will to him completely.

God wants us to know it is not a burdensome, hardship to serve this king-- but a joyous, fulfilling pleasure and the only way to an abundant life full of God’s blessings. In fact, it is what we were created and redeemed and sanctified to do.
That is why it is such a blessing that God speaks to us in his word today to remind us all what kind of king this Jesus is, whom we have promised to follow and serve as Lord and Master throughout our days. Zechariah writes:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Just picture in your mind’s eye what you would expect to see as trumpets were sounded and red carpet unrolled and banner unfurled and attendants cry out: the king, the king! And ornate carriage or expensive limousine would arrive. A distinguished man with medals on his chest and a sword on his side and a crown on his head would come forth. The king, the king! We think we know how that scene plays out.

Rejoice greatly! Shout aloud! The king! And there he is: obviously a peasant—with the hands of a worker—riding upon a donkey, his feet just off the ground. All of the trappings of earthly power and might were nowhere to be seen that day Jesus rode into Jerusalem and so the only way to recognize him for the king who he truly was--was by faith. It had always been that way concerning the King we serve.

This king was not born in a palace but a stable. His parents were not royalty but peasants. He was not trained in the arts of war and statecraft but in carpentry. His only earthly crown was one woven from thorns and the only time his royal status was acknowledged by the rulers of the world was in ridicule when they hung a placard above his head proclaiming him the king of Israel as he died upon the cross.

And yet, there must be no doubt—Jesus he is a king—the King of kings and the Lord of lords—he is the ancient of days and the living God of the universe and the One to whom all of heaven and earth must bend the knee. But as great and powerful and majestic as he is, he came into this world in humility so that we might be saved. Paul writes that

Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

The king that these girls commit themselves to today and for the rest of their lives—the king we serve as our master and Lord-- is not a tyrant or dictator who demands obedience while we cower in fear—but a humble king, who, though he is God in flesh, laid down his life for us upon the cross bringing us salvation from sin and death and bestowing upon us his own righteousness as a gift.

When we hear from Zechariah that Jesus is a righteous king, we naturally think of his holiness--that he cannot abide with sin in any form or degree. And we think of his expectations of us—that we too serve must him in holiness and righteousness. And that’s true.

But the really good new about this king is that, his holiness and righteousness do not stand as an insurmountable barrier between us-- because he has bestowed his life upon us as a gift. This is what he came to do—to make a way for us to have a place in his kingdom as his people and destroy the enemies that would ruin our lives. Zechariah writes of the battle he would wage and the peace he would bring for his people:

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Girls, when we look at you, we look back, and we remember our own confirmation many years ago and the promises we made. But we also look forward-- because we know that you are a part of a future that most of us will never see.

And I know that I’m not the only parent or grandparent who feels a little bit of trepidation as I think about what lies ahead for your generation, because the picture of the future that we get from the media is so uncertain and even frightening.

We know our nation is going through difficult economic times and just this week began paying out in Social Security more than it took in. We saw in the news where North Korea has torpedoed a South Korean ship. And it was reported that, for the first time in our history, this generation of kids-on average- will not live as long as their parent’s generation due to poor diet. All of this makes for a frightening, uncertain future.

So it was for the people of Zechariah’s day. They had just returned from slavery in Babylon and these should have been the greatest days of their lives-except they weren’t. They didn’t have money to rebuild their city and homes. They were surrounded by enemies bent on their destruction. The very fabric of their culture was coming apart at the seams. And when they looked ahead at the future they were afraid.

But God promised them that those days would not endure—that their enemies would not win out—that the coming King would make peace. And so he did. The Bible says of Jesus that

he himself is our peace who has reconciled us to God through the cross—preaching peace to those who are far off and to those who are near so that we can all have access to the Father.

Now at first glance, the sacrifice of Jesus may not seem to have solved anything at all in terms of the world itself. After all, history went on as before after Jesus’ death and resurrection. But it made—and continues to make—all the difference in the world.

Because our king is the Prince of Peace who has made peace between us and God, no matter what happens to us in life—no matter what hardships we face—no matter what happens from day to day in the world—no matter what the future holds--we know that things are eternally right between us and God—and that what really matters—our salvation—is safe and secure in the Lord’s nail-scarred hands.

But there is even more. Not only is there peace between us and God but in Jesus the way has been made for peace between us and others—and the victory over the powers of evil and death that was won on Calvary-- will one day encompass all the world as our King stands upon the earth, punishes evil once and for all, and welcomes his people into his eternal kingdom of peace and plenty.

Until that day, the blood of Christ that has brought about the peace that now exists between us and God, is given to us again and again in Holy Communion as an enduring, tangible promise that we are a part of Jesus’ kingdom right now. Zechariah writes:

As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Almost two thousand years before these words were written by Zechariah, God made a promise to Abraham to bless the world through his offspring—that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. That covenant was sealed by the shedding of blood. God renewed that covenant with Moses and once again it was sealed by the shedding of blood. Every day in the temple God’s promise to forgive and restore mankind was renewed again and again in the shedding of blood.

And so it went in salvation history until one night two thousand years ago when Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples and he took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to them saying: this is my body. And he took the cup, and after he gave thanks he gave it to them saying: this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many.

What the shed blood of beasts had been pointing to for thousands of years-- was fulfilled in the shed blood of God’s Son—our Savior King, Jesus Christ. God’s covenant of love and forgiveness was no longer a promise—but was fulfilled in Christ’s death and resurrection. It is that same shed blood of Jesus Christ that made God’s covenant of love and forgiveness an accomplished reality, that is given to us in Holy Communion.

Throughout your life of faith, you can come to Holy Communion again and again and be assured that you are a forgiven child of God—that what Christ did on the cross for the world was done for you personally and individually. And eating his body and drinking his blood in faith, you can be confident that the King will grant you a place in the great marriage feast of the lamb in his eternal kingdom.

It is that promise of eternal life—sealed in Jesus’ blood—that makes us people of hope no matter what we encounter in the future. Zechariah writes:

Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Our King once said, I have come that you might have life and have it to the full. The life of faithful service to Jesus that you girls commit to today—and that I hope all of us will re-commit ourselves to--is anything but an unpleasant burden. It is a life of full of God’s richest blessings. Everything and more that was lost in mankind’s fall into sin has been restored to us through faith in Jesus and that promise transforms our life-- no matter where life takes us—and gives us hope--because our eyes of faith are always fixed upon a future full of God’s blessings to us in Christ our King.

May God grant that all of us—and especially you girls—would rejoice in your King all the days of your lives! Amen.

And now may the peace of God keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

This Week at Mt. Olive

Good evening, fellow redeemed!

If Christ, who was true God by nature, has humbled himself to become servant of all, how much more should such action befit us who are of no worth, and are by nature children of sin, death and the devil! Were we similarly to humble ourselves, and even to go beyond Christ in humility -- a thing, however, impossible -- we should do nothing extraordinary. Our humility would still reek of sin in comparison with his. Suppose Christ was to humble himself in the least degree -- but a hair's breadth, so to speak -- below the most exalted angels; and suppose we were to humble ourselves to a position a thousand times more abased than that of the devils in hell; yet our humility would not compare in the least with that of Christ. For he is an infinite blessing -- God himself -- and we are but miserable creatures whose existence and life are not for one moment secure.
- Dr. Martin Luther, preaching on Philippians 2:5-11.

We are now in Holy Week, given to pondering the final days of the walk of our Lord Jesus to the cross. In the coming days, we will sense the sorrow of our Lord at the Passover with His disciples. We will hear His sweat falling to the ground as He prays in anguish, each drop breaking the silence as it hits the dirt. We will hear the false charges and find ourselves unable to listen to the mocking of the chief priests and scribes. We will see Jesus paraded before Pilate, submitted to Herod's taunting. Again, we will hear the crowds in the deafening roar, thirsting for the blood of Jesus. We'll recoil in horror at the tortures inflicted upon our Lord by the soldier, and jump with a start at each blow of the hammer. We will turn away in disgust at the sight of Jesus' blood falling to the ground, and strain to hear His labored words. We will hang our heads in sadness as Jesus breathes His last, and be sickened to hear the spear tearing the flesh of our Lord. And, Holy Week progresses, the caption of each scene becomes more and more clear: For You!

One final thought: I usually don't do this, because I try to put the best construction on everything. But, I felt a response was needed, at the very least to the flock my Lord has called me to serve. I recoiled in horror this morning when I read of a congregation here in Corpus holding a major giveaway on Easter Sunday. I won't name names; you can look this up in your paper or on the Internet. There are numerous problems with this, like trying to find the Gospel in it, or my favorite question: Did Jesus have to die for this to be true? And, where is Jesus' blood? The message that reportedly is being given is that heaven is a giveaway, but that is not true. Heaven has a tremendous cost. Just ask the Son of God who still bears the marks of the nails and spear in His body!

The story never grows old!

Many leaflets concerning services and the Resurrection Egg Hunt are still available on the Narthex Table. Take a few and walk your neighborhood! Distribute them to homes and families and friends!

Volunteers are needed for a significant outreach event at Mt. Olive this weekend, the Resurrection Egg Hunt. What ages? Just about any age has a place in this important event. Please check with either Kim Waddle or myself. Better yet, come by Friday morning at 9 a.m. and help fill eggs, and Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. No, you are not too old to do this!

Here is the Choir Schedule for Wednesday night:
5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Share snacks at 5 p.m. and start singing at 5:30 p.m. sharp. Even if you're late, even if you haven't seen any of the songs, please come to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!

Special Services at Mt. Olive:
Holy Thursday
12:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., Divine Service

Good Friday
12:15 p.m., The Way of the Cross
7:15 p.m., Tenebrae Service of Darkness

Holy Saturday
10 a.m. Resurrection Egg Hunt

The Resurrection of Our Lord (Easter Sunday)
6:30 a.m. Sunrise Service
Afterward, the Easter Breakfast begins

8 and 10:30 a.m. Festival Service

9:15 a.m. - Sunday School, Bible Class, and the Breakfast continues

Every year, Messiah Lutheran Church in Calallen presents The Living Last Supper. This year, The Living Last Supper will be presented on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week at 7:30 p.m.

Prayer Concerns:
Those who serve in our armed forces: Rob Vadney (about to deploy to Afghanistan), John Miller's niece (Afghanistan), Andrew Epley (Iraq), Richard Rhode (North Carolina), Ryan Radtke, John Sorensen, Dru Blanc, Michael Baker (Corpus Christi), William Worley (Kingsville)
It's also important to remember the families of those who serve!
Wanda Long, recovering from surgery here in Corpus after a fall
Those who are homebound: Ruby Rieder, Ann Cleveland, Norene Estes
The Holy Church throughout the world as she walks to the cross with our Lord Jesus and prepares to celebrate His resurrection

This Week at Mt. Olive:
Monday, March 29
Girl Scouts, 6:30 p.m.
Zumba Aerobics, 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, March 30
Pastor's Information Class, 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 31
School Chapel, 8:30 a.m.
Bible Study, 9:30 a.m.
Choir Rehearsal, 5-7 p.m.

Thursday, April 1 (Holy or Maundy Thursday)
Divine Service, 12:15 p.m.
Divine Service, 7:15 p.m.

Friday, April 2 (Good Friday)
Egg Filling and Preparation for Saturday, 9 a.m.
Way of the Cross, 12:15 p.m.
Tenebrae (Darkness) Service, 7:15 p.m.

Saturday, April 3 (Holy Saturday)
Resurrection Egg Hunt, 10 a.m. (Volunteers arrive at 9:30 a.m.)
Set Up for Easter Breakfast, 1 p.m.

Sunday, April 4 (The Resurrection of Our Lord)
Sunrise Service, 6:30 a.m.
Easter Breakfast, 7:30 a.m.
Festival Service, 8 a.m.
Sunday School, Bible Class, Breakfast continues, 9:15 a.m.
Festival Service, 10:30 a.m.

God bless!
PKJ

Mt. Olive Update

Good afternoon, fellow redeemed!

Last night and this morning, the Jr. Youth and company could have taped their own "Dirty Jobs" episode! Weeding, planting, and mulching, these young people and their leaders cleared flower beds and planted new flowers in preparation from the celebration of our Lord's resurrection. Praise God! If you get a chance tomorrow, don't forget to give kudos to these young people. Serving were: Sarah and Abigail Waddle, Jonathan Jennings, August Worley, Trevor Johnson, Matthew Catherman, Bethany Waddle, Kim Waddle, and Keith Waddle.

Sunday afternoon, following Confirmation Instruction, there will be neighborhood canvassing at Mt. Olive to invite the community around us to the Resurrection Egg Hunt and to hear the story of Jesus' Passion, death, and resurrection to save sinners. Canvassing begins at 2 p.m and will last until about 3:30 p.m. at the latest.

Is a scheduling conflict keeping you from making the canvassing event tomorrow? Take home some flyers and distribute them in your own neighborhood!

Also tomorrow, each bulletin will contain three flyers about the Resurrection Egg Hunt and Holy Week services. One of those is for your own refrigerator. The other two flyers are to be given away - give them away to your neighbors, friends, coworkers, or an acquaintance on the street! Don't leave them in the pew at church - here's the chance to tell the Good News about Jesus!

God bless!
PKJ

The Annunciation of Our Lord

The text for our meditation on God’s Holy Word is the Gospel lesson for the day. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Beginning in the 19th century and extending until the middle part of the 20th century there was, on the part of liberal scholars and theologians, a concerted attack upon the truth of Holy Scripture. For example, Adolph Von Harnack proposed that the truth claims of Christianity were not unique to it at all but rather an amalgamation of various ideas from other religions. Rudolf Bultman insisted that modern man could not be expected to believe in what was essentially an ancient myth—that it was absurd to think that a modern, scientific person would believe that God could or even would intervene in our world and do the miraculous—suspending the natural laws of the universe. Both of these men of course denied the Virgin Birth of our Lord.

Built into this kind of thinking is a kind of intellectual pride that assumes that ancient people were not as intelligent as modern people. That is simply not true. While they didn’t have access to our technology—their ability to think and reason and be discerning was no less than ours.

And so when Mary is visited by an angel she is afraid and confused and troubled. She tries to discern what it all means because being visited and spoken to by an angel just didn’t happen every day anymore than it does today.

When Mary hears that she is to bear a Son without a human father and that her elderly, sterile relative Elizabeth is pregnant, she wonders how this would take place because there is absolutely nothing in her world that would suggest such things are possible anymore than they are today.

All of this is reported by Luke, himself no fool, but instead a doctor and a man of science who no doubt had a healthy skepticism. But based on the evidence that he personally researched and collected, he could come to no other conclusion but to recognize that God did indeed intervene in the most wonderful ways in human history—that with God nothing is impossible.

I would like to say that the Von Harnacks and Bultmans of the world who worked to destroy the Faith from within the church are no more—but that is not so. They have died and are being treated as they deserve by the One whom they discovered to their terror is no myth-- but the outward, visible church is still afflicted with theologians and pastors and scholars and laity who want to deny the miraculous and destroy what they can’t understand—to do away with what isn’t reasonable and what doesn’t make sense to them when it comes to the Christian faith.

They deny the creation because they say it is an impediment to the faith of the scientifically minded. They demand that the hard teachings of the Bible on sexuality and marriage and gender be removed because we are so much more enlightened today. They denounce the blood atonement as something unworthy of civilized people. They sound so sincere and concerned and well-meaning when it comes to making the Faith accessible to the world-- but what they really are, are destroyers of the Faith.

You see dear friends in Christ, a God who cannot create—a God who will not act within his creation—a God who does not have the highest of expectations for his creatures—a God who did not redeem-- does not become more believable—but less—undeserving of even the name of God—and unrecognizable to the writers and readers of Holy Scripture.

Instead, the people of God have always known and believed that nothing is impossible with God. Adam and Eve knew it as they looked at creation. Noah knew it as he saw the rain begin to fall and fill the earth. Moses knew it as he saw the Israelites leave their slavery in Egypt. And Elizabeth and Mary and Luke knew it with the birth of the Savior. Nothing is impossible with God. May God grant to us today, that through his Word, we might know the same—that nothing is impossible with God.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

As much we Lutherans look askance at popular Marian devotion in the Roman Catholicism—particularly what we see around us in south Texas, we make another kind of mistake when we fail to recognize what a special person the Virgin Mary was, and how essential she was to God’s salvation in Christ.

For thousands of years, ever since God’s promise to Adam and Eve in the garden that he would send a Savior, the seed of a woman, who would destroy Satan and his works-- every pious, believing woman, beginning with Eve herself, dreamed and hoped and prayed that she would be the One to carry in her womb the Savior of the world. The one that God favored with that incredible blessing was the Virgin Mary.

We Lutherans do not believe that she was sinless, we do not believe that we should pray to her, we do not believe that she is a co-mediator of redemption along with her son—but we do must certainly affirm and believe what the Bible teaches: that Mary was highly favored by God and chosen by God to be the means through which the Savior came into the world. Her obedient faith said yes to God in spite of her fears and confusion—in spite of what seemed impossible--and in this she serves as example for all of us to follow as God calls us to do his will in this time and place—even when it seems impossible.

The choosing of the Virgin Mary ought to inspire hope in us that we can be used by God in mighty, miraculous ways to accomplish his will in this day and time like Mary did in hers. As a young, poor, woman of that day she was the least likely to be used by God in such a mighty way as the vehicle through which he would fulfill his promises to send a Savior and King—and yet that is exactly what God did because nothing is impossible with God—not even a virgin birth.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." What was foretold by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before was fulfilled in the womb of the Blessed Virgin—the birth of the Messiah—the Savior and King of the world—true God and true Man.

In Confirmation we spend a good bit of time talking about this biblical teaching that Jesus was true Man—having receiving his flesh from his blessed Mother Mary—and true God by the power of the Holy Spirit—as no other, Son of the Most High.
And when we talk about the two natures of Christ, I always want the kids to know that this is not just a theological construct or a pious statement but nothing other than the foundation of their salvation.

Jesus is the LORD who saves because he is God and Man. That you and I go to heaven through faith Jesus depends upon his true divinity and true humanity and so these biblical teachings are not just lessons for children that can be forgotten when we are confirmed—but are the very heart of our faith and the story of our salvation. So why does it matter that Jesus was true Man.

First of all we have to confess that the command of Almighty God to all people to be holy just as he is holy goes unfulfilled in our lives. Despite all the sinful illusions that we may have that we are better than the next guy or gal, none of us can ever go to heaven because of our own righteousness. We do not do the good that God commands and instead we do the evil that he forbids.

That was not true in Christ’s life. Yes, he was born as a man, under the same righteous law that we are born under—except that he was born without sin through his miraculous birth. Where we have failed in keeping God’s Law —he succeeded—keeping the law perfectly in thought, word and deed-- for us—in our place-- so that now through faith in him, his righteousness and holiness is counted as our own.

And the punishment that God promises to humanity on account of our sins—the punishment in time and eternity according to his holy wrath over our sins that each of us truly deserves—was placed upon Jesus. He suffered on the cross the righteous wrath of his Holy Father-- not for his sins-- but for ours.

Everything that we deserve for our sins, including forsakenness by God—he received on the cross—and not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world—for each and every person who has lived or ever will live. His suffered in our place and reconciled the entire world to God—and when we put our trust in his Son we personally and individually receive forgiveness for all our sins.

But of course the holy life he led and obedient death he suffered is not the end of the story at all-- but as God en-fleshed he did what no human could ever do—he forgave the sins of the world—he defeated Satan—and he rose up glorious from the grave—and all the benefits and blessings of life and salvation he came to give the world are ours personally and individually when we believe in his resurrection.
Through the work of the God/Man Jesus Christ a holy God and a sinful humanity are reconciled because nothing is impossible with God. Today he invites to set aside our sinful doubts, enter into his Kingdom, and believe in his promises—just like the Holy Spirit led Mary to believe his promises.

And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God."

Each week we confess our own personal faith in these words of the angel Gabriel when we confess along with the church in every place and every age that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. She does not doubt, she does not ask how can it be—but how will it be. We wonder too but it ought to be a holy wonder born of a faith that simply trusts in what God has revealed—that it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that the Son of God was conceived within the womb of the Blessed Virgin.

The miracle of the Incarnation is that the One who was in the beginning with God—the One who was God—the One through whom all things were made—became flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth who from his very beginnings in the Virgin’s womb was God.

An ancient title for the Virgin Mary that Lutherans affirm with the Church throughout the ages is that Mary is the Mother of God. That may make us a little nervous but we need to remember what this title really means—what it says about Christ, not Mary--not that Mary comes before God, as a mother comes before her child, but that from the very moment of his conception Jesus was God who in his Incarnation took upon himself our human flesh in Mary’s womb--God and Man in that moment and forever more.

There is no part of our lives—no time in our lives, from conception to death—that Jesus did not come to save and renew and make whole—no part of your life where Jesus is not present with you to strengthen you and lift you up and comfort you and bring you ever closer to himself.

The world around us hates the idea of a God who won’t be made into their image--of a God who is greater than themselves--of a God who has a claim upon their lives as their Maker and Redeemer. Sadly, there are people still like this in the world--even within the outer boundaries of the Church. But for all of us who like Mary and Elizabeth and Luke have come to faith in Jesus by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, it is the greatest comfort and hope that we have: that nothing is impossible with God. Amen.

And now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

This Week at Mt. Olive

Good evening, fellow redeemed!

This morning, the Adult Bible Class took up the sentence, "Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to get some bread."

The great truth of the Bible about mankind is that we bring nothing to God. How many times I've heard that we're all basically good at heart, but we're not. We are, in fact, inclined toward evil. In Genesis 6, "God saw that the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually." Many in our world say that we have free will when it comes to belonging to Christ, but the Bible says otherwise. If we have a choice, the Bible makes clear, it's sin.

But the great truth of the Bible about the true God brings unimaginable comfort. Where we bring nothing, God brings everything. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself," Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5. In 1 John 2, the apostle reminds us that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. Through the preaching of the Word of God about Christ, God the Holy Spirit works faith in hearts. It's like we rehearse every time this comes up in Bible Class or Confirmation or anywhere else I can get away with it: How does the Holy Spirit get into our hearts to work faith? Through our ears! It all seems so plain: the spoken word, splash of water, morsel of bread, sip of wine. Yet, in these simple ways God has promised to come to us - He doesn't demand that we come to Him.

Evangelism, then, isn't about technique; it's about content. It's one beggar (you and I) telling another beggar (those with whom we have the opportunity to share the faith) where to get some bread (Christ coming through Word and Sacrament in His Church).

We continue in the way of the cross during this Lenten season. This week, in Life Together, our focus is "What do We Thirst For?"

Also this week, the Lenten meal is furnished by the Fellowship Committee with a menu of tacos.

I'll be sending out an email later this week after the Board of Elders and I have had an opportunity to look at the Holy Week Schedule.

In your Holy Week plans, don't forget to include the Living Last Supper at Messiah Lutheran Church in Calallen. Messiah will be hosting this important presentation on March 29, 30, and 31.

One important note: Because of a scheduling conflict at this time in the Church Year, it was necessary for the Voters Meeting originally scheduled for March 21 to be moved. The new date for the Voters Meeting is 11 APR. I hope this generated minimal confusion.

Prayer Concerns:
My family at the death of my cousin, Robert Koenig
Those who serve in our armed forces: Rob Vadney (preparing for deployment), John Miller's niece (Afghanistan), Andrew Epley (Iraq), Richard Rhode (North Carolina), Michael Baker, Ryan Radtke, Dru Blanc, John Sorensen (Corpus Christi), William Worley (Kingsville)
The leaders of our nation
Pastors of the church and their families as the Church begins the final week of Lent and enters Holy Week
Our Altar Guild as they begin a very busy time of the year
All of us, that our Lord would guide us in the way of true repentance and faith

This Week at Mt. Olive:
Monday, March 22
Girl Scouts, 6:30 p.m. (Overflow)
Zumba Aerobics, 6:30 p.m. (Fellowship Hall)
Board of Elders, 6:30 p.m. (Pastor's Conference Room)

Tuesday, March 23
Pastor's Information Class, 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, March 24
School Chapel, 8:30 a.m.
Bible Study on Philippians, 9:30 a.m.
Lenten Prayer at Midday, 12:15 p.m.
Lenten Meal, 5:30 p.m.
Choir Rehearsal, 6 p.m.
Lenten Evening Prayer, 7:15 p.m.

Thursday, March 25
Cub Scouts, 6:30 p.m.
STARC, 7 p.m. (Fellowship Hall)

God bless!
PKJ

Rev. Franke's Theme Thoughts

The Sunday of the Passion, Series C March 28, 2010

Lessons for Sunday of the Passion (Lutheran Service Book)

Processional: John 12:12-19 - Some Greeks came to see Jesus when the hour of his glorification was near.
Deuteronomy 32:36-39 -There is no other God who puts to death and brings to life and can help in trouble.
Psalm 118:19-29 (antiphon: v. 26)
Philippians 2:5-11 - Jesus showed His eternal Lordship through service, by dying on the cross for us.
Luke 22:1-23:56
or Luke 23:1-56 - The King of heaven and earth was judged by a representative of a king of this world.

GATHERING THE TEXTS: Lord of All, We Bow before You!
Suffering in our lives begins to make sense as we observe our Lord on this Sunday of His passion. Moses sang a song of deliverance in times of trouble, recalling that only the God of Israel can rescue from catastrophe and bring life out of death. In another song of the people of God, St. Paul recorded how God, in Christ, took upon Himself our humanity and willingly suffered as servant in order to rescue us from sin and death. The Gospel Lesson recounts Lord Christ before Lord Caesar, and in the appearance of defeat, reveals God’s victory at the cross.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERVICE: O Jesus, You alone have shown the power of God to bring peace through suffering and life out of death. Let me embrace sorrow in my own life as a sign of Your presence and an invitation to turn all things over to Your Lordship. Show me opportunities to spend my life in service to Your kingdom and to others. Amen.

STEWARDSHIP THOUGHT: Material things become instruments of sorrow when they begin to control us or when we expect them to deliver us from the difficulties of life. We are blessed through them when we use them to bring benefits to others, physically and spiritually.

OFFERING PRAYER: We bend our knee and with our tongue confess that Christ is Lord!
And through these gifts that now we place into Your care,
We willingly proclaim His name; and when our days are hard,
Take comfort in our griefs and suff’rings Jesus shares. Amen.


CONVICTION AND COMFORT: We want to select our own gods and lords, but when the chips are down, they cannot help us. Idols at our command are no stronger than we are in times of trouble. The only one who can judge, put to death, and bring to life, eternally, serves at His own behest. He stood before the courts of this world and literally gave Himself in our place. He accepted death in order to bring us to life; He has selected us! Our knees now bow and tongues confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all!

The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Jesus

The text for our meditation on God’s Holy Word is epistle lesson appointed for the day. I bring you grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul wrote these words because the congregation at Philippi and other Christian congregations in the area were being misled by false teachers. These false teachers were saying that faith in Jesus Christ was not enough for salvation—that besides faith, it was necessary to keep all of the rituals and rules of the Old Testament.

This context may seem to be far removed from this time and place-- but the same spirit of wanting to add to Christ’s finished work of salvation lives on to afflict the Christian church today.

In many places, Christians are still told that faith in Christ is not enough—that they themselves must do something to make their salvation complete and effective: good works—a decision—some outpouring of overwhelming emotion attributed to the Holy Spirit. All of this added to the simple faith and trust that-- what Christ did on the cross for the world—was done for me—and he is my salvation.

There are some groups where this false teaching of earning our salvation is enshrined as the official teaching—and we must avoid these places-- but even where it is not—the spirit of this idea clings to each of us because it is the natural religion of mankind—that our salvation depends upon us: on our obedience—on our lesser guilt than others—on our piety.

But what God would have us do today is turn our eyes away from ourselves and focus them upon Jesus Christ and know that everything else that we are tempted to base our salvation on apart Christ-- is less than nothing-- and cannot even be compared to the surpassing worth of knowing that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Paul writes:

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

There was nothing wrong with being circumcised on the eighth day—in fact, it was what the law demanded. There was nothing wrong with being born a Jew—in fact, there were great advantages and it was the way that God had providentially ordered Paul’s life. There was certainly nothing wrong with being scrupulous in the way he kept the law of God—truth be told, most of us would be well served to devote a bit more energy to that very thing.

None of this was wrong in and of itself—in fact, all of it added up to Paul’s being singularly blessed by God. But when these things became the foundation and source of Paul’s life with God—when they became his confidence before God-- they ceased being a blessing and became a curse-- because it put him in direct opposition to God himself who desires that we have a life with him solely through faith in his Son.

And besides that, for all of those ancient and modern people who want to have a life with God on the basis of what they do—who are they compared to Paul in piety and zeal and righteousness? And if they can’t match up to Paul, how can they expect to be acceptable to God?

There can be no accommodation and no compromise between the religion of works and Christianity, for those who trust in anything within themselves for their salvation-- become persecutors of the church-- and enemies of the cross-- and deniers of Jesus—just like a young Pharisee named Saul.

The same is true for us today. We should be: 1. regular in our church attendance- and 2. generous in our giving- and 3. careful to walk in God’s commands -and 4. insistent that our congregation faithfully teach God’s Word- and 5. different than the world around us in how we live our lives.

All of these are great blessings—but when they become our confidence before God—when they become what we are counting on for our salvation—we become persecutors of the church of Jesus Christ which rests upon the rock-solid foundation of salvation through faith in him alone. Paul writes that:

Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish…

As Paul traveled forth on the Road to Damascus to persecute the church, the risen Christ appeared before him and Paul was struck blind by his glory—the glory of God himself. But at the same time his spiritual eyes were opened and he saw- for the first time- just exactly how he looked spiritually: not in comparison those around him—but in comparison to God.

He saw the truth about his own righteousness and obedience and zeal in the light of Christ’s holiness and he knew that everything that he had hoped in—everything that had counted on—everything that he was so proud of in his life—was rubbish. All of his righteous deeds—compared to the righteousness of Jesus Christ—were as filthy rags.

You see, it is only in knowing Jesus Christ that we can know the truth about God’s real expectations of us—it is only in knowing Jesus Christ that we can know the truth about ourselves and how far we stand apart from God on the basis of what we can do.

Just like Paul, all of us, by nature want to measure ourselves against our fellow man—and let there be no doubt—we look pretty good in comparison. But other folks are not the measure of God’s expectations of us—God himself is the measure-- and there is only One Person who has ever measured up to that standard-- and that is Jesus: the holiness of God and the righteousness of God and the love of God in human flesh who gave his life into death upon the cross in exchange for those of us who are none of those things.

All of us must come to that same place as did Paul—in learning the truth about ourselves and our own righteousness—in seeing it for what it is—and that in stripping it away we still have not lost anything of value—but only rubbish that is keeping us away from Christ—and that coming to a place of spiritual emptiness—we can be filled with Christ himself. Paul says that he was glad to lose all those things he had trusted in so that he might…

gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

When Paul came to faith in Christ, he lost everything he was before. He lost his place in his culture—he lost the admiration of his colleagues—he lost his very identity as someone who had made a place for himself with God based upon his own righteousness. But what he gained was Christ-- and he was glad to count all of his own righteousness as a loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

Paul’s faith and trust was shifted away from himself and was placed upon Christ and Christ’s righteousness—and in doing so--a perfect righteousness that truly avails in God’s sight for salvation became his own through faith in Jesus. So it is for us.
There is only one way to be saved—there is only one way to stand before God unashamed—there is only one way to be absolutely confident that we will go to heaven when we die --and that is through faith in Jesus so that what he has done for the world—becomes your own.

Through faith in Jesus, his death on the cross is counted as your punishment for sins. Through faith in Jesus, his holiness is credited to you as your righteousness. Through faith in Jesus, his status before God becomes your own and you are counted as God’s child—and share in his life. Paul writes:

For Jesus’ sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

The person who has been saved through faith in Jesus is forever changed. We are simply not the people we were before. Paul went from being a persecutor of Jesus Christ, to wanting to know him more and more—from wanting nothing to do with him, to gladly enduring whatever came his way as a follower of Jesus---from putting his people to death, to desiring to spend eternity with them in heaven.

His whole perspective about himself and about God was changed through faith in Jesus Christ.

That same pattern is seen in the life of all of Christ’s people. We want to know more and more about this One who given his own life for us and so we are glad to attend worship and bible study. We joyfully share whatever hardship comes our way as his disciples because we know what he suffered for us and the sacrifices we make for him are nothing compared to what he did for us. And our vision is no longer only on the “here and now” but extends into eternity in heaven because he has gone there to prepare a place for us where we will live with him forever.

This is the power of Christ’s resurrection in our own lives right now. We serve a living Savior—one who is not distant from us but by Holy Baptism, lives in us—one who sustains his own life in his through his body and blood in Holy Communion.
From the moment we were baptized, the shape of Jesus’ life has become our own just as it did for Paul—and we strive to live it out more and more until we go to heaven. Paul says:

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul knew that all of those false teachers who wanted people to trust in their own good works could not even match up to him in holiness and righteousness and piety and yet he knew about himself that he did not match up to Christ in how he lived.
But he also knew that his past mistakes were forgiven and heaven awaited him and so day by day in his earthly life he pushed ahead to live for Christ like an athlete reaching for the finish line.

So it is for us in our Christian life. Because of the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Savior, we know that our sins are forgiven and we know that we have a place in heaven. And because Christ has made us his own, our calling is to make that identity more and more an active, vigorous reality in how we live our lives. Amen.

And now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.