Messages for the Week

The Purpose of the Gospel February 5, 2012
Mark 1:29-39 Epiphany 5.B

So what is the purpose of the Gospel. Mark begins his gospel with the words – the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. From the very first sentence Mark sets forth what this Gospel is about and the reasons why Jesus came. The purpose of the Gospel is to first of all, preach the good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, and to proclaim that the kingdom of God is here. That was the purpose at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus and that is the purpose of our ministry today. There is no difference.

Mark is going to continue to open up this purpose for you and for me. We have Jesus being very active in his ministry as he heals Simon's mother-in-law. We have the town's people coming to be healed of their diseases and we have Jesus casting out the demons. Immediately following our lesson for today we have the cleansing of the lepers. This gospel is declaring to us, right from the beginning, that healing and the casting out of demons is to be a part of the purpose of the ministry. Even in recent days, I have seen the healing work that God is doing in the church, even in this church. When people are open to being healed, God shows His hand. How exciting! And the ministry of Jesus is not to be limited to the working of miracles, or the healing of the sick, but the purpose is to grow and expand the ministry through the proclamation of the good news.

And then in the middle of all of the busy – ness of our lesson today, we have this very quiet sentence. I know that for most of my ministry I missed this sentence completely. But the more that I have learned how to pray, the more that I have learned to listen to what God is saying to me and to us as a church, the more I have come to understand this quiet sentence. I continue to believe in my own life and I continue to believe in the life of the church that this is one of the key verses in all of the scriptures. I believe this verse is the key to the reason why Jesus could do all that he did, in the short years of his ministry. The sentence again says – and in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place and there he prayed. Jesus began His day by listening to His father. Jesus could do His father's will because he listened to it.

Jesus had the strength to touch and to heal and to preach because he was connected to the Father. He had the strength to confront the sin around him because he had a quiet center and that center was connected to the Father. He had the strength to do his work and he had the strength to go all the way to the cross because of his constant connection to the Father. My friend Kirk Byron Jones who I refer to on our website says, the reason Jesus could turn it on so much is that he knew how to turn it off.

This verse is the key to the ministry of the church. As you and I listen to God through His word, as we have the opportunity to do during our days of Lent as we explore the wonders of God's Word. Today we have seen God do His work in the Baptism of Benjamin and now He comes to do the same work in you and me as we celebrate Holy Communion. In this meal, He comes to give you courage and faith and strength and light and life and healing and peace. Come and receive it.

SOMETHING NEW January 29, 2012
Mark 1:21 – 28 Epiphany 4.B

We begin today with a series of lessons on the healing power of God from Mark's Gospel. Mark proclaims right from the outset that this One has authority, and His authority is not as the scribes, the ones who think they have the authority.
This was something new. It was new because Jesus moved from the past tense into the present tense. He doesn't stand up and say, "Moses has taught us, or the prophet Isaiah says" or "the rabbis say", but rather He says, "I say to you". It was something new. God was no longer something in the past for them just to remember. Now God was present, right in front of them in the person of Jesus.

And He taught with authority. That is why the people were drawn to Him. It was obvious to the people that this teacher was different. He didn't simply quote the authorities from the past. And they were astounded at what he said. They sat up and they took notice. And He was putting them on notice, that He indeed was doing something new.

And in the middle of His first sermon this man with an evil spirit interrupted His sermon. We cannot say for sure what the evil spirit was. Whatever it was, it indeed possessed the man! You and I know all sorts of forces that possess us at times. They are not necessarily evil spirits, although, many of the things that do possess us stand in the way of our relationship with God. Whether it is food, or money, or alcohol, or hobbies, or work or sports. There are many things in your life and in mine that have so much power. All of these things have authority in our lives, but not the authority of this new teaching from Jesus.

Jesus says firmly "be silent and come out of him". And the evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him.
Is there something that has power and authority in your life or in mine that is not of Jesus? If so, this Jesus comes to speak those same words to us. "Be silent", and allow me to take away that which gets in the way.

And the people were amazed. It was something new. They could see the very authority of God right in front of them. It was like watching Moses part the Red Sea or watching the walls of Jericho fall. And they saw it and they felt it.
Jesus brings to you and to me something new. It is a new authority. An authority to save, to make us whole and to overcome any demons that are bent on our destruction.

THE TIME IS NOW January 22, 2012
Mark 1:14-20 3rd af. Epiphany.B

I remember several years attending a seminar that was called managing your time. Soon after we arrived and the seminar started the leader said, this is not a seminar on managing your time, this is a seminar about managing your life. Then he continued and said, If we would have advertised this as a managing your life seminar, no one would come. We often do not want our lives to be challenged or changed in any way.

Our gospel lesson says, the time is fulfilled. The time is now. The time is now in the story of Jonah. The Lord came to Jonah a second time to tell him to go to Ninevah. At first he said, "no I won't go". After the second time, he did go, but it was only after he had repented, that is, he had changed his mind, and then he was delivered from the belly of the fish. And then those lines, when God saw what they did, that the people did in fact repent, how they did turn from their evil ways, God then repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them. I love this story in Jonah because it tells us something about the character of God. It says to me that we have an active, dynamic God. We have a God who responds to us and to this world. God changed His mind. He did not destroy the people. God gave them a second chance. What a word of grace for the people of Ninevah! What a word of grace for you and for me. If we would listen, if we would repent. It is never too late to start doing what is right. There is time and the time is now. The past does not equal the future.
The Apostle Paul would tell us that the time is now for us to have faith in God and to trust that God will bring us through, and we will come through, with or without this world. We are not to put our trust in the things of this world, for they cannot, they will not last. The time is now to let the Lord have charge in our lives. The time is now to let Him be the manager of our time and of our life.

Our Mark lesson says that we are in a special time. Mark says it is the right time. The time is call Kairos. Kairos means the right time, the time of fulfillment. The appointed time. The time is now to repent and to believe in the Gospel. At the right time, Jesus stepped into our messed up world. It was the right time, the right time when John the Baptist's cry for repentance had been silenced by the bars of Herod's prison. So Mark writes, "now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of God and saying the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel. The time is now to believe. The time is now that Jesus comes to us.

In these Epiphany days the time is right for us to see the light and to celebrate the faith that says Jesus is here with us and he is here for us. The time is now to see and to say - Jesus you light up my life. Jesus is the revelation, Jesus is the light of God that comes into our dark lives and into our dark world. You and I are to let our light shine for the time is now. His light has come. It is here.

THE CALL OF GOD January 15, 2012
I Samuel 3:1-10; John 1:43-51 2nd af. Epiphany

Our lessons today are some of the call lessons. I love these lessons as people are called into service for God. The lesson that Heidi read for us is such an incredible lesson. God calls Samuel while he is still a child. And Samuel finally listened and obeyed this call. The lesson from the Corinthians is about the Apostle Paul declaring that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and the call on your life and mine to use our bodies to His glory. And then the call to be a disciple as Philip is called to follow Jesus and then Philip goes out and gets Nathaniel and the beat goes on to you and to me.

How is God calling you and me today? Or is He silent? Many people certainly believe that God is silent today. You and I know that He is not silent, but we also know that we don't always listen to Him. Sometimes we don't hear Him because we are in rebellion, we want to do it our own way. I like what I read in our Lutheran magazine. It says, the reason why most of us do not read regularly from the scriptures is that we do not want to be changed and if we did read the word of God, if we truly listened to what God was saying we would have to change our attitudes about life and our way of living.

In the midst of all that is going on in our society what does this call from God say to you and to me? Does God say, go ahead and join the negative and the destructive voices that often speak loudly in our society? Or does He call us to be still and silent and see what He has to say. To listen means to be obedient. You have heard me say often that the word obedience means to be all ear to the Father. The way that God calls us to is a way of peace. Will peace come through power or might or strength? That is often the political word that seems to come through isn't it. What about Jesus becoming poor for our sake? What about Jesus giving up his power and his strength? What about this Jesus who comes to preach and to be forgiveness for you and for me? What about this Jesus who welcome everyone and didn't discriminate against anyone?

Can you and I as the church do what Jesus did? Jesus said, love one another.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the peacemakers. Can you and I as the church be about the business we were called into? We have been called into community to be the body of Christ in this world. May you and I respond to this call and be who we are, the sons and daughters of God.