Download february 14, 2016 (text) - First Lutheran Church | Lafayette, LA 70508

1
The Message for Feb 14, 2016
Luke 4:1-13
Jesus is Lord
Rob Miller, Pastor
Today we begin a 5-week series on our basic beliefs, our core values
or as Kelly Fryer calls them, our Five Guiding Principles. This series is based
on her book, Reclaiming the “L” Word - Renewing the Church from its
Lutheran Core. She suggests there are Five Guiding Principles for us in the
Lutheran Church. They are as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Jesus is Lord
Everyone Is Welcome
Love Changes People
Everybody Has Something to Offer
The World Needs What we Have
We will take a look at each one of these over the next five weeks and
on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 -7:30 we will consider what the Bible
says about each one of these. I hope you can be there…
We begin at the beginning with grace. Grace is at the heart of what it
means to be a Lutheran Christian.
In her book Kelly tells the story of being in a class during her first year
at seminary. The visiting professor was not holding her attention. It was a
beautiful day and she wanted to be outside. Instead, she was sitting in a
classroom listening to a lecture about some long-dead theologian.
She was bored and obviously not alone. The profession must have
known that nobody in the class was really listening to him. He slapped his
notebook closed and stopped talking. He wasn’t going to waste another
breath on that class. He went to the board, picked up a piece of chalk, and
drew an arrow pointing straight down.
He stood back and said, “If you understand that, you understand
everything you need to know about what it means to be a Christian… who
also happens to be Lutheran.” And then the professor walked out of the
room.
2
The class sat there is stunned silence, staring at this enormous arrow
pointing straight down. Kelly said she thought - the only logical explanation
why the professor would do that was because he obviously thought they
were all going to hell…
The next time the class gathered the professor drew the same arrow
on the board and said, “Here’s what this means. God ALWAYS comes down.
There is never anything we can do to turn that arrow around and make our
way UP to God. God came down in Jesus. God still comes down to us in
bread and wine, in water and fellowship of believers. God ALWAYS comes
down.”
We are a church grounded in and guided by grace. We start with
grace. And that means we do things and say things that are uniquely us. Of
course, there are many things associated with the being a Lutheran Church.
We say things like:
We are saved by grace
Word and Sacrament
Priesthood of all believers
We know how to sing in worship
Pot-luck dinners (my favorite)
“We’ve never done it that way before.”
Liturgical worship
Coffee Hour(our third sacrament)
Small Catechism
Forgiven sinners
We’re not Catholic
Kelly says that most of the things that many people associate with
being “Lutheran” are really adiaphora (a-dee-A-for-a). If you don’t know
any other Latin words, you can use this one. “Adiaphora” means not
essential -- in our case it means not essential for salvation.
The church leaders during the Reformation - 500 years ago - used this
word to sort out things that really mattered from the things that really didn’t
matter.
3
In this new church they had to decide which things (like traditions and
rituals and practices) they were going to keep from the Catholic Church and
which ones they were not going to keep.
The Reformers decided that anything that helps people meet God who
always comes down to us is IN. Anything that absolutely gets in the way of
meeting God is OUT. And everything else is adiaphora. It doesn’t really
matter.
Kelly writes: Today there seems to be some confusion over what is
essential to our understanding of what it means to be Christians who are
also Lutheran… and what is not essential. I don’t know how else to
understand the fights we have over what color hymnal we should use or
what kind of music we sing in worship. It is possible that sometimes we are
guilty - without meaning to - of letting things like culture and tradition get in
the way of seeing clearing what it means to be Lutheran Christians. Not that
culture and tradition aren’t important. They are. But they aren’t the only
things. And certainly not the most important things. (page 28)
I believe with all my heart that we have something that no other
church has. We are clear about God and who God is and that God loves us
just as we are.
That’s why we say, “Whoever you are and wherever you are in your
journey of faith you are welcome here.” First-timers are so thankful to hear
those words. And the reason we say those words is because love is shared
in this place and love changes people. Guilt and shame do not change
people.
We start with God’s grace. And because we start with God’s grace we
have a unique understanding of what it means to be saved. We don’t ask
the question, are you saved? We don’t talk that way because we know we
can’t do anything to get save.
We were saved from the penalty of our sins the day Jesus died on the
cross. That’s the day we were saved. We still sin, but the price has been
paid for our sins. We strive not to sin. Every time we sin we put Jesus back
on the cross.
4
We were saved not because of anything we could do, as a matter of
fact; we don’t deserve to be saved. We approach this whole faith thing in a
more humble way. We say that we are saved by God’s grace through Jesus’
faith. His faith saves us - not ours. We are saved from sin and death and
the devil because that’s what Jesus came down to do.
We come to a point in our spiritual journey when we realize deep in
our souls that God comes down to us.
God comes down to meet us when we are rich and when we are poor,
when we are black and when we are white, when we are broken and when
we are whole.
God comes down because none of us could ever do anything worthy
enough to make our way up to God.
God comes down to set us free from everything that binds us and
burdens us and hold us back from being the people God created us to be
and who Jesus calls us to be.
God comes down to set us free from sin and death and the devil.
God comes down to set us free to love, and to laugh, and to learn, and
to live life to the fullest with each other.
St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, At the right time while we
were still weak and lost in our sin Jesus dies for us so that we can be free to
live again. (Romans 5:6-8)
In this crazy, goofy way of the cross God proves and provides God’s
love for us. Through the cross God made love, and grace, and mercy, and
forgiveness available to everyone.
That’s the truth the Reformers discovered 500 years ago. Nothing else
matters. This is what it’s all about. This is the foundation, the framework,
the starting point for everything we say and do in and through the church.
5
It’s all about Jesus and sharing the good news about what he has done
for us, is doing for us, and will continue to do for us. Jesus is Lord. The
cross is his throne and his crown is made of thorns.
In our gospel reading for today Jesus is tempted by the devil… Jesus
was filled with the Spirit at his baptism and then led by that Spirit into the
wilderness. The devil tried to persuade Jesus from following his God-given
mission. But Jesus does not give in to temptation…
Gospel Reading -- Luke 4:1-13
Jesus overcame the temptations of the devil. The devil had no power
over him. Jesus is Lord of everything -- and every time he was tempted to
turn away from God, Jesus turned to the word of God.
This should be a lesson for us. Every time we are tempted by the devil
we should turn to the word of God. Or turn and say Jesus is Lord of my life
not you Satan. That’s what the word of God tells us.
Jesus is Lord of my life not you Satan. Say that with me…
This week I invite you to read the word of God every day. Read 1
Corinthians 1 every day. And as you do consider these words being written
to you personally to guide you, to empower you, to help you believe that
Jesus is Lord.
Jesus is Lord. That is so easy to say -- but living it is another matter.
Most of the time, I want to be my own boss. Maybe you don’t but I
do. Oh… who are we kidding, you do too. If we are honest with ourselves,
we all want to be our own boss. It’s part of being human. It is that original
sin that Adam and Eve brought into the world when they ate that forbidden
fruit...
Engraved on a wall in Niketown, Chicago are these words… ”In our
hearts, we are always 12 years old and we are always the quarterback.”
How true!
6
We don’t want to grow up and most of us don’t act our age. We also
want to call the plays. We want to call the shots. We want all the glory
when things go well and none of the responsibility when things go wrong.
We want to be at the center of the huddle. Don’t we? Even and especially
when we huddle together as the church…
Sometimes I wonder who or what is “lord” of our lives. It’s easy to get
confused.
Kelly writes - I’ve noticed that sometimes people put traditions or
culture or an idea or whatever -- at the center of our life together in the
church. And yet, she continues… I can’t help but wonder how many of our
problems and issues - in the church and in our personal lives - would be
solved if we simply remembered that Jesus is Lord, no thing and no one else
is. (page 35)
Jesus is Lord, no thing and no one else is.
When we say Jesus is Lord the first thing and the obvious thing is this
-- I can’t be lord and neither can you.
When we say Jesus is Lord the second thing and the less obvious thing
is this -- We will never fully understand God so we need to be ready for
anything and honest about everything.
If Jesus is Lord then we will be surprised again and again and again
when God meets us in the word and the sacraments, in a song or in
fellowship with other believers, or in the words or actions of a stranger.
God works in mysterious ways… the cross is proof of that -- so we
need to be ready for anything.
When we say Jesus is Lord the third thing and the most obvious thing
is this. If Jesus is Lord then we don’t have to be. How cool…
The devil is always tempting us to think that we can be lord of our
lives. And when we think we can, we start acting like we are. Most of the
time we don’t even know we’re acting that way.
7
The cross of Christ reminds us that we can’t be Lord. In the cross of
Christ we see our failures and our faults. In the cross of Christ we know that
Jesus came down to be our Savior because we need to be saved. We can’t
save ourselves.
We need to be set free from our stupidity, our selfishness, our selfcenteredness, and our insistence on making our own way through the
wilderness of life.
In Jesus we meet a God who loves us not because of who we are and
certainly not because of what we’ve done but in spite of who we are and in
spite of what we’ve done. We call that grace.
God loves you. Turn to somebody right now and say to them, God
loves you.
We need to be reminded of that every day. So I have a challenge for
you. Every morning this week before your day gets too involved go and look
in the mirror and say to the person you see there, say to him or her…
God loves you and Jesus is Lord of your life.
It’s true! Do that every day this week and you will be surprised at
how your day will take on a new meaning and a new purpose in the lives of
those around you.
Oh and by the way, when the opportunity presents itself this week and
it will, invite someone to come with you to worship next week. Our topic will
be, “Everyone Is Welcome.”
Let us pray… Please, Lord Jesus, help us die every day to ourselves so
that you and you alone can live within us. Set us free from everything that
isn’t you. Help us to remember who we are and who you are. Jesus is Lord.
And God’s people said, Amen.