Pastor's Message

Pastor Storck

June 29, 2008
7th Sunday after Pentecost
Matt. 10:34-42

May the words of my mouth and the meditation found in all of our hearts be pleasing to You o Lord, through Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

In Jesus Name.  Amen.

Our Lord’s opening words in the Gospel are some of the most difficult for us to hear and bear in our lives:  Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

A sword is not an instrument of peace.  A sword is used in fighting, in cutting apart, in destroying.  St. Paul reports that God’s Word is the sword of the Spirit.  It is the tool of the Church Militant, the church found here on earth.  It is designed to separate flesh from bone and soul from body.  The Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, the Prince of Peace, did not come to bring peace on the earth but a sword.  He came to bring Himself, a sword for the division of Israel, set for the fall and rise of many.  As our Gospel text states I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.  He cuts the living from the dead.  He replaces our bond of blood with the bond of the Spirit.

This Word, this Sword, the Truth causes discord and strife.  Wherever the sword is wielded there will be fighting.  For those that believe in the Word’s of the Sword know that when they rightly hold to them they will cause discord even in their own families let alone in other places.

The reason is because Jesus is the most important of anything in this world.  Without Him we are left to ourselves.  Without His life and death on behalf of all sinners nothing else is significant, not who won the U.S. Open, not the price of gas, not even our own lives.  All of that is meaningless when compared to the eternal reality of God’s love for man in the sacrifice of His Son.  That is what matters.

But we don’t like to talk about religion.  We like to leave that to the professionals, those we have called to our churches.  Even sometimes those that you have called to this place and other congregations have called don’t always want to talk about Jesus.  You can have your opinions about everything else.  You can embrace the new law in California or even say that it’s ok for your son or daughter to live with their significant other even though they are not married.  Who does it really hurt anyways?  You cheat, you lie, and steal and the shows on TV praise people for those abilities.  And we still watch them.

But don’t talk about religion.  Don’t talk about how exclusive your religion is and that Jesus is the only way to heaven.  We don’t want to offend anyone or make a family member upset with us.  Don’t tell others that all other religions, other than Christianity will lead them to eternal death.  Our society’s last stumbling block is the conviction about God and His Word.  Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and you are bound to be disliked by those many in the recent survey who said there are many ways to heaven.  Our world tells us that when things are connected to our religious life we must look away and ignore. 

Repent.  It is your society, and your community.  We are all guilty of being more concerned with the opinions of men than the opinion of God.  But no matter whose opinion is expressed there is only one way to heaven.  There is only one Name which saves.  Anyone who places there trust in any other name, be it Allah, or Buddha, or even our owns names will be sorely mistaken.  There is only one thing that matters, one thing that has not passed away, nor will it ever.  God’s Word.  The alpha and the omega the beginning and the end.  And those who carry God’s Word in their hearts will be purified in the flames and restored to a creation better than Adam in the Garden.

That Sword became flesh and dwelt among us.  He took up our cause, our fight in the womb of Mary.  He allowed the Law to do to Him what each of us deserves.  He died under the hand of the Roman government.  His soul was divided from His body.  He died in our place for the sins that we have committed.  But His body did not see decay.  He was resurrected from the dead.  He rose again to life.  By that death and resurrection He has redeemed you, snatched you from the hands of Satan himself, He has done what you can’t.  Complete payment.  Nothing can keep you from Him, not Satan, death, or hell.  You are His beloved, His church, and His bride.  He took the Father’s entire wrath that we deserve and bore it Himself.  You are perfect in His sight.  Your sins are gone.  Your weakness, your fear, your doubts are forgotten.  There is no one to accuse you.  It is finished.  All those who trust in Him, who find forgiveness in His bloody execution and glorious resurrection, who have been joined to that death on the Hill of Golgotha by the water of Holy Baptism will live forever in heaven.  That is what matters.

For the church militant the Word of God is still a sword.  The Word of God cuts and divides.  The place where the Word is rightly preached and taught, discord will be found.  The truth is painful to the ears that hear it.  And that truth is worth fighting for in our families and in our community.  It may seem difficult at times especially when we speak with people that we know and love dearly, but we must speak the truth in love.  God’s Word is worth fighting for.  The war even rages inside of us.  For the old man, our old Adam still creeps out and wants to hear and feel those things, and do those things that we know are against God’s Word.  By God’s word, we Christians have felt our own hearts pierced, the old man slain, and a new man raise up in us by grace.  Daily this happens.  God has made our hearts into instruments of faith and faith must fight unbelief.

The devil has no dominion over us.  He can’t harm us, but we still struggle.  But we aren’t left to ourselves of Christ is the one who fights for us.  We are ready for the war; we have been prepared to wield the ultimate weapon, the Word of God.  We cannot lose this war.  No matter how peaceful is it when we are in bondage and listen to our sinful human flesh, we don’t pretend as though the debt hasn’t been paid, as though God hasn’t fulfilled His Word.  We don’t have to tolerate the lies of the world about Jesus and Christianity.  We won’t be cowed by family members, and coworkers, the governments, and others for we have God’s sure Foundation.  We are sent to the four corners of the world to use this peace-shattering sword.  That man may have peace in the only place that we are able to find it, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The truth is: Jesus came and lived among us and died and rose again, He is Lord.  In His Word He speaks to us, calls us from darkness into light, forgives us our sins.  He picks us back up when we fall, He strengthens and renews us.  Soon, He will come again in glory.  His power which the world does not believe will be evident in an instant. 

What a joyous day it will be when we won’t stand.  For every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord.  Until that day we will fight.  We fight and we rejoice that the joy, the victory is already ours.  The forgiveness of sins, life, and resurrection are already a reality in our lives now.  We are already free.  Soon we will be able to sing His praise, to bask in His love.  Our warfare will end, the sword will be beaten into a plowshare.

In Jesus name..

Amen.