Rev. Tucher

If you aren’t familiar with the “Battle for the Bible” in The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, I highly commend to you a 2-hour radio program from Issues, Etc., a Lutheran radio show which tackles the topics facing our church and the world as a whole today. The book to the left is written by one of two living members of the Preus Fact Finding Committee. I have not had a chance to read the book, but am looking forward to reading it when time permits.

You can listen to the radio show by following the links below.

Hour 1 WMA Hour 1 mp3
Hour 2 WMA Hour 2 mp3

A classmate of mine from Concordia Theological Seminary wrote a nice plug about my recent sermon from Sunday. I must say thank you to him for that.

Text: Luke 4:1-13

The Three Temptations
of Us All

            Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, amen.  The text for the
sermon this morning comes from the Gospel, which was read earlier.

            A few years
ago in southern California,
in the span of a few days, a biker was killed by a mountain lion and another
man was mauled in a separate lion attack. 
The stories were all over the news, and people were terrified of these
aggressive lions.  A few days later, the
lions were killed; people went back to talking or thinking about mountain lions
only rarely.  However, during that same
time, and even today, there are lion attacks taking place all around you of
which many people are unaware.  The Bible
tells us that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone
to devour.  He is always ready to pounce
and tempt people into all kinds of sin. 
Fortunately, this ferocious lion has done battle with another lion, the
Lion of Judah, and he could not overcome Him. 
At the very beginning of Christ’s ministry, the devil attacked Jesus,
but our Lord defeated him by resisting all of his temptations, and He did this
in order to save us.

            In our
Gospel reading for today, we see our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, facing
various forms of temptation.  This text
begins the account of Christ’s ministry in Galilee which follows immediately
after Christ’s baptism and which brings Christ face-to-face with Satan, the
enemy whom He has come to destroy.  Thus
at the very beginning of His work as well as at its close “when darkness reigns,” Jesus does not hesitate to fight against
the power of the Evil One on behalf of all people.

            Luke begins our text for today
with these words:“And Jesus, full of the
Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by
the devil.”  Temptation faces
everyone, including Jesus Christ.  He is
no different than any other person throughout history.  Everyone faces temptation at some point in
their life.  It was no different for
Jesus.  The temptation of Jesus was
continuous over the entire period of forty days.  Our text gives us but three examples of the
many ways in which Satan attacked Christ. 
We have no way of knowing just how Jesus was continually tempted.  To tempt means to put to the test, here with
an evil intent, that is, to cause someone to sin.  Satan knew very well that Jesus had come to
crush his power.  If he could succeed
just once in getting Jesus to sin, he would win the victory.  And this was no sham or pretended
temptation.  According to his human
nature, Jesus was “tempted in every way,
just as we are,” yet He remained sinless.

            All too
often, the devil tempts us to sin for our own comfort—and we give in!  We don’t see it as a problem if we get so far
in debt that we can never get out of it, just as long as my house has all the
“necessities” in it: a huge flat-screen plasma television, a sound system that
would make the sound in a movie theatre look like nothing, and everything else
that we need to survive.  This is our
“daily bread” as far as we are concerned. 
But that is not the daily bread which Jesus taught us to pray for.  Daily bread is what we need to sustain our
body and soul, NOT what makes us
happy. 

            It would be
very easy for Jesus to give in to the temptations of Satan, just like it is
easy for us to give in to temptations. 
Jesus trampled the devil’s real temptation with Scripture.  Christ, who has taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” had
Himself been led by the Spirit to go where temptation was.  He knew its strength and danger.  His own temptation, all three of His
temptations, stretching over a period of 40 days, were wholly concerned with
the choice between right and wrong, between higher and lower means of carrying
out the mission on which His heavenly Father had sent Him.

            Can we
doubt the seriousness of those forty days of decisive conflict?  On the outcome hung the whole issue of His
mission on earth and every hope of salvation of mankind.

            Our Lord
was setting out upon the mission of His heavenly Father.  His mission was to bring all mankind into the
kingdom of God, free from Satan.  For that mission, He possessed gifts and
powers that were brought to light in fullness at His baptism by John the
Baptist when the voice declared from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased.”    

            The
temptations which Jesus faced were great temptations indeed.  They were meant for our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ to give up His divinity, to renounce who He is and to worship
Satan.  Christ knew what was at stake:
us.  We were at stake.  Our salvation was at risk.  Had Jesus given in, there would be no
salvation for us.  When God looks at us,
He would continue to sin our utter filth. 
That is not what God sees because Christ refused to give in to Satan’s
temptations for the sake of the Father’s will: that all men be brought to Him
so that we might be saved.

            The first
temptation in our text is the temptation of the flesh.  It starts with a big “If.”  “If you are the Son of God” is the devil’s central plea.  It is designed to undercut the completeness
of the loyalty and Christ’s acceptance of the necessary limitations on Him in
His redemptive mission as the Son of Man. 
He was never to use His divine power for self gratification or for
fulfillment of His merely human needs. 
Satan lured Jesus to preoccupation with His physical needs.  He was hungry, very hungry.  The appeal was tricky; it was a deep-seated
lure and allure which the miraculous tends often to hold for human beings.  What Satan was telling Jesus was this: “Prove
your sonship, your messiahship!  Perform
a miracle!”  By performing such a
miracle according to the will of Satan, Jesus would show Himself to be a false
son.  He would show a lack of trust in
His heavenly Father to provide for Him. 
It would also be evidence of a desire to avoid suffering and pain, for
which He had come into the world.  The
true Son of God was also being tested by the Father through this
temptation.  Would He stand up to this
test?  Not if He would try to escape it
by performing a miracle.

            Jesus shows
his trust as the true Son of God by His reply. 
In this case as in each of Satan’s other attacks, Jesus answers with
Scripture.  God wanted His people to know
that He was feeding them manna by the power of His word.  Israel often complained against
God’s gracious care in the wilderness. 
They were not satisfied with the food that God provided.  However, Jesus does not complain.  His trust in God’s providence remains
firm.  It is that Word which continues to
strengthen us when we are tempted by Satan and all of his attacks against us.  The words which we sang just a few moments
ago echo the power which the Word has: “Though hordes of devils fill the
land/All threat’ning to devour us,/We tremble not, unmoved we stand;/They
cannot over pow’r us./Let this world’s tyrant rage;/In battle we’ll engage./His might is doomed to fail;/God’s judgment
must prevail!/One little word subdues him.”

            The second
temptation of Jesus was to be a bargain sale of sorts.  Jesus is to choose between a whole unrestrained
display of power as second in command to the prince of this world now and the promise of future glory
after suffering by way of the cross and death would not be necessary.  The view was big.  The view was beautiful and alluring.  We have those same temptations in our lives,
to give in and exchange our beliefs for the things of this world.  We give up going to church from September
through February in exchange for the NFL season.  We give up going to church because of family
vacations.  “If we’re not in church for a
week or two, or maybe for months on end, it’s not going to hurt us.  Besides, I’ve heard it all before; you’re not
going to tell me anything new.”  It’s
true, you have heard it all before.  But
you need to hear it again: that you are a sinner and deserve nothing but
eternal damnation.  Jesus Christ came
into this world so that you might have everlasting life.  All of your sins have been forgiven.  We have that promise in His Word and in His
body and blood, which strengthens and nourishes our faith. 

            The third
temptation recorded for us in our text was the temptation of the spirit.  To tempt God is the highest spiritual
enticement.  “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is
written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “ ‘On
their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”

            Those who
want to argue that Satan doesn’t know Scripture do not really know the full
deception which Satan is capable of. 
Satan is quoting directly from Psalm 91. 

Since Jesus has used Scripture to resist Satan’s
temptations, Satan himself uses Scripture in his argument.  In his use of Scripture, however, Satan seems
to omit a few words to try to make God’s Word say what it really does not
say.  Nowhere does God say that we can
test His protecting care by exposing ourselves recklessly to danger.  By using this same kind of logic any child of
God could, for example, throw himself into the path of a railroad train and say
that he wanted to prove his trust in God’s power to protect him. However, this
is not the most important feature of this temptation.  Here the devil challenges Christ to test
whether the Word of God is as reliable as Jesus seems to think. He asks Jesus
to put the promise of God to a test to see if it is true.

            So often in
our own lives are we tested, to put the promise of God to a test to see if it
is true or not.  Do we put or trust in
the things of this world or do we put our trust in the Word of God?  The temptations of our Lord are the
temptations of all mankind.  The
temptations of Lord are the temptations of His church.  The temptations of our Lord are repeated in
the temptations that come to you in your daily vocation.

            When we are
attacked and accused, we trust in Christ, who saved us by His perfect
obedience, suffering, and death.  When
the devil tempts us to sin, we trust in Christ and His Word of truth.  When the Law accuses us of sin, we trust in
Christ and His perfect obedience.  When
death demands our life, we trust in Christ and His innocent suffering and
death.

            Our Savior
knows what it is to be tempted.  He
willingly faced temptation by our enemy, the prowling lion, and He did it for
our salvation.  He won the battle, and
His victory belongs to all who trust in Him. 
In the name of Jesus, amen.

            Now the
peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the
true faith until life everlasting.  Amen.

Text: Luke 4:31-44

By Whose Authority

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon this morning comes from the Gospel which was read earlier.

In today’s society, authority is something which can be taken advantage of or something which can be given up. A perfect example is the show Super Nanny. It centers around a family who has problems with their children. The parents’ authority is missing or not taken seriously. That’s where Super Nanny comes in. Her job is to try to restore order to the household and to help the parents regain their authority.

In our lives, it’s not always easy to keep or properly exercise ones authority. Anyone who has ever “borrowed” their parent’s car without asking knows this lesson. Who said you could borrow the car? Who gave you the authority to make that decision? Even in the Church, there is constant discussion about who has the authority to do this or that, and discussions can at times become quite contentious.

In our liturgy on Sunday mornings, the absolution has been clarified with what the pastor says: “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority….” Note that it is not on my authority that I forgive you your sins; it is the authority of Christ. God has called me to be a pastor and to distribute His means of grace. Trinity Lutheran Church in Gillette, Wyoming has called me to be their Assistant Pastor to distribute God’s means of grace. I am not acting on my own. I’m under the authority of Christ and called by the congregation.

The question was even asked about Jesus. By whose authority did He say and do things He said and did? What was His authority all about? He was frequently challenged about both the things He said the things He did. But by His Word, Jesus showed His divine authority to heal all men.

In our text for today, there are three instances where Jesus exercises His authority. The first instance was in the synagogue. Jesus did what He normally did on the Sabbath; He preached. Notice what Luke records for us. “And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.” The people listened to Jesus’ Words, even though they may not have fully understood what He was saying. They didn’t need to know everything that Jesus was saying because they knew that what Jesus was saying had authority behind it. He wasn’t like any other teacher in the synagogue. No other teacher could stand before them and tell them what He did: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” He just quoted the prophet Isaiah, just like any other teacher did. But what Jesus added could only be said by Him, one who has authority: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Where did this authority come from? When the man with the unclean demon came before Jesus, he knew exactly where that authority came from: “I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” The people stood in amazement, not because the demon left the man, but because how the demon left the man: by Jesus telling the demon to leave. It was by Jesus’ authority that the demon left. Had anyone else tried to tell or force the demon to leave, the demon would have probably just laughed in their face. But with Jesus, the demon couldn’t laugh because it was the Holy One of God who spoke.

The second instance of Jesus’ authority was in Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever. With a simple request of Jesus, the fever left her and she began to serve those in her house, probably as she normally would. The people saw what Jesus had done and other people with illnesses began to show up desiring to be healed. Jesus exercised His healing authority to heal those who were infirmed. By His powerful Word, He rebuked the fever and by His personal loving care with His hand of compassion, He healed them.

Jesus heals us still today, just as He did then. He heals us by His Word. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” He heals us still with His body and blood, given and shed for us, for the forgiveness of all of our sins. Why does He do this? What did you do to earn this gracious act of Christ? “All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me…that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom…” You didn’t do anything to deserve Christ’s forgiveness. On the contrary, you only deserve His eternal damnation. Thanks be to God, you do not receive eternal damnation. You receive forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. You receive full membership in the family of God.

Finally, Jesus showed authority in His message. Jesus’ authority over demons and illnesses of all kinds is only part of His broader authority: His message, His teaching, and His mission for coming to earth.

What is this message that Jesus gives to us? “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” The message is forgiveness. The message is the cross. The message is that you are a sinner. You are filthy. You are disgusting. You have no part of God. Jesus comes to us and He tells us that while you are a sinner, you are a saint. While you are filthy, your Heavenly Father sees nothing but the righteousness won for you on the cross by Christ’s bloody sacrifice for you. While you are disgusting, you are made new. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” That is Christ’s message, for you and for me.

What is Christ’s teaching that Jesus gives to us? It was Jesus’ authoritative teaching that first caught the attention of those in Capernaum. It is the very Word of God which leads you to forgiveness in His name. The teaching is of God and what He has done for you, namely forgiven you of all your sins. His teaching is not of anything that you have done because whatever it is that you do, it will never equal the atoning sacrifice which was made on your behalf.

What is Christ’s mission for coming to earth? It is simple: to bring all of mankind to Him, for all of mankind to recognize that without Christ, there is only death. Without Christ, there is nothing. When you die outside of Christ, you die. But when you fall asleep in Christ Jesus, you have eternal life. You have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Christ’s mission is to restore creation to God the Father. Christ’s mission is to restore you as a child of God.

Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, came into our broken world to help us. He came into our sin-filled world that the Holy One of God might bear the iniquity of us all on the cross. He gives us the Good News of personal forgiveness and new life forever with Him in heaven. By whose authority does He does this? It is God’s authority. Thanks be to God for what we have been given, not by our authority, but by God’s: forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ. Amen.

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Text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

The Body of Christ

            Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.  The text for the sermon this morning comes from the Epistle which was read earlier.

            Growing up, Sesame Street was a favorite show of mine.  One of the things I learned from Sesame Street was the parts of body.  There was a song that taught me that the hip bone is connected to the leg bone; the leg bone is connected to the knee bone; the knee bone is connected to the foot bone and so on.  The point of the song is to teach you that the body is made up of various parts and that you need all the parts of the body for the body to function.  The same is held true for the body of Christ, as Paul writes to the church at Corinth.

            “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ….  For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”  The human body has many different parts, but they all fit together perfectly and function together perfectly.  Every part of the body is useful.  Just as the human body is united, so is Christ’s body, the church.

            God uses many pictures to describe how the kingdom of God works.  Several of them present the shape, the form the kingdom of God takes when it becomes visible among people here on this earth.  We call it “the church” or we think of it as a congregation.  Scriptures speak of it as a building, a body, or a family.  All these pictures show us to be in a relationship with one another, related in such a way that if any one of us is missing, the body, the building, the family would be incomplete.

            That’s why we confess in the Nicene Creed, “I believe in one holy Christian and Apostolic Church.”  That’s why in the communion liturgy we stretch ourselves to the far reaches of all time and all places saying, “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name.”

            Paul introduces one of the most brilliant and memorable images of the entire Bible, the church as the body of Christ, a body in which the members, though many, are indeed one.  His language is vivid and concrete.  But the clarity of Paul’s words might tempt us to think of this passage as just simple words and a beautiful picture.  However, that’s the opposite of what Paul is telling the Corinthian church. 

            We are made members of one body, the body of Christ.  How did that happen?  Did I sign up to be a member of the body of Christ?  Was I drafted for this?  It was nothing that we did.  It was something that was done to us and for us.  This occurred for us at our baptism. 

            Just recently, two of our members have joined the Church Triumphant.  In each of those sermons, we have been reminded that we have been brought into the body of Christ through our baptism.  It is in our baptism that we are made holy, that we are made heirs of the forgiveness which comes through Christ’s death and resurrection.  It is also in holy baptism that we are made members of the body of Christ.

            We are the body of Christ, Trinity Lutheran Church, Gillette, Wyoming.  We are the body of Christ as various boards and committees, Midweek School classes, Bible study groups.  It is in these forms that the body of Christ, the kingdom of God, becomes visible, touchable, as people reach out to one another, relate to one another in grace and mercy and forgiveness.  In our baptism God has washed us clean and brought us into the body of Christ.

            The church at Corinth was a motley crew to say the least.  Paul talks about Jews and Greeks, about slaves and free people.  There were rich people and there were poor people; people from the inner city and from the suburbs.  There were people having trouble with their marriages; people going to court to sue one another; quarreling and bickering was common.  The point which Paul is making in our text for today is though we are all members of the body of Christ, we are all different members of that body.  “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

            Take a moment and look at the various parts of your body.  You have hands which function in various ways.  They are used for working, for playing, for drawing, for countless functions.  You have your legs.  They help you get from Point A to Point B.  Legs can function to help you work, for playing.  There are other functions that legs serve, but they can’t perform the functions that hands can perform.  The same is true of the parts of the face.  We have eyes, ears, a nose and a mouth.  Each performs certain functions which the others cannot.  No part of the church can cut itself off from the whole.  Each part of the church serves its own function and is needed.  Paul tried to convey that message to the Corinthian church but they didn’t fully understand what it was that Paul was saying.  When we read Paul’s words, we don’t necessarily fully understand what it is that Paul is saying.

            If you look at those people here this morning, you will see different professions.  Some are teachers while some are students.  Some are doctors and nurses, while some are police officers.  You have some who stay at home while some travel so much, they don’t really call any one place home.  Regardless, each of these people makes up the body of Christ.  Each has their own vocation.  Each performs a different role in the body of Christ.  Paul reminds us that “God has appointed” them all, no matter what their gift or office might be.

            To think that we can get along without one another is really rather ridiculous.  We each make up the body of Christ, each with our various vocations and abilities.  This reinforces what Paul tells us.  “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

            Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.  Today we take a moment and place a special value on human life.  We remember those unborn children who have been killed by abortion.  We remember the elderly who are no longer able to care for themselves.  Regardless of one’s age or whether or not they are inside or outside of the womb, every person is a child of God and belongs to His family.  Each is an integral part of the body of Christ and Paul makes this point rather clear with his descriptions of the various parts of the body.

      No Christian is an island.  We need Jesus.  We are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  We make up the body of Christ and in turn, Christ is reflected in us and by our actions.  We need the Church.  The Church is made up of the body of Christ.  As Paul says, “God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.”  We each have various gifts and talents which make up the body of Christ, the Church.  The Church needs all kinds of people in order to function properly, just as the body needs the various body parts in order to function properly.  We need each other.  “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”  The body of Christ—the Christian church—is to work that same way, spiritually.  When one Christian suffers, all Christians suffer.  When one Christian rejoices, all Christians rejoice.  We are all in this together, all part of Christ’s church.

      We are all united in the body Christ through our baptism.  We remain united through Christ’s body and blood, given for us for the forgiveness of sins.  It is by His Word and Sacraments that we become, we are, and we ever more shall be, the body of Christ.  Amen.

      Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus until life everlasting, amen.

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