Pentecost 18C: September 30, 2007 - “Rich or Poor” September 30, 2007
Posted by Rev. Jared Tucher in Religion, Sermons.add a comment
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.
Preaching at a funeral service, a pastor made the statement, “My friends, we are living for two worlds.” He was challenged afterwards by a successful businessman who said, “We are living for one world and one only. We do not know of any other world than this one.” The pastor thought for a moment and then asked, “If you did believe in another world, would it make any difference to you?” The reply came without hesitation: “Of course it would. If I had the slightest suspicion that we are really living for any other world than this, I should change every major business policy I have before the end of the night.”
Where do we put our trust? Do we put it in our family, our friends? Do we put it in the bank? Do we put it in ourselves? It is very easy to put our trust into the things of this world as the business man did; it’s something which we are very good at. But at the end of the day, what can this world do for you? We think that the world will do everything for us. It will provide us with what we need, the necessities, like the new Mercedes or the half-million dollar house. Putting our trust and seeking our pleasure in the things of this life can cause us to forget about God and to suffer eternal punishment in the life which is to come.
With just a few words in our text for today, Jesus describes two men for us. First He tells about a rich man. The rich man dressed himself in purple, a color associated with royalty, and in linen, the most expensive cloth of those days. The rich man was not what we would call a bad man. He was very likely a respected man in the community. But his goal in life was set too low. He honestly believed that the important thing in life was to enjoy the good things life has to offer.
Pentecost 16C: September 16, 2007 - “Law and Gospel” September 17, 2007
Posted by Rev. Jared Tucher in Religion, Sermons.add a comment
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 to you earlier.
When you hear the term “law,” what do you think about? Do you think about the police? Do you think about what it is that you are not supposed to do? Do you think of the good of the law, for your protection? Or do you think like the song of Judas Priest, Breaking the Law?
Most of us think of the negative connotations of the word “law.” We rarely think of the good of the law. We don’t think that because of the law, we are protected from harm and danger. If it weren’t for the laws like speed limit, laws against drinking and driving and laws requiring you to wear a seat belt, there would be a lot of unnecessary deaths. Laws are not made to punish us or to take away our freedom; laws are put in place for our protection. Laws usually come about because of a negative experience, such as the loss of life. It is because of that negative experience that the law is put into place.
For the Church, we too have the Law, to show us what it is that we need to do and what not to do. While you have the Law with a big “L” in place, you will always have those who twist the Law, make it say things that it doesn’t really say. Paul says that “certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.” These were people who want to be law teachers but they have no idea what it is they’re teaching. They declare certain things without understanding what they declare, and pronounce with great confidence on what this and what that signifies without even understanding what these things are on which they make such pronouncements. It would be for us today to have someone who has watched Grey’s Anatomy to perform major surgery on you. They have no idea what they’re doing, but they have seen it on TV – therefore that makes them certified to operate. (more…)
Where were you? 9-11-01 September 11, 2007
Posted by Rev. Jared Tucher in 9-11, Nation.2 comments
Do you remember where you were? Do you remember what you were doing on September 11, 2001? It was my second day of class at Concordia Theological Seminary. We had just finished our first class of the day: Lutheran Worship. It was 9:55 am and the bell was tolling for Chapel to begin in 5 minutes. We were making our way up from the building to the Chapel. Those of us coming out of class went about our day like it was ordinary: we were talking, joking; everything we would normally do. When we arrived at the steps of the Chapel, the mood was somber. We heard students talking about a plane crash in New York. One plane had struck the World Trade Center. Shortly after that, another plane struck the other tower. Finally, both towers had collapsed. We were speechless. Everything in our lives were forever changed at that moment. Tears started to flow, even from the manliest of men. At that moment, no one adhered to the statement that boys don’t cry. Cry we did.
Rev. Richard Radtke from St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne was the preacher for Chapel. (His sermon can be found in CTQ 65:4, p. 297-298.) He always preached at the opening of the quarter. That day, he threw his sermon out the window and tried to give to all of us there some ounce of comfort following the morning’s events. Following Chapel, President Wenthe dismissed classes for the day. We all returned to our dorms or to the Student Commons and our eyes were fixed on the television. We saw over and over the planes crashing into the buildings. We saw over and over people jumping out of buildings to their death, only to save themselves from being burnt alive. We saw the towers fall, again and again and again. Little was said. What needed to be said? A tragedy had happened like no other in our nation’s history. We sat and watched as the events unfolded.
Six years later, the pain is still real. The horror is still real. What happened six years ago today will forever be engrained into our minds. To those who lost friends or loved ones, our thoughts and prayers are with you. To the nation, God Bless America!
MINISTRY shapes faith more than WORSHIP September 7, 2007
Posted by Rev. Jared Tucher in LCMS, Worship, Youth.1 comment so far
In the latest e-news letter put out by Rev. Terry Dittmer from the Youth Ministry Office of The LCMS Board for District and Congregational Services (what a mouthful), he has a blurb from the Associated Baptist Press under his “Teens and Trends” section. Here is what it says:
If you want to influence a teenager’s faith, have them serve meals to the homeless or do other hands-on service projects. “Involvement in community service is far more significant to the faith development of teens than involvement in worship,” says Michael Sherr, one of the Baylor University researchers who conducted the study (Associated Baptist Press, February 8, 2007).
So the question is: should I have my youth attend the Divine Service, where they hear the Word of God and receive Christ’s body and blood, OR should I send them to the local soup kitchen where they serve meals to the homeless? Better yet, why not just cancel church for all the members and send them to various places to do “hands-on service projects?” If it’s good for youth, then it has to be good for the entire congregation, right?
UPDATE: You can read the entire article for yourself here.
Pentecost 14C: September 2, 2007 - “Testing…One, Two, Three” September 4, 2007
Posted by Rev. Jared Tucher in Religion, Sermons.add a comment
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.
Olive Garden. Outback Steakhouse. Red Lobster. Texas Roadhouse. O’Charley’s. These are some of my favorite places to eat. Whether it is by myself, with my wife or family and friends, these are places that I enjoy. When I go there, I’m not looking to be harassed or have my every move scrutinized under a microscope; I’m just looking to enjoy a nice meal. That’s what happens when you or I go somewhere to eat: we just eat. There are no strings attached and we’re not harassed. However, if your name is Jesus Christ, you’re not going to have that luxury.
Our text begins with an innocent setting: Jesus having dinner at the house of a rule of the Pharisees. So far, so good. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary here. He’s ate dinner at many people’s houses throughout His days: Matthew, Mary & Martha, Zacchaeus, and others, just to name a few. However, this time, they were watching Him. They did what any doubter would do: they put Jesus to the test. As Jesus has set His face toward Jerusalem, there has been opposition. Now, those watching are watching Jesus carefully, even maliciously, to put Him to the test and to see how He will act. Their intentions are to find something of which to accuse Him. But in the end, Jesus is ultimately testing them and pointing to their own sinful motivations.
We have several key players in the “witch-hunt” of Jesus. We have the ruler of the Pharisees, lawyers and Pharisees. The Pharisees were the good people of their day. They never missed a religious meeting, they studied the Scriptures, they tithed, and they set the moral standard for their cultures. Jesus did not choose the guests but accepted an invitation to join them. He was likely invited because “they were watching him.” They thought He was being tested, but they were the ones who were having their values checked. Lawyers here were more like contemporary Bible scholars than modern attorneys. They interpreted the Scriptures and applied them to social and religious behavior, while Pharisees did not distinguish between the two.
Pentecost 12C: August 19, 2007 - “Faith and Pain” September 4, 2007
Posted by Rev. Jared Tucher in Religion, Sermons.add a comment
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.
Faith. It’s a broad topic with many definitions to the word. One can walk into any Christian bookstore and find a broad range of books on the topic. We talk a lot about faith, but what is true faith and where is true faith found?
A simple explanation of faith is “the active principle by which the individual enters into that right relation to God which the all-atoning work of Christ has established for the entire world.” Another definition of “faith is also conceived as a state. In this respect faith is reviewed as the continued possession of the gifts and blessings of God, in and through Christ, through an enduring, abiding confidence in His all-complete and all-sufficient redemption.”
When one hears those definitions, one might see a problem with them. Nowhere does it talk about us and what it is that we do. Nowhere does it talk about putting trust in the things of this world. How can you have faith when you don’t have us involved with it? (more…)
