by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 14, 2023 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 12
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany – February 12, 2023
Matthew 5:21-37
As the actor and comedian W. C. Fields was dying in the hospital, a longtime friend went to visit him. He was surprised to find Fields reading a Bible. Fields had never shown any interest in God or religion before. In fact, he was widely known as an outspoken atheist and a bit of a scoundrel. So, his friend was surprised to see the famous man reading the Bible on his deathbed. “What are you doing, W. C.?” the friend asked. To which the comedian replied: “I’m looking for a loophole.”
This seems to be a common practice, and not just for atheists who are hedging their bets on their deathbed. God’s own people throughout history have sought loopholes when it comes to obeying God’s holy law. God’s people throughout history have sought loopholes when it comes to being held accountable to that law.
As we heard in our first reading from Deuteronomy, God set before his people commandments by which they were to live. Doing so would lead to human flourishing. Doing so would bring life and prosperity rather than death and adversity. This wasn’t just a matter of outward behavior; it was also a matter of the heart. And so comes the warning we heard in Deuteronomy: “If your heart turns away and you do not hear…I declare to you that you shall perish.”
And as soon as these words were spoken, as soon as these commandments and decrees and ordinances were given, God’s people started looking for loopholes. They started making excuses. They started challenging the authority of God. They started watering down and explaining away the commandments. This game very much continues today as people cleverly edit or massage or set aside God’s commands in a vain attempt to create a loophole through which they may pass, avoiding God’s judgement.
Jesus clearly knows all about this game. Apparently, some had gotten the impression that he had come to abolish the law. We heard Jesus debunk this rumor last week when he said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law. I haven’t come to abolish one letter of it! I have come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.” Jesus had not come to bring loopholes! And as we pick up where we left off last week with the Sermon on the Mount, this could not be more clear.
“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times,” Jesus says, ‘You shall not murder,’ but I say to you, if you are even angry with a brother or sister, if you even insult someone, if you even call someone a fool, you are liable to the hell of fire.” Remember the law was not just given by God to regulate outward behavior. It was given to regulate the heart. And Jesus says here that anger and spite and name-calling comes from the same place in the heart that murder does. It makes you just as guilty before God. No loopholes.
This is so important to God, Jesus says, that before you bring your offering to God, you are to go and be reconciled first. Don’t think you can be all lovey-dovey towards God while holding grudges against your neighbor. First, be reconciled! Don’t think your offering offsets your hardened heart! Don’t think that you can write a check to compensate for your violation of this commandment! No loopholes.
Next up we have the commandment on adultery. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Again, the law was not just given to regulate outward behavior. It was given to regulate the heart. And to let your eyes fall lustfully on someone to whom you are not married, whether it’s an attractive stranger at the grocery store, or a Super Bowl cheerleader on TV, or someone in a magazine or on a screen, to look at them in this way is to reveal what is truly in your heart.
Don’t think that just because there is no physical contact that it doesn’t matter, Jesus is saying. How dare you take your eyes off the spouse God gave you? How dare you look at one of God’s daughters in that way! When you do so you are objectifying them, bringing shame on yourself, and betraying your wife. It would be better, Jesus says, for you to cut out your eye if that’s what it takes than to have your whole body cast into hell! It’s that serious! Don’t think that you can look but not touch. Even a wandering eye is a form of adultery. No loopholes.
Jesus then moves from adultery to divorce, and what he says here is just as hard to hear for many people here today as it was then. Only men could initiate a divorce in Jesus’ time, so he addressed them specifically. He says: “whoever divorces his wife, except on the grounds of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” It wasn’t hard at all in Jesus’ time for a man to find a rabbi who would sign off on his divorce certificate, for just about any reason. Archeologists have found some of these ancient divorce papers where the reason for the divorce is cited as “she burned my dinner.” Many of the men of Jesus’ time, then, came to believe that as long as they had the certificate, they were good! As long as they did the paperwork, they believed, they hadn’t violated any of God’s laws.
But once again, remember that the law was not given just to govern outward behavior. It was given to regulate the heart. And divorce always involves a hardened heart in at least one of the parties, much of the time both. Sometimes it is that one person’s heart becomes hardened while the other’s is broken. Much of the time it involves two hearts which have both become too hardened to be reconciled. It always involves a broken promise. It always involves tearing asunder of hearts that God has joined together.
Jesus’ words might sound harsh, especially to those who have divorced and remarried. But isn’t it true that every divorce involves a measure of heartache, of regret and sadness? There is no certificate or legal document that takes away the painful complications of a marriage that has ended. If there are children involved, there is no certificate that can take away the heartache of those kids being torn between dad and mom for the rest of their lives. Jesus is just being honest here about what divorce is like. I’ve never met a divorced person who didn’t have a lingering wound somewhere in their heart. Just because the paperwork is in order doesn’t mean God’s intention for marriage wasn’t violated. There’s no way around it. No loopholes.
Jesus takes up one last commandment in our reading for today, the commandment against lying. He says: “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely,’ but I say to you, do not swear at all.” Jesus is not talking about using bad words here. He is talking about the way we try to add some oomph to our words by saying things like, “I swear!” or even worse, “I swear to God!”
You see, human beings tend to be untrustworthy in how we use words. We often use words to shade the truth in our favor. We use words to influence, even to misrepresent and manipulate. This is why people say, “I swear.” We do it to make our words more believable. And doing so just outs us as people who have already broken the commandment against lying. It outs us as people who aren’t normally trustworthy. So let your yes be yes and your no be no, Jesus says. Anyone who needs to swear an oath to make themselves more believable has shown that they have already violated the commandment. No loopholes.
It is sometimes thought that Jesus is the nice, laid-back God of the New Testament, in contrast to the mean, strict God of the Old Testament. It is sometimes thought that Jesus came to relax the law, reducing it all to some squishy definition of love that accepts and affirms everything and never makes any demands on anyone’s life. It is sometimes thought that Jesus came to abolish the law, or at least reduce it to something that is easier to keep.
Can you hear Jesus today and still think any of this? Last week we heard Jesus say, “I have not come to abolish the law. Not one stroke of it.” And then in the part of the sermon we hear today, Jesus points to the deeper meaning of the law, applying it not just to outward behavior but to what is going on in our hearts. Jesus is relentless in applying God’s law to every corner of our lives, every corner of our being, telling us in no uncertain terms that there are no loopholes.
Some of you might be especially sensitive to some of what Jesus says today – but make no mistake about it, every single one of us here today are in the same boat. The law convicts and condemns all of us. None of you here today are any worse off than anyone else. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There are no loopholes for any of us!
If some of this has been too much for you to bear and the pain of it all has caused you to shut your ears to my voice, please open them again. Please listen to me, because what I am about to say to you is the most important thing you will hear today. Jesus didn’t come to bring loopholes. He came to bring something better. He came to reconcile you to God through his forgiveness. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law. He came to do something better. He came to fulfill it for you! He lived in perfect obedience to God’s holy law for you, and he gives you his righteousness as a gift of grace, to be received in faith. Jesus didn’t just come to preach and teach God’s law. He did that too, and we cannot simultaneously love him and ignore his words, but he came to be so much more than a preacher and a teacher. He came to be a savior!
Jesus befriended sinners of every stripe. He spoke words of forgiveness to the woman caught in adultery. He even forgave the angry crowds who put him on the cross. There is nothing mentioned in this relentless sermon of his that Jesus didn’t go on to forgive. It was ultimately Jesus’ good pleasure to fulfill the law for us. He ultimately came to give us what the law can never give. He came to save us. He came to reconcile us to God. He came to bring forgiveness, and he specifically told his church to continue his mission and ministry by proclaiming this forgiveness in his name.
So listen up and listen good: In Christ Jesus your sin forgiven. All of it – every angry thought, every insult, every failure to reconcile, every wayward glance, every failed relationship, every broken promise, every deception – in Jesus Christ, all is forgiven.
There are no loopholes in the Bible. Jesus sure as heck doesn’t give us any! But as we look beyond this sermon to what Jesus did for us in his death and resurrection, we find something much better than a loophole. We find a savior who died the death we deserve, and even now is raising us to new life with him.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 7, 2023 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 5
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 5, 2023
Matthew 5:13-20
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks new realities into being. Just as God the Creator said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, now God the Son is speaking new things into existence.
Last week we heard Jesus say, “Blessed are you,” over and over again. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus said. “Blessed are those who mourn, and those who are meek. Blessed are the pure in heart and the peacemakers. Blessed are you when you are rejected and reviled for my sake,” Jesus said. And as Christ spoke these blessings, they came to be. Jesus’ word does what it says! Just as God the Father spoke creation into existence, so too now God the Son is speaking new realities into being by the power of his Word.
We are in the second of a three-part series on the Sermon on the Mount, and as we pick up where we left off last week, we hear Jesus continuing to do this. “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus says. This is a declarative statement. Christ has defined his hearers in this way, and so that is what they now are! “You are the light of the world,” Jesus says, echoing the Father at creation. Jesus calls this light into being and then says, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
What does it mean to be the salt of the earth? Throughout most of human history salt has been used as a seasoning. It is really quite an amazing substance. Salt is a flavor enhancer. It draws out the goodness of the food being seasoned. Salt also neutralizes bitterness, which is why you almost always need a pinch of it even in sweet recipes. Salt, of course, is still widely used today. It is found in every kitchen around the world, and on the table of every restaurant.
In the ancient world, salt was also used as an essential preservative. In Jesus’ time there were no refrigerators. There were no Coleman coolers. You couldn’t grab a bag of ice on your way out of the grocery store. The only way to preserve meat was to salt it. Even just a thin layer on a fish filet or a slab of lamb would keep it from rotting, preserving those important sources of protein.
To be the salt of the earth, then, is to bring out goodness. It is to neutralize bitterness. It is also to be a preservative for the sake of the world, for the sake of human society, keeping it from rotting.
What does it mean to be the light of the world? From ancient times and across cultures, light has represented truth. Many educational institutions use a torch as part of their insignia to represent the pursuit of truth. Light has long represented hope and comfort, like the first light of dawn after a long night of darkness. Light has long been a symbol of goodness and holiness and life, in contrast to the darkness of evil and sin and death. To be the light of the world, then, is to be bearers of truth and hope and goodness and life. It is to reflect the light of Christ into the darkness of the world.
When I think of what it means for us Christians to be salt and light, I think of a news story that came out a couple of years ago about a high school in Louisiana. The school was dealing with some serious discipline problems. I’m not just talking about kids being tardy. This high school had 23 students arrested over the course of three days after a series of fights on campus. In response, a group of dads formed a group they called “Dads on Duty.” They worked with the principal to have dads come in to just roam the campus. They weren’t there as security. They weren’t there as counselors. They were simply there to be dads. And so they did what dads are supposed to do. They told dad jokes! They got the kids to smile and laugh. They listened to these kids. They provided encouragement, giving high-fives in the hallways. They provided guidance on basic life skills, like tucking in your shirt and wearing a belt, and showing up on time. These were just a few dads who took turns coming in, just a handful of dads spread out across the school, none of them doing anything particularly spectacular or special. They were just being who they were as dads. But what a difference it made. Since the “Dads on Duty” program started there hasn’t been a single fight on campus.
This, I think, is a microcosm of what we are called to be and do as Christians. We are the salt of the earth. As we are scattered and sprinkled throughout our communities, we bring a measure of goodness that preserves God’s world. This isn’t a goodness that comes from us, it is a goodness that Christ has given us when he declared us to be the salt of the earth! And so we don’t need to be anything more than what we are. Just by sharing the goodness we have been given we provide seasoning and preservation to the lives of the people around us.
We are the light of the world. As we reflect the light of Christ which shines on us, we bear the truth of God to the world. This includes the truth of God’s law. Jesus himself says in this very sermon that whoever breaks one of the commandments of the law, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them, Jesus says, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And so part of bearing this light is to teach the truth about God’s law, God’s commandments. We shouldn’t do this in a way that is aggressive or mean-spirited. Remember, we’re called to bring light, not heat! But part of bearing this light is to show the goodness and beauty of God’s ways, living our lives in stark contrast to the darkness of the world. Part of bearing this light is guiding others away from the lies of the devil, the world, and their sinful selves, and into lives that are pleasing to God.
But to bear this light is not only to bear the truth of God’s law. It is also to bear the truth of the gospel. It is to bring the light of God’s grace. It is to bring hope to those burdened by their sin by assuring them of Christ’s forgiveness. It is to bear witness to the goodness of God, who sent Christ to fulfill the law for us.
This isn’t easy. We won’t always be as well-received as those dads at that school in Louisiana. Sometimes the salt we bring stings those who have rejected God. Sometimes the light we bring hurts the eyes of those who have lived too long in the darkness. We are called to navigate this hostility very carefully, in ways that neutralize bitterness – in us, as well as in others. As we heard last week, we are even called to rejoice when we are reviled, for that is what happened to the prophets. We’re in good company, Jesus promises, and our reward will be great in heaven.
Sometimes we might feel discouraged as we increasingly seem to be pushed to the margins of society and the fringes of culture. We might get discouraged as we continue to see the church losing numbers and Christianity losing influence in society. But it doesn’t take much salt to make a difference. Many recipes call for only a pinch, right? It doesn’t take much salt to preserve something. A thin sprinkling, spread out, can be very effective in keeping things from rotting.
Likewise, a small amount of light can chase back a lot of darkness. As long as that light isn’t hidden under a bushel for some dumb reason, it brings light to the whole room!
Today Jesus declares us to be salt and light. He isn’t giving us a suggestion or an invitation, he just up and says it! By his Word he is bringing a new reality into existence. He has said that we are salt and light, and so that is what we are! Christ isn’t calling us to anything particularly heroic here, necessarily. He is simply calling us to be what he has made us to be. He is sprinkling his people around the world to enhance and preserve the world he so dearly loves. He is shining his light on us so that we would reflect his light for all to see.
How we live as salt and light varies greatly depending on the callings and opportunities God gives to each of us. Some are salt and light as dads or moms or aunts or uncles or sons or daughters. You are salt and light in your jobs, your careers, your workplaces. You are salt and light in your service as volunteers. We have our own school program here where kids come over on early-release Wednesdays. I see them fed and high-fived and welcomed and encouraged. I hear them being guided into proper behavior, like not running down the halls or doing stupid things in the bathrooms. Some are salt and light by putting on coffee for us every Sunday. Some are salt and light as Stephen Ministers. Others in our congregation are salt and light in our community as they volunteer at Spin Café or the refugee support team or the crisis pregnancy clinic. You are salt and light as citizens as you care for our communities and participate in the political process.
These are simple things, but they are so profound. Christ has infused your life with purpose and meaning. As you roam the hallways of Oak Harbor and Coupeville and Anacortes and wherever else you live and work and play, you are the salt of the earth. You bring the flavor of Christ, which brings goodness to others, which neutralizes bitterness and preserves this world from going completely rotten. You bring the light of Christ, the light of truth and hope and grace and life, simply by being who Christ has said you are.
You are the salt of the earth. This isn’t merely my opinion of you. This isn’t something you might become if you try hard enough. This is what Christ Jesus has declared you to be. His word does what it says. It brings new realities into being. And so this is who you are.
You are also the light of the world. So let your light so shine before others that they would see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 31, 2023 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 29
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany – January 29, 2023
Matthew 5:1-12
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
When you think of what it means to be blessed, what comes to mind? Usually we think of ourselves as blessed when things are going well. We are blessed when we are healthy – physically, spiritually, and emotionally. We are blessed when we have enough in the fridge and in the bank account. We are blessed when we have good relationships with others, when we have people in our lives who love us. We are blessed when the people we love are happy and healthy too. Blessings are usually thought of in terms of those things which bring us joy and peace and contentedness.
And this isn’t wrong. If I were asked to name the greatest blessings in my life, these are the kinds of things I would point to. They are the first things that would come to my mind. These are indeed blessings – they are gifts from God.
In the Sermon on the Mount, however, Jesus greatly expands the idea of what a blessing is and who is blessed. In this first part of his famous sermon (we’ll hear more of it next Sunday), Jesus announces blessings upon situations and people which were not thought to be blessed at all!
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus begins. Jesus starts off by announcing a blessing on those for whom things are NOT going well! Blessed are those who are down in the dumps. Blessed are those who are anxious or remorseful or ashamed. Blessed are those who are in despair.
“Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus continues. Blessed are those who are mired in grief. Blessed are those who have faced loss of one kind or another. Blessed are those who are sad because their loved ones are NOT happy or healthy.”
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” Jesus said. In other words, blessed are those whose lives are NOT right, those who know the sin they have inflicted on others, those who sting from the sin inflicted upon them by others, those who long for their relationship with God and their relationships with others to be better, to be made right.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted and reviled and have all kinds of evil uttered against them falsely on Christ’s account.” Blessed are those who are harassed and excluded and teased and despised and lied about by others because they are Christians. Apparently being a Christian won’t always make us popular or respected by others!
I’m not going to unpack every beatitude, every blessing, but you can see here how these upend how we usually think about blessings. These are not the situations or people we usually think of as blessed, are they? The poor in spirit? Those who mourn? Those whose lives are not right? Those who are hated? These are blessed? Really?
This sermon of Jesus’, the Sermon on the Mount, is not a prescription. Jesus is not saying these are things you should strive to be and do. No one should try to be poor in spirit. No one should seek unrighteousness or broken relationships. Purposefully offending people doesn’t make you a Christian, it just makes you a jerk. This sermon is not a prescription but a description. It is a description of what Jesus is up to. It is a description of the gifts, the blessings, he has come to give.
Jesus has come to bring blessings to those who are lacking them in one way or another. Jesus has come to bring gifts from God to people who need them. Christ has come for the sick, not the healthy. He has come for sinners, not the righteous. He has come for the broken, not those whose lives are all put together neatly.
And these gifts have both a present reality and a future hope. Note how each of the blessings are in the present tense. “Blessed ARE…” Jesus says, over and over again. He doesn’t say, “Blessed WILL BE this person or that after they accomplish this or decide to do that.” Their blessing comes now! And it comes because Christ Jesus has come to be with them. Jesus came to be with the sick and suffering. He came to be with those who were plagued by demons. He came to break bread with sinners. He came to seek out the broken and the lost. And as he came to be with them, his presence with them was already a blessing! “Blessed ARE you!” he said to them. “Yours IS the kingdom of heaven!” In Christ’s presence with them, they got to participate in that kingdom now. They could know the peace and the presence of God. What a gift! What a blessing!
But Christ’s blessings also pointed to a future hope. They WILL BE comforted. They WILL BE filled. Rejoicing WILL come, because when the blessing of Christ’s presence is made known, healing and new life can’t be far behind.
When I was poor in spirit and mourning last year after the sudden and tragic death of my mother, my Christian counselor talked about the Japanese art of kintsugi. This is an art form where something broken is repaired with gold or silver. Those precious metals are melted down and used as a glue, welding the broken pieces back together, creating beautiful rivulets where the cracks had been. The broken places were still there, but the bowl or the vase was whole again, and the scars had been turned into something beautiful, something redeemed.
This is the blessing Christ has come to give to the broken. He has come to take the shards, the jagged parts of our lives, and bring them together by his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness, making us whole again. The marks left behind might still be there – at least for now, at least in this life – but instead of being ugly scars, they become places of strength. They become something beautiful, beautiful because they have been redeemed. This doesn’t happen overnight. I know the Lord Jesus is still working on me. But in his artful way, those jagged places are being fitted back together, healed in ways that are truly beautiful.
When people outside the church look at us, I think they often assume that we are a group of people who are blessed in a conventional sense. Supposedly, we are the people whose lives are going well. We are the ones with strong marriages and healthy families and stable lives. We are the ones who are happy and righteous and spiritually strong. Maybe that’s even what we think sometimes. While there are examples of this to be found, to be sure, that’s not why we come to church. It is not what makes us Christians. We sometimes feel like we need to put our best foot forward at church, like we need to hide the broken parts of our lives when we come into this sanctuary, like we need to pretend everything is fine, like we have everything together – but you and I both know this is often a charade, and it’s a foolish one at that.
One of the privileges of being a pastor, especially one who has stayed in the same congregation for a while, is that you come to know people’s stories. You come to learn the truth lurking behind the facades people wear to church. I’ve been here long enough for you to see some of my broken places, and I’ve seen plenty of yours. That’s as it should be
And so it is always so meaningful to me to distribute communion. As I make my laps around the chancel I come to people who were in my office the week before to talk about their dysfunctional families, about their estrangement from their kids, about the troubles in their marriage. I come up to people who are grieving for parents or spouses or children. I come up to people who are fighting cancer, who are sometimes kneeling next to their terrified spouse. I come up to people who are suffering the ravages of age. I come up to people whose lives are anything but neatly put together. That’s all of us in one way or another, isn’t it? We all have areas of our lives that seem to be lacking in blessing.
But here comes Christ Jesus, practicing kintsugi. He comes to us with a word that does what it says. “Blessed are you who are poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” “Blessed are you who mourn, for you will be comforted.” “Blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you will be filled.” Blessed are you who are persecuted or hated or excluded for my sake, for your reward is great in heaven.”
Here comes Christ Jesus, practicing kintsugi, welding us back together with his body and blood, forgiving us, renewing us, redeeming us with the beautiful rivulets of his sacrificial love, making us whole again, making even our broken parts gleam with his glory.
The conventional blessings of good health, good relationships, and good things happening in our lives are always to be received with gratitude. They are truly blessings from God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
But God sent the Son to bring his blessings, his gifts, to those parts of our lives that are broken. Christ came for the sick, not the healthy. He came for sinners, not the righteous. He came for the broken, not those whose lives are all put together neatly.
And so he has come for you – for every part of you, every part of your life. He has come to enter into the broken places that are lacking in blessing. He has come to bless them with his healing presence and his saving grace.
“Blessed are you,” Jesus says. This is the present tense. This means right here and right now. Blessed are you, for Christ has come to you, and once Christ makes himself known, healing and new life are never far behind.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 24, 2023 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 22
Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 22, 2023
Matthew 4:12-23
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps, like me, you’ve started to notice that the days are getting longer. The mornings are getting brighter. Every day since December 21 we’ve been adding light to our days – just a few seconds at first, and then a few minutes, until the increasing light becomes noticeable. Soon those extra minutes of light will become hours. By the time we get to the summer solstice on June 21, we’ll go from just under the 9 hours of light we have now to almost 16 hours of daylight. For those of us who are sensitive to the lack of light, this can’t come soon enough!
While the days are getting longer, while we are indeed getting more light, sometimes it doesn’t seem like it. We have added several minutes of light to our days since December 21, but there was at least one day this week where you couldn’t tell at all! The cloud cover was thick, and the whole day was shrouded in darkness.
This can’t help but have an impact on us. Not only is Seasonal Affective Disorder a real thing, but there is also a complex calculation people have used to determine the worst day of the year, the day when people are most likely to be in a funk, and lack of daylight is part of the equation. The calculation includes many factors, including the number of days since Christmas, the amount of debt people have (much of it from Christmas), and the day when it is most likely that people have broken their optimistic new year’s resolutions. Another big factor in the calculation is the weather and the amount of daylight. All these numbers are crunched together in an actual formula to determine the worst day of the year, at least in the northern hemisphere. Do you know when that day is this year? Tomorrow!
At times it seems like the darkness is winning. It seemed like that last week. It might seem like that tomorrow for many people. But make no mistake about it – it isn’t. That glorious, life-giving light is dawning a little more each day.
While they aren’t in the northern hemisphere, the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali are described in scripture as lands of deep darkness. They are described as places where the people sat in darkness. This is a region under a shadow, the shadow of death. This is how these places are described by the prophet Isaiah. This is how Matthew describes them, citing Isaiah’s words.
Zebulun and Naphtali are the names of the two tribes of Israel who originally lived there. They were way out on the far-flung northern border of Israel. These two tribes were far from the center of Jewish power in Jerusalem. They were always the first to be invaded and the farthest from help. They knew of wars and hardships and foreign rule more than any other tribes.
They were also surrounded by Gentiles, by non-Jews. And so Isaiah also calls this region “The Galilee of the Gentiles.” Some of the Jews in this area were influenced by their Gentile neighbors. They started to adopt some of their cultural practices. They drifted from the godly shape of life given to them by their Creator to the unbridled excesses of paganism. Some even started to turn away from the God of Israel to worship the gods of the Gentiles.
This was indeed a land of deep darkness and shadows. It was a land of strife and struggle and sin.
As Jesus began his ministry, he made a beeline straight for this region. This morning we hear how Jesus moved from Nazareth where he was raised to the region of Galilee, about 30 miles north. As St. Matthew tells us, “He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.”
One reason Matthew gives for the move is that Jesus heard that John had been arrested, and so he “withdrew” to Galilee. This could also be translated as “fled” to Galilee. It is the same word Matthew used when he described how Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt when they learned of Herod the Great’s evil intentions to get rid of Jesus when he was just a baby. Now Jesus is engaging in a strategic withdrawal to avoid another Herod, Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, who had just arrested John the Baptist for preaching against his adulterous marriage to his sister-in-law.
But there is a deeper reason for Jesus’ move from Nazareth to this region that Matthew wants us to know about. Matthew points us to the promise Isaiah had proclaimed. Isaiah had said that the people of this land, these people who sat in darkness, would see a great light. He said that those who lived in this cold, dark shadow, this shadow of death, on them light would dawn. This is the deeper reason Jesus moved to “the Galilee of the Gentiles.” He moved there to fulfill this promise, the promise that light would dawn in this land of deep darkness. Jesus moved there to bring light to those who sat in this darkness.
And Jesus did just that! Jesus brought the light of God as he began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!” Jesus brought the light of truth as he told people they needed to repent. They needed to change their minds. They needed to change their ways. They needed to turn from their sin. They needed to turn back to God. Jesus brought the light of life as he told people that in him, God had already turned towards them. The kingdom had already come near! In this concise little sermon with both law and gospel, Jesus was bringing the light. In both his proclamation and in his very person, Jesus was that long-promised light shining in their darkness.
Jesus then called some local fishermen to help him shine this light. He went to Simon Peter and his brother Andrew as they were casting a net into the Sea of Galilee. He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people!” These two brothers, Matthew tells us, immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus. In the same way, Jesus called two more brothers, James and John. They too left their boat and followed Jesus. Just as they once used their nets to bring fish up from the depths of darkness and into the light of day, now these fishermen would fish for people, bringing them out of their darkness and into the light of truth and the light of life.
We know what it means to live in darkness. Whether it the seasonal funk of literally dark days or the darkness of discouragement or depression or despair. We know what it is to sit in the shadow of death, mourning for the loss of loved ones and aching for friends who are grieving. We know what it is to live in a culture of death, where violence is common and there is little sense of the sacredness and dignity of every human life. We know what it is to live in the darkness of sin – for just as the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali so often accommodated themselves to the paganism of their pagan neighbors, our worldview and the gods we worship are sometimes more influenced by the world around us than we dare to admit.
But we who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We who sat in the region and shadow of death, on us a light has dawned. The light of Christ has shined upon us.
This is the light of truth. It tells us the truth about ourselves. It calls us to repent, to change our minds and our ways. It calls us to turn away from sin and towards God. This isn’t something we do once in our lives and then things are smooth sailing after that. Martin Luther said that the entire life of a Christian is one of repentance. We are constantly needing to turn back to God! This is precisely what the light of God’s Word calls us to do today as we hear Jesus’ proclamation calling us to repent.
But this light is also the light of life. It is a life-giving light as it tells us that the kingdom of heaven has come near to us. It tells us that God has already turned towards us in Christ Jesus. His gracious, loving, forgiving presence is like light in the morning when there has been only darkness. It is like a break in the clouds after weeks of gloom. It is like sunlight warming our bones after the cold of winter.
This light shows us both our sin and our savior, and just as it brought healing to those who met Jesus throughout Galilee, so too does it bring healing and hope and peace and life to us.
Our Lord Jesus calls us into this light today, to be sure, but we are also called to bring it to others. To fish for people is not to lure them with bait. It isn’t to clobber them over the head. To fish for people is to go deep into our neighbor’s lives, meeting them in their darkness, meeting them in the depths of their strife and struggle and sin, in order to bring them up into the light of the new day Christ is bringing, into the light of his forgiveness and mercy and love.
Sometimes it seems like the darkness is winning – in our world, in our lives. But, my friends, those shadows can be deceiving. The truth is, the light of Christ is shining into your darkness even now. The light of Christ shines for us today through his Holy Word and his Holy Sacraments.
“The people who sat in deep darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.” This passage from Isaiah is now about you! Don’t be confused by the clouds. The light of Christ is shining into your life even now, heralding a new day.
There is still a lot of darkness out there. And so as we leave this place, let us go out to fish the deep waters, so that others may be brought into the light of Christ too.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 17, 2023 | Sermons
Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany – January 15, 2023
John 1:29-42
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I was sharing our gospel reading for today with our preschoolers in chapel this week, and to begin the conversation about Jesus being identified by John as the Lamb of God, I asked the kids a question. “If you could be any kind of animal,” I asked them, “what would you be, and why?” I told them I would like to be a bald eagle because they live in beautiful places and can soar above the scenery and because I like to eat salmon. Then it was their turn. One little girl said she’d like to be a bunny, because she likes to hop. Another little girl said she’d like to be a kitty cat because then she could play more with her pet cat and because she likes to drink milk – and then she flicked her tongue to show me how kitties drink milk. Then the next kid in line, a little boy, blurted out, “I’d like to be a dinosaur so I could eat people.” Now, you might think that this would be cause for concern, that it might be time for a referral to a child psychologist, but this kid delivered this line with a smirk on his face and a twinkle in his eye. He’s going to be a comedian, not a cannibal! In one way or another, each of these responses gives some insight into the person answering, right? It reveals something about each of them.
Now, nobody asked Jesus what kind of animal he’d like to be and why, but something similar is happening in our gospel reading for today. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him, he pointed to him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The next day, when John was standing with two of his disciples, as they watched Jesus walk by, John again said, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” John refers to Jesus metaphorically as a lamb. It is important for us to understand why, because understanding why reveals much about who Jesus is and what he has come to do for us.
When John called Jesus a lamb, his own disciples would have had a deep sense of what that meant. They would have known that a lamb is born to give its life for others. This is true in the most basic agricultural sense. A lamb was, and often still is, born to serve as nourishment for human beings. It would be killed in order to give life, in order to provide meat and marrow for those who would feast upon it. But the meaning of the lamb goes far deeper than the protein it provides. The lamb was an important animal for the religious life of the Jewish people. It has a spiritual meaning too.
The most significant example of this is in the story of the Passover. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, God told Moses to sacrifice a year-old lamb, one without defects or flaws. Once it had been sacrificed, the Israelites were to sprinkle the blood of this lamb on their door posts. They were then to roast and eat the lamb, making sure there was nothing left over. Then, when the angel of the Lord passed over Egypt, bringing judgement and death upon the Egyptians, the angel of death would “pass over” the homes which had been marked with the blood of the lamb. They were thus saved by the blood of the lamb. The blood of the lamb saved them from death. The blood of the lamb led to their deliverance out of slavery and bondage and into freedom.
Later, God provided the sacrificial system for his chosen people. Under the sacrificial system, the sins of the people could be forgiven with the sacrifice of a lamb. It was through this sacrifice, through the blood of a lamb being sprinkled on the altar, that sinners were reconciled to God. The sacrifice of a lamb took away their sin and gave them access to the holy presence of God.
Oftentimes this was a solemn ceremony as the people confessed the depths of their sin, expressing remorse and regret and repentance. They were forced to confront the stark fact that sin leads to death, for which the lamb served as a substitute. It would die in their place.
But these sacrifices were also, in some contexts, occasions for joy. The sacrificial lamb was sometimes given as a thank offering. In these settings the lamb was roasted on the altar and the meat was enjoyed by both the priests and the people. It was like a holy barbecue where God’s forgiven and holy people could joyfully eat together in God’s presence. (I think of this every summer when we gather for our church picnic and barbecue out at the Muzzall farm.)
For John to point to Jesus and refer to him as “the Lamb of God,” would have stirred up all of these and many other similar associations for John’s disciples. The lamb was not only a staple protein for these people, it was an animal with profound spiritual significance. It was an animal that was born to be sacrificed, so that the people would have forgiveness, life, and salvation. In referring to Jesus in this way, John is revealing much about who Jesus is and what he has come to do.
When Jesus came onto the scene, John pointed to him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Israelites sacrificed a lamb to atone for their sins. Their sacrifice was temporary and limited. Jesus had come to be the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the whole entire world! Jesus had come to sacrifice himself once and for all – not on an altar, but on the cross.
John referring to Jesus as the Lamb of God revealed that Christ has come to save people from death. He is the new Passover lamb. Whenever you hear the word paschal in the liturgy – the paschal festival, the paschal feast, the paschal candle, the paschal lamb – this is what it is referring to. Paschal is Latin for Passover, and Jesus is the new Passover lamb. His blood is sprinkled on us in Word and Sacrament, saving us from death.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who offered himself to make us holy. He gives us access to God, calling us into God’s holy presence. We respond to this with our thanks and our praise. We come with grateful hearts to the altar, to Christ’s table, singing John’s words, “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.” And it is here that we eat and drink his body and blood as a holy and forgiven people joyfully eating together in God’s presence.
All of this talk about lambs and blood sacrifice can sound esoteric and primitive and odd to us, Maybe even off putting. But the truth is, we need everything this Lamb of God comes to bring us. No matter how much we think we have progressed as human beings, we still grapple with sin. No matter how advanced medical technology has become, death still takes our loved ones and looms ahead for all of us. No matter how much freedom we enjoy, we still find ourselves held captive to many different things in many different ways. No matter how connected the world seems to be, we still often find ourselves alienated from God and from others.
Dear friends, Jesus is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world – including all of yours! There is no sin that Jesus hasn’t already atoned for. You are forgiven. You have been made holy by his saving sacrifice. And so you can approach God with boldness and confidence.
Jesus is the Lamb of God whose blood saves you from death. Instead of a door post he has marked his cross on your forehead, so that death will ultimately pass over you. It will still get us all in the short term, of course, but we who have been marked with Christ’s blood have been marked for eternal life.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who has set us free. By his sacrifice he has delivered us out of our every captivity – to sin and to self and to the lies and illusions of the world that keep us in bondage – Christ frees us from all of this to live in the freedom of his saving love.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who calls us around his table to feed us with himself, filling our hearts with gratitude and peace and joy, that we would live with faith toward him and fervent love towards one another.
A lamb doesn’t seem like a very impressive animal. If I were to ask the entire congregation what animal each of you would like to be and why, I doubt anyone would choose to be a lamb. Maybe an eagle, or a bunny, or a kitty, or a dinosaur, but a lamb? Every farmer and 4-Her knows that a lamb is born to give its life for others.
But that’s precisely the point of our gospel reading for today. John pointed to Jesus and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” “Look,” John said as Jesus came near, “Here is the Lamb of God!” This is who Jesus is, and why he has come – to give his life for others.
“Here is the Lamb of God.” He is here for you too. He gave himself for you, to give you forgiveness, life, and salvation. He comes so very near to us as we eat and drink of his body and blood, given and shed for us.
“Here is the Lamb of God” – in his living word, in his holy supper, among his forgiven, holy people.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 10, 2023 | Sermons
Sermon for Baptism of our Lord – January 8, 2023
Matthew 3:13-17
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, the baby we have been celebrating and worshipping over the past few weeks is all grown up. We don’t get much in the gospels about Jesus’ childhood. There is nothing at all in Mark or John. There is a little bit in Matthew, and a little more in Luke. We’ve explored many of those infancy texts over the past few weeks, but now today Jesus comes onto the scene as a grown up, and for his very first public appearance as an adult he goes out to the Jordan river to be baptized by John. It must have made quite a splash (pun intended) because all four gospel writers begin their story of the adult Jesus with this event.
It certainly stirred the waters with John the Baptist! St. Matthew tells us that John didn’t want to baptize Jesus. “He would have prevented him,” he tells us. John seems to have been a little surprised, a little taken aback, by Jesus’ coming to him for baptism.
From the time John was in the womb, he knew who Jesus was. When Mary came to see John’s mother Elizabeth, John leaped in his mother’s womb. Even in utero John knew he was in the presence of the Messiah, the savior.
John had been preparing the way for Jesus with his preaching, calling people to repent. That’s what John’s baptism was – a baptism of repentance. John called people to be washed clean from their sin in preparation for the coming of the Lord. Sinners of every stripe were coming to him for this baptism. The muddy waters of the Jordan were further clouded by the many sins being scrubbed away through John’s baptism. Think of what your dishwater looks like after you’ve washed all the dirty dishes from a big dinner. The Jordan river was the spiritual equivalent of that dishwater. It was clouded with the people’s sins.
And in his first public appearance as an adult, Jesus said, “I want to go into that water too.” Jesus went to John for this same baptism. John looked at Jesus like, “Are you kidding?” John would have prevented him! John said, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
John knew who Jesus was. He knew he was the Messiah, the savior. What in the world was the Messiah doing asking to be baptized by John? Why in the heck did the sinless savior want to immerse himself in that filthy water? What was Jesus doing coming out to be baptized alongside common sinners? It didn’t make any sense! And so John hesitated. He would have prevented him.
But Jesus insisted. And he insisted for a very important reason that is important for all of us to understand. Jesus said to John, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus wanted to be baptized by John because it was the first step in fulfilling all righteousness. Jesus had come to save sinners. He had come to make them right with God. He had come to bring them back into right relationship with God. This was his mission. He would make sinners righteous through his saving work. This is what it means for him to “fulfill all righteousness.”
The first step in doing this was for Jesus to identify himself with sinners. Jesus didn’t “need” to be baptized with John’s baptism of repentance, strictly speaking. He had no need to repent! There was no sin in him! There was nothing for John to wash away! In seeking to be baptized by John, Jesus was beginning his work of taking the sin of the world upon himself. John finally agreed to baptize Jesus, and as that sin-tainted water enveloped him, Jesus was beginning his work of fulfilling all righteousness. Jesus’ baptism wasn’t for his benefit. It was for the benefit of those he came to save.
To illustrate this, I’d like to share a picture from a story I came across. The little boy is named Joey Watts. At six years old, Joey had to have surgery to repair a heart defect. Joey was anxious about the three-and-a-half-inch scar on his chest, and so his dad, Martin, went out and got a tattoo to match his son’s scar.
Martin’s heart was fine. He didn’t need surgery. He didn’t need an incision. He didn’t have a scar. He didn’t need to get that tattoo. So why did he do it? He did it to identify himself with his son. He did it to let his son know that he was there for him. He did it out of love.
And just look at the smile on that kid! That scared little boy with a diseased heart is being held by one who loves him and who took his malady upon himself.
This is what Christ Jesus has done for us. You see, our hearts are diseased with sin. They pump with selfishness and self-centeredness. They beat to the sound of our own drums as we seek to go our own way and be our own gods. They are infected with all kinds of ungodly inclinations and desires and attitudes. Our hearts are wounded by the sins done to us. Our hearts are heavy with the sins we have inflicted upon others.
By entering into the muddy, sin clouded waters of the Jordan river, Jesus took our malady upon himself. Jesus didn’t “need” to be baptized by John. He had no sin to repent of. His heart was fine. Jesus was baptized to take our heart problem, our sin problem, upon himself. He did it to fulfill all righteousness, to make us right with God once again.
Jesus’ baptism was a powerful opening salvo for the ministry ahead of him. It was an enormous statement he was making, and it did indeed make a big splash. Jesus was baptized alongside sinners. He would go on to eat and drink with sinners. After that he would be crucified between two sinners. All of this was to “fulfill all righteousness,” to make us right with God.
When we are baptized, we are joined to Christ’s saving work. That’s what scripture teaches us about our baptism into Christ. Christian baptism is something more than the baptism John was offering. Christian baptism is that baptism John preached about when he said that one more powerful than him was coming, and he would bring a new kind of baptism.
Our baptism liturgy reminds us of what this baptism is and does. It says, “In baptism our gracious heavenly Father frees us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are born children of a fallen humanity; by water and the Holy Spirit we are reborn children of God and made members of the church, the body of Christ. Living with Christ and in the communion of saints, we grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God.”
When we are baptized, Christ meets us in the water. He knows about the sin-sick heart we are all born with, and he meets us in the water to be near us. He comes to draw us to himself.
When we are baptized, Christ fulfills all righteousness for us individually as he takes our sin upon himself and gives us his righteousness in return, making us right with God. What he accomplished in his death and resurrection is applied to us personally as we are washed, freed, reborn, and joined to him forever
We still bear the scars of our sin, and sometimes those scars ache. But look again at the smile on that little boy. No doubt his scar aches too. And yet, he beams with joy! He smiles as he is held. He smiles beside the one who, in his great love, has taken his malady upon himself, who isn’t afraid to be marked with it.
In spite of the scars we bear, we too can smile today. For in Word and Sacrament our Lord Jesus continues to come close to us. As we hear the story of his baptism, we are reminded that there is no life that is so muddy or clouded with sin that he isn’t willing to enter it. There is no scar so ugly or painful that he isn’t willing to take it upon himself.
In his great love, this savior has come alongside you. He has come to hold you close to himself. He has fulfilled all righteousness for you already, and by his Spirit he is giving us all a new heart, one that beats with his love and grace. It’s a long process. This transplant is a work in progress. But as we live with him and in the communion of saints, we grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God.
It is a tradition to sprinkle the congregation with water on Baptism of our Lord Sunday. I am going to do just that during the Hymn of the Day. As you feel that water splashing into your life today, or whenever you encounter water, whether it is falling from the sky or the showerhead or a water fountain, remember both Christ’s baptism and your own.
Remember that Christ has met you in the water.
Remember that he has taken your sin upon himself and is near to you today.
Remember that he has fulfilled all righteousness for you.
Remember all of this and smile.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
