by Jeffrey Spencer | Mar 10, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for March 9
Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent – March 9, 2025
Luke 4:1-13
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
In our adult Bible study recently we talked about the Christian life as a battle. The conversation arose out of our looking at St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, specifically in chapter 6 where he writes: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Paul then goes on to describe what the armor of God is: It is the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. These are spiritual weapons for a spiritual battle.
On the one hand, this sounds utterly foreign to many people. To think of life as a spiritual battle sounds like something from medieval times or out of a fantasy novel. To talk about “standing against the wiles of the devil,” as Paul says, sounds a little too woo-woo for some. As children of the Enlightenment, rationalism has shaped our minds in powerful ways. It has made us quick to dismiss spiritual realities, particularly the reality of the devil. The devil prefers it this way, you know. As C.S. Lewis once quipped, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.”
Many of us, then, are predisposed to dismiss the whole idea of spiritual warfare. But when I started to describe this spiritual battle in our Bible study as a struggle between belief and unbelief, between hope and despair, between fear and trust, between obeying our appetites and obeying God, between living by faith or grasping for control, well, then heads started nodding around the room. When you start to talk about the devil in the way the Bible describes him – not as a little man in a red leotard with a pitchfork, but as an accuser, as a deceiver, as a tempter – well, then the devil becomes an enemy that people start to recognize. This is a battle people are familiar with. This is a battle you are in. We all are, whether we realize it or not.
St. Paul encourages us to put on the whole armor of God for this battle, and in our gospel reading for today Jesus teaches us how to use this armor.
Jesus was let by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he engaged in spiritual hand-to-hand combat with the devil. This was like a spiritual karate match in the desert, with Jesus deflecting every blow.
The first attack the devil attempted was to exploit Jesus’ hunger. After forty days of fasting in the wilderness, St. Luke tells us, Jesus was famished. And with his appetite raging, he was vulnerable. You’ve probably heard that it is a bad idea to go grocery shopping when you’re hungry? Well, the devil knows this too! Our appetites have a way of lowering our defenses, lowering our inhibitions, weakening our resolve. You can bet that the enemy will attack us at this same point, at our appetites – both physical and emotional. The devil will exploit the hunger in our bodies and the feelings in our hearts in order to lead us astray.
While his stomach was in knots, writhing with hunger, the devil tempted Jesus to command a stone to become a loaf of bread. There was nothing inherently wrong with this. Jesus would miraculously provide bread on other occasions in his ministry. But Jesus would not obey his appetite when that meant obeying the devil. And so Jesus deflected this attack by quoting from scripture. He quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3, saying, “One does not live on bread alone.” Jesus stops there, just referencing the first half of the sentence, but the rest of the verse is implied, and is just as important. The complete sentence is: “One does not live on bread alone, but from every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
We all have hungers and we all have feelings. But neither of these define what is true. Neither define what is good for us, necessarily. We must obey God rather than our appetites. Our appetites need to be kept in check by the Word of God.
The next attack was to tempt Jesus with an easy route to having authority over all the kingdoms of the earth. All Jesus had to do was worship the devil. All he had to do was bend the knee. This was a sneaky move. Both the devil and Jesus knew perfectly well that Jesus already had authority over all of these kingdoms, over all of creation itself. After all, he was the Son of God! What the devil was offering here was an easy route to establishing that authority. Touching his knee to the ground would have been a whole lot easier than dying for the sin of the world. Bowing before the devil would have been so much easier than going to the cross. This could be the shortcut to glory by which Jesus could avoid all of that nasty business awaiting him in Jerusalem, and Gethsemane, and Golgotha.
You can be sure the devil will try this tactic on us too, laying before us what looks like an easier way of doing things, trying to lure us away from God by showing us another path – the path of least resistance. The devil tries to promise us glory without a cross. Just as the legendary blues man Robert Johnson was said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for worldly glory, we too can be convinced to take short cuts in our lives in order to avoid doing the hard thing. We will abandon people rather than doing the harder thing of seeking reconciliation. We will let ourselves be conformed to the world rather than transformed by the will of God. We will bow the knee to our own personal causes and comforts and conveniences rather than making the sacrifices we need to make in order to be faithful to God. It is all so very, very tempting!
Jesus shows us how to deflect this attack. He did so by turning once again to God’s Word. Jesus again cites the book of Deuteronomy, saying, “It is written: Worship the Lord our God, and serve only him.” This is a reference to the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” We deflect this attack by keeping this commandment front and center in our lives. We repel this attack by always putting God first, worshipping and serving only him, even when it is hard.
The third attack was to tempt Jesus to prove God’s faithfulness by throwing himself off the pinnacle of the Temple in order to let God’s angels rescue him. The devil’s tactic here was to demand evidence that God’s promises were true. The devil tried to lure Jesus into calling God’s bluff rather than trusting God’s promise.
This is perhaps the most sinister tactic of all, because the devil uses scripture for his own evil purposes. Perhaps he is learning how Jesus fights and is trying to use Jesus’ moves against him. The devil quotes from Psalm 91, where it says that God will not let one’s foot be dashed against a stone. The devil quotes this passage to Jesus and says, “Well? Prove it!” And Jesus fought back with a counterpoint verse, again from Deuteronomy, saying: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
As Christians we live by faith, not by sight. The evil one tries to lure us away from God by making us think we should be able to prove that God’s promises are true with hard evidence. Sometimes we do have evidence in the form of an answered prayer, an unexplained healing, or a life dramatically transformed. But sometimes we don’t! And when we base our faith in God on proof, on evidence, we’re not really living by faith anymore! Living by faith means trusting in God even when you’ve fallen and are hurting. Living by faith means trusting in God’s salvation when all you see around you is suffering and sin. Living by faith means trusting God’s promises rather than asking God to prove them. When this tactic is used on us by the enemy, we can deflect it by trusting God rather that testing him.
We have learned some moves from Jesus’ duel with the devil. We’ve learned some techniques as we engage in this spiritual battle that is the Christian life. We’ve learned to not live by our appetites, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God. We’ve learned to take the path of the cross rather than the path of least resistance. We’ve learned to live by promises and not by proofs. These are all important moves for us to learn as we wage this battle. But Jesus is so much more than our sensei. He is so much more than a spiritual karate instructor.
During the Lenten season we use a different prayer after communion. In this prayer we pray, “Almighty God, you gave your Son both as a sacrifice for sin and a model of the godly life.” Jesus is a model of the godly life, to be sure, and so he has some moves to teach us. But even more importantly, Jesus was given as a sacrifice for our sin. Jesus is more than a sensei; he is our savior. Jesus went into the wilderness for us, a place of utter desolation. Jesus experienced excruciating hunger for us, going without food for forty days. Jesus did battle with the devil, winning every round for us. This was all a great sacrifice for us, and it foreshadows the greater sacrifice he would make for us on the cross. It was there on the cross that the devil found his next opportune time, and came at Jesus again saying, “If you are the Son of God, save yourself! Come down from the cross!” But Jesus didn’t come down. And it was in Christ’s sacrifice for us on that cross that the devil was finally defeated.
We still have a battle to fight, there are still these spiritual skirmishes over our souls, but the war has ultimately already been won by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, who promises to share his victory with us when his kingdom comes in all its fullness. In the meantime, as we sing in “A Mighty Fortress,” Martin Luther’s great battle hymn of the Christian church: “God’s Word forever shall abide, no thanks to those who fear it; for God himself fights by our side, with weapons of the Spirit.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Mar 3, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for March 2
Sermon for Transfiguration of our Lord Sunday – March 2, 2025
Luke 9:28-36
It is clear that Peter, James, and John experienced something spectacular up on Mount Horeb. It was truly a mountaintop experience for them. They saw Jesus transform before their very eyes. They saw him transfigured. Jesus’ face changed and his clothes became dazzling white. The divinity of Christ, which had been veiled in his flesh, was now, for a moment, shining through. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, Moses, who had been dead for a thousand years, was there! Elijah, who had been mysteriously taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire hundreds of years prior, was there too! Talk about a cameo appearance! You can hardly blame Peter for wanting to enshrine it all with a building project. It was clearly a spectacular experience for them.
What might not be so clear is what it means for us.
To help us understand the significance of this event for us, I’d like to use a baseball metaphor. After all, Major League pitchers and catchers have now reported. Spring training is under way. College baseball is in full swing. And now that baseball is being played again at last, there is a scene that will play itself out in ballparks all across the country. Once the starting pitcher has done his job, hopefully getting his team into late innings, a new pitcher called a reliever will be brought in. This pitcher might pitch for a couple of innings, and then, when the time is right, it is time for the closing pitcher. And at these transition points, there will often be a meeting on the mound – that mountain of elevated dirt in the middle of the diamond, sixty feet, six inches away from home plate. The manager will come out to this mound. Teammates will sometimes come in. There will be a little huddle at this elevated place. At some point the ball will be handed from the outgoing pitcher and handed to the closer. If the team is behind and the closer comes in and wins the game, they call him the saving pitcher.
Now the risk in using a metaphor like this is that the baseball geeks in the congregation will start picking apart the metaphor at all the points where it breaks down, while the non-baseball people will wonder what the heck I’m talking about. But the simple picture I’m trying to paint is this: The meeting on the mound is where the ball is handed from one pitcher to the next, so that the closer can win the game. Each pitcher serves their purpose, but when there’s a deficit on the scoreboard, it is the closer who needs to come up big. It is the closer who becomes the saving pitcher.
What we have on Mount Hermon with the presence of Moses and Elijah and Jesus is a holy huddle on the pitching mound, and the ball is being handed to Jesus to finish the game. The ball is being handed to Jesus to get the win. The ball is being handed to Jesus, who will be the saving pitcher.
Moses had been on this mound before. It was this very mountain, Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai, that Moses had climbed up to receive the Ten Commandments. It was on this very mountain that Moses himself caught a glimpse of God’s backside and came back down with his face glowing for days from the reflected light. Moses brought God’s law to God’s people, so that they would know how God wanted them to live as his covenant people.
Elijah had been on this mound before too. As a prophet, Elijah had spent much of his life calling God’s people back to the law, back to God’s commandments. At great personal risk, Elijah bravely preached against the idolatry rampant among the people. Elijah is the only person in the Bible other than Moses to climb to the top of Mount Horeb for a meeting with God. And it was there, on that very mountain where everyone was now gathered, that amidst a whirlwind and an earthquake and fire, Elijah encountered God in a still, small voice.
Did you know that the very last verses in the Old Testament mention both Moses and Elijah? The prophet Malachi speaks the word of the Lord, saying: “Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at [Mount] Horeb for all Israel. Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.” That’s how the Old Testament ends. It ends with Moses and Mount Horeb and Elijah and the implicit promise of a savior.
Jesus takes Peter and James and John to this very mountain. He takes them there because it is time for a pitching change. He takes them there because it is time for the saving pitcher to come and fulfill this promise.
And when Jesus stepped onto the mound, he didn’t need to shield his eyes from God’s brilliant light. Instead, Jesus shined with that very light from the depths of his being. He didn’t reflect that light, he radiated it! And as Jesus stepped onto the mound, he didn’t listen for God in a still small voice, instead he was the very Word of God! “Listen to him!” God the Father thundered from the cloud above.
It was time for the saving pitcher, who was God’s own Son, God’s chosen. And as Jesus huddled with Moses and Elijah, they discussed how he was going to win. St. Luke tells us they discussed Jesus’ departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. The Greek word for departure here is a familiar one. The word is exodus. What gets lost in translation is how St. Luke is being clever here, choosing a word that has a double meaning. One the one hand, the Greek word exodus, or technically exodon, is a euphemism for death. It is where we get the word exit. This word was commonly used as a softer way of referring to our exit from life, kind of like how we often choose more delicate phrases like “passing away.” But of course, when you hear the word exodus, especially when Moses is standing right there, you also can’t help but think about the exodus he was part of as he led God’s people out of slavery, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. The ball was now being handed to Jesus to lead an exodus of his own, only he would lead God’s people out of a deeper slavery. Jesus would deliver people out of their slavery to sin. Jesus would lead people through the wilderness and into the promised land of life with God, both now and forever. And he would accomplish this exodus through his departure. He would accomplish it through his death on the cross, which was about to take place down the mountain in Jerusalem.
Moses had, and has, an important role in God’s playbook. Moses’ time on the mound, on this mountain, gave us the Ten Commandments, which reveal to us God’s eternal will for how he wants us to live. God STILL wants us to live this way! Martin Luther taught that the Ten Commandments should be studied diligently by Christians as the guide for how to live a life that is pleasing to God. He called it the guide for all truly good works. Elijah and all the prophets have an important role too. We hear them calling us again and again back to God’s law. But in the end, by the scoreboard of the Ten Commandments, we always come up short. When it comes to God’s law, we’re always losing.
And so at a certain point on the mound, on the mountain, Moses and Elijah faded away and, St. Luke tells us, there was Jesus alone. There was Christ alone. God sent his Son to that mountain to be the closing pitcher. God sent his Son to fulfill everything Moses and Elijah ultimately stood for, which was for people to be in right relationship with God. God sent his Son to fulfill the implicit promise in the last verses of the Old Testament, that he would bring reconciliation instead of a curse. God sent his Son to get the win and finish the game, delivering his people with one last exodus. And he would do this through his death and resurrection.
Can you see what the Transfiguration means for us? Can you see how it is spectacularly good news for us? It was on this mountain of the transfiguration that the game changed in our favor. God gave the ball to Jesus in order to save you. Seeing how we were down in the count, unable to change the score by our own efforts, by our own strength, God sent Jesus to win salvation for us by his grace. As St. John tells us in his gospel, “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).
“Listen to him,” God tells us.
“It is finished,” Jesus said from the cross. Listen to him. “Peace be with you,” Jesus said when he rose again. Listen to him. Repentance and the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, Jesus said. Listen to him. “This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sin,” Jesus said. Listen to him. By his victory over sin and death, Jesus has reconciled you to God and given you a place in the Promised Land forever. Listen to him.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 25, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 23
Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany – February 23, 2025
Luke 6:27-38
“Love your enemies,” Jesus says at the beginning of our gospel reading for today. And then, just to make sure we heard it, he says it again in the middle of the reading: “Love your enemies.”
He’s got to be kidding, right? He cannot be serious. Doesn’t he understand how awful my enemies are? He wants me to love them? He must be talking to someone else. Maybe this is addressed that guy or those people – you know, the obviously bad and wrong people. They’re the ones who need to hear this, not me.
Sorry folks. Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” And he is talking to you. We instinctively want to deflect these words or direct them to someone else, because if there’s one thing we love, it’s hating our enemies. People seem to enjoy it, actually. It makes people feel righteous. We see this in social media posts gleefully fanning the flames of division while projecting one’s own virtue. We see it in how eager people are to take offense, and to cast their opponents in the worst possible light. We see it in the way people are so quick to judge and so unwilling to try to understand. We see it in how people love to divide the world into good guys and bad guys. It feels so good to have an enemy to hate. We really do seem to enjoy it.
Lest you think I’m just scolding others, let me tell on myself. Some of you might have seen the first USA versus Canada hockey game, which took place a couple of weeks ago in Montreal. You might have heard that the hometown Canadian crowd booed when the US National Anthem was sung. It was hugely disrespectful, and while I could kind of understand it intellectually given recent political rhetoric on our side of the border, when I heard it, emotionally, as an American it made my blood boil.
And so when the players for Team USA immediately started throwing punches at Team Canada the second after the puck was dropped, I loved it! Every time a red, white, and blue jersey bodychecked a red jersey into the plexiglass, I loved it! Whenever there was a goal and “Free Bird” started blaring over the speakers, I loved it!
The funny thing is, I sincerely love and respect Canada. I love living close to it and visiting up there often. But for three periods of intense hockey, it felt so good to have an enemy! I loved it! I’m not necessarily proud of this, I’m just being real with you. Outrage is a heck of a drug. Whether it is sports or politics or nations or neighbors, we love to have enemies to hate. It is who we are as human beings.
And so when Jesus says, “Love your enemies,” he has to be kidding, right? And to make things worse, Jesus doesn’t just ask us to have an abstract love for them, he calls us to love our enemies with our actions: “Do good to those who hate you.” “Turn the other cheek.” “Do not judge.” He can’t be serious, can he? Please tell me this is all just more hyperbole from Jesus!
Well, yes and no. There are times when enemies should be opposed. Jesus himself turned over tables in the temple. He told the Pharisees to pound sand when they got all up in his business. He engaged in spiritual combat with the devil.
There are times when we are called to oppose enemies too. Political involvement is a valid way to influence society in the direction you’d like to see it go. For someone who serves in law enforcement, even if they are a Christian, it is their duty to restrain the enemies of society. They aren’t to turn the other cheek to violent offenders – they restrain them, using force if necessary. If someone is literally abusing you, you don’t just pray for them – you also call the police to make the abuse stop. If you as a citizen are called to serve on a jury it is your duty, even as a Christian, to judge the case and declare someone guilty if that’s what the evidence shows. In daily life, parents are to exercise judgement in the discipline of children, teaching them right from wrong with guidance from God’s Word.
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged,” is not a universal law for all times and places, and it is not to be interpreted through the postmodern ethic of “Do whatever seems right to you.” There are times for godly discernment and discipline in families, in the church, and in society.
So there are indeed caveats to these words from Jesus. God has established all kinds of earthly means to oppose enemies and restrain evil, and in a still-fallen world, they are all still necessary. We use scripture to interpret scripture, and there are plenty of other scripture passages, even other teachings from Jesus’ own mouth, which bring some nuance to Jesus’ call to love our enemies.
But still – he said it, didn’t he? “Love your enemies!” He said it twice, and we shouldn’t let these caveats make us too comfortable too quickly. I think we’re supposed to wrestle with these words. I think we’re supposed to squirm a little bit when we hear them. So what could Jesus be trying to tell us? What could he be trying to teach us?
The key to understanding these words of Jesus is to be found in what he tells us about God. It’s only a few words in the middle of the passage, but they are so important! These words are the lens by which to view everything else Jesus says in this part of his sermon! Jesus says that God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. And then he says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Here Jesus describes God as loving his enemies!
God is described as being kind to the ungrateful. God is described in other parts of the Bible as a jealous God who desires the affection and the appreciation of his people. To not be grateful to God is evidence of unfaithfulness, a serious sin for which God has every right to be angry. But here Jesus says that God is kind to the ungrateful.
God is described as being kind to the wicked too! Even after all the commandments, all the calls to holiness, even after the sacrificial system was put in place as a means of grace for the people to make atonement, God’s people still insisted on being wicked! They turned from God to idols. They abused themselves and each other. They disobeyed God again and again. And yet, Jesus says, God is kind to the wicked.
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” Jesus says.
God loves his enemies! And so when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he is only telling us to do what God is already doing. He is telling us to see those enemies in the same way God does. He is giving us a vision of God’s love, which is a love so great that it sees beyond the sin to love the sinner, a love so great that it responds to ungratefulness and even wickedness with kindness. The mercy we are called to share is rooted in the mercy of our Father in heaven.
When Jesus says, “Love your enemies,” he is only calling us to reflect the love God has shown to us. And God has shown this love to us nowhere more clearly than in Jesus himself.
At the time of this sermon, Jesus is inching ever closer to the cross, where God’s love would be lifted up for all to see. Jesus loved his enemies by letting himself be handed over. He did good to those who hated him by enduring their mocking, their abuse, their striking him on the cheek. Jesus gave up everything for the sake of the enemies of God. He was robbed even of the clothes on his back. He asked God to forgive them as he died. And because of all this, you are not judged. Because of his saving work on the cross, you are not condemned. Because of his sacrificial love, you are forgiven.
Just as our reading last week from earlier in this sermon was not a checklist to perform to accomplish our salvation by intentionally becoming poor, or hungry, or weeping, or hated, neither is this call to love our enemies a means by which we are to earn our salvation. Rather, it is a call to reflect the love God has already shown towards us, most especially through his dear Son, our crucified Lord and savior.
It might be jarring to hear, but we live much of our lives as enemies of God. This is what scripture tells us our condition is, and as hard as it is to admit it, it is even harder to deny it. We too are often ungrateful for all of God’s blessings. We take so much for granted. We take so much credit for gifts that have been given to us through no worthiness of our own. We treat God’s precious gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation, as nothing, without appreciation of or devotion to the Divine Giver. But, Jesus says, God is kind to the ungrateful!
We too fall into wickedness in countless different ways – through our stubborn rebellion against God’s will, through our rampant selfishness, through our choosing the world over the Word again and again. We fall into wickedness especially when we revel in the hatred of our enemies, relishing that feeling of righteousness it gives us. But, Jesus says, God is kind to the wicked.
God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked! Can you believe it! Well, you should believe it, because that’s the gospel! In Jesus Christ, God has been kind to us! For even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God is merciful, and the more deeply we come to believe and trust in this mercy, the more merciful we will become. In Jesus Christ we see that God loves his enemies, and the more deeply we come to believe and trust in this love, the more we will start to do the same.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 18, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 16
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany – February 16, 2025
Luke 6:17-26
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oftentimes in scripture the locations and landscapes are important. Sometimes they offer important context. Sometimes they even have a spiritual significance to them. And so when a gospel writer mentions a placename or a feature of the landscape, it is a good idea to pay attention. Often it is a clue pointing to the meaning of a given passage.
Today we hear St. Luke drop one such clue for us. He tells us that Jesus “stood on a level place.” Unlike the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, which has Jesus at a higher elevation to bring a word from God just like Moses did at Mount Sinai, here on a different occasion Luke specifically tells us Jesus stood on a level place as he healed and preached. The content of what is sometimes called the Sermon on the Plain is very similar to the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus surely repeated his message at different times – but in this setting he wasn’t any higher than anyone else. Now, of course Jesus is the Son of God, and so he has a higher authority than any of those he is addressing. He is literally their higher power! But even so, Jesus met his hearers on a level place.
It is an odd detail to include, unless it means something – and it certainly does! Luke loves to tell the story of Jesus in such a way that he is meeting us in the nitty gritty of human life. Luke tells us Jesus was laid in a feedbox for livestock as a newborn and visited by common shepherds. Now he tells us about how Jesus healed and preached while standing at a level place, meeting people at their level. He meets them where they are.
The crowds that had come out to see Jesus on this level place were a mixed group. There were people there from every walk of life. There were people from Judea and Jerusalem, who lived close enough to the Temple to participate regularly in its worship life. There were also people from the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon, way up north on the coast. People from all over were coming to see Jesus. It was “a great multitude,” St. Luke tells us. They were coming to hear him. They were coming to be healed of their diseases. They were coming to be delivered from unclean spirits.
Jesus meeting them all on a level place offers us a clue by which to interpret what comes next. Jesus then looked at his disciples and said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate, exclude, revile, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.” Jesus was meeting his disciples, as well as the crowd that had come to see him, in their need. He met them in their places of suffering and struggle.
Jesus was meeting them in their poverty. This means economic poverty, to be sure, but this is not only a socio-economic category. The crowds were full of people who were poor in every other way too. They were poor in health, coming to Jesus for healing. They were experiencing a poverty of the soul, coming to Jesus to be freed from unclean spirits, from sin and despair and all the dark forces which were troubling them. Some there were poor in credentials. They were people who had no spiritual status whatsoever, no spiritual accomplishments to claim. Jesus was meeting those who were hungry, whether their stomachs were literally groaning for food, or their souls were groaning to be filled with hope. Jesus was meeting those who wept, those who were grieving or afraid or lonely or sad. Jesus was meeting those who would eventually be hated for following him, preemptively blessing them with the assurance of the reward in store for them.
The great multitude came from all human categories. The one thing they had in common was their need for Jesus. And Jesus, meeting them at their level, meeting them where they were, blessed them. He spoke to them with a first-person address: “Blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you.” This was not an abstract or hypothetical blessing, like: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Jesus wasn’t speaking in generalities. Not here, not on the plain. This was a blessing which was delivered to them personally by Jesus right then and there as he said, “Blessed are YOU, blessed are YOU.”
In announcing these blessings, Jesus was not glorifying poverty or pain. He was not giving them steps to climb in order to be blessed. He wasn’t giving them a to-do list. He was not saying, “You must make yourself poor or hungry or miserable in order to get into God’s Kingdom. Remember, Jesus spent much of his ministry alleviating misery! No, Jesus was simply meeting these hurting and broken people where they already were.
In Lutheran circles we call this the Theology of the Cross, which is a shorthand way of referring to the fact that it is in the places in our lives that are broken that God is found to be present and at work. It is in our poverty, our weakness, our vulnerability, our sin, that we come to see our need for Jesus, who is present in the crosses we bear to bless us with his saving love.
The inverse is true as well. The Theology of the Cross also teaches us that the places where we think we are strong, the things we often turn to in life for comfort or a sense of security, are the very things that are always passing away and coming up short. In some cases, they are the very things that are killing us. This is what the woes are about. This is why Jesus warns those who are presently rich and full and laughing and popular. It isn’t that they will be forever excluded from the kingdom. It isn’t that they won’t ever receive blessings from Jesus. It is just that when you are comfortable and in control and outwardly self-sufficient or comfortably numb, you just don’t see a need for Jesus. In fact, many resent the suggestion that they need his help! And so they remain closed off – at least until those things begin to fail them, which they always do.
I was thinking about all of this after we were discussing this gospel reading at our men’s lunch this week. After lunch I got to thinking about some of the pastoral visits I’ve made to men who were hurting. Maybe they were grieving, or afraid, or sick, or lonely. Maybe they were in the hospital or home after a major surgery. Maybe it was just a phone call. I can’t tell you how many times on those visits these men have gotten choked up or have broken down in tears simply because someone has noticed their need, someone has seen them, someone has met them where they are.
Middle-aged and older men are not on very many people’s radar as a vulnerable category – quite the contrary most of the time. It is more often the case in our culture today that they are ridiculed or vilified or ignored. They are not part of any of the currently preferred victim groups, and so they are often overlooked. Maybe it is assumed that they are strong, but they have fears and hurts and troubles like everyone else. Sometimes they stubbornly suffer in silence, no doubt about it, but just as often I can tell you that they feel invisible to others. When their supposed strength is kicked out from under them, they often feel unseen. Perhaps this is one reason middle aged and older men have the highest rates of suicide.
I bring this up not to get on a soap box, but to point out that the Lord Jesus sees all of us in our need, whoever we are. He doesn’t see the category; he sees the need. That’s what this part of the Sermon on the Plain is all about. The great multitude included all kinds of people, and what they all had in common was their need. Male or female, longtime worshipper or not, super spiritual or not, Gentile or Jew, young or old, Jesus came to all of them in their poverty, in their hunger of body and soul. He came to them in their tears, in their struggle against unclean spirits. He met all of them at their level. He met them where they were with a direct address, saying, “Blessed are you, blessed are you, blessed are you.”
If things are going well for you, give thanks to God and don’t go looking for trouble. That is not the point of Jesus’ sermon today. Don’t go seek out hardship in order to get these blessings. Jesus doesn’t want you to be poor or poor in spirt. He doesn’t want you to be hungry or hurting or hated.
But don’t put your trust in the status quo. Don’t seek your security in wealth or health or popularity. Hardship will find you eventually. And when it does, know that our Lord Jesus will meet you there. And when he does he won’t be looking down at you from on high, or from a distance, but will instead meet you at your level to bring you the blessings of his kingdom. He will meet you where you are to fill you up with hope and peace. He will bring you his promises right in the nitty gritty of this world of sin and death, assuring you that on the day of resurrection, you will laugh at everything that currently makes you weep.
Even now our Lord Jesus meets us where we are, giving us his promises. Even today he meets us at our level, giving us his Word, giving us his Body and Blood to heal our hurts and cast out the unclean spirits troubling us.
None of you are invisible to him. He sees your need, and it is through the broken places in our lives that he enters in, saying, “Blessed are you, blessed are you.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 11, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 9
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 9, 2025
Luke 5:1-11
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Simon Peter got skunked. He had spent all night working that lake and came up empty. Not a single fish. Not even a sardine to show for all his efforts.
When my oldest son was home last summer working his last summer job with the Port of Anacortes, the salmon started running and he wanted so badly to catch one. He would go out just about every evening after work and sit on the Stilly, pole in his hand. And despite all his efforts, despite the couple hundred bucks he spent on licenses and gear and gas, despite all the time he spent, he never caught a single fish. He loves being on the water, so I don’t think he regretted it, but you could hear the dejection in his voice when he came home night after night and said, “Skunked again.” You could see the disappointment on his face, especially as the summer came to an end and he still came up empty.
For Simon Peter the stakes were much higher. This was his livelihood. This was how he paid the bills. Getting skunked after a whole night was a real concern. Coming up empty was an even deeper disappointment.
Whether you fish or not, we all have experiences in life where no matter how hard we try, no matter how much effort we put into something, we come up short. We all have experiences where no matter how much we want something to happen and how hard we work towards making it happen, we get skunked. We find ourselves empty-handed. We all know this disappointment. We all know that discouraging feeling of coming up empty.
Maybe your efforts at work haven’t been noticed or rewarded. Maybe it is a relationship that you’ve put so much into, that you’ve invested yourself in so deeply, but it still feels like it’s slipping away. Maybe it’s a parenting situation, where you’ve been working on a kid and praying for a kid, and you just don’t seem to be seeing any results. Maybe it is a health condition that you’ve done everything within your power to remedy, but the test results just keep on going the wrong way. Maybe it is a financial situation, where you feel like no matter what you do you just can’t get ahead. It could be any number of problems or challenges where no matter how hard you work or how much you try, you just keep coming up empty.
We certainly experience this in the church. We experience it individually as Christians in our struggle against sin as we can’t seem to escape the old disobedient Adam or Eve in us who keeps tripping us up, despite our best efforts. We experience it collectively as a congregation when we work so hard to draw people in with an invitation or an event or an opportunity, with results that are sometimes disappointing and discouraging.
In this midst of Simon Peter’s deep disappointment, Jesus came to him. In the midst of his discouragement, Christ spoke to him. “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch,” Jesus said.
Now imagine you are a professional fisherman. You’ve been fishing for years. You know the lake like the back of your hand. You know the techniques. You know the strategies. It is your job, your area of expertise! And now a carpenter starts giving you fishing advice! Even worse, a preacher starts telling you how to fish! This had to have been hard for Peter to listen to. In fact, he does grumble a bit. He gets a little passive-aggressive, saying, “Well, we did just fish all night long and caught nothing – but if you say so!” But to Peter’s credit, he did listen to Jesus’ word. He did do what he said. He did follow his command. He trusted Jesus. He went out to the deep water and let down his nets. And as he did so, they were soon filled so full that they were beginning to break! They needed to bring in another boat to bring them all in!
You would think this would be cause for celebration. You’d think Peter would be high-fiving Jesus, thanking him for the tip. But instead, Peter falls down before Jesus. He says to Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” In the face of that power, that abundance, that miraculous love which has just delivered a motherlode of grace into his boat, he feels small and unworthy. And he is! But this is precisely why Jesus has come. He has come to bring good things to sinners. He has come to the unworthy to bring them something of tremendous worth. He has come to bring them forgiveness, life, and salvation. He has come to bring them a boatload of abundant grace.
“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man,” Peter pleaded. But Jesus didn’t go away. He stayed right there with him. Jesus didn’t say, “Oh, you’re a sinner? I must have the wrong guy! Sorry!” No, he stayed with Peter. He already knew that about him. He already knew he was a sinner. Instead, Jesus said to Peter, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
It has been said that we become afraid when we believe that everything depends on us. I heard that recently and, to be honest, it convicted me. I think that’s exactly why I get anxious at times. We become afraid when we believe that everything depends on us. We have agency, to be sure. We have responsibilities to tend to, no doubt about it. Some things do depend on us. But there is so much fear that comes from thinking that everything depends on us.
Peter thought everything depended on him. He thought that his status as a sinner disqualified him from the blessings Jesus had come to bring, that he didn’t deserve it. Peter stood in the presence of pure, divine love, and it scared him. But the Lord Jesus said to him, “Do not be afraid.” Of course he didn’t deserve it. But it wasn’t up to him. This was Christ’s work. They were his abundant blessings to give. And with Christ’s blessings came Christ’s call: “From now on you will be catching people.”
We too are invited to trust in Christ’s word to us. When he says you are loved, believe it. When he says you are his, trust him. When he says you are forgiven, believe him. None of this depends on you. His abundant blessings are his to give, and he gives them to you by grace.
I can’t promise that trusting his word will solve every source of disappointment or discouragement in your life, but it will take some of the anxiety out of it. It will ease your fears because it will remind you that not everything depends on you. In fact, the most important thing about you – that you are a forgiven and beloved child of God – doesn’t depend on you at all. So do not be afraid. When it comes to all those other situations in life where you’re getting skunked, hand them over to him. In all those situations where it feels like you’re always coming up empty, lay them at his feet, and do not be afraid.
This is especially true in our lives specifically as Christians. When we have those moments when we know we are sinners, that we keep coming up empty, we can just tell the truth. We can just admit it. We can confess it. And when we do so, Jesus doesn’t leave us. You think he doesn’t already know that about you? Why do you think he came? Why do you think he called you here? He doesn’t budge from our side. Instead, he says to us, “Do not be afraid.” Instead, he says, “Your sin is forgiven.” Instead, he blesses us with an abundance of grace. And with the blessing comes the call to go out and catch people, so that others, too, might be brought into the boat of his holy church and come to know his blessings.
This catching people business can become yet another source of disappointment and discouragement when it feels like we’re always getting skunked. But here too we are called to trust his word and leave the results to him.
I remember a few years ago our congregation made a big effort to cast a wide net and bring people in at Christmastime. We spent a few hundred dollars on a couple hundred copies of a little book explaining the meaning of Christmas in a simple, but intelligent way. We encouraged our members to read it, and then to give it away, along with an invitation to our church we printed up and tucked into the book which included our address and worship times. It was a big outreach effort. All the books were distributed. And do you know how many new members we received through that effort? Zero. Not one. We were skunked!
In 2024 we didn’t do anything specific as an outreach effort. Nothing! Do you know how many people we received into membership? Twenty-three! We had 8 baptisms and received 15 new adults!
Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. I’m not saying that doing nothing should be our permanent evangelism strategy! I’m not saying we should never have a more formal outreach effort ever again. In fact, we haven’t exactly been doing nothing. Many of those people who came to us in 2024 did so because they were invited by other church members. There was still an effort involved. In most cases someone was putting down a net somewhere.
The point I’m trying to make is that just because our efforts don’t always produce results, just because we sometimes end up skunked, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t listen to Jesus and trust what he says to us. Not everything depends on us. Sometimes he brings in a haul we aren’t expecting. Sometimes he blesses us apart from our efforts. In fact, the blessing of our salvation has come in precisely this way.
So do not be discouraged, and do not be afraid. Not everything depends on you. Christ Jesus has spoken to you, and his word will not return to him empty. Our Lord Jesus has caught us up the abundant blessings of his grace – and with the blessings comes the call:
“Go out to the deep waters and let down your nets,” Jesus says. “Trust me.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 4, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 2
Sermon for the Presentation of our Lord – February 2, 2025
Luke 2:22-40
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
We see it every Sunday: the elderly making their way into our sanctuary, some of them moving slow, some shuffling behind walkers, some holding onto the arms of friends. Their determination in being here always impresses me. There is a joke among clergy that when the weather is really bad in the winter, the only people who show up for worship are the aged and the infirm. That’s how it often is.
And maybe part of the reason for this determination week after week is that the aged know better than anybody else about the reality of death. Their aches and pains are a constant reminder that their bodies are wearing out and winding down. One of the great burdens of growing old is the steady drumbeat of loss as you stand over the graves of one friend or family member after another. I’ve heard more than one “chronologically advanced” member of our congregation lament that all they do now for their social life is go to funerals. And then of course there is that particularly devastating loss that comes with the death of a spouse. We don’t like to think about it, but this will inevitably happen in every single marriage, and it is a loss many of our members have already endured. The aged do not have the luxury of living in denial of death. Maybe that’s part of what drives them to claw their way into this sanctuary week after week. They come seeking solace, seeking comfort. They come needing to hear of the One who has conquered death. They come so that their tearful and fading eyes might see his salvation.
We have two elderly individuals in our gospel reading today: Simeon and Anna. We don’t know exactly how old Simeon was, but the context suggests and tradition holds that he was very old, near the end of his life. St. Luke tells us Anna was 84 years old, and mentions that she lived many of those years as a widow. It isn’t too difficult to imagine what their lives were like. Their demographic is well represented in our congregation. We can imagine Simeon moving slowly as he shuffled into the Temple, perhaps with his hand on his aching back. We hear that Anna lived at the Temple, which brings to mind the many beloved church ladies all of us have known who practically live at the church. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if dear, holy Anna made quilts in some back room of the Temple complex or taught Bible study in a women’s circle.
These two knew of the reality of death. At some point in his life it had been revealed to Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Some people have a bucket list – things they want to do or see before they die. Well, Simeon had a bucket list with one thing on it, put there by God. Before he died, he would see the Christ. He would see the long-promised Savior. This is what the Spirit revealed to him. Simeon is described as righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, so this would surely have been a welcome promise, but it is hard to avoid the morbidity of it too. This was also a reminder that he would die one day. He could not live in denial of this reality.
Anna couldn’t avoid the reality of death either. Considering the actuarial tables, especially in the ancient world, at 84 years old she had no doubt already outlived most, if not all, of the people she grew up with, including many of her family members. She had already said goodbye to the one dearest to her, her husband, the one to whom she had been joined together as one. She had already spent many years with that aching absence in her life. So she, too, knew the reality of death. There was no denying it for Anna. No escaping it.
One day when the two of them were at the Temple, a young family came to worship. The mother held a swaddled infant in her arms, only six weeks old. This family had come for the ritual purification of the mother, which was required forty days after giving birth. They had also come to present their first-born son to the Lord, as required by God’s law. They were a poor family by the looks of them. While the usual sacrifice given for a first-born was a lamb, there was a sliding-scale for those who couldn’t afford it. The poor could bring turtledoves or pigeons instead, which is what they did.
Simeon noticed this young family. It was the Spirit who guided Simeon into the Temple that day, and so it must have been the Spirit who helped him recognize who that baby was. Simeon went up to Mary and Joseph. No words between them are recorded, but Mary, perhaps herself prompted by the Spirit, entrusted her precious baby to Simeon’s arms. Simeon held the baby Jesus close. He knew who this baby was! He knew he was holding the long-promised Savior, the one God promised he would see! And so as he held Jesus close Simeon praised God, saying: “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
At that very moment, Anna came in. She hobbled in closer to get a better look. She saw the baby in Simeon’s arms, and she too knew who that baby was! She knew that this baby was the fulfillment of God’s promise! She knew that the redemption of God’s people had come! Overcome with joy, she started telling anybody who would listen!
This baby brought peace. As soon as Simeon held that infant Savior in his arms, he was at peace. His waiting was over. His time had come. He could depart in peace.
This baby brought joy. Anna, even in the midst of all the pains of advanced age and the sorrows of widowhood, gave joyful testimony to the presence of the Lord’s Messiah.
Simeon’s words have become a part of the liturgy of the Christian church. His words are often sung after receiving Holy Communion: “Lord, now you let your servant go in peace. Your Word has been fulfilled.” Simeon’s words are an underused part of the liturgy, but they have a history of being sung in worship by Christians for centuries. Some of you will remember it was standard in the old LBW, the old green book. We’ll use that setting again soon during the season of Lent. We’ll sing a hymn-based setting of it as our sending hymn today.
But whether we sing it every Sunday or not, Simeon’s words should frame our understanding of what is happening every time we gather for worship, and especially every time we receive the Lord’s Supper. Because as we gather here for worship, Christ is present. He is presented to us. As we gather here, Jesus comes to us so that we can take hold of him. As he comes to us in bread and wine, we can literally hold him. God sends the Savior to us, that we might hold him close to our hearts, receiving the peace and joy he brings. This is what Simeon said this baby would do. He describes Jesus not only as the glory of God’s people Israel, but also as a revelation to the Gentiles – which means you and me, here and now.
No matter how young or old we are, whether we shuffle in here slowly or skip in on nimble feet, whether our hair is still brown or has turned white or is a little of both, or is all gone, we all – young or old or somewhere in the middle – we all come into this sanctuary from a world outside that is full of death. The older people usually know this better than the younger people do, but there are times when even younger people can’t deny the reality of death. We watch our parents get older. Our bodies start to give us hints that they have begun their inevitable decline. We learn from social media of former classmates battling grave illnesses or even dying. We hear of another jumper on the bridge or another overdose death. We hear of fatalities on the freeway. Thankfully we don’t hear about airline disasters very often, but we’ve heard of the terrible loss of life in Washington DC this week. We live in a world full of death. It is a reality we all must face. It is a reality we all will face.
We live in a dying world, but we have a living Lord – and it is here that he comes to us. It is here that we take hold of the Savior God has sent to conquer death for us. It is here that we can take hold of the promised Redeemer, who brings us forgiveness, life, and salvation. It is here that Christ Jesus is laid in our arms, that we would hold him close to our hearts and know the peace and joy he brings.
This child, Simeon reminds us, will be opposed by many, so it won’t always be easy being one of his followers. Just as Simeon foresaw that a sword would pierce Mary’s soul, so too will our souls be pierced with heartache at times. There will still be sorrow, and pain, and loss. There will still be death.
But this child also brings peace, and even joy. He comes to you in love as a fulfillment of God’s promise to bless all the peoples of the earth, as a fulfillment of God’s promise to break the curse of sin and death which hangs over all of humankind. Just as Christ Jesus entered the Temple, so too is he presented to you here in our sanctuary.
And so today we can sing with Simeon and celebrate with Anna. We too can depart in peace as we leave this place, no matter what our dying world has in store for us beyond these walls – whether it is a new ache or pain, another funeral, or even death itself. For our dying world has been visited by our living Lord, who is placed into our arms today, so that we too would see his salvation.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
