by Jeffrey Spencer | Aug 17, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for August 17
Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 17, 2025
Jeremiah 23:23-29, Luke 12:49-56
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Fire can be the most terrifying thing in the world. Thankfully we’ve had a pretty mild wildfire season so far this year here in Washington state, but over the past couple of years have seen enormous fires that have jumped from wild areas – which need to burn from time to time – to communities densely inhabited by people. It was two years ago this month that we saw fire devastate the community of Lahaina in Hawaii, killing 102 people. This past January we saw fire sweep through L.A. County, destroying 18,000 homes and killing at least 30 people. When fire gets out of control, threatening homes and lives, it is terrifying.
And yet, fire can also be the most comforting thing in the world. Think of a campfire crackling at your campsite. Think of a bonfire on a crisp fall evening, or a fire in the fireplace on a cold winter’s night. Is there anything more relaxing? More mesmerizing? The flickering light, the soothing warmth. Or think of the soft light coming from the flames of candles over a romantic dinner. Or the candles we light at church to mark off our time of worship as sacred time, setting a calming, prayerful mood.
Depending on the context, fire can be either terrifying or comforting. This is how fire works in the Bible too. Fire, both as a symbol or metaphor and as a reality, can be either terrifying or comforting – or even both at the same time!
There’s actually a lot of fire in the Bible. Let’s consider some examples:
God came to Moses in the flames of the burning bush. This was a fire of revelation, of illumination, as God revealed his name as “Yahweh,” meaning “I AM.”
God came to the people of Israel as a pillar of fire. This was a fire of guidance, leading them in the direction he would have them go, leading them towards the Promised Land. It was a fire of comfort, as God reminded them of his presence with them in the dark of night.
There was the altar fire God had established in the tabernacle and later in the temple for burnt offerings. This was a fire of sacrifice, of atonement, of reconciliation, of forgiveness.
God sent fire on Sodom and Gomorrah in response to their wickedness. This was a terrifying fire of judgement.
When Elijah posed that famous challenge to the prophets of Baal, God consumed Elijah’s offering with a fire so fierce it burnt not only the offerings themselves, but the wood and the stones and the ground underneath! This fire showed God’s power, and the impotence of false gods.
There is the metaphorical refiner’s fire that the prophets speak of to describe how God restores his people, burning away the dross. This is a fire of purification.
There is the fire of God’s word, referenced in our first reading for today from Jeremiah, where God asks, “Is not my word like fire?”
There is a fire burning across the pages of scripture, a fire that both terrifies and comforts. Any serious student of scripture knows this.
John the Baptist said that when Jesus came, he would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Jesus confirms this in our gospel reading for today, saying: “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled!”
And so we have to ask ourselves – what kind of fire is Jesus talking about? We want to know, right? Is it the fire of God’s presence, the fire of illumination? Is it the fire of guidance and comfort? Is it the fire of judgement? Is it the fire of atonement, of reconciliation, of forgiveness, like the altar fires of the tabernacle and the temple? Is it the fire of purification?
The answer, of course, is…yes! The answer is: “all of the above!” The fire Jesus brings is all those things!
Jesus is the very presence of God. He is God in the flesh, and so he illuminates for us who God really is. Jesus leads and guides us through the wilderness, through the dark of night, through the valley of the shadow and into the Promised Land. Jesus brings judgement. We don’t like to talk about that, but he does. “For judgement I came into this world,” Jesus says in John chapter 9. But the thing about Jesus is that he has not just come to bring the fire of judgement – he has also come to be the altar fire which brings atonement and reconciliation. He is the refiner’s fire which purifies us through the forgiveness of sin.
“I have a baptism with which to be baptized,” Jesus goes on to say, “and what stress I am under until it is completed!” This is a reference to the cross. It is a figurative way to refer to his suffering and death. Jesus will soon be “fully immersed” in God’s plan to save. This is how Jesus will illuminate God’s presence with us. This is how he will lead us into the Promised Land. This is how he will simultaneously judge sin and bring atonement and reconciliation and forgiveness. It all happens through the cross. Jesus knows this won’t be pleasant. He knows it will involve betrayal and suffering and death – thus the stress! – but he is also looking forward to getting this fire lit.
This fire will have some frightening aspects to it. In some ways it will singe. It will burn. “Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth?” Jesus says, “No, I tell you, but rather division!” What could this mean? Didn’t the angels say that peace is precisely what Jesus the savior would bring? Doesn’t Jesus himself say he will give us peace, peace that the world cannot give us?
Jesus certainly does give us peace. He gives us peace with God. He gives us peace for our souls. He makes even makes peace between peoples in many ways – but not in every way, which is the point he is making here. His coming and his call will indeed create divisions. It will generate heat and hostility, even in some of the relationships we hold most dear. Jesus goes on to list all kinds of relationships which may well be burned as some people come to follow him and others do not. They include some of the closest human relationships we have in life. Houses will be divided, Jesus says. Children and parents will be divided.
For the earliest Christians, this is exactly what happened. Some Jews believed Jesus was the Messiah, while others did not. Before long, those who believed Jesus was the Messiah were kicked out of their synagogues, their faith communities. Some were disowned by their families. Some even faced death.
This still happens today. I know a professor at a Lutheran college in California who had a student from the Middle East. She became a Christian during her time in college. She was promptly disowned by her family and told she shouldn’t return to her home country because her life was in danger due to her conversion.
This division happens in much more subtle, but still painful ways, as well. There are plenty of marriages where one spouse believes and the other does not. Instead of Christian faith being the glue bonding them together, it becomes a source of conflict. I talk to parents and grandparents all the time who are grieving because their children seem to have abandoned the Christian faith. They can’t understand why their grandchildren aren’t baptized or aren’t in Sunday school. Christian faith then becomes a sore spot in the family rather than something that brings family members together. Following Jesus doesn’t always result in peace. Sometimes it brings division. Sometimes it brings conflict. Sometimes households are divided.
This isn’t something Jesus wants to happen. Jesus sanctified the family by being born into one. Jesus blessed weddings and lamented divorce. Jesus upheld the commandments, which includes the honoring of mothers and fathers. Jesus is simply describing a painful reality that many will experience. Sometimes following him will bring divisions, even within families.
“Is not my word like fire?” God says. Indeed it is. Today our scripture readings remind us of this in no uncertain terms. But this same fire that terrifies and troubles us also gives us the sweetest comfort. You have to look closely to see it in our gospel reading for today, but it is there.
The good news in our gospel reading for us today can be seen in the fire in Jesus’ eyes as he talks about what he is about to accomplish. Jesus is determined to complete the work he came to do. He is eager to get this fire lit for all to see, illuminating the atonement he will establish once and for all, reconciling us to God forever. He is eager to bear our judgement for us and to win for us forgiveness for our sin, even though it means bearing a cross. As he speaks with passion about his impending Passion, we see God’s great love for the whole world, a love so great that he sent his only Son to save it. In that fire in his eyes, you can see his great love for you.
This love is being poured into our hearts today through the fire of the Holy Spirit. And so even in the midst of all the divisions we see, all the divisions we so painfully experience for Christ’s sake, we know the comforting warmth of his saving love, and the peace only he can provide.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Aug 14, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for August 10
Sermon for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – August 10, 2025
Genesis 15:1-6, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, Luke 12:32-40
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
You might remember the scene. Charlie Brown goes to see Lucy in her booth, which advertises “psychiatric help” for five cents. He is down and depressed. Maybe she can help. Lucy tries to diagnose what it is that is troubling him. She tries to diagnose his fears. She asks if he is afraid of responsibility, or cats, or staircases, or the ocean, or crossing bridges. Then she asks if he might have…pantophobia. “What’s pantaphobia?” Charlie Brown asks. Lucy responds: “Pantophobia is the fear of everything.” “THAT’S IT!” Charlie Brown responds.
There’s a reason this scene is so iconic. There’s a reason this comic strip and its TV specials resonate so deeply with people. Charles Schultz, the creator of Peanuts, had deep insights into the human condition. He knew that we are fearful, anxious creatures. We fear rejection. We fear what others think. We fear that we don’t or won’t have enough. We fear failure. We fear not being loved. We fear the future. We fear health problems. We fear all the potential things that can go wrong. “That’s it!” we say with Charlie Brown. We recognize our situation in his.
Charles Schultz was a Christian, and it is obvious that he gleaned many of his insights into the human condition from the Bible. Again and again in the Bible we see people becoming afraid, anxious, nervous, uncertain. Again and again, God sees what is wrong. God diagnoses it with a command, the most repeated command in all of scripture. God says, “Do not be afraid.” This is God putting his finger on the problem. This is God diagnosing the situation.
But God doesn’t simply diagnose the problem. God always follows up this command with a promise.
You see, fear isn’t something you can just stop having because you’ve been told to. Fear isn’t something we can just turn off on command. Fear can only be pushed out of our hearts by something else, by something bigger. God knows this, and so God gives us something bigger. God always follows up his command to not be afraid with something bigger than our fears. God follows up his command with his promise.
We see how this works first today in our reading from Genesis. There we heard how Abram was afraid. He was anxious about the future. God had said he would have land and children, and so far he had neither. This fear wasn’t bringing out the best in Abram! He was getting antsy. He was getting pushy. “What are you doing God?” he pleaded. “I continue childless! At this point, it looks like a slave born in my house will be my only heir!”
But God came to him with a word. First came the command, “Do not be afraid, Abram,” and then came the promise: “This man shall not be your heir. Your own issue, your own child, will be your heir. Look toward heaven and count the stars,” God said, “if you are able to count them. So shall your descendants be.”
God came to Abram with something bigger than his fears. God came to him with a promise. And Abram believed the LORD. Abram trusted this promise. Abram had faith. And through faith, through trusting in God’s promise, his fear was displaced by something bigger. His fear dissipated as hope filled his heart through the promises of God. By this faith, the Bible says, Abram was “made right.”
We see this pattern again in our gospel reading. Jesus was addressing the fears his disciples were experiencing. Jesus first gave them the command, “Do not be afraid, little flock,” and then, in the same breath, he gave them the promise: “For it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
This promise is one of the greatest summaries of the gospel in all of scripture. The disciples don’t need to be afraid because they have a heavenly Father whose good pleasure it is to give them the kingdom! God is not some cold and remote deity; God is their Father who loves them. God does not give reluctantly. God is not grumpy or stingy about it. It is God’s good pleasure! God enjoys giving! This, Jesus says, is God’s love language – to give. And what God gives is what we need the most. God gives us the kingdom. God gives us a relationship with himself. God gives us a kingdom where we are secure and safe and loved and forgiven and healed and restored. We don’t build this kingdom. We don’t earn a place in it. God gives it to us. It is a gift. God gives us a kingdom where we can walk in newness of life as we trust in his promises. God gives us a kingdom where he rules our hearts in love as we live by faith.
This is what faith really is. In our reading from Hebrews we have the best, most specific definition of faith in all of scripture: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Christian faith is not a general optimism, as faith is sometimes understood in our wider culture. Christian faith is not the naïve belief that nothing bad will ever happen. Christian faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Christian faith is trusting in God’s promises to us, even when we are suffering or uncertain. Christian faith is the assurance of God’s grace and mercy, the assurance of God’s love and forgiveness, the assurance that God cares for us. Christian faith is the conviction that all our unfulfilled hopes are fulfilled through our relationship with our heavenly Father, whose good pleasure it is to give us the kingdom. Christian faith is trusting in these promises which are bigger than our fears.
The narrative arc in that Charlie Brown special which begins with an anxious, fearful Charlie Brown seeking psychiatric help from Lucy is resolved at the end when Linus takes the stage. The house lights dim and Linus is alone in the spotlight. The security blanket Linus carries around to cope with fears of his own is notably set aside as he recites from Luke, chapter two, saying: “Fear not, for I am bringing you good news of great joy which is for all the people. For to you is born this night in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And so here this biblical pattern unfolds again as Linus recites scripture to Charlie Brown. There is a diagnosis, a command: “Fear not,” and there is a promise, a promise bringing good news and great joy, the promise of a savior.
This same pattern unfolds in your life today. Maybe there’s a big, specific fear you are carrying with you today. Maybe it is a million little worries all piled up in your mind and in your heart. Whatever they are, God knows. God knows our fears. Christ Jesus puts his finger right on them when he says, “Do not be afraid.” He knows the problem!
But our Lord Jesus doesn’t just diagnose the problem. He also gives us a promise in which to place our trust, a promise to put our faith in. Just as he said to the disciples, so too does he say to us: “It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” This kingdom was given to you in your baptism, when Christ Jesus made you his own, joining you to his saving work. This kingdom is given to us in the Lord’s Supper, where Christ Jesus renews his people in the gifts of his kingdom, giving us his own body and blood to restore us in his grace. The kingdom is given to us through the Word, as we hear these promises which are bigger than our fears.
In a fallen world, fear is normal. It is part of the human condition. There is almost no one in the Bible who wasn’t afraid at some point. But fear does not need to rule our hearts, because God has given us promises. Fear does not need to rule our lives, because God has given us assurances to respond to with faith, with trust. It isn’t that we aren’t supposed to be afraid, it is that we don’t need to be. For it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom – a kingdom where he rules our hearts and keeps our lives in his loving care, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Aug 4, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for August 3
Sermon for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – August 3, 2025
Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
If I were looking for sure-thing business opportunity, I would not look at digital marketing or electric vehicles or AI-enhanced products, although all of those are certainly growth industries. I would not look at cryptocurrency, mostly because I’m still not sure what that even is. If I were looking for a lucrative business opportunity, one that has been one of the surest bets in the American economy for many years now, you know what I would get into? Storage units.
Many of you probably watched how quickly the enormous new storage unit facility just north of Oak Harbor went up. You know how hard it is to get a business established these days. That place went up in no time and is going gangbusters. This makes sense in a town made up of military families and retirees – but it isn’t just here. The storage unit business is a $38 billion dollar industry, and it continues to grow like crazy.
People love their stuff, and we have so much of it that we need extra space to put it all! Real estate agents will tell you that when people are looking for a new home, some of the biggest selling points are walk-in closets and extra storage space. And then when those spaces fill up with stuff, people will pay good money for storage units, for even more room to put their stuff.
Please know that I’m not judging anyone here. Anyone who has ever seen my garage knows that I am in no position to judge!
I’m not judging you, but Jesus might be. Jesus has a word which judges all of us, whether we have storage units or garages stacked with stuff like mine or overflowing closets or not. Because what Jesus is getting at in our gospel reading for today is not the stuff itself, but the way the human heart longs for stuff, the way the human heart wants stuff, the way the human heart hoards stuff and clings to stuff and covets stuff.
“Take care!” Jesus says. Live carefully, might be a better translation of this exhortation. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed,” Jesus says. And why? “For one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Jesus said this after he was approached by a man who was fighting with his brother over money, over stuff. This was probably a younger brother who was fighting with his older brother who was responsible for the family estate. The (probably) younger brother wanted more of the family stuff, and he tried to get Jesus on his side in getting it. Maybe he heard about how Jesus was all about justice and fairness and equity and thought he would be on his side.
But Jesus had bigger fish to fry. Rather than getting dragged into a family squabble about stuff, Jesus cut right to the heart of the matter. Rather than sorting out what was just and fair and equitable, Jesus diagnosed the disease at the heart of it all, which is sin. Jesus specifically diagnosed the spiritual disease of greed, of believing that life is all about the abundance of possessions. Jesus diagnosed the sin of coveting, the sin of desiring the wrong thing.
This is a dangerous and deadly sin. People often think that of all the Ten Commandments, coveting is the least serious of the ten. Surely it isn’t as bad as adultery, right? Surely it isn’t as bad as murder. Outwardly that might be true, but coveting, in its own way, is indeed a deadly and dangerous sin – sometimes because it is the gateway to these other sins!
When I was serving my first call in Montana I did a graveside service for a rancher who had died. He had two sons who, even before their father died, had been fighting over the estate to the point that they were threatening each other. The funeral home director arranged for armed sheriff’s deputies to be at the cemetery to keep the peace. This sounds like a scene from that Kevin Costner series Yellowstone, but it really happened! The sin of coveting is dangerous because it can quickly escalate into other deadly sins, sometimes literally deadly ones. It certainly has a tendency to turn family members against each other. The ranch war funeral I did is only the most extreme example of something I’ve seen as a pastor again and again when an inheritance is involved. When a will is present, the sin of coveting is usually not far behind, and even when sheriff’s deputies don’t need to be called, it destroys relationships as stuff is prioritized over people.
St. Paul takes it a step further. In our epistle reading for today from Colossians we hear him describe the new life we live in Christ, the new self we put on as we live out our faith in Jesus. Because we have died and been raised to new life in Christ, Paul says, we are to put to death whatever in us is worldly, including sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed – which, Paul says is idolatry! Paul equates greed with idolatry, the most grave sin of all! Paul sees greed as turning our stuff into our god, into the thing we value and love and cling to the most.
Jesus illustrates this problem with his parable of the rich fool. This rich man has a bumper crop. “What am I going to do?” he asks himself. “I know! Storage units!” Actually, he tears down his barns and builds bigger ones. But his problem, Jesus goes on to illustrate in the parable, is not the logistics of storing his stuff. His problem is a spiritual one. For one, he is profoundly self-centered. It is clear that his preferred pronouns are “I, me, and my.” Even more significant is how he starts addressing the longings of his soul. He talks to his soul, assuring it that now that he has bigger barns, his soul can relax. He believes that his stuff has now given his soul security and contentment and peace. He believes his soul is safe now because he has accumulated enough stuff. You see what this means, don’t you? He has turned his stuff into his god! He thinks his stuff can soothe his soul! And for this, God calls him a fool.
The Bible does not say that wealth is wrong. The Bible says that wealth is dangerous. And this is precisely why. It is dangerous because it becomes so very easy for us to place our trust in it. It is so very easy for us to think our souls will find security and contentment and peace in our stuff, which is nothing other than idolatry. When we do that, we are worshipping a false god. This is a temptation both for those who have wealth and for those who wish they did, and so it is a temptation for every human being. Coveting is wanting the wrong thing. It is seeking peace and joy and contentment for our souls through bigger barns rather than the promises of God.
“This very night your life is being demanded of you,” God said to the rich fool. “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
This past week I visited one of our dear members. She is nearing the end of her life. Several months ago, she had to give up her car. Now, though she technically still owns her beloved home with a beautiful view, she will not return there. All her stuff is back home, soon to be distributed to family members or friends or second-hand stores. Her sole possession she has in her room in the skilled nursing facility is one black and white photo of her and her husband.
We visited at her bedside for a bit before I asked her if she wanted communion. I wasn’t sure, because she isn’t eating much these days and I just wasn’t sure what she was capable of receiving orally. But when I mentioned Holy Communion her face lit up. “Yes, yes,” she said. She hung on every word of the communion liturgy. She spoke every word of the Lord’s Prayer. When she received Christ’s body on her tongue, she savored it with a smile. After she slowly sipped down Christ’s precious blood, shed for her, her face radiated with utter peace and joy. All the treasures she has stored up in her life are mostly gone, but here is this treasure she has in Jesus, which put her soul at peace. As we heard Jesus tell Martha last week, this is the one thing needful, and it will never be taken away. It is the one thing that will last forever.
Dear friends, life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Life consists in this – in the riches of God towards us in Jesus Christ. All the stuff in my garage is ultimately headed for a landfill. All your stuff is too. What a foolish thing to make these things our gods! What a foolish thing to think that our souls can find peace and contentment and security in them!
Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, but in the abundant grace and mercy and love of our savior, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Real life consists in the right and rich relationship with God our Lord Jesus has made possible for us through his death and resurrection. The abundant life is found in the forgiveness and salvation our Lord continues to pour out for us, so that our souls can truly be at rest, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jul 29, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for July 27
Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost – July 27, 2025
Luke 11:1-13
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayer is a real struggle for many Christians. Some Christians struggle with what to say, what words to use in prayer. This seems to be especially difficult for many Lutheran Christians. Just ask a typical Lutheran to pray in public, and nine times out of ten they will be visibly stricken with fear. They’ll suddenly look like a deer in the headlights. Panic ensues as they worry about finding the right words.
If it isn’t the words that are hard to find when it comes to prayer, it is our lack of persistence in prayer. We neglect it. We forget to do it. We don’t prioritize it. We get busy or distracted by a million different things and don’t do it.
But sometimes the struggle with prayer goes well beyond finding the words or the discipline and goes right to the heart of prayer itself. Sometimes the struggle is with doubts about its efficacy – doubts that God hears us, doubts that God answers us, doubts that our prayers make a lick of difference in our world or in our lives.
In our gospel reading for today, we hear Jesus teaching the disciples about prayer. And what he teaches in these verses speaks to each of these concerns we still find so pressing today
As we struggle with words, we hear Jesus tell us what to say! In teaching what we have come to know as the Lord’s Prayer, he puts the words in our mouths. We have the shorter version of the Lord’s Prayer here in Luke’s gospel. The fuller, more familiar version is found in Matthew’s gospel, and the fullest version – the one with the doxology at the end – is found in the Didache, an early Christian text. But even here in this short version of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus puts words in our heads and our hearts for us to use in prayer.
As he gives us these words, Jesus teaches us to address God as Father. This is how Jesus himself addressed the Lord God. He is, after all, the Son of God. What is remarkable here is that Jesus teaches us to address God in the same way! Through Christ, we have that same relationship, that same closeness, that same love. As Martin Luther puts it in the catechism, “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our true Father and that we are his true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask him as dear children ask their dear father.”
Of course it is tragically true that not all children have a close and loving and safe relationship with their earthly fathers. It is sadly the case that not all earthly fathers can be approached with boldness and confidence. But that is how Jesus approached his Father, and so that is how we can approach our Father in heaven. We can approach God as our Father because we are indeed dear to him and he is dear to us.
Jesus goes on to teach us what to pray for. Rather than asking God to build up our own personal kingdoms with selfish requests, Jesus teaches us to pray that God’s kingdom would come. Rather than praying only for our own needs, Jesus teaches us to include others in our prayers. He doesn’t teach us to say, “Give ME each day MY daily bread,” but “Give US each day OUR daily bread.” Rather than self-righteously strutting before God with our moral or spiritual credentials on display, Jesus teaches us to come before God in humility and repentance, asking for forgiveness for our sins. Rather than candy-coating what life in this world is like with platitudes and flowery language, Jesus teaches us to bring our deepest fears and our deepest temptations to God as we pray: “Save us from the time of trial.”
In teaching us the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus has given us the words we so often lack. He has given us words to memorize and hold dear and recite often both in worship and in our personal life. He has given us words to help us avoid a narrow and self-centered prayer life, so that we might learn to ask for the things God wants to give us.
Jesus also addresses our lack of persistence in prayer. He tells a parable about someone who needed to borrow three loaves of bread from a friend in the middle of the night. He was persistent, asking again and again and again – and it paid off!
Now, we should not take from this that God will only act on our behalf when we have pestered him enough. We sometimes think this way. We sometimes think that if we just put enough coins in the slot, God will play the song we want to hear. But God is not a juke box! The point here is to not give up, to keep at it, to not neglect prayer. He is encouraging us to make prayer a habit and a priority, to be persistent in it.
Finally, Jesus addresses the most difficult problem we have with prayer – its efficacy. Does prayer “work”? Why does it so often seem that our prayers are not answered?
Rather than giving an answer or an explanation to this question, Jesus gives a promise. He assures us that God will respond. “Ask,” Jesus says, “and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” Jesus points to how even earthly fathers in an evil, fallen world know how to give good gifts to their children. How much more, then, will God respond by giving good things to his beloved children!
This doesn’t mean God will give us everything we want, when we want it, as we want it. And thanks be to God for that, because we don’t always know what is best for us! Sometimes the most loving thing a father can do is to tell his child “No,” or “Not yet,” or “Not in that way.”
We’ve already established that God is not a juke box. Well, God is not a genie in a bottle either! God is not there to grant our self-centered and sometimes foolish wishes. God is more like a wise, loving father who knows what is best for us, who must sometimes say no in order to protect us from ourselves, or in order to say yes to something better. We don’t try to prove that prayer works because something we prayed for “came true.” Instead, we trust God’s promise to hear us, even when God’s answer is confusing or slow in coming. We trust God’s promise to give us what we need.
There is a lot of instruction on prayer packed into our gospel reading for today, and I hope it is helpful for you in your prayer life. I hope it fine tunes your theological framework for prayer. But there is something here that I find not only instructional but inspirational when it comes to prayer.
As Jesus teaches us about prayer, he first teaches us to address God as our Father, and then he goes on to use an analogy from parenting, telling us that even fallen human parents want to give good gifts to their children.
This got me thinking about my own relationship with my children. I am a fallen human being, to be sure. I am not a perfect father. I get cranky and impatient. When my boys approach me about something I sometimes say the dumb and selfish thing before I sheepishly backtrack and say what a better father would have said the first time. My boys know that I especially don’t like to be disturbed late at night. I’m notorious for that. They know that when they do that, they are poking a bear. And so when Jesus says, “You who are evil,” I’m not even offended. He’s not wrong!
But even with all my many flaws, I desperately want to hear from my children and I desperately want to give them good things. Even with my turned-in-on-self human nature, they know that even if I grumble in the middle of the night, I would do anything to help them in a time of need. It’s one thing if they’re making smoothies in the blender at 11:30pm – but if there is a problem, I want nothing more than to be there for them, no matter what time it is. Ultimately nothing makes me happier than when they turn to me, when they confide in me, when they ask me for help. I want to hear from them. I want to know what they’re thinking, what they’re struggling with, what they’re worried about, what their needs are.
Now that I have one son who is married and in the Air Force, whose visits home are quickly becoming fewer and farther between, nothing makes me happier than when he checks in with me. Just this week he called me – like, an actual phone call! – to ask for my advice about something, and it made my day. I absolutely love it when he texts me that he’s ready for our Sunday night FaceTimes.
Again, earthly parents are at best a pale comparison to the love of our heavenly Father, but I think part of the reason Jesus uses this parental language so often when teaching us how to pray is to help us understand just how much God longs to be in touch with us, how much God loves it when we turn to him, when we confide in him, when we share our worries and our needs, even when we just check in with him.
Prayer is a spiritual discipline, to be sure. We need training in the practice of prayer. It is our duty and our obligation as Christians. But when we think of God as a loving parent who delights in hearing from us and wants to help us, then prayer becomes something more than an obligation or a discipline. When we think of God in these intimate personal terms – as Jesus teaches us to do! – it becomes less of a struggle and more of a joy. It becomes a gift. It becomes a way to unburden ourselves. It becomes an ongoing conversation. When we believe and trust that the Lord God is our true Father and that we are his true children, we freely and joyfully turn to him with all boldness and confidence as dear children turn to their dear father.
When it comes to prayer, our Lord Jesus has given us more than an instructional how. He has also given us a tremendously inspirational why. We pray because God loves us dearly and delights in hearing from us.
Thanks be to God.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jul 21, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for July 20
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – July 20, 2025
Genesis 18:1-10a, Luke 10:38-42
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Don’t just sit there, DO something!”
When someone says that to you, whether it is a parent, or a spouse, or a co-worker or supervisor, it gets your attention. They don’t even need to use those precise words. There are more subtle ways to convey this expectation that doing something is better than just sitting there. It could be an overly dramatic sigh while standing at the kitchen sink. It might be a passive aggressive comment about how tired you are from all the work you have done, spoken loudly in front of people who are sitting on the couch watching TV. It might be a grumble under your breath about how some people aren’t pulling their weight around here.
There are lots of ways to say, “Don’t just sit there, DO something!” And they all come with a heavy dose of judgement. They stir up guilt and shame. They tap into the Protestant work ethic so deeply imbedded in our culture, which says that doing something is always better than doing nothing. It is certainly better than just sitting there!
Oftentimes doing something is important. It is good. It is beneficial. When it comes to the workplace, or the family, or the functioning of a congregation, it is important for everyone to pitch in in whatever way they can. It is important that there be a fair distribution of chores and tasks. It is important that people not just sit there, but do something. Many hands make light work. Hard work builds character. The people around us often depend on us not just sitting there but doing something.
This isn’t just the Protestant work ethic, it was very much a part of ancient Jewish culture as well. We hear in our first reading how Abraham and Sarah exemplified the Jewish work ethic of hospitality by doing something for the three strangers who passed by their tent. They brought them water and washed their feet and fed them some bread. Abraham and Sarah didn’t just sit there, they did something!
In our gospel reading for today we see Martha embodying this Jewish work ethic of hospitality. As Jesus came to Bethany, she welcomed him into her home. His disciples were with him, so this was a major effort. She suddenly found herself cooking for more than a dozen people. She had linens to prepare and pillows to fluff and water to fetch. She wasn’t just sitting there, she was doing something!
Her sister Mary, however, was just sitting there. While Martha was running around making all of the preparations, Mary just sat there at Jesus’ feet, listening to what he was saying. I can imagine Martha shooting some looks Mary’s direction, looks that said, “Don’t just sit there, do something!” As Mary continued to just sit there, Martha asked Jesus to intervene. “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
And Jesus answered her, saying, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
It is important to note here that Jesus’ criticism of Martha was not her work as such. It was not the hospitality she was showing him, which was surely appreciated. The criticism was that she was worried and distracted. Jesus’ concern was that her work was getting in the way of something better, something even more important. She was serving him by doing something, but she wasn’t taking the time to sit at his feet and listen to him.
At this point Jesus could have said to her: “Don’t just DO something, SIT there!” Jesus praised Mary for doing just that – for sitting there! Jesus was not praising Mary for shirking the obligations of hospitality. He wasn’t praising her for kicking up her feet in a recliner while Martha did all the work. Mary wasn’t just sitting, she was sitting at Jesus’ feet. To sit at someone’s feet was to assume the posture of a student, a disciple. This language is used in Acts to describe how Paul once sat at the feel of his rabbi Gamaliel.
When Jesus came into her home, Mary assumed the posture of a student. This “sitting there” wasn’t about relaxation, it was about receptivity. This “sitting there” wasn’t about taking it easy, it was about taking in all he had to say. Doing something for Jesus wasn’t inherently wrong or bad – not at all! – but sitting there at his feet was even better. As Jesus said, Mary had chosen the better portion, which would not be taken away from her.
Abraham and Sarah performed the tasks of hospitality beautifully as those three strangers came by their tent beside the oaks of Mamre. But the doing eventually gave way to something better, something even more important. It gave way to the listening. It gave way to hearing one of the strangers say, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” The doing gave way to simply sitting there and hearing the promise of God.
There is much that we can and should do for Jesus. A congregation runs on the work of people like Martha, people who work in the kitchen, people who tend to our building and property, people who fix toilets and change lightbulbs and bring cookies and make coffee. This is all ultimately the work of hospitality – making our church a place that is hospitable for others. All of that is so very important! It is so appreciated! It is good! We could use more people helping us with these tasks!
But there is something that is even more important. There is something even better.
There is a better part for us to choose, which will not be taken away from us. And it is simply sitting there, sitting at Jesus’ feet, receiving the word he has to give us, taking in all that he has to say. This is the better part which will not be taken away from us.
I’ve had a lot of hospital visits to make recently. I’ve been visiting people who have been big doers in our congregation. And while they are frustrated about being bedridden and eager to get back to the things they love to do, they are still able to do the one thing needful. They are still able to sit at Jesus’ feet, receiving his word. Even when they can’t do much else, they can do this. It doesn’t seem like much, but it is everything. It is what Jesus calls “the better part.”
This reminds me of the title of a book Marva Dawn wrote many years ago about worship. It has the best title of any book on worship I’ve ever seen. It is called, “A Royal Waste of Time: The Splendor of Worshipping God and Being Church for the World.” Simply sitting and listening to God’s Word in worship doesn’t seem like you are doing much. It seems like a waste of time to many people. Perhaps it even seems that way to us at times. Many people, even church members, seem to only fit worship into their schedule when there is nothing supposedly better going on. Many people complain that they are too busy with other things to engage in Bible study or prayer. This is what Jesus is criticizing in Martha. She was worried and distracted by her work. She thought it was more important than the supposed waste of time of sitting at Jesus’ feet. She was focused only on the doing.
Martin Luther set a good example for us when he famously said, “I am so busy today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer!” He had his priorities straight! He knew that the better needed to come before the good, the listening needed to come before the doing.
When we focus only on the doing, we burn out. When we focus only on the doing, we sometimes end up like Martha, resentful and bitter towards our brothers and sisters in Christ who we think aren’t pulling their weight around here. Focusing only on the doing is what leads to some of the worst bickering and conflicts in congregational life. Focusing only on the doing isn’t good for us, and it isn’t good for the people around us.
If you want a good family life, a good community, a good job, or business, or career, you need to work for it. You need a good work ethic. You need to put in the effort. You need to do something.
But if you want a relationship with God, you essentially “do” nothing. You just listen. You listen to and trust in his promises to you, which are completely unearned, and, frankly, undeserved.
So don’t just do something, sit there!
The Christian life isn’t primarily about doing. It is first and foremost about sitting still and listening to God’s promises. It is about sitting at Jesus’ feet. It is about sitting and receiving the gifts Christ has come to give us, the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
This is the better part, and it will never be taken away from you.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jul 21, 2025 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for June 13
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – July 13, 2025
Luke 10:25-37
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we hear one of Jesus’ best-known parables, commonly called the parable of the Good Samaritan. An expert in Jewish law asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus responded with this parable. You know how the story goes. A man is stripped and beaten and robbed, left half-dead on the road. A priest sees this man in need and walks right past him, crossing the street to avoid him. Then a Levite, a worker in the temple, does the very same thing, passing him by. Then a Samaritan sees him and stops. This Samaritan bandages his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. The Samaritan then brings the half-dead man to an inn where he can continue to receive care, where he can be nursed back to life. The Samaritan generously promises to cover any and all debts he incurs.
The shock of the parable is that the one who acted most neighborly was not the priest, and not the temple worker, but the Samaritan. You see, to a Jewish lawyer, there was no such thing as a “good” Samaritan. Samaritans were despised by the Jews. The Samaritans were seen as wayward Jews who had abandoned the true Jewish faith. The Samaritans were former Jews who had intermarried with people of other cultures and adopted many of their religious practices, even while retaining some aspects of Judaism. They were seen as traitors and heretics. They were seen as unclean. In some ways they were worse than Gentiles, because they had once known and then had abandoned the true God of Israel. And yet, here Jesus makes a Samaritan the hero of the story, the one who best embodied what it meant to be a neighbor. He might be a Samaritan, but he responded to the human need in front of him without regard to religious or ethnic or political or social differences.
This is a parable we need to hear. We need to be reminded that to be a godly neighbor is to respond to human needs regardless of human differences. This is not an abstract idea or principle. It is not a general policy prescription for others to fulfill. It is an individual obligation for those who wish to be faithful to God’s law. It is a call to personally attend to the needs of those whom God puts in our path, those who are close at hand.
There is some discernment involved in this. We should use wisdom in how we go about it. There are plenty of scriptures which give this very advice. But, generally speaking, this is what it looks like to love our neighbors as ourselves: responding to human needs regardless of human differences.
We saw this principle being lived out recently in the response to the devastating and deadly flooding in Texas. When a few people tried to exploit the situation to try to score a few cheap political points, the Texans on the ground weren’t having any of it.
I saw a video clip of an African American woman responding to these political jabs by posting a video on social media. While some of it is not what I would call pulpit language, I’d like to share her comments unedited. She said : “I just wanted to say as a proud Texan…those who are bringing up who people voted for…this is not about politics. One thing about a Texan, we’re gonna’ pick up and we’re gonna’ help our neighbors. We don’t give a damn who they voted for in this time of need. What needs to be done is we need to find these babies. That’s what we are worried about. No politics, no nothing…We all pull our boots up and help each other. We don’t give a damn – blue, yellow, orange, white, brown, we all are gonna’ help each other.”
This is the spirit of the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is what it looks like to respond to human needs regardless of human differences. And in this time of such deep polarization, in a culture which is so deeply divided by politics and social class and ethnicity and religion, this is something we need to be reminded of again and again.
But as important as this is, there is an even deeper issue involved in Jesus’ conversation with this scholar of Biblical law. Note that the first question this lawyer had for Jesus was how he could inherit eternal life. This was a question about salvation. And when Jesus gave him a reference to the law, pointing him to the passage in Deuteronomy about loving God and loving neighbor, St. Luke tells us his next question came because he was trying to justify himself. That is, he was trying to make himself right with God. He was looking for assurance of salvation, assurance which, apparently, the law wasn’t giving him!
This is where the parable becomes more than a simple lesson in morality and becomes a parable about salvation. Given this crucially important bit of context, we can start to read the parable in such a way that it isn’t just Jesus giving this guy more law, more advice on how to behave. Looking at what exactly prompted the story can help us to see this parable also as an allegory of the gospel. It isn’t just about what we do, but what Christ is doing for us!
The earliest interpreters of this parable saw it this way. The earliest interpreters of this parable, including such luminaries as St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, saw this not only as a moral example story, but as an allegory of the saving work of Jesus Christ, who is the true Good Samaritan, the true neighbor who saves.
The allegorical interpretation of this parable sees the half-dead man as representing humanity after the fall, beaten up by the devil, robbed of all hope and joy, abandoned and alienated. The priest and the temple worker represent the inability of the law and the temple sacrifices to deliver any saving help to the suffering sinner. Jesus is the Samaritan, the one who was despised and rejected by his fellow Jews. Jesus comes with oil and wine, symbols of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, to bind up our wounds. Jesus delivers us into the inn of his church, where we can continue to be cared for, where our healing process can continue, all at his expense, with him promising to pay our every last debt.
Do you see it now? Do you see how this parable is not only a story about being a moral person and a good neighbor? Do you see how Jesus is actually responding to the man’s initial questions about how to inherit eternal life? About how he can be made right with God? It isn’t ultimately about doing a good job of keeping the law, which would contradict the entire rest of the New Testament and completely negate everything Jesus did on the cross for us. The assurance of salvation this man is looking for is instead to be found in the unexpected savior standing right in front of him, in the outsider who has come to meet him in his need. It is instead to be found in the despised and rejected One who has come to him when he was half-dead and when all his training in the religious law offered him no help. It is to be found in the surprising rescuer who came to him with oil and wine, gave him shelter, and took his debt upon himself.
We do need to be reminded of the moral imperatives of the parable of the Good Samaritan. We do need to be reminded that God does indeed call each of us to respond to human needs regardless of human differences. But we will never be such a good neighbor that we can stake our salvation on it. We will always be like the religious lawyer, wondering if we have done enough to inherit eternal life, wondering if we have done enough to justify ourselves before God.
What we need even more than a moral lesson is the assurance of the gospel, and the allegorical reading of this parable gives us just that. When we were dead in our sin, our Lord Jesus came to us. When the religious law offered us no help, he did. He gave us the anointing oil of baptism and the wine of his supper to heal us, to save us. He delivered us into the inn of his church where we can continue to be brought back to life. He has promised to cover our debts, to make everything right when he returns.
The two layers of meaning in this parable go together. We have both the gift of the gospel and instruction for the Christian life. The example and the allegory are tightly woven together. No one saw this more clearly than Martin Luther, who wrote:
[In this parable] Christ…especially wants to show that he himself is and wants to be the neighbor who correctly fulfills the commandment and demonstrates his love to the poor, miserable consciences and hearts of all people, which were wounded and perishing before God. In this way he also gives the example that his Christians should do the same as he does, even though he is regarded as a Samaritan by all the world.
We inherit eternal life through Christ’s work, not ours. We are justified, made right with God, through his keeping of the commandment, not our own. Jesus is the Good Samaritan who has come to our aid. He has come to rescue us, binding up our wounds, bringing us healing and salvation and new life. He has brought us into the shelter of his inn, the church, where we can continue to be brought back to life. He has promised us that the cost, the debt of our sin is covered. It has been paid in full – not with gold or silver, but with his own precious blood.
Jesus is the good neighbor who has responded to our needs, no matter who we are.
Now let us go and do likewise.
Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
