by Jeffrey Spencer | Feb 6, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for February 4
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 4, 2024
Mark 1:29-39
Dear friends, grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
A fever is a sign that there is a battle going on inside your body. It is an indicator that something has invaded – perhaps a virus, perhaps a bacteria, perhaps an infection – and your body is fighting it off. It is like the “check engine” light in your car. It is a sign that something isn’t right.
A fever is also often seen as a flashing light saying, “stay away.” We all remember from the pandemic (if I dare bring that up) how there were temperature check stations at every hospital and clinic and nursing home. If you had the slightest sign of a fever, you weren’t allowed in. We remember school districts encouraging staff and teachers and parents to take temperatures, and if it was higher than 98.6, to stay home. Costco started carrying those instant-read thermometers so employers could zap their employees, sending them away if they had an elevated temperature. Families were even using them to see who was allowed to come over and who had to stay away. And it’s true, it’s a good indicator. If someone has a fever, they should stay away!
A fever was an even more serious concern in Jesus’ time, because in those days when there was one of those battles going on inside your body, there was little you could do to fight it. There were no hospitals. There were no antibiotics. There was no Tylenol to knock that fever down if it got too high. For many people in the ancient world, a fever was often the beginning of the end. It was certainly a sign to stay away.
But when Simon Peter’s mother-in-law came down with a fever, Jesus didn’t stay away from her. When Peter asked Jesus to come, he did. He came close to her. Jesus made a house call, coming to her bedside. He even took her by the hand! St. Mark seems to want to tell the story of Jesus in as few words as possible, and yet he includes this detail: Jesus took her by the hand.
Personally, I’m a big fan of hand holding. My wife and I hold hands on our evening walks, and while I know that makes some people cringe or roll their eyes, that little extra gesture of closeness has a way of healing any recent strains on our relationship. We find that it is hard to stay mad at someone you’re holding hands with. Or there was the time I had my upper wisdom teeth taken out and the nurse held my hand until I was out. It was a complicated procedure for me because of where they were, and I was nervous. Holding a patient’s hand isn’t necessarily a required protocol, I’m sure, but she sensed it was what I needed, and it was such a comfort. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve held someone’s hand in their last hours. Sometimes they are unable to receive communion. Sometimes they can’t talk. But in holding their hand, feeling that slight squeeze of their hand responding to you, there is a closeness.
This gesture of Jesus in holding the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law wasn’t necessary. He could heal with a word. He could heal from a distance. But in his great compassion, his great love, Jesus came close – close enough to hold her hand. Jesus took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her. She was well again.
And then, immediately after she was well again, she got up out of bed and began to serve them! Now if my mother-in-law had been sick and then was made well, the last thing I would expect from her would be to get up and start serving everyone in the house. (I am wise about some things.) That this woman immediately served them might sound offensive. It might sound like there are some patriarchal cultural obligations at work. Why are they letting this poor woman who just moments ago was sick in bed serve them? I mean, come on guys, can’t you make your own sandwiches?
But this misses the point entirely. The point here is that when Jesus took her hand, he gave her strength. He empowered her, and she chose to use that strength, that power, to serve. You’ll notice that nobody asked her to serve them. She just did it!
I’ve been visiting one of our members regularly since she has been receiving treatments for cancer. Many of our visits have been like little tea parties, and most of the time she insists on pouring the tea. I try to tell her it isn’t necessary, that she doesn’t need to make a fuss. Her husband is a great caregiver. He stands by and offers to help out. Sometimes if she’s a little shaky that day he will do the pouring. But it is important to her to do it whenever she can. She wants to use whatever strength she has in that moment to serve, and as sheepish as I sometimes feel about letting a cancer patient pour my tea, it seems more wrong to tell her she can’t or shouldn’t. It is so obviously important to her. It is so obviously coming from a place of love, from the heart of a joyful servant.
I appreciated the commentary on this passage written by my professor of New Testament in seminary, Dr. Sarah Henrich. She notes that the Greek word for “serve” here in this gospel reading is diakoneo, which is the same word Jesus uses to describe his own ministry. It is where we get the word “deacon.” Dr. Henrich goes on to argue that Simon Peter’s mother-in-law is willingly and joyfully serving Jesus as an act of gratitude and faith. She writes that in her serving here “she is the first person in Mark’s gospel who exemplifies true discipleship.” This was no mere cultural obligation. This woman was now a servant of the Lord, a servant in his church. She had been lifted up by Jesus’ compassion and mercy. She had been strengthened by his touch, such that she now willingly, freely, responded to his love through joyful service.
The news that Jesus had healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law spread quickly. By the end of the day all kinds of people showed up at the house to be healed by Jesus. They brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. St. Mark tells us that “the whole city” was gathered around the door! Jesus cured many of them.
But then Jesus left. First he went to a deserted place by himself to pray. Then, when Simon Peter told him that everyone was searching for him, Jesus said it was time to move on. And why? Because Jesus had not come primarily to be a healer of physical ailments. He had not come primarily to be a nurse or an EMT. Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”
Jesus’ healing ministry is important. It is a sign to us that Jesus comes close to those who are sick. Jesus’ healing ministry reveals to us that God is concerned about our physical well-being, that God cares about our bodies. But this ministry of physical healing was not Jesus’ primary mission or purpose.
You see, Jesus had an even bigger fever to break. Jesus came to heal us of the bigger disease of sin, that spiritual disease we all confessed to having at the beginning of our service. Jesus came to cure the sickness in our hearts that leads to selfishness and doubts and fear and hatred and despair. He came to break the fever in our souls that rages as we fight against the temptations and the accusations and the lies of the evil one. Jesus came to heal us of everything that separates us from God. In fact, Jesus came to cure us of death itself.
And he does all of this by coming close to us with a message. He does it by coming close to us and giving us his Word, revealing to us that he has come to be our Savior and our Lord. He does it by coming close to us with the promise that he has conquered sin and death for us through his death and resurrection. Jesus comes close through Word and Sacrament to assure us that through his saving work on the cross, the bigger fever has been broken. The ultimate disease has been cured. And so we have nothing to fear.
We have many in our congregation who are battling serious illnesses. As that battle in your body is fought, know that Christ will not stay away from you. He will come close to you to give you strength and peace. If you like, we have healing prayer ministers who are here today to pray for you and with you during our distribution of the Lord’s Supper. If you like, they will take you by the hand and pray for you or for people you care about, so that you would know his closeness, his compassion, his caring heart, his healing love.
And for all of us who continue to know the fever caused by sin as that battle rages in our souls, our Lord Jesus comes close to us too. He doesn’t stay away. He comes to us with the message that we are forgiven and loved and redeemed. He comes close to us with the Word that makes us well. He takes us by the hand and lifts us up by his grace and mercy, strengthening us by his touch, so that we gratefully and joyfully live our lives in service to him.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 30, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 28
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany – January 28, 2024
Mark 1:21-28
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our worship services share a lot in common with synagogue worship, both in Jesus’ time and today. We follow an established pattern or order or liturgy which includes the singing of psalms and prewritten prayers and a confession of faith and a schedule of readings. We have people whose vocation is to tend to the Word, to study and pray and then speak on those prescribed readings.
And, both then and now, the authority by which these things are done and said is a derived authority. It doesn’t come directly from the one speaking, but from another. The rabbis preaching in synagogue would quote the rabbis who came before them to bolster their authority. They would quote from the Talmud, a collection of rabbinic teachings and debates. Similarly, I will often firm up a point I’m trying to make in a sermon by quoting recognized authorities in Christian theology, people like St. Augustine or Martin Luther or C.S. Lewis.
Furthermore, when I proclaim to you the forgiveness of sins, every time I say it, I say, “As a called and ordained ministry of the church of Christ, and by his authority,” referring to Jesus. I am speaking with a derived authority. It is Christ’s forgiveness. It didn’t come from me. I’m just the guy who gets to say it! Or when our lectors conclude each reading, they say, “The Word of the Lord.” It isn’t their word. It isn’t something they came up with. It is God’s Word. It is authoritative because it comes from him.
Today in our gospel reading we hear how Jesus went to a synagogue service in Capernaum. In fact, he was the preacher that day. But when Jesus spoke, St. Mark tells us, the people were astounded because he taught as one having authority! He didn’t talk like the scribes, or like pastors, often quoting other people. He didn’t talk like assisting ministers, clarifying that it was the Word of the Lord you just heard. He was the Son of God. He was the Word who became flesh. He was the authority! And so when he forgave sins, he didn’t need to cite anyone else. He had the authority to do so himself! He had the power. He had the authorization. When he read scripture, he didn’t need to say, “The Word of the Lord.” He could simply say it! After all, it was his word! Like no one else before and no one since, Jesus had the power and the authority to say what only God can say. And so the people were astounded.
It wasn’t only the worshippers who noticed that Jesus was more than a guest preacher. The demons recognized him too. There was a man in worship that day with an unclean spirit. This unclean spirit recognized Jesus as someone different, as someone with authority, as someone with power. “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” it said. “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
And then Jesus showed his power. He illustrated his authority. He answered the unclean spirit’s question by silencing him and by casting him out. Now the people went from being astounded to being amazed. They saw Jesus’ power in action. “He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” they said.
Martin Luther once said that wherever God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel. (See what I did there, quoting other people?) Seriously, it’s a great quote because it is a pithy way of describing something true. The man with the unclean spirit was at the synagogue. He was attending worship. His demon didn’t get checked at the door with his coat. It followed him right into worship. This is how it is for us. God’s people continue to be plagued by demons. It’s true: wherever God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel. Even us who are in worship regularly often face these unclean spirits which torment us, and they don’t stay out in the parking lot when we come to church.
The demons loose in our lives and in our world don’t necessarily look like what you might have seen in The Exorcist. They don’t always manifest themselves with spinning heads and projectile vomiting and screeching violins in the background. They are usually much more subtle than that. They prefer to remain hidden in the darkness most of the time. We shouldn’t dwell on them too much, but neither should we doubt their existence, as is common today. C. S. Lewis once said that the devil’s greatest trick is to convince you he doesn’t exist. (See? I did it again!)
It is instructive to look at the words the Bible uses to describe these malevolent forces in our world and in our lives. The name “Satan” is a Hebrew word that means accuser. The word “devil” is from the Greek word diabolos, which means deceiver. With those words in mind, we can see a little better how these unclean, or ungodly, spirits work. They lie, and they accuse.
Let me illustrate with a personal example. As many of you know, my mother died a couple of years ago from an accidental prescription drug overdose, after years of struggling with addiction. I was a mess following her death and started going to a counselor. One day as I was driving to my counseling appointment, I was listening to the Christian music station and the song “Rescue” by Lauren Daigle came on. I remembered when Amy and I went to see her in concert that she dedicated that song to a family member who struggled with addiction. Some of the words are, “I will send out an army to find you in the middle of the darkest night. It’s true, I will rescue you.”
As I listened to this song, remembering how Lauren Daigle dedicated it that night, it was like I heard a voice. I didn’t literally hear a voice, which, seriously, can be a sign of acute mental illness. But it was like I heard a voice. Let’s call it an intrusive thought. This intrusive thought said, “You didn’t rescue her. You didn’t do enough. You were her son and you’re a pastor and you didn’t rescue her.” I sobbed for the rest of the drive.
I told my counselor all of this. She is a Christian herself, and she knew the song. She looked at me. She pursed her lips in an awkward smile that said, “Jeff, you big dummy.” (A good counselor would never say that out loud, and she didn’t, but it sure looked like that was what she was thinking.) She finally blurted out, “Jeff, who do you think is doing the rescuing in that song? It isn’t Lauren Daigle! If she thinks she’s the rescuer, then the song is blasphemous! C’mon, you know better than that! She’s singing about Jesus! He’s the rescuer!”
She went on to talk about the accusation I was hearing, the accusation that it was my fault, that I should have been able to rescue her. In therapy they call it maladaptive guilt. In Christian theology we could just as well call it spiritual attack. We could call it the work of the accuser.
And then she leaned in and said, “You did what you could. You did everything you should have. But it was never your job to rescue her. That’s Jesus’ job, not yours. And he did.” In pointing me to Christ like she did, it was like a demon was being cast out.
The reason I share this story is because I know that many of you hear that same voice in your ears. I know many of you have similar kinds of intrusive thoughts. You have the same unclean spirit accusing and deceiving you day after day. I hear about it all the time in the pastoral care conversations I have with people. I can see it just under the surface in many people’s lives, lurking there in the shadows. Those spiritual attacks come at us especially strongly when we’re grieving, or sick, or lonely, or afraid, or discouraged, or struggling with some aspect of our lives. That’s when the deceiver smells blood. Those demons come along, saying, “You haven’t done enough,” or “You aren’t worthy of love,” or “There is no hope for you.” The accuser comes at us with our sins – whether they are real sins or exaggerated or even completely made up – all in an attempt to put a wedge between us and God.
It is true that we really are sinners, but there is a difference between conviction and condemnation. The Holy Spirit always tells us the truth in order to drive us to Christ, while the devil tells us lies in order to drive us into despair.
The circumstances of our lives might all be very different, but the demons all have the same modus operandi: “bleed them of hope in whatever way you can.” We can’t rescue each other from these demons. We can only point each other to the One who can.
It’s true: wherever God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel. Just as the man in Capernaum went to worship with an unclean spirit, we often come to worship with a devil on our shoulder, with an unclean spirit weighing us down.
The good news is that all these years after Jesus preached in the synagogue, he continues to show up in the church God built. He continues to teach with authority. He continues to cast out unclean spirits by his powerful Word. Although it is a derived authority, do not doubt that when the church hands over the words Christ gave it so speak, it speaks with his same authority. When it says your sins are forgiven, or that you have been marked with the cross of Christ forever, or that this is his body, given for you, it is speaking the words he himself authorized for you to hear. These are powerful words. So powerful, in fact, that the devils in the side chapels of God’s church cannot remain. They must obey him. His power is too great for them. His Word continues to cast them out, so that we might be restored, so that we would live in wholeness and hope once again.
And so when the unclean spirit whispers that you haven’t done enough, listen to Christ teach with authority that what he has done is more than enough. When the accuser throws your sins in your face, real or made up, listen to Christ say that by his authority, all your sins are forgiven. When the accuser tells you that you aren’t worthy of love, listen to Christ Jesus say with all the authority of God himself that you are so worthy, so precious, so loved, that he gave his own life in order to rescue you.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 23, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 21
Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany – January 21, 2024
Jonah 3:1-5, 10, Mark 1:14-20
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
What would you need to hear to make you immediately drop everything and respond?
For some, it might be the news that there are whales in Penn Cove or out at West Beach. I know people who, when they hear those words, the next sound you hear is their car peeling out in the parking lot! For some, it might be a call from your kid, or from your kids’ school, or, if you have kids in college like me, even just from your kids’ area code. If I get a call from Pullman, Washington, or College Station, Texas, I will drop everything to answer it! For some it might be the news that your cows got loose, or that your pregnant wife’s water just broke, or that there’s a plane leaving for Hawaii with some free seats available.
There are some things we hear which are so compelling or urgent or important or wonderful that we are willing to drop everything to respond.
In our gospel reading this morning we have four fishermen who heard something that made them drop everything and respond.
First, we have Simon and Andrew, two fishermen from Galilee. They were at work at their jobs, casting their nets into the sea, when Jesus called to them. “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people!” he said. And immediately, St. Mark tells us, they left their nets and followed him.
Next, we have James and John, two more fishermen. These two were in their boats mending their nets when Jesus called to them. And right there on the spot they left their father Zebedee and their hired men and followed Jesus.
What was it that compelled these four fishermen to drop everything and respond?
Well, Jesus had come to Galilee with a compelling message. Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
These are the very first recorded words of Jesus in Mark’s gospel. They constitute Jesus’ very first sermon. Let’s take a closer look at what he had to say.
First came a wonderful announcement: “The time is fulfilled!” Jesus said. What did it mean that the time was fulfilled? There are two words in the New Testament that are translated as “time” in English. There is chronos, which is where we get words like “chronology” and “chronological.” This word refers to linear time, time which can be marked and measured. It is one o’clock and then two o’clock. It is January and then February. That’s chronos. But there’s another word for time in the New Testament. That word is kairos. Kairos refers not to linear time, but to the proper time, the right time. When a baker is baking bread, he or she knows the bread is ready to come out not just by the clock, but by the doneness, right? They look at the crust, they thump on the bottom of the loaf, and say, “It’s time.” What has been waited for has happened. That’s kairos. Jesus begins his very first sermon by saying “It’s time.” The thing that everyone had been waiting and watching for had happened. The promise that God was coming to save his people was now being fulfilled.
“The kingdom of God has come near,” Jesus continued. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God he is not talking about a place. He isn’t talking about a territory or a region or a castle. He isn’t talking about an earthly structure of some kind. He isn’t talking about an organization or a network or an institution. Instead, the kingdom of God is whenever and wherever God makes himself known. It is whenever and wherever God’s rule, God’s authority, is made manifest. Or, as one Bible scholar put it, the kingdom of God is whenever and wherever God makes a personal appearance. This is what happened with the appearance of Jesus in Galilee. God had come near!
Next Jesus called for a response. After this proclamation, this amazing announcement, Jesus said, “Repent, and believe in the good news.”
To repent is to turn around. It is to change direction. It is to change your mind, your heart, your behavior, your life.
In our first reading we heard how Jonah reluctantly went to Nineveh to call them to repent: “Forty days more, and Nineveh will be overthrown!” he said. Here was an announcement that, much to Jonah’s chagrin, got them to drop everything and respond! And they responded by changing direction. Nineveh was a notoriously wicked city. As the capital of the Assyrian Empire, it was one of Israel’s most ruthless enemies, which is why Jonah didn’t want to go there in the first place. The prophet Nahum called Nineveh a “city of blood” and a place of “endless cruelty.” The Ninevites rejected God and God’s ways and God’s people.
But then Jonah called them to repentance, and everything changed. They changed direction. They proclaimed a fast as a sign of their turn towards the one true God. They changed clothes, with everyone, both great and small, putting on sackcloth as a sign of their changed hearts. They changed their behavior too. We hear that they turned from their evil ways. This is what it means to repent.
At least in part. You see, there’s another way of understanding what it means to repent. For the people of Israel this word had a history of being used to call the people to change their behavior, to be sure, but it had another meaning too. For the Israelites in exile, it was also understood as an invitation to return to God. It was understood as an invitation to come home, both literally and spiritually. That puts a different nuance on it, doesn’t it? What if every time we heard the word “repent,” we heard an invitation to come home? That’d get people to drop everything and respond, don’t you think?
Finally, Jesus said, “believe in the good news.” Jesus’ proclamation was not good advice; it was good news. In him, the time had been fulfilled. In him, the kingdom of God had come near. “Believe it!” Jesus is saying here. “Trust what I am saying to you! Respond to my words with faith. Respond by following me.”
The Ninevites and Simon and Andrew and James and John all heard a word from the Lord which compelled them to drop everything and respond. The Ninevites dropped their wicked ways. The fishermen dropped their nets, at least for now. They responded by immediately following the Lord in faith.
And now it is our turn.
Today we hear Christ Jesus say to us: “The time is fulfilled.” No matter what is going on for you in chronological time, no matter what life is like for you on January 21st, 2024, no matter what life was like for you yesterday or will be like for you tomorrow, no matter what you might be experiencing in linear time, the Lord Jesus says, “the time is fulfilled.” The time is right. The time is right for you to know his presence, his mercy, his grace, his love. That time has come. It is now.
Today we hear that the kingdom of God has come near to us. God’s kingdom has infiltrated our world. God’s presence and power has infiltrated our lives. In the midst of the brokenness of the kingdoms of the earth in which we live, God’s kingdom has entered in – not to claim territory or build a castle, not to wield earthly power, but to make himself known to us. In Jesus, God has made a personal appearance, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit he might come to rule our hearts with his peace.
Today through this living word we hear the Lord Jesus call us to repent. We are called to turn from all wickedness, as the people of Nineveh did. We are called to turn from all sin. We are called to change our direction, our minds, our hearts, our behavior, and our lives in response to his gracious call. All who find themselves in exile from God are graciously invited to come home to him.
Today we are called once again to believe in the good news. We are called to trust in God’s Word, in what Christ Jesus has said to us.
And he has said: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
Jesus very first sermon continues to be so compelling, so urgent, so important, so wonderful, that we can’t help but respond to it immediately with faith – a faith that follows him, and invites others to do the same.
Thanks be to God. Amen
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 16, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 14
Sermon for the Second Sunday of Epiphany – January 14, 2023
1 Samuel 3:1-10, Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, John 1:43-51
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
All four of our lectionary readings for today testify to the fact that God knows us. In our first reading, before the young boy Samuel even knows the Lord or can discern his voice, God calls to him. God knows him. God has a plan for him, a calling on his life. In the beautiful words of today’s psalm, we learn that none of us are accidents. God himself has knit us together in our mother’s wombs, and each day that we live is known to God. Even our epistle reading, where Paul is chewing out the Corinthians for some really bad theology leading to some really bad behavior, it is revealed that God knows what they’re up to. Nothing is hidden from him. God knows how they aren’t living in accordance with their true purpose. They aren’t using their bodies to glorify God. (We’ll come back to this in a bit.)
And then there’s Nathanael. In our gospel reading for today we hear how Philip told Nathanael that they had found the Messiah – the one about whom Moses and the prophets wrote, Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked, with obvious skepticism. “Come and see,” Philip told him. Nathanael then met Jesus face to face, prompting Jesus to say, “Now here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Jesus seemed to have some insight into Nathanael’s character. He knew he was a straight shooter. He knew he was blunt, that he told it like he saw it. Jesus showed that he knew him. “Where did you get to know me?” Nathanael replied. “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you,” Jesus said.
Like Samuel, before Nathanael knew Jesus, Jesus knew him! And in that moment when Nathanael realized this, when he understood that he was known by Jesus, his heart was moved from skepticism to faith. “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel,” he said.
The fact that God knows us – really, really knows us – isn’t automatically good news for us. In fact, some of you might be hearing this and saying to yourself, “Oh no!” Some of you look a little pale and sweaty as you contemplate this idea. “You mean to say God knows even that! This is terrible! I’m doomed!” It’s true – God does know even that. God knows the you you try to hide from others. God sees deeper into us than the best version of ourselves we usually try to put on display for others. God knows what you really think. God knows what you muttered under your breath against that person who made you angry, even if you were smiling and polite on the outside. God knows how you spend your money. God knows how you choose to spend your time. God knows every thought and every action of every moment of every day. As we say in our Brief Order of Confession and Forgiveness: “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.” The fact that God knows us, by itself, is not good news!
But there is a clue right in the middle of this gospel reading which begins to point us to what is good news for us. The clue is the fig tree.
Jesus saw Nathanael under a fig tree. Now sometimes a fig tree is just a fig tree. Not every detail of every verse of scripture needs to be symbolic. However, we’re in John’s gospel – where most every detail does in fact point to something deeper!
Some Bible commentators say that “under the fig tree” is a phrase rabbis used as a metaphor for meditating on the scriptures. They believe the fig tree is a symbol or a metaphor suggesting that Nathanael had already been searching for the Lord when Jesus found him. But that’s not what the early Church Fathers thought was going on here. That’s not what the first interpreters of this text believed was happening. In a sermon on this text from the fourth century, St. Augustine argued that the fig tree in this gospel reading represents the tree in the Garden of Eden, under which Adam and Eve sinned against God. What did Adam and Eve do after sinning? They felt exposed. They felt naked before God. They felt ashamed. And so they attempted to cover their nakedness with fig leaves. For Jesus to see Nathanael “under the fig tree”, then, was for him to see Nathanael under the curse of sin. It was to see the shadows of his life under that tree, in the darkness.
This might seem like a stretch, but this is what one of the most insightful theologians in all of Christian history believed. And it wasn’t just him – other Church Fathers like Chrysostom and Gregory the Great believed the same thing!
This, St. Augustine argues in his sermon, is where Christ finds all of us. He finds us in our sin. He finds us in our shame. He finds us trying to cover things up, hiding behind fig leaves.
But he doesn’t leave us stuck there. Even knowing everything there is to know about us, Christ comes to us. Even knowing everything we try so desperately to hide, he calls us to himself. Jesus knew Nathanael completely, and still he promised him that he would see the heavens opened.
The good news is not just that Jesus knows us. It is that he knows us and loves us anyway. It is that he knows us and has come to call us out from beneath the fig tree and into a new life with him. It is that he knows us and has come to save us from our sins, thereby opening up heaven to us, drawing us into a relationship with God that begins now and continues forever. It is that he knows us intimately, with all our faults and flaws and failures, and still he comes to us in love and calls us to follow him.
Some of the Christians in Corinth seem to have believed that because Jesus saved them from their sin, that they were free to continue to indulge in it. They seem to have believed that because Jesus had saved them from the condemnation of the law, that it no longer applied to them at all.
“All things are lawful for me,” they argued. “Ah,” Paul wrote back to them, “but not all things are beneficial.” Some of the Christians in Corinth had burned their fig leaves and were now engaging in sexual immorality, thinking it was all fine now. They believed that grace meant that anything goes, that any sexual behavior was okay. Paul wrote back to tell them that they were dead wrong.
To follow Jesus is to walk in the light of truth. And the truth is, going back to our psalm for today, that our bodies are intentionally and intelligently designed. They have been made by God for a purpose. Paul points them to the purpose and meaning of sex, which is for two to become one in holy matrimony, not for one to become one with one, and then another, and then another, in various configurations at various times. When it comes to sex, the math shouldn’t be that complicated! “Your body is a temple,” Paul tells them, “Not an amusement park!”
This is by no means to say that sex is inherently dirty or bad, which is how some Christians have swung the pendulum too far the other way. After all, God invented it. God thought it up. Paul’s Spirit-breathed argument here is that sex has a purpose and a meaning from God. When it is set in the context God intended, it is holy. It is good – for by it, the two become one. When it is misused, on the other hand, you are back under the fig tree. You are in the shadows, in the darkness, under the curse of sin.
(I know this is an uncomfortable topic, but if we don’t have a little teaching around sex even when the lectionary is prodding us to do so, we end up letting popular culture set the agenda – and how is that going for us?)
But this case study in First Corinthians is not only a lesson about how Christians should regard sex. In the broader context of the letter it is another example of Jesus knowing people and loving them anyway. It is another example of Jesus coming to sinners to call them out from under the fig tree and into newness of life. Because when things got crazy in Corinth, Jesus didn’t send fire and brimstone. He sent a preacher! Jesus sent Paul, his personally chosen apostle. He sent Paul to correct them, to teach them the truth, and in so doing, to call them into the light. And by the end of the letter, Paul is showing these sinners how the heavens have been opened to them because of what Jesus has done for them.
The letter to the Corinthians is itself is an example of Jesus knowing people completely and coming to them anyway – to bring correction, to be sure, to call for a change in behavior, absolutely – but none of that could happen without there first being a love that was bigger than their sin, without a savior who came to them with grace and mercy and forgiveness.
God knows you. Yes, you – each of you here today. God knew you before you ever knew him or could discern his voice. God knit you together in your mother’s womb, personally overseeing every intricate detail, and you are wonderfully made. Each day, each moment you live is known to God.
This isn’t, by itself, good news. For it means that from God no secrets are hidden. God knows the parts of our lives that, like our ancestors Adam and Eve, we try to hide behind fig leaves. As St. Augustine once preached: “Our Lord Jesus Christ found the whole human race under the fig tree.”
The good news isn’t just that God knows us. It is that God knows us and loves us anyway. And he proves his love for us by coming to us in Jesus, who calls us out from under the curse of the fig tree through his forgiveness and into a new life with him. By his gracious call he opens up the blessings of heaven to us, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jan 10, 2024 | Sermons
CLICK HERE for a worship video for January 7
Sermon for Baptism of our Lord – January 7, 2024
Mark 1:1-4
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The beginning of a new year is an exciting time. As we put a new calendar up on the wall or crack open a new weekly planner, we have hopes for how our days might unfold in the new year ahead. Many have longings that some things would be different than they were the year before. Many resolve to do things differently, making adjustments to their lives. It feels like a clean slate, a fresh start. There must be some reason so many people stayed up on New Year’s Eve and counted down. There must be some reason for the fireworks in cities around the world as midnight struck in one time zone after another. When a new year begins, we celebrate a new beginning.
Our gospel reading for this morning begins with people who were longing for a new start. They had a sense that God was about to do a new thing. They were preparing for the coming of the Messiah by being baptized in the river Jordan. They received John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This baptism felt like a clean slate, a new beginning.
And it was! But something even better was just around the corner. “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.” John told them. “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
When the Messiah comes, John told the crowd, he will baptize not with water alone, but with the Holy Spirit – that is to say, he will baptize with the very presence of God. This will be more than a ritualized washing. It will be more than a pledge to live differently. It will be more than a human action, a human expression of faith and love and commitment. This baptism will be a pouring out of the Holy Spirit. It will be God’s work, God’s action, God’s expression of love and commitment. It will not be a baptism of water alone, but a baptism of water and the Holy Spirit – bringing the baptized into the very presence of the one true God.
And then this Messiah came, and this is precisely what happened! As St. Mark tells us, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” Mark mentions it so casually, almost in passing. But something incredibly important is happening here. Jesus entered into the same muddy waters as those common sinners. Jesus, the Son of God, met them where they were in the waters of baptism. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized. He didn’t do it for himself, for his own benefit. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance, a way of turning back to God. Jesus had no need for this. John’s baptism was for the forgiveness of sin. Jesus had no sin. He didn’t need forgiveness! Jesus did not need John’s baptism. So why did he receive it? In receiving John’s baptism, Jesus was coming alongside the very people he had come to save. He was present to them, present for them. And in going under the water and then rising to the surface, Jesus was foreshadowing how he would save them once and for all – by dying and rising again.
As Jesus came up out of the water, we are told he saw the heavens torn apart. Jesus’ baptism is marked by this sign of cosmic significance! The veil between heaven and earth has been breached! The distance between a heavenly Father and his fallen world has been overcome. The barriers separating a sinful humanity from a holy God have come down.
The only other time Mark uses this phrase “torn apart” is right after Jesus dies on the cross, when the temple curtain which separated the holy from the sinful was torn apart. When Jesus sees the heavens “torn apart” apart at his baptism he is getting a glimpse of what his saving work would accomplish: there would no longer be anything in the way of sinners having a relationship with the living God.
As Jesus gets this glimpse of the heavens being torn apart, the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove. It was just what John said would happen. Now the Spirit was upon the waters, just as it was at the creation. God was doing a new thing! By going into that water himself Jesus changed the very nature of baptism. He infused that water with his own saving presence. He infused it with the Holy Spirit. The one more powerful than John had come, and baptism would never be the same.
God the Father looked at all of this happening and smiled. He saw his Son in the water alongside common sinners and said, “Yes!” God the Father said. “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” God the Father saw the Spirit and the Son splashing in the waters, bringing about a new, more powerful baptism, and God blessed it. The Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all gave high fives to each other. (That’s not in the text, but I think it is safe to infer that this happened!)
On this first Lord’s Day of the new year, when many of us are hopeful about new beginnings and fresh starts, our attention is turned away from a new calendar and towards Holy Baptism. We have something better to place our hope in than the fact that 2023 had turned to 2024. Because you see, this baptism of which John spoke has come. It has been given to us. (If you haven’t yet received it, that is something we would be glad to remedy!)
When you were baptized into Christ, the Lord Jesus met you in those waters. When you were baptized into Christ, you were given the Holy Spirit. In Holy Baptism you were reborn as a child of God. St. Paul teaches us that when we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into his death and resurrection. In other words, the gift of salvation won for us on the cross is bestowed upon us through water and word and Spirit, making us Christians, making us his own forever.
New calendars are nice, and I have a few new year’s resolutions of my own, but the truth is, your baptism is the only clean slate you’ll ever need. And this new beginning can be claimed whenever you need it. In fact, Martin Luther teaches us in the catechism that baptism has a daily significance. It sets a daily pattern of dying and rising with Christ to newness of life, a daily pattern of putting off the old sinner and putting on the new person you are in him. We are invited, indeed encouraged, to return to the promises of baptism every day, and in do doing we are born again, and again, and again.
In the new, more powerful baptism established by our Lord Jesus, we are given a well of grace and mercy and forgiveness in our lives that never goes dry. Christ continues to be found in the water with sinners. The heavens continue to be torn open, giving us access to the presence of God.
And so, no matter what the calendar says, every day, every moment lived in light of what Christ has done to you and for you and in you in Holy Baptism is a new beginning, and a fresh start.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Dec 25, 2023 | Sermons
Sermon for Christmas Day 2023
John 1:1-14
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christmas Eve is traditionally the time when the church tells the story of Jesus’ birth. We get Joseph and Mary and shepherds and angels and the manger. They’re all still here today. They’re in our hymns and in our creche and in our hearts.
But on Christmas Day the focus turns from the story of Jesus’ birth to a deeper dive into the meaning of Jesus’ birth. And so we move from St. Luke, whose purpose in writing his gospel was to get down an “orderly account” of the story of Jesus, to St. John, who gets right to the heart of the meaning of it all.
John begins his gospel with language hearkening back to the creation account in Genesis:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
John sets the scene for his gospel by describing the Word that existed with God and as God from the very beginning, before creation itself came into being. This Word brought creation into existence. This Word was and is the spark of life.
This is all very conceptual, very theological. It is beautiful and powerful and important, but so far these are ideas that John is putting before us. This Word is, at this point, remote. Abstract. Distant.
But not for long. Not for long, because John goes on to tell us that this Word came into the world! The world did not know him. Many of his own people did not accept him. But the Word came into the world, and to those who did receive him, he gave them power to become children of God. In other words, they were drawn into relationship with him, a close relationship.
And then comes the most wondrous statement of all: “The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”
Here is the meaning of Jesus’ birth: This Word that existed with God and as God from the beginning of time became a human being. What was abstract has become concrete. What we struggle to understand as an idea or a concept has become a person. The God who is above all, and through whom all things came into being, has entered his own creation, becoming incarnate, coming to us in the flesh as an infant.
And so what can sometimes seem so distant to us has come very, very close. The Word became flesh and lived among us! In theological terms this is called the incarnation. God took on human flesh to come close to us, to connect with us, to reconcile us to himself, to draw us into relationship with him.
My wife and I got into the habit of taking walks every day when we had our dog. Sadly, our dog died this summer. But while we lost our dog, we kept the walks. We found that we enjoyed them so much that we’d keep doing them. Only now that we aren’t juggling a leash and poop bags we have made a point of holding hands on our walks.
Some of you want to say, “Aww, how sweet,” right now, while others want to groan or roll your eyes. It’s okay. We are well aware that some see us strolling hand in hand and think it’s corny or cringey. But here’s the thing we have discovered by holding hands for a half an hour almost every day – it brings us closer. There is a connection there that is deepened. If we’ve been distant from each other or preoccupied, we are suddenly more present to each other. If we’ve been snippy with each other earlier in the day and there are lingering resentments, that all fades away with that human touch. It’s hard to stay mad at someone you’re holding hands with.
Sometime after we started this practice, I came across an article about the benefits of holding hands, which affirmed everything we’d noticed since we started doing it. It even gave scientific, biochemical explanations for how holding hands can lead better overall wellness, decreasing stress, soothing anxiety, lowering your blood pressure and heart rate.
This isn’t just for married people. Holding hands is not just a romantic gesture. Last week I went to see one of our church members who is in hospice. He is now in a haze of morphine, making it difficult to carry on a conversation. But the moment he recognized who I was he put out his hand, and I held it the entire time I was there. That human touch established a connection, a closeness.
When we hear John tell us that the Word became flesh and lived among us, he is telling us that in Christ, God has come close to us. God has come to us in the flesh. God has come to us in the person of Jesus Christ to establish a deep and close human connection with us. The Word became flesh so that instead of being distant, he can be present to us and for us. The Word became flesh so that any sin separating us from him can be overcome and we can be reconciled. The Word became flesh in order to bring us the wellness that comes from his touch.
You might be thinking to yourself at this point, “But pastor, Jesus came in the flesh a long time ago. He’s not here anymore. It’s not like we can hold his hand. He is not here in the flesh for us to touch today.”
Are you sure about that?
There is a moment in our worship service where we take hold of each other’s hands. We do it during the Passing of the Peace. You wouldn’t guess from how casual and chaotic it can be, but it is a holy moment. We, the church, are the Body of Christ, and so when we take hold of each other’s hands, we aren’t just saying “howdy.” We are connecting through human touch as the Body of Christ. We aren’t just touching each other, we are touching Him, the Word who became flesh. We are literally passing the peace of Christ!
There’s another moment in our worship service where this happens. It happens when the bread of the Lord’s Supper is placed in the palm of your hand. The Word becomes flesh as Christ’s body is given for you. When you touch that bread, you touch Him. When you take hold of that bread you are taking hold of him. And when you take hold of him, you are deeply, personally connected to Him. He is truly present for you. Any difficulties or troubles in the relationship melt away through his forgiveness. His touch makes us well.
The story of Christmas is something we hear once a year, but the meaning of Christmas is evident Sunday after Sunday. In fact, the meaning of Christmas shapes every moment of our lives as we come to see that God is not far off, not distant, not merely a concept or an idea, but is close, living among us, full of grace and truth. The meaning of Christmas is that in Jesus Christ the Word became flesh so that he might take your hand in his – today, and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
