Luther's Gospel Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. Matthew 22:1-14. The Marriage Feast of the Son

TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. 


This sermon does not appear in c edition. It was printed first In the “Two sermons on the festival of all saints,”

1523. It is also one of the collection of 12 sermons. Erl. 14, 223; W. 11, 2319; St. L. 11, 1738.

Text: Matthew 22:1-14. And Jesus answered and spake again in parables unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the marriage feast: and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them that are bidden, Behold, I have made ready my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come to the marriage feast. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise; and the rest laid hold on his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them. But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore unto the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage feast. And those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was filled with guests. But when the king came in to behold the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a wedding-garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless.

Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few chosen.

CONTENTS:

THE SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST THE KING MADE FOR HIS SON.
* The contents of this Gospel. 1.

I. THE FIRST PART OF THIS SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION.

1. The spiritual meaning: of the king, the bridegroom and the bride.

2. Of the servants, who gave the invitation to the marriage feast.

3. Of the oxen and the fatlings.

4. Of the guests, who excused themselves.

5. Of the wrath of the king. 6-7.

6. Of the servants going out into the highways.

7. Of the king coming to see the guests.

8. Of the king finding one, who had not the wedding garment on.

9. Of the Judgment that fell upon him who had no wedding garment on. 11-12.

II. THE SECOND PART OF THIS SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION. The spiritual meaning.

1. Of the wedding. 13-18.

2. Of the marriage garment.

3. Of binding him hand and foot.

* The answer to give the Papists when they say, we must obey the Pope, although he with his following be bad. 21.

SUMMARY OF THIS GOSPEL:

1. Paul also writes of this marriage, Ephesians 5:25-27, where he speaks of Christ and his Church, as of a bride and of a bridegroom.

2. The Jews, who were the despisers and murderers, will in turn be despised and murdered.

3. Thus disposed are all men by nature, when left to themselves.

4. The heathen were without, that is, the sinners had no place in this wedding; but later, when the true guests despised the wedding, the heathen were then brought in.

5. The people will be cast out from the marriage feast, who have only the name of Christ.

6. He has not the wedding garment on who has not faith, by which alone this marriage feast is made and maintained. Our first parents lost this garment and were put to shame in their bareness and nakedness. But faith covers all that we received from Adam. Therefore Psalm 32:1 says: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

PARABLE OF THE KING WHO MADE A MARRIAGE FEAST FOR HIS SON.

1. This Gospel presents to us the parable of the wedding; therefore we are compelled to understand it differently than it sounds and appears to the natural ear and eye. Hence we will give attention to the spiritual meaning of the parable, and then notice how the text has been torn and perverted.

2. First, the King, who prepared the marriage feast, is our heavenly Father.

The bridegroom is his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The bride is the Christian Church, we and the whole world, in so far as we believe, of which we shall hear later.

3. God first sent out his servants, the Prophets to invite guests to this wedding; they were to bid them, that is, preach, and preach only faith in Christ. But those invited did not come; they were the Jews, to whom the Prophets were sent, they would not hear nor receive those sent to them. At another time he sent other servants, the Apostles and martyrs, to bid us come, and to say to the bidden guests: “Behold, I have made ready my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come to the marriage feast.”

4. These words beautifully picture to us and teach how we should make use of the life of the saints; namely, to introduce examples by which the doctrine of the Gospel may be confirmed, so that we may the better, by the aid of such examples and lives, meditate upon Christ, and be nourished by and feast upon him as upon fatlings and well fed oxen. This is the reason he calls them fatlings. Take an example: Paul teaches in Romans 3:23f. how the bride is full of sin and must be sprinkled by the blood of Christ alone, or she will continue unclean, that is, she must only believe that the blood of Christ was shed for her sins, and there is no other salvation possible. Then he beautifully introduces the example of Abraham and confirms the doctrine of faith by the faith and life of Abraham, and says, 4:3: “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.” That is a true ox, it is properly slain, it nourishes us, so that we become grounded and strengthened in our faith by the example and faith of Abraham. Again, soon after Paul lays before us a fine fatling, when he cites David the Prophet of God and proves from him, that God does not justify us by virtue of our works, but by faith, when he says, Romans 4:6-8: “Even as David also pronounceth blessing upon the man, unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works,” saying in Psalm 32:1-2: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.”

Behold, that fattens and nourishes in the true sense, when we use the example and doctrine of pious saints to confirm our own doctrine and faith.

And this is the true honor that we can give to the saints. Follow now further in this Gospel: 5. “But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise; and the rest laid hold on his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.” These are the three barriers that prevent us from coming to the marriage feast. The first, or the farm, signifies our honor; it is a great hindrance that we do not think of Christ and believe in him; we fear we must suffer shame and become dishonored, and we do not believe that God can protect us from shame and preserve us in honor. The second go to their spheres of business, that is, they fall with their hearts into their worldly affairs, into avarice, and when they should cleave to the Word, they worry lest they perish and their stomachs fail them; they do not trust God to sustain them. The third class are the worst, they are the high, wise and prudent, the exalted spirits, they not only despise but martyr and destroy the servants; in order to retain their own honor and praise, yea, in order to be something. For the Gospel must condemn their wisdom and righteousness and curse their presumption. This they cannot suffer; therefore they go ahead and kill the servants who invited them to the dinner and the marriage feast. They were the Pharisees and scribes, who put to death both Christ and his Apostles, as their fathers did the Prophets. These are much worse than the first and second classes, who, although they despised and rejected the invitation, yet then went away and neither condemned nor destroyed the servants.

6. Further, the Gospel says: “But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.” That happened to the Jews through the Romans under Titus and Vespasian, who burned Jerusalem to the ground, to its very foundation. However I prefer to have it understood spiritually, since the whole Gospel is to be explained spiritually. Hence this came to pass when God totally destroyed and burned to the ground the synagogue at Jerusalem, he entirely abandoned faith, scattered the people hither and thither, so that none remained together and they were robbed both of their priesthood and of their kingdom; so that there is not now a poorer, a more miserable and forsaken people on the earth than the Jews. Such is the end of the despisers of God’s Word.

7. It now follows: “Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they that were bidden were not worthy.” This has also come to pass; for the Jews have not desired to know anything at all of Christ; they put him to death, also the Prophets and Apostles, and from that time to the present they have not been worthy to hear a word concerning Christ.

8. Further: “Then he said to them, Go ye therefore unto the partings of the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage feast.” Hence they went out into the highways, namely, to us heathen, and gathered us together from the ends of the world into a congregation, in which are good and bad.

9. Then the King goes in to behold the guests. This will take place on the day of judgment, when the King will let himself be seen.

10. Then he will find one, not only a single person, but a large company not clothed with a wedding garment, that is, with faith. These are pious people, much better than the foregoing; for you must consider them the ones who have heard and understood the Gospel, yet they cleaved to certain works and did not creep entirely into Christ; like the foolish virgins, who had no oil, that is, no faith.

11. To them the King will say: “Bind him hand and foot, and cast him out into the outer darkness,” that is, he condemns their good works, that they no longer avail anything; for the hands signify their work, the feet their walk in life, and he will then cast them into the outer darkness.

12. Now, this outer darkness is in contrast with the inner light, since faith alone must see within the heart. There our light, our reason must be covered and cease, and faith alone lighten us. For if a person will act according to reason and open it, there is nothing but death, hell and sin before his eyes. Reason then considers itself a candidate for death; yet it finds no help in any creature, all is a desert and dark. Therefore reason must be barred out here, or it must despair and surrender itself as a captive to the light of faith alone. This same light then sees that it is God in heaven who is interested in us, who cares for us, upon whom the heart can meditate, who rejects all aid of reason and depends upon no creature; then man will be sustained. Now this is the sense of the words, that those cast thus into outer darkness will be robbed of faith, and thus cast out. Since they do not cleave to God’s mercy alone through faith, they must despair and be condemned.

13. Let us now briefly notice what is taught by this marriage feast. First, this marriage feast is a union of the divine nature with the human. And the great love Christ has for us is presented to us in this picture of the wedding feast. For there are many kinds of love, but none is so ardent and fervent as a bride’s love, the love a new bride has to her bridegroom, and on the other hand, the bridegroom’s love to the bride. True love has no regard for pleasures or presents, or riches, or gold rings and the like; but cares only for the bridegroom. And if he even gave her all he had, she would regard none of his presents, but say: I will have only thee. And if on the other hand he has nothing at all, it makes no difference with her, she will in spite of all that desire him. That is the true nature of the love of a bride. But where one has regard to pleasure, it is harlot-love; she does not care for him, but for the money; therefore such love does not last long.

14. This true bride-love God presented to us in Christ, in that he allowed him to become man for us and be united with our human nature that we might thus perceive and appreciate his good will toward us. Now, as the bride loves her betrothed, so also does Christ love us; and we on the other hand will love him, if we believe and are the true bride. And although he gave us even heaven, the wisdom of all the Prophets, the glory of all the saints and angels, yet we would not esteem them unless he gave us himself.

The bride can be satisfied by nothing, is insatiable, the only one thing she wants is the bridegroom himself; as she says in the Song of Solomon, 2:16: “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” She cannot rest until she has her beloved himself. So is Christ also on the other hand disposed toward me: he will have me only, and besides nothing. And if I gave him even all I could, it would be of no use to him; he would have no regard for it, even if I wore all the hoods of all the monks. He wants my whole heart; for the outward things, as the outward virtues, are only maid servants, he wants the wife herself. He demands, that I say from the bottom of my heart: I am thine. The union and the marriage are accomplished by faith, so that I rely fully and freely upon him, that he is mine. If I only have him, what can I desire more?

15. Now, what do we give to him? An impure bride, a dirty, old, wrinkled outcast. But he is the eternal wisdom, the eternal truth, the eternal light, an exceptionally beautiful youth. What does he give us then? Himself, wholly and completely. He does not cut a piece off for me or give me a little morsel, but the whole fountain of eternal wisdom, not a little brooklet. If then I am thus his and he mine, I have eternal life, righteousness and all that belongs to him. Therefore I am righteous, saved, and in a sense that neither death, sin, hell, nor satan can harm me. If he gave me only a part of his wisdom, righteousness and life, I would say: That is of no help to me, but I want thee, without thee nothing is real and true. When he gives me his servants, his Prophets, he gives me only a part and a morsel; the gifts are only concubines, among whom there is only one who is the true bride.

They are distinguished thus: there are many souls to whom gifts are made, as, wisdom, love and the like; but they are not the true brides, for they do not say, Thou art mine: but they court your purse on the side, for they love the gifts. But the true bride says: Thee alone will I have, thou art mine, and not the ring, not the jewel, not the present. The above is all spoken of love.

Emmaus 2015 - United against Justification by Faith:
Larry, Moe, and Curly.

16. Now, what do we bring to him? Nothing but all our heart-aches, all our misfortunes, sins, misery and lamentations. He is the eternal light, we the eternal darkness; he the life, we death; he righteousness, we sin. This is a marriage that is very unequal. But what does the bridegroom do? He is so fastidious that he will not dwell with his bride until he first adorns her in the highest degree. How is that done? The Apostle Paul teaches that when he says in Titus 3:5-6: “He gave his tender body unto death for them and sprinkled them with his holy blood and cleansed them through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” He instituted a washing; that washing is baptism, with which he washes her. More than this, he has given to her his Word; in that she believes and through her faith she becomes a bride. The bridegroom comes with all his treasures; but I come with all my sins, with all my misery and heart-griefs. But because this is a marriage and a union, in the sense that they become one flesh, Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5, and they leave father and mother and cleave to one another, they should embrace each other and not disown one another, although one is even a little sick and awkward; for what concerns one, the other must also bear.

17. Therefore, the bride says, I am thine, thou must have me; then he must at the same time take all my misfortune upon himself. Thus then are my sins eternal righteousness, my death eternal life, my hell heaven; for these two, sin and righteousness, cannot exist together, nor heaven and hell. Are we now to come together the one must consume and melt the other in order that we may be united and become one. Now his righteousness is truly incomparably stronger than my sins, and his life unmeasurably stronger than my death; for he is life itself ,where all life must be kindled.

Therefore my death thus vanishes in his life, my sins in his righteousness and my condemnation in his salvation. Here my sin is forced between the hammer and the anvil, so that it perishes and vanishes. For now since my sin, my filth is taken away he must adorn and clothe me with his eternal righteousness and with all his grace until I become beautiful; for I am his bride. Thus then I appropriate to myself all that he has, as he takes to himself all that I have; as the Prophet Ezekiel 16:6f says: “I passed by thee, and thou wast naked, and thy breasts were fashioned and were marriageable; then I spread my skirts over thee and covered thy nakedness, gave thee my Word and put on thee beautiful red shoes.” Here he relates many kind acts he did for her; and later he complains in verse 15, how she became a harlot. He tells us all this, that he clothed us with his riches and that we of ourselves have nothing. Whoso does not here lay hold of this as sure, that he has nothing of himself, but only Christ’s riches and cannot without doubt say, Thou art mine, he is not yet a Christian.

18. Now since Christ is mine and I am his: if Satan rages, I have Christ who is my life; does sin trouble me, I have Christ who is my righteousness; do hell and perdition attack me, I have Christ, who is my salvation. Thus, there may rage within whatever will, if I have Christ, to him I can look so that nothing can harm me. And this union of the divine with the human is pointed out in the picture here of the marriage feast, and the exalted love God has to us, in the love of the bride.

19. Now the wedding garment is Christ himself, which is put on by faith, as the Apostle says in Romans 13:14: “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Then the garment gives forth a luster of itself, that is, faith in Christ bears fruit of itself, namely, love which works through faith in Christ. These are the good works, that also flash forth from faith, and entirely gratuitously do they go forth, they are done alone for the good of our neighbor; otherwise they are heathenish works, if they flow not out of faith; they will later come to naught and be condemned, and be cast into the outermost darkness.

20. This is indicated here in the binding of his hands and feet. The hands, as said, are the works, the feet the manner of life in which he trusted and failed thus to cling to Christ alone. For we blame him that he had not on the wedding garment, that is, Christ; therefore he must perish with his works; for they did not sparkle forth from faith, from the garment. Hence will you do good works, then believe first; if you will bear fruit, then be a tree first, later the fruit will follow of itself.

21. The mistake is also readily observed here, by which many have perverted the Gospel in that they say: Although the Pope and his following are wicked, yet we must obey him and acknowledge him as the head of Christendom. Let him do what he may, and yet he cannot err, and although he may not have on the wedding garment, nevertheless he is in the congregation. But they are not so good that one might compare them to the one who had not on the wedding garment. They are the villians and murderers who killed the servants of the King; and even if they were worthy to be compared to him, yet the Gospel in this parable does not teach us to follow them, but to cast them out and protect ourselves against them. For whoever has not on the wedding garment does not belong to the congregation, is filth, like the slime, pus, and ulcers in the body; it is indeed in the body, but it is no part of the healthy body. Counterfeits are among money, but they are not money; chaff is among the wheat, but it is not wheat; so these are among Christians, but they are not Christians. This is sufficient on to-day’s Gospel. Let us pray God for grace, that none of us may come to such a precious and glorious marriage feast without a wedding garment.

WELS Discipline under Mirthless Mark Schroeder - The Ski Scrotum Sermon Where Ski Portrayed Himself as the Means of Grace. From 2013.

Pastor Randy Ott, who graduated in 89 with Joel Lillo and other Shrinkers,
has proudly posted this sermon on his church websty.
The sermon is reproduced verbatim below.
The sermon remained posted - with the audio - for a long, long time.

MORRISON ZION EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH

www.mzluth.org

October 28, 2012

150th Anniversary Worship

Pastor Jim Skorzewski
Lesson: Ephesians 2:1-9, 19-21

Kill The Cow!

It’s Not About The Building

Yep...that’s one of those things.  I came in today and I ran in Pastor Ott and he said, “Hey, you brought your gown, right?”  I said, “You told me not to.”  He said, “Oh yeah, that’s right.”  Warm welcome to my guest visitors.  My name is Jim Skorzewski.  I go by Pastor Ski.  I’m a pastor in downtown Appleton at The Core.

I kind of have a disclaimer this morning.  If you have your worship bulletin, inside your worship bulletin, kind of in that insert there you’ll see; you’re going to need that.  Also, as Pastor Ott talked about this morning, you have some pencils.  We are going to start right down here.  What I found is, I’m kind of a boring preacher, so the way we keep people awake is we make them write lots of stuff down.

The other thing you also need to understand is the way we do things in my church is it’s very much interactive.  I don’t preach again until about 5:30pm, and I have lots of time. So the longer it takes for you to respond, the longer the sermon gets.  That’s just one of those things. 

How many of you have ever heard the term “sacred cow”?  I know I’m 40 years old. I’m old.  A lot of people don’t necessarily talk that way anymore, but I think it’s one of those things. Have you ever heard that term “sacred cow”?  If you have, just put your hands up, it’s okay.  Anybody want to venture out and say what that is or define that? 5:30pm... lots of time.  Don’t worry, if you’re wrong, I’ll just tell you.  It’s okay.  (India?)

In India they actually worship animals, cows, sacred cows.  But in our context, in our society today, a sacred cow is something that is holy and no one would ever talk about, touch, look to change, because it would so upset the culture.  So when Pastor Ott called me and he said, “Hey, I would love for you to come and talk at our 150th Anniversary.  Would you like to do that?  What would you like to talk about?”  I said, “How about I talk about why your building is bad?”  He went, “Great!  Love it!”

So if you have your notes today, one of the things we are going to look at right away is Point 1.  It says this... whenever we talk about any kind of a cow or sacred cow, we need to make sure that we always “check our motivation.”  One of the things we have to recognize is this... something like that, a sacred cow, can actually come in and stand in the way between our relationship with our God.  And if we’re honest and we are clear, anything that stands in the way of our relationship with our God is an idol.

You have that passage right away... Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature... which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5.)

I know right now you’re thinking “Oh man, 150 years.  We were going to come today and talk about how great it is.  We are going to talk about all these incredible things that happened.”  Maybe? Maybe.  But let’s be really honest and let’s look at all of the ways God has blessed us.  Let’s say first and foremost that we are going to check our motivation.  Nowhere is that clearer where maybe they started out in a really positive good way, but all of a sudden that motivation shifted then back in the Old Testament.

Maybe one thing I should clarify too, one of the things we really believe downtown, I know you guys believe this too, is that the Bible is the greatest book ever, right?  Can I get like an “Amen” or something?  It’s the greatest book ever.  One of the things we do is we do everything topically.  We take and we have this crazy idea that the Bible proves itself.  From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, it all focuses on our Savior Jesus Christ and it weaves that altogether.  So in my sermon today, you are going to see passages from all over that drive this point home.

Nowhere is it more clear that we need to look at motivation than the Old Testament in Genesis, right?  If you have your paper in front of you, just look at this text.  There’s a part of it you’re going to join in and read with me.  So check this out.  If you grew up in the church, you know this, right?  We have the tower of Babel and this is what happens. It says, They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.  Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

(Genesis 11:3-4.)

So what’s going on is all the people have been kind of nomadic.  They lived in tents. They’ve had temporary shelters, and now they get this great idea that they are going to take and become permanent.  Maybe for you guys here you can kind of understand that looking back.  When was your building built?  1927 but you actually started in 1802, right?  1862, I need my glasses.  I took piano instead of math.  Let’s be honest, right? So you had a long time where you were in a temporary structure.  So you can get this. You can get it.

So look at this next part... “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens... Read the next nine words with me... so that we may make a name for ourselves.  Whoa, I said nine words.  Just nine.  So that we may make a name for ourselves, and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
 

I’ll be honest, this morning I got into my office really early.  I Googled how to get here because I had never been to Greenleaf or Morrison.  I still get lost in Appleton after five years.  I’m driving down County W and all of a sudden, guess what?  I see this immense structure.  I say, “That’s got to be the church.”  There it is, standing out, drawing in people.  And I thought right away, “Man, this is so crazy because this is just like the thing.”  When this building went up, why did we build the building?  Didn’t we do this thing because we, as simple people, we love to do things like this.  And maybe we don’t always realize we do it, but if we’re honest and we look at our heart, we do this. We look and we say, “We are going to build this incredible thing,” and we couch it and we hide it and we say things like this, “for the glory of God,” when really we’re thinking in our hearts, we are going to say it’s for God’s glory, but we want to make sure that this is for us.

I’d be willing to bet that as part of your 150th celebration, there are tons of things you looked at and said we are going to fix and we are going to make better.  You kind of went down and you had this checklist and you said, “Man, this is going to be good, and this is going to be good.”  And maybe even you couched it this way... “We’re going to make it better so that when people come in, it will be warm and it will be welcoming and they will love it, and they will want to come back and this will all be for the glory and the honor of God.”  Did you do that?  No one is answering now.

I’m not saying that’s wrong.  But I’m saying, are we honest?  So many times what happens is pride creeps in and we say we want the best.  We say we want it for God but really we want it for us.  I know this.  I’m a pastor downtown.  We spent the first four years, three and one-half years, in temporary places.  We started at an IMAX movie theater, moved to a concert hall, and here it is.  Are you ready for it?  Just recently, in June, we bought a bar that we turned into a church.  When you do that, you really can’t call it a “burch” or a “char.”  We call it a “chaloon.”  It just sounds better. As we are remodeling it, we can take and we can couch and say “We better have this.  We have to have this because guess what?  We want to do this for the Lord.”  Let’s be really honest.  This is Point 2 if you have your notes.  This is Point 2.  Let’s be really clear... “church doesn’t equal building.” 

Church doesn’t equal building.  So one of these great things, you have the passage in front of you, right?  Matthew 16, one of my favorite sections of all Scripture.  Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

(Matthew 16:17-18.)

Jesus takes his disciples up on a mountain, and this is what he said.  He asks them this question.  “Who do people say I am?”  His disciples just start going, “Some say you are John the Baptist.  Some say you’re a prophet.”  Then Jesus flips it and he drops it on them and he says this, “Who do you say I am?”  Simon Peter, who we can all relate to because he’s impulsive and he doesn’t think things through, he just starts talking.  He looks and he says, “You’re the Christ.  You’re the Son of the Living God.”  Good job Simon.  Jesus comes back and he changes his name from Simon to Peter and he does this. Check this out.  Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.  And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my (say it...) church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

I have three kids.  I have a 15-year-old daughter who goes to Fox Valley Lutheran High School.  I have a 12-year-old who is a 7th  grader at St. Peter.  And I have a 5-year-old who is also at St. Peter in kindergarten.  When my wife told me that we were expecting our third, I got a little bit nervous, but also a little bit excited.  In our house, we kind of name our kids for very specific reasons.  My oldest daughter’s name is Abigail.  That name means “the joy of my father.”  My second daughter is Megan.  It is a derivative of Margaret and means “the blessed one” or “the pearl,” brings a lot of joy.  So I said to my wife, “Man, if we’re having a third child, I need to know what it is, because if it’s going to be a girl and I’m going to have three girls, I have to prepare, and we are going to name her Mara,” which means “bitterness.” 

So we get to that incredible point where we get to have the ultrasound, right?  Those of you that have kids, you know this.  I was a pastor in Milwaukee.  Sometimes being a pastor gets perks because when you go in for the ultrasound, you’re not supposed to take people.  It’s just you.  But we were big like “you kids are part of it and you are going to have a little brother or sister and this is huge and we are going to find out.”  We said to our tech before, it was someone from our church, “can we bring our kids?”  They said, “Pastor, you’re not supposed to, but you’re my pastor, so sure.” 

 Ski, Glende, and two staffers sued the husband
of the woman who complained about Ski's sexual harrassment.
Glende admitted the truth of the charges in court and
was laughed out of the room, legally speaking.
Ski still wanted to continue his separate lawsuit.

So we go CIA on our kids.  “We are going to take you in this room.  It’s going to be dark.  Don’t talk.  You’re not supposed to be there.  It is a huge responsibility.  She is breaking rules.”  My kids are like “Okay.”  So we go in and my wife is sitting there.  They put the goo on and move it around and all of a sudden you hear the “whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.”  You know what I’m talking about?  My kids are there and the lady has the little baby up on the screen.  She grabs the John Madden pen and she says this... “Do you want to know what you’re having?”  I looked and I went, “Yes, of course I do.”  She took the John Madden pen and draws a huge circle.  She puts a dot right in the middle and says, “That right there is a scrotum.” 

My daughter who was seven jumps from her chair and does this... “YES!!!!  A SCROTUM!!!!”  I thought the baby was going to be born right there because my wife freaked out.  The tech doesn’t know what to do.  My daughter turns to her sister and goes “Abby, what’s a scrotum?” 

 Ski, Glende, and about 8 others (John Parlow) worshiped with
Andy Stanley, Babtist gay activist, in Georgia.
Ski bragged about it on his blog, the posts remaining
for the longest time, even after being reported.

I know right now you’re thinking, what does this mean?  That’s a good Lutheran question, what does this mean?  I think that’s just what happened on the mountain, because Jesus says this.  Peter makes this confession, right?  “You’re the Christ.  The Living God.”  And Jesus comes back and he says, “Peter, on this rock, on this confession, on what you just said, I’m going to build a church.”  And I bet the disciples were like this... “WOO!!!”  “What’s a church?”  This is the thing.  You have common people.  You have common people, Jewish people.  The only place they went was synagogue, not church.  This is where Jesus instituted it. 

Notice what he said.  He’s not saying “Hey look.  Peter, this is what I want you to do. I want you to lie down and we are going to put in the foundation and we’re going to put pillars on you and boom, this is it.”  No, he looks and he says, “You guys, you disciples, you Peter, this message, this message that Jesus Christ is the One who was promised, the One who came, the One who lived, the One who died, the One who would be crucified and resurrected, all to fix a broken relationship with a God who is perfect, this message is the church.”  This message.

We have a saying downtown and it goes a little something like this... Hell is hot and eternity is long, and because of that, we don’t want people in hell for eternity.  Someone called me out recently and said, “You know, when you say that, hell is hot and eternity is long, that’s kind of negative.  Why don’t you say this, ‘Heaven is really good and eternity is really long, and we want you there with us.’”  I said, “I like that.”  This is what it is... Jesus loves you and he values you so much that he lives and dies for you.  He lives and dies for you.  That changes everything.

Notice what he says.  Look at this passage.  Pastor Ott read it before from the Lesson. Look at what he says... Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22.)

Downtown at my place, this is how I dress.  I’ll tell you, I get more ministry done outside of that building than I get done inside that building.  But it’s one of those things as we are getting our building set up and kind of how we conducted our ministry, you might not believe this, but we get some flack. 

In our new building, we have a 44-foot screen, and a stage, and a band.  I almost got in trouble when your kids sang because I was going to start clapping.  We clap.  We’re clappers.  It’s just one of those things.  One of the things I hear is this.  People will come and they’ll look at what we do.  They don’t worry about what we preach.  They don’t get caught up in that because that’s not really what’s important some people would say.  I disagree.  They look at how we do things and they say things like this... “What you’re doing isn’t really how Jesus would do it.”  Now let’s be really clear, if we’re going to do things the way Jesus did things, and we’re going to look at how Jesus did things, and we’re going to pattern and model everything after him, I’m going to tell you right now that you have a huge remodel project because Jesus wore sandals and preached from a boat.

Do you know what the crazy thing is?  He didn’t have gowns.  He didn’t have altars. He didn’t have screens.  He has a message.  The message is this.  The world is sinful and broken.  The world needs a Savior.  The world needs to be shown what love is and what value is.  And he says this, “I not only will tell you, I will do it.”

I read a lot.  Not necessarily books, but blogs and things like that.  I heard this great story. This couple was coming out of marriage counseling.  They go their separate ways.  He goes back to work and she is going home.  As she is going home, this is what happens.  She’s driving by this house and she sees this 86-year-old woman out there with a lawn mower in 97° mowing the lawn.  She stops.  She gets out.  She has heels on.  She has a dress on.  She says to the lady, “Hey look, I am going to mow your lawn for you.  I want to do this.”  The lady looks and says, “You don’t even know me. Why would you do this?”  She says, “Because I love you.  That fact that it’s 97° out, you’re in your 80s and you’re out here mowing, I love that, and I love you.  I believe that love does.” 

So the wife gets out and starts mowing the lawn.  The lady goes around the house and she goes into the garage and gets another lawn mower and starts mowing the other side with her.  She says to her “It’s because love does.  I’m so overwhelmed by your gift.”

 This is another reason why prep buddies should not be
on the same staff. 

This is the thing.  I’ll call Pastor Ott out right away.  I loved everything he said in the beginning except one thing.  He said we have to preach the Gospel.  I don’t ever talk like that.  I’ll never talk like that.  Because guess what? I get to.  I get to.  It’s not a have to.  This is it.  When you recognize true faith, what Jesus has done for you, everything changes.  For some of you here, you maybe never had that moment.  I know.  This is one of the things I believe, and you’ll hear me say it over and over again if you come to our church.  If you want to impress people, talk about your successes.  If you want to impact people, talk about your failures.

So you want to talk about things not happening in church and buildings are great and we’re going to get there, but let’s talk about what happens outside the church.  I’m going to tell you a story about my failure as a pastor.  It was my vicar year.  I vicared at Neenah, Martin Luther.  It was a Friday.  I had to have my sermon in.  I was late and my bishop calls me and says, “I need you to go to the hospital.”  I didn’t want to go to the hospital because I had to get my sermon in because I had a deadline.  But I went to the hospital.  I’ll tell you, I ripped the guy off.  The guy I went to visit, the guy I did devotion with, I ripped the him off because I wasn’t there.  I was there physically, but I wasn’t there emotionally, I wasn’t there spiritually and I wasn’t there mentally.  I ripped him off because I was so caught up in what I had to get done.

Sermon preparation in WELS = walking from the sacristy to the pulpit.

I got in the elevator... understand, this is like in May or June, and vicar year ends in August.  So really I’m about 15 months from being a “real pastor.”  It was close.  I get in the elevator and I’m going down.  There were two people in there.  Two people.  They were talking about someone who had cancer.  I think it was their mom or their aunt. They were weeping and talking about there being no hope.  Guess what I said? Nothing.  In fact, this is how bad it is.  I left.  I got in my car.  I drove back to my house. I got seven blocks from the church, and it was like this... what are you doing?!  I turned back around.  I drove back in.  How many of you have ever been to Theda Clark in Neenah?  They have the nice older ladies who are always sitting at the counter.  I went in and I said, “Ma’am!  I was just in the elevator with two people!  They were talking about someone who was sick and dying.  Do you know who they were?!”  You’re in a hospital.  I remember walking back to my car and thinking “Guess what?”  Never again.

I loved something right away when I came in here and sat down.  I loved this.  On the front of your bulletin, you have this... Morrison Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.  And you have this... Our mission is to glorify God as we help people grow in the Gospel and go with the Gospel.  I wonder, I don’t know because I’m not here, I wonder if your people know it and they see it and they do it and they live it.  I would challenge you.  You’re the church.  You’re the church. Church isn’t about buildings.  You are the church.  Do you do that?  Do you adopt this as your own mission statement?  Or do you have your own mission statement?

Our church’s mission statement downtown is this... The Core exists to transform lives for Jesus through faith that is real, relevant and relational.  My personal mission statement is this, because I’ve developed my own... From every pore of my body, I will ooze Jesus Christ so that in this world, as I brush up against people, my sweaty, oozy Jesus will get all over them!  Every day he gives you opportunities.  Every day!

This is the thing though, final blank.  We know that “God brings incredible blessings through buildings.”  150 years?  I want you just to think about this for a second.  We’ll put your pastor on the spot.  How many baptisms have been done here?  All of them? Good.  Got a number?  Lots.  How many confirmations?  Lots.  How many weddings? In fact, I bet some of you who are here when you walk in here you remember how you stood up here with the pastor.  It may not have been Pastor Ott.  It may have been someone else because we’re interchangeable, right?  Pastors come, pastors go, it’s that message now here with the Word and in front of your friends and in front of your family and before God when you made those vows.  Now every time you come in here you’re reminded how incredible it is that God blesses you.  Think about how many people have had funerals here where you have celebrated they had won the race and they’re now home.  You can’t do that on a street corner. 

Buildings are incredible blessings.  But let’s be clear.  It’s here where you bring people. It’s here where you come to be recharged.  Look at this passage... One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek:  that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. (Psalm 27:4.)

You have to understand, our building is so not like this.  Right Mark, Reese? Not like this. So this morning I come in, and I was really paranoid because I figured I was going to get lost.  It’s just one of those pastor things when you are guest preacher and I kind of figured that I was going to roll in at like 9:05am and be lost driving around like “Where is the church?”  But here it is.  I walked in and I looked up here and this is exactly what happened.  I was just like this... “Oh man!  This is so cool!  So cool!”  This is what I noticed.  Your building is so visitor friendly.  You have good people.  I sat down this morning and the people behind me introduced themselves to me, and they said, “You must be Pastor Ski.”  I think the mic gave it away, I don’t know, might be, right? Everything is neat and it’s tidy.  And this is the thing... you are prepared to welcome guests, because it’s that message that is so important.

I know that we cannot do anything to enhance the Gospel.  I loved what Pastor Ott said before... Our future is not our kids.  Our future is not our building.  Our future is this Gospel.  And you realize it, right?  It’s not about form.  It’s about that message. I love that he says “I want to dwell in the house of the Lord.”  I don’t know how it is for you, but this is how I hope it is for you.  This is how it is for us downtown.  On Sundays, our people look forward to coming because it’s here where they get recharged.  It’s here where they get to hear how much Jesus loves them.  It’s here that no matter what kind of week they have, when they walk through the doors, there are people who look and say “Hey, I love you and I’m glad you’re here and I’m glad you’re here to hear what He’s done for you, because it fills your cup and it sends you out.” 

Last passage, check this out... Lord, I love the house where you live, the place where your glory dwells. (Psalm 26:8.) This is what I think.  Do you remember this one? You all know it... do it.  Here’s the church... 5:30pm!  I want to see all the hands up. Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors, see all the people.  Good.  You can clap for that.  We’ll clap for that, it’s nice.  Understand this, how do they get here?  How do they get here? 

I don’t know Morrison at all, but I know this.  I know there are people in your life right now who don’t know Jesus.  Or maybe, maybe they know a Jesus, but they don’t know the Jesus.  They’re hurting and they’re broken.  This is my hope... my hope is that you have this incredible building and this is what you do... you don’t come in and look and say this is a museum of saints.  I hope you don’t come in and say things like “this is my pew” or “this is where my family sat” or “this is how it is” but rather that “this place here is a hospital for sinners,” where people who you know in your life you can bring in and you can say things like this, “Man, you’re life stinks right now.”  Or “Man, you’re hurting right now?  Let me tell you about my best friend, because my best friend makes it better.”  “You’re feeling unloved or unwanted or used?  My best friend doesn’t do that. In fact, my best friend says the opposite.  You are so loved.  You are so valued.  You are so wanted that he lives for you and he lays his life out and he dies for you.”  I tell you, that’s humbling.  It’s humbling.

I don’t know what kind of people you are, but I think this is my thing.  This is what we built for downtown.  I know Randy and I know he does this.  It’s great to look back and it’s great to celebrate what God has done, but let’s be crazy.  Let’s be reckless for the Gospel.  Let’s look forward.  Let’s ask questions like this... the last 150 years have been incredible, what are the next 150 years going to look like?  When we say how many baptisms and he says all of them and he says lots, what does that mean in the future? This is the thing, you are a part of that!

In my church downtown, we’re a huge outreach.  That’s what we do.  We push that. We push that.  We push that.  Somebody always asks this question to me... how many people do you have on your outreach committee?  How many people are on your evangelism committee?  I always laugh and I say to my assistant, “How many people were in church last week?”  She says “270.”  I say, “What about the week before?”  She says “330.” I say, “That’s how many we’ve had the last two weeks.”  They look and they say “You don’t have an outreach committee?  You don’t have a evangelism committee?”  I say “I do, they’re called Sunday worshipers.”  We’re not going to do that. We’ve removed the responsibility from the people.  Rather it’s this message that changes hearts, changes lives and if we are honest, it changes eternities and that’s our responsibility.  The thing is that it’s not a have to, it’s a get to.  It’s a can’t help but.

This is my hope and my prayer for you this morning... we get to look back a little bit, but we look forward, and we get excited to see what our God is going to do.  We get fired up.  And man, from every pore of your body you ooze that goodness, that love, that compassion.  And that you bring those people here so that they can hear what he has done.  We ask for his help in this in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Reasons Given Why Public Discussions Are Dead in the LCMS

 The standards of McCain's plagiarism blog have been extended to the
entire synod. Pope Paul the Xeroxer allowed all flattering comments through
but nixed anything negative about his drivel.

SpenerQuest finally had an interesting thread, about a resolution that effectively ended public discussions about LCMS dogma.

verne) Member Username: Jv_verne Post Number: 81 Registered: 4-2016

Posted on Tuesday, October 04, 2016 - 5:46 pm:       "Resolution 12-07A (adopted 684 to 244) clarifies, in LCMS Bylaw 1.8, the definition of dissent, bringing it “into alignment” with the recent CCM opinion 13-2665, according to Wille. Dissent from the doctrinal positions of the LCMS is to be discussed first — in private, rather than a public forum — with those who are “competent to evaluate the issue critically” and then brought to the attention of the Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations. Any “public teaching” — including on blogs and Facebook pages — that is contrary to the established doctrinal position of the Synod “shall place in jeopardy membership in the Synod.”  [source:http://blogs.lcms.org/2016/convention-adopts-subst itute-resolution-on-ecclesiastical-supervision-hea rs-linnemann]

I have to rely on others telling me that the Steadfast group blog, started to support the Matt Harrison dynasty, has become even more boring than ever. McCain would pop up and tell people not to link Ichabod, forgetting that the Law increases sin - and readership.

I know of few restrictions for the ALPB online blog, except to be reasonably polite. McCain was kicked off that site for his obnoxious behavior. They are duller than golf on TV, more boring than watching paint dry.

The less time in the parish, the more time in administration.

Long ago I saw what a dictator Matt the Fat was. He ordered his sycophants to erase the evidence of felonies involving Darwin Schauer - and they did.

The less time in the parish, the more time in administration...and the chow line.

The clergy and laity do not have to obey, but they do.