06282015 4th Sunday After Trinity - We are adopted as sons and daughters!

Sermon Audio (Will be posted soon!)

June 28, 2015

We are adopted as sons and daughters!

The year was 2002.  Having been married for nearly three years and trying to have children the news we heard on September 13, 2001 from the fertility doctor was still raw.  It would cost us upwards of $40,000 to attempt to have a child.  And with a job in education, the cost was way more than we could afford.

We prayed after that faithful day and determined there may be other ways of having a family.  We thought, there are plenty of children in the world who do not have parents, why not adopt and create an instant family?  It would be easier we thought, but then it happened.

After filling out all the paperwork, making sure all the required forms were complete, the medical exams were complete and the background information about our past lives was complete, we thought we were ready for the next step.  Then it happened that faithful day in April 2002.  I was rushed from a routine doctor’s appointment and instantly put into the Intensive Care Unit.  For the next three days I was hooked to blood pressure cuffs, oxygen sensors, pulse and heart monitors and had more blood taken than I can imagine.  I walked on a treadmill and was stressed to see what was wrong with me.

With that one stay in the hospital the hope Michele and I had of having a family of our own was dashed upon the rocks of reality.  During some of our preliminary information sessions, they said, if one was ever hospitalized, for other than routine procedures, that would be an automatic disqualifier.  So we even by adoption would not be able to have a family of our own.  It was a tough pill to swallow and one that wasn’t fully and completely resolved until March 14, 2009 and you know the rest of that story.

During those next seven years, I was reminded of the passage we have heard this morning from Paul in our epistle.  Paul, writing to the Romans explains a truth we need to hear and clearly understand as Christians.  We are promised that in our baptism, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ claims us and since we are adopted we become children of God in and through our baptism through Water and Word.

With the Water connected to the Word of God, we are intimately connected to the love that Jesus Christ has for all of mankind.  Just as we have been reminded since Pentecost that God is a God of love and He loves us unconditionally, Jesus Christ as God’s Son loves us just as much even to giving Himself on the Cross in order that we might have eternal life.

Since we who gather here today are adopted into the family of God, we are also heirs of eternal life.  And as heirs we cannot earn God’s love, nor can we earn our salvation, but each of these are gifts freely given unto each and every one of us without cost.  God’s love for us is clearly shown by Jesus Christ life, death and resurrection.  What we get to do is share it.  Not just share it with our friends, but share it with everyone we meet.

This week we have had Sky Ranch here at Emmanuel for our Vacation Bible School.  Like in years past the staff has been high energy, high octane and high impact upon the kids we have coming for Day Camp.  This year 54% of the kids here for our day camp were from families of members of Emmanuel.  That’s 20 of the 37 who attended this year, both pre-school and school age kids.  The theme for this year was “A Love That Never Ends”. 

In one sense all of the kids that came this week were adopted and loved by the leaders, counselors and you the people of Emmanuel and have been taught about God’s Love.  This sharing of God’s love is not only clear and manifest in the children, but has impacted our church.  We have had fun and have made fun of ourselves, from my being given the gift of a cow bell to help people know I was coming, to enjoying the kids faith development, this has been an awesome week.  But the greatest opportunity is adopting each and every one of these kids and each of us gathered here and showing all of us the love of Jesus Christ.

May we as a congregation continue to show love for one another and share what Jesus Christ has done for all of mankind.  For God’s love never does end as we are adopted into His family and feel and share the love of God with everyone we meet.  AMEN.

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Speak Your Mind

08102014 Eighth Sunday After Trinity

This sermon will be preached both at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Goodland, KS and at First Saint Paul's Lutheran Church, Burlington, CO.  I will be posting both audio's of the sermon.

Sermon Audio Goodland
Sermon Audio Burlington

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  AMEN.

Do you remember the first time you said, “Dadda” or “Momma”.  Probably not, but your Father or Mother probably remembers clearly the sweetness of the moment.  Maybe even in your baby book they recorded the exact date, time and memory.  For our 21^st Century culture and the invention of the cell phone with a camera, some parents even captured the moment on video and have shared it with their friends via Facebook, Instagram and even Youtube.  But the reality is that there are some couples who have never heard those words.  Whether it was due to infertility and the inability to have children or even parents who have lost a child due to no fault of their own before birth.  The memorable phrase of “Dadda” or “Momma” or even Paul’s phrase from our lesson “Abba, Father” tug at our heart strings.

But Paul, isn’t just talking about children calling out simple words like “Daddy”, Paul is speaking about we Christians being adopted by God.  In, through and by our baptism into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been claimed by God and as Paul says, “received a spirit of adoption as sons [and daughters]”.  We are not on the outer limits of the realm of Christianity, where God is far away, we are close and like Father and child, brought closer together and told of God’s love and shown His love in a special way.

We are shown the love of God through His Word, being proclaimed, the sacrament being celebrated, the fellowship of the saints of God, all because we are as Paul says, are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ”.  In the movie the Ultimate Gift, the heirs of the family fortune, who know how much the patriarch is worth all gathered around the table for the reading of the will.  Each of them expected to receive the bulk of his riches or a great share, because they were the ‘perfect’ children.  As the will was read, each received a small portion of the estate, but not what they wanted or felt they deserved.  We to who are Christians will receive our inheritance from God.  It will also not be what we deserve, but out of the great mercy of God and we will receive this only because we are heirs of God through our being washed with the Blood of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the World.

And as heirs we have an advocate, the Holy Spirit.  When we were baptized in the font, the Holy Spirit was given to each of us and Paul reminds us, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God”.  The Holy Spirit not only claims us, but indwells within each of us.  But we suppress the Holy Spirit.  For some it is because, that is not how we were raised or taught and it is not ‘Lutheran’, others suppress the Holy Spirit because we don’t want to be seen as a ‘Holy Roller’ or ‘Slain in the Spirit’.  But the reality is, God’s Holy Spirit indwells in each of us and we are empowered to be the children of God and heirs of the mysteries of God for the all the people of God.

It is like we have been given a check for “$1000” and we cannot just put it in the bank or use it for something we want to buy.  There are stipulations on this gift.  It must be given away.  What would most of us do?  Go to a charitable organization and give the money to them with all the fan-fare and acknowledgement that our society likes to give when a ‘big gift is given’.  But what if instead of giving it all away at once, we were required to look at this gift differently and cash it in for 1000 one dollar bills, or even better, 4,000 quarters, or even a greater challenge of 10,000 dimes.  What could we do with 10,000 dimes, but walk up and down the streets of a large city and put the dimes in the parking meters for people we do not even know?  This is exactly what God has done with and for each of us, gifted us with His Holy Spirit.  God didn’t tell us as heirs that we had to use His gift to each of us only for ourselves, but empowered each of us to use our gifts of cooking, fellowship, companionship and love for people that we know and love and share it with one another.  God has given us the greatest opportunity in our being given the Spirit of God to be the children of God and gift others with our blessings.

Nowhere is this any clearer than in the One Spark Foundation.  Daily, they share the sparks of life that impact people the most and bless people.  Here is an example from One Spark of the Holy Spirit working in one woman’s life. 

Recently, there was a mother who pulled into the drive thru at McDonald’s and she had seen a homeless man walking to the back of the parking lot to the trash dumpsters.  In the car with her was her mother-in-law and daughter.  While ordering, she added an extra dollar hamburger and fries.  Upon doing this her daughter asked why?  Simply she stated, there are many people that are not as lucky as they were and they may find someone like that.  After getting their food the woman pulled back into the parking lot and pulled up to the trash dumpster that the homeless man was now searching through for any food.  Rolling down the window the mother proceeded to get the man’s attention handed him the burger and fries.  Through the tears of gratitude and unspoken words of the homeless man, the mother knew she had made a difference, not only in this man’s life, but also the witness who was sitting in the back seat of her car.

We to, who gather here today have the greatest opportunity to be ‘led by the Spirit of God’ and be the “children of God”.  For that is what we have been baptized into and empowered to be as God’s Children who not only cry out “Abba!  Father!” but enabled by God to share our love of God with all of mankind, including those who are not here to hear and experience the Gospel of Jesus Christ through our Holy Spirit led hands and lives.  AMEN.

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07132014 Fourth Sunday After Trinity

Sermon Audio

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  AMEN.

The epistle lesson this morning speaks clearly about adoption and our being adopted by God.  This past January we as a congregation co-sponsored “October Baby” as our Film of Faith.  It is a story about partial birth abortion, but also the adoption of the young lady that nearly lost her life to a rare genetic anomaly.  But her reality is that she is trying to find our who her birth mother really was.

Unlike the movie, our reality this morning is that we the people of Emmanuel know our God and that we were adopted by God for a specific purpose.  The purpose is to Glorify God.  We are the mirrors for the glory and love of God that are shined out in the darkness here in Goodland.  Not only do we shine the light and love of God with our Films of Faith, but we also do this with the Vacation Bible School.  I am proud of our church for stepping out in faith and being beacons in the darkness.

God is using each of us here this morning to be a beacon in the darkness that Satan is trying to use to purge the world into everlasting darkness.  And as those who have been adopted into the Body of Christ, we are empowered to be the mirror of God’s love for all of mankind.

But it takes not only our nod of ascent here at church on Sunday morning, it takes our stepping up in faith to be the children of God that He has made us to be in our baptism.  We as coheirs with Christ of the glory of God and the gifts of God are empowered to be the light for our corner of the world here in Western Kansas.

It does not mean that we will not encounter tragedy.  Paul says it so well, “¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  We will encounter tragedy, set back and serious wondering whether we are on the right path.  But like most farmers, who though they may have had their wheat crop decimated by hail, still plant in the fall with the eyes looking forward to the Spring and the hope.

This same hope we have just as the disciples had when Jesus Christ was crucified.  Not until Easter Sunday morning and evening did they realize Jesus had told them what would occur and when their eyes were opened they became on fire with not only the surety of the love of God, but the fulfillment of the promise of life and salvation in Jesus Christ and His death on Calvary for them and for us.

We to this morning have been set on fire with Pentecost.  We to this morning look to the future of our church and community.  We to this morning take grasp of the promises of God for us this morning.  For this morning, we like Paul says, are “waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

We have been adopted, we have been set free, we now are present in and to the greatest opportunity for Emmanuel.  Thus, this morning, I challenge each of you to shine up your mirrors, reflect the light of Christ in your life, lay claim to your adoption as the children of God and be empowered to embrace the great things that God has in store for each of us, but especially for the people of God here in Goodland, but especially for all of us saints here at Emmanuel.  May God empower us to be the people of God and embrace our destiny as adopted coheirs with Jesus Christ for all of mankind, but especially including all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning.  AMEN.

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