St. Paul's Lutheran Church - Des Peres, MO - 29 June 2008

Blessed Sunday! Today I joined the congregation of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Des Peres, MO to receive God's Word. There are many, beautiful stained glass windows, which do not show up well in the picture at left. Also, the large cross over the altar, which is centered over the altar, is quite intricate. This picture does a better job of conveying the sanctuary's beauty.

I looked at the church website yesterday, in order that I might choose a bible study to participate in. After listening to the lesson presented by Pastor Femmel from 8 June, I had decided to go to the class "You Don't See that Everyday". Today the class was taught by Rev. Chris Mitchell, of Concordia Publishing House; Rev. Femmel was "occupied" with the baptism of his daughter, Christine, at St. Paul's south location today. Rev. Mitchell presented the Exodus 14 narrative of the parting of the Red Sea and briefly discussed some of the weaknesses of the arguments against the biblical account. (I enjoyed a delightful conversation with Rev. Mitchell and his wife, Carol, after the class; we ended up entering the 10:45 worship service late as a result! It turns out that Rev. Mitchell is both the series editor and an author of the Concordia Commentary Series.)

This morning's sermon was given by Pastor Tim Seban. It tied together the Old Testament (Jeremiah 28:5-9) and Gospel (Matthew 10:34-42) lessons beautifully. He drew a parallel between ancient Israel's desire to ignore Jeremiah, the faithful "nay-sayer", in preference to the false prophets that said what they wished to hear and our natural tendency to do the same. He called attention to Jesus' own observation that his coming would pit one against another - even within families - on account of the faith.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not the natural, rational conclusion of sinful human flesh! We do not want to hear that we are sinners! We prefer the prophets that tell us that right and wrong are "relative" and each person ultimately defines his or her own reality.

We do not want to accept that God has created a "rule" that is above our reach! That's not fair. We want to hear the prophets who say that a "loving" God must be a "fair" God; then these prophets insist that God's justice must satisfy our self-centered, "I get mine" concept of "fair". Perhaps we can find a prophet who will tell us that God puts the "rule" within our reach after we have claimed him for ourselves? (And if you aren't living up to the rule, perhaps you need to question whether you really claimed God's promises for you!)

We do not want to accept that we cannot do it on our own! We do not want anyone "doing for us"! Please, we say, give us the prophets who tell us that our own decision is the spark that ignites the Lord's fire. Give us, instead, the prophets that tell us the Lord will get us started, but we must bring his grace to its fullness.

But God's "scandalous" news is Good News for sinners indeed: Jesus is God in the flesh and he died in the place of sinful humanity - once for all! By grace alone, through faith alone, we are redeemed and restored before God in heaven on account of Jesus' blood! His merit - alone - paid the cost of admission to the kingdom; we add nothing to the Son's sacrifice.