Pastor Steve Bauer

This is the sermon preached last night as we celebrated the minor festival of the The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. The sermon text is: Romans 10:5-17. The sermon theme is: We Are Lutheran: What Does This Mean? Here is the Written Sermon.

The Diet of Worms

We Are Lutheran: What Does This Mean?

On June 25th, 1530 the Lutheran Church had its birth. It was on that day that German princes went to the Augsburg to take care of business. But, more important than that taxes or land or property, the business they had before them was to confess their faith. Their task was to explain the truth of God’s word to their Emperor, Charles V. The Emperor did not want to hear about their faith. He did not want to hear them explain what they knew to be true from God’s word. So, he ordered the princes to stop allowing this “new” Lutheran teaching to be preached. Then, the Margrave George of Brandenburg stepped forward and said: “Rather than deny my God and suffer the word of God to be taken from me, I will kneel down and have my head struck off.”¹ The Emperor didn’t know what to do with this. He was used to people rebelling against him. He was used to people saying ‘yes’ to is face and showing ‘no’ behind his back. So, he was utterly unprepared to see a man willingly give up is life, but not give up his soul. And even though he knew very little German, he told this man at his feet: “Nit Ab.” “Not off.”

The Emperor was bluffing. But the Margrave George of Brandenburg was not. He was ready to give up his life. And the question we ask is simple: why. Why would he be so willing to stand up to Charles’ bluff and for his Savior?

To answer that question we need to understand these words we have before us this evening. In Romans, chapter 10, the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write: “Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: “The man who does these things will live by them.”” ²

In order to understand the actions of the Margrave of Brandenburg, we need to look at the professor in Wittenburg. Martin Luther lived in a much different world than we do. When Luther was in high school in one week half of his classmates died of the plague. And the church’s response to this tragedy was a very complex and misleading theology. They taught that God is up in heaven. He is Holy. He is sinless. And he hates sin. On the other hand, we are down here. We are down here. We are sinful. We are horrible. And God is good to us in that he baptizes us in the church and then gives us the ability to do acts that will please God. And by doing these good works, we will make God happy. And when God isn’t happy with us he has ways of showing us this. He kills half of our classmates in a week.

That is what the church of his time taught. Have you ever been in a cave that is pitch black and you don’t know the way out? Have you ever taken a test where you and no one else knew the answers? Now, imagine a man who is terrified of death. And the church tells him two, horrible teachings: 1) They tell him that he has to do good works to keep God from being angry. 2) The works that they say are good don’t make any sense.

As the months and years progressed, the Holy Spirit taught Luther two important, amazing teachings. The first we find here in these words “The man who does these things will live by them.” ³
Luther realized what God’s word plainly said. If we want to get to heaven the path to heaven is pretty clear. We just need to make sure that we are perfect. If we don’t sin–even once, then we can get to heaven.

You see, the first teaching that he discovered was the law. Now, when I say ‘law’, I don’t mean taxes and speeding laws. I mean the commands that God gives to us in his word. Luther discovered that God gave us these laws not as a ladder by which we can climb up to heaven. No, he gives us these commands to show us that we can’t get to heaven by ourselves. Earlier on in the book of Romans, Paul writes: “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”⁴

This was Luther’s first discovery. And it almost killed him. He saw no way out. He saw that no matter what he did, he could not take away his own sin. And thankfully, the Holy Spirit watched over him. And, when he learned what the law was, he then learned what the gospel was. Here again, in this same letter to the Romans, Luther found these words: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” ⁵

The Holy Spirit taught Luther what these words plainly say. We continually fall short of God’s glory. But! God has declared the whole world ‘not guilty.’ And just how is it that God can declare the entire world ‘not guilty?’ Because of his grace–his undeserved love. And where do we see that love? In Jesus who redeemed us. he paid for all our sins on the cross.

Luther rejoiced in these words. Luther clung to these words like a log in the middle of a raging river. It was this truth that gave him the courage to stand alone. In 1521 he went to the Diet at Worms. There he was in front of bishops and cardinals, princes and even an emperor. And when he was told to recant, to take back what he had written, he took his stand and said that he could not go against God’s clear word.

On that day the Margrave George of Brandenburg was silent. And Luther was alone. But in the years that went by the Margrave read Luther’s New Testament in German–in his own language. And he yearned for the opportunity to stand with Luther. He yearned for the opportunity to stand before the Emperor and gladly give up his earthly life so that he would not give up his eternal soul.

So then, if we say: We Are Lutheran: What Does This Mean?, in these two men you find the answer. Lutherans believe that the whole world is cursed by sin. Lutherans believe that God declared the entire world ‘not guilty’ through Christ’s work. Lutherans believe that God’s word is true and worth for and even dying for.

One cannot look at the stand that both Luther and the Margrave George took and compare it to today. And, as we do so it deeply saddens us. Last summer the members of the ELCA voted to approve and endorse the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. We look at this with such great sadness. But, my brothers and sisters, this is the symptom, not the cause. The cause is that they didn’t follow in the example of Luther or the Margrave of Brandenburg. Several generations ago they gave up on idea that God’s word was true–that all of it is true. And then, slowly the cancer spread. Law and gospel are rarely preached in their churches because their pastors are taught that God’s word is not true.

I mention this tonight for two reasons: 1) The Lutheranism you see today is not the Lutheranism of 400 years ago. 2) It gives us a reason to pray for Lutherans in the ELCA. For, if God could take people out of spiritual darkness as he did in Luther’s time, he can do the same today.

We are Lutheran: What does this mean? It means that we trust in the truth of God’s word: All people are sinners and slaves to sin. Our Father declared all people ‘not guilty’ in Christ. He gives this salvation to people as a free gift of grace–his undeserved love. This is the truth that the Margrave was willing to lose his head for. This was the truth that Luther was willing to be burned at the stake for. And this is the truth we cling to still today. Amen.

¹ Concordia Triglotta, p. 23

² (Romans 10:5 NIV)

³ (Romans 10:5 NIV)

⁴ (Romans 3:20 NIV)

⁵ (Romans 3:23–24 NIV)

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 The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is the sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Luke 7:36-50. The sermon theme is: How Much Do You Owe?. Here is the Written Sermon.

David sees Bathsheba

How Much Do You Owe?

Which one of these is not like the other? When I was little, I used to watch Sesame Street. And that was one of the games they used to play on that TV show: Which one of these is not like the other? At a very early age we are used to playing this game. We learn which things belong with others and which things do not. In the words we look at this morning we see a woman who does not belong. We meet a woman who does not fit in anywhere. Luke tells us: “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume,” (Luke 7:36–37 NIV)

In these words we meet a woman. We don’t know her name. But, there is one fact we know. She did not belong. She did not belong in the house of the Pharisee. She did not belong with the guests gathered there. She especially did not belong with the Prophet of prophets, Jesus.

Before we get into the details too much at all, Luke answers a question for us. If we ask: ‘Well, why doesn’t she belong there?’, Luke tells us that she was a Sinner. It doesn’t come across too well in the english, but what’s he’s doing here is assigning to her a class¹. She belongs to the ‘sinner’ group. She does not belong to the righteous group. She does not belong to the ‘normal’ group. She belongs to the sinner group.

Luke also then describes why she belongs to this out-cast group. She had lived a sinful life. Now, we don’t know what sort of lifestyle she had. Most often when this sort of description is used, it’s used of women who break the 6th commandment. This was the sort of woman who had broken her vows to her husband long ago—if she even had a husband. This was the sort of woman that mothers did not let their sons or daughters hang around. She had committed wicked sins against her body many times.

This is the sort of woman we meet in these words. And yet, it is this very woman who chooses to go where she doesn’t belong. She takes notice of where Jesus went. Then there is a very important progression for us to take notice of. First, she goes and gets expensive perfume and goes back to the house where Jesus was. She goes in–this woman who had led a sinful life. She goes into the room where the rich
and the righteous were. She goes to Jesus and she stands there. She just stands there at his feet, behind him.

We wait for the part where Jesus looks up and sees her there. But he doesn’t. As she is there she sees it all. For it’s one thing to be around the rich people and the righteous Pharisee. But, to be at the feet of the holy and righteous Jesus—that is more than she can take. She cries. And Luke, with his eye for detail, lets us know that it wasn’t a small weeping. It was weeping with tears². And it wasn’t just one or two tears. It was a stream. It was a flood of tears. These tears flowed down her cheeks and dropped like rain on her Savior’s feet.

And then when she drenched Jesus’ feet, she bent over and started to wipe them with her own hair. Now, this is an image we need to see in our brains. Jesus came to this house. And in the words that follow, we find out that no one washed his feet. His feet were dirty. They were sweaty. No doubt, they were sticky. No doubt, they were stinky. And yet there she was, wetting his feet with her own tears and washing them with her own hair.

Then, after his feet have been wiped off with her hair, we would expect that she would then pour her expensive perfume on his feet. But she doesn’t. No, instead she kisses his feet again and again and again. Finally then, she pours her perfume on his feet.

My brothers and sisters, look at this woman! For here is a woman who owed so much and then, with such gratitude in her heart, she went into that room and embarrassed herself. Because it wasn’t enough to receive forgiveness. She, with tears of shame and tears of joy, showed her thankfulness. Look at her! For, if you undertand these words correctly, you will say to yourself: “I am this woman.” And, if you aren’t able to say this, let me introduce you to someone else: “Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”” (Luke 7:44–47 NIV)

This woman embarrassed herself with every bit of joy in her heart that day. But, I tell you the truth, she was not the one who left that house ashamed. Hers were sins of commission. She had done many bad sins. But the Pharisee’s were sins of omission. There were many good things he should have done, but didn’t. When this great prophet, Jesus came to eat with him. He should have met him at the door with a servant. This is the least we would expect. In any decent Jewish household there should have been someone to wash Jesus’ feet. But who was it who washed his feet? This sinful woman. If Jesus were really a friend to Simon, then he should have greeted him as a friend. He should have given him a friend’s kiss. Simon did not kiss him on his cheek even once. But this sinful woman kissed Jesus’ feet hundreds of times. Here Jesus is, the great Prophet, Priest and King. Simon should have greeted him at one greets a king. He should have been there with expensive oil in his hand. But, instead, it was this sinful woman who had the privilege of treating her King as he deserved to be treated.

You see, Simon did not see his sin. So he did not see his debt. He did not see his many, many sins of omission. He did not see how he had treated Jesus as if he were less than a slave, because that’s exactly where he thought Jesus belonged. Simon did not see his sin. So Simon did not appreciate the Savior eating with him.

My brothers and sisters, look at this man. For, if you do not see yourself in the sinful woman, then you will most definitely see yourself in the Pharisaical Simon. There was a pastor in Marietta, Ohio once. And this pastor invited one of the guys he met to attend his church. In response, the man said: “I don’t want to go to your church. There’s nothing but a bunch of hypocrites there.” The pastor responded: “True, and you’d fit right in with us.” You see, there are two types of people sitting in these pews. There are those who see the depth and weight of their sins. And there are those who do not.

So, my question for you is this: How much do you owe? You can’t get through these words without reaching the conclusion: We owe our Savior so very much more than we could ever pay back. For, like the woman, we have led a life of sin. And like the Pharisee, we have not served and loved. And yet, your Savior forgives you just like he forgives this woman. And that is truly the most beautiful part of these words: “Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”” (Luke 7:48–50 NIV)

Now, after all the tears and all the kisses–now he looks up at her. And the simplicity and sincerity of his words amaze us. Look at the simplicity. There is no flowery speech. He simply says the truth. Her sins are forgiven. Were they forgiven because of her many tears? Were they forgiven because of her many kisses? Were they forgiven because of her expensive perfume? No. Her faith rescued her. The very same faith Jesus, himself had given to her. That is what saved her. The tears and kisses and anointing were all effects of that faith.

His words were sincere and simple. But, notice what was lacking in what he said. Where was the part where he lectured her, telling her to go out and do good deeds to earn her own way into heaven. It’s not there. She was forgiven. And she was fully forgiven.

My brothers and sisters, this is an amazing gift that so many of you have enjoyed most of your lives. And it’s only when you see it in contrast that we appreciate it. Most families do not look like yours. Most families are either libertine or legalist. On the one hand, there are those families out there where the children say disgusting language, and the parents laugh. The teenagers get drunk and the parents shrug. They are libertine.

On the other hand, there also legalists out there. They are the ones who, when they they see their children are sorry, that isn’t good enough. They treat them horribly. Because to them, repentance isn’t enough. They have to delight in the punishment.

How thankful we are that the Holy Spirit teaches us to forgive as Jesus did. For so many of us, our parents loved us enough to show us our sins. For so many of us, when we repented of our sins, they did the same thing our Savior did. They forgave and forgot—so simply, so sincerely. And even if we didn’t grow up in that sort of family, the Holy Spirit is so strong, living and active that he teaches us to forgive just as Jesus forgave.

And so we close this morning with this question: How much do you owe? Nothing. You owe Jesus nothing to take away your sin. Jesus forgave you simply and sincerely. The only debt you owe is thanks. Continue to thank your Savior as this woman did all the days of your life. Amen.

¹ ἥτις ἦν ἐν τῇ πόλει ἁμαρτωλός

² κλαίουσα τοῖς δάκρυσιν

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 Pentecost 4: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is the sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost. We depart from the normal set of readings for the Third Sunday after Pentecost in order to speak about Marriage. The sermon text is: Mark 10:2-16. The sermon theme is: Let Us Marry Marriage. Here is the Written Sermon.

Jesus Blesses the Little Children

Let Us Marry Marriage

Years ago, when I was at our Seminary, one of our professors said this: “Men, you must marry the scriptures.” It was a strange thing for him to say—at least we thought so at first. Then, after we thought about it a little more, it made sense. He was challenging us to think of God’s word as something so important that we were joined to it and it was an inseparable part of who we were.

This morning, I have much the same challenge for you. Let us marry God’s word. And this morning let us marry a specific part of God’s word. Let us marry marriage. Let us learn from God’s word all we can about Marriage—what it is; what it isn’t; what it means to us. We read in the opening words of Mark 10: “Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” “What did Moses command you?” he replied. They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied.” (Mark 10:2–5 NIV)

Isn’t it interesting to see that, as Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. It was easy–too easy to get a divorce back then. And much the same is true today. And so there are these Pharisees who come to Jesus. They try to trap him. They ask him a question that seemingly had no right answer. If he goes along with Moses and says that divorce is just fine, then he would be sinning against one of God’s greatest gifts, marriage itself. If he says what the bible says then Jesus is going against one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament.

Notice how Jesus answers. He says that Moses allowed divorce due to the hardness of their hearts. In other words, as a believer surrounded by unbelievers, Moses couldn’t move them to do the right thing based on God’s word. The only thing he could do is minimize the damage the wretched unbelieving men could do. He allowed a divorce not for the sake of the men, but to protect women whose husbands hated them.

Now, Jesus could have stopped there in speaking about marriage. But he doesn’t. And we thank him for this, for there are great treasures of truth in the words which follow: ““But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.” (Mark 10:5–7 NIV)

The NIV here uses the word “at.” A slightly better translation would be to use the word “from.” From the moment of creation, before the fall into sin, God created them as male and female. And God continues to make male and female from that time all the way up till today.

Now, see how this already answers some questions for us. We ask the question: when did marriage start? Notice what Jesus says: From the beginning up till now. Marriage is not something that happened as a result of sin. Marriage is not something that humans came up with. God started marriage at the beginning, before sin entered into the world.

The next question we ask flows from the first. Not, just ‘when did it start?’, but how did it start? ““But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.” (Mark 10:5–7 NIV) He made us male and female. He made humans in such a way that eventually there is this natural attraction to and appreciation of the opposite gender.

When I was in grade school I used to love girls. Oh yeah, I loved them. They were great, because when you pushed them into the bushes they made this delightful squealing sound. But, that’s about all they seemed to be useful for. And then things changed. I still remember the day that everything changed. Our school was on a class trip. And we were all eating in a restaurant. And I offered Tonya Decker my fries–my beloved, treasured fries. And what was her response? She said: “Yuck, I don’t want your germs.” That night I did a whole lot of thinking, trying to figure out why I would give my fries away–and even worse, to a girl. And I still haven’t figured out. But, now at least I know that it’s natural. That is the way God made us. He made mankind. He made us male and female.

Now, this might be an entertaining story. But, what’s the point? We are here this morning to marry marriage. We are here to learn all we can about marriage from God’s word. We are here to understand it and apply it to our lives. Marriage can be boiled down to just six words: One man, One woman, For life.

My brothers and sisters, there are many, many churches today who do not know this simple and profound truth. There was a church years ago which had an organist. The man was an accomplished organist. He on the church council. He was happily married with several children. And the man also had a gay lover. The church was paralyzed. It didn’t know what to do about this situation. Why? Because they didn’t marry God’s word. They didn’t marry this part of God’s word speaking about marriage.

Now, it might be tempting for you to say: ‘there’s a world of difference between that church and us.’ But, the distance is far closer than you might think. You see, it wasn’t as if the members of that church one day forgot what marriage was. What happened is that the fathers of the families in that church didn’t share God’s word with their children. What happened is that they had a faithful pastor who invited them to come to bible study week after week and they continually said ‘no.’ And then when there was a false-teaching pastor who came into the congregation they honestly did not know what God’s word said about marriage. So, they could not refute that pastor when he preached heresy.

Does that picture look familiar? You might say to yourself: I have married marriage. I know what the bible says about marriage. I still remember what I was taught in catechism class. But, if you aren’t in God’s word, you are on the same path as that other congregation I mentioned. The only difference is that they arrived there sooner than you. If you aren’t reading God’s word at home and learning from your pastor in bible study, you are foolish. For Fox News, CNN and Glenn Beck and NPR cannot teach you this. Only God’s word can.

Let me speak clearly: When your pastor invites you to learn what God’s word says, and you choose other things for yourselves and for your family, you open the door for marriage to be torn apart. But, it also happens in other ways too. It happens in how we speak about marriage. A couple of weeks ago we had the wedding rehearsal for Tony Hamilton and his new wife, Keri. And after it was all done, I remember telling Tony to enjoy his last night of freedom. Because tomorrow it was all over.

What is hideous way for me to speak about marriage. Here I was, speaking about marriage as if it were a curse to endure, instead of a blessing to enjoy. And we wonder why Christian men and women decide to live together before they are married. When we paint this sort of picture with our words, what conclusion do they arrive at? They conclude that marriage is something you enter into only when you have no other choices. We say things like this and then we are shocked when young men don’t want to get married and young women despise children. We’ve taught them with our very own words that marriage and the gifts which come along with marriage, children–we’ve taught them that they are all things to endure, not enjoy.

I speak the words I am speaking deliberately. And I hope that they hurt you. For, for too long we have deluded ourselves into thinking that we have married marriage. We haven’t. We have married our own laziness. We have married the world’s view of marriage. But, we haven’t married marriage.

Our sin is real. But, my brothers and sisters, I want you to know that Christ’s forgiveness is also real. Here in these words, Jesus tells us: “‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one” (Mark 10:7–9 NIV)

So there is male and female. They leave their father and mother. They weave their lives together. And finally, they believe. They humbly trust that children are a gift from God, not a curse. As I read these words, I cannot help but think of the wedding at Cana. What Jesus does there at that wedding in Cana is a small glimpse into what he does in the rest of our lives. In John 2, we learn of a groom who messed up. He didn’t have enough wine. It was about to be a huge, embarrassing disaster. But then, when the time was just right, Jesus provided for that groom far more than he could have asked for or imagined.

Isn’t that a wonderful window into what Jesus does with marriage and our Christian lives. We sin and Jesus graciously forgives us. We are afraid and Jesus provides for us. We are lazy and skip out of bible classes. And Jesus wakes us up to see that in bible class and in our devotions at home—that is where we find joy and peace and consolation. We follow the path of the world and put marriage down. And Jesus comes along and lifts it up. He shows us what it really, truly is. It is one man, one woman, for life. It is the foundation for the church’s future. It is the expression of the church’s present.

Finally then, please let me conclude with a story. There was a man named Abraham. He had a wife named Sarah. He grew old with this woman he loved. And even though she was ten years younger than he was, she died before him. And Moses records for us this very beautiful picture, showing us just how much Abraham loved her. Abraham lived in tents. He had no house or land. But, when Sarah died, he went to the people of the land to buy land to bury his wife. The man who owned the cave started out with an offer. And without any bargaining or haggling he bought the land. And he buried his wife. This story has been handed down to generation after generation of Christian to teach us two, important lessons: Look at how married Abraham was to Sarah—Look at his love! And the second is just as important: Look at how married he was to God’s word. For he believed that his children would own that land. And he believed that one of those children would be the Messiah.

When we hear words like that, how can we not? How can we not marry God’s word? How can we not sit down with our pastor on Sunday mornings and and with our families in the evenings and rejoice in this truth. Let us ever and always marry marriage by marrying God’s word. Amen.

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 Pentecost 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is the sermon for the Second Sunday after Pentecost. The sermon text is: Philippians 1:18b-26. The sermon theme is: It’s Always A Win-Win Situation. We thank Pastor Sam Hacker for sharing God’s word with us this morning.

Elijah’s Raises the Widow of Zarephath’s Son

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 Pentecost 2 : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download