Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN.

All eyes on the Lord. That’s faith. That’s what it means to trust Him. All eyes, all ears on Him, His Word, and His Gifts. Holy Baptism! There trust in Him is given, there is being “born from above,” there “born of water and of the Spirit,” as Jesus says. That’s John 3, Nicodemus at night stuff. That was last week: Holy Trinity Sunday.

But all eyes on the Lord, trusting in Him, His Holy Baptism—that’s also this week. (Very much this morning—Luke Nickolas!) But that’s rich man and Lazarus stuff, too. Trust isn’t only what your eyes are on, but also your heart, your soul, your mind—your everything, really. All that is you toward the Lord—Him and His Word and His Gifts alone. That’s 1st Commandment trust in Him. But trust can also be off. Whatever you trust in is your god. Whatever you’re most afraid of loosing, of having torn down and taken away, of being without—that, too, is your god.

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June 18, 2017
Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN.

Jesus is quite the story teller. He’s a poet of parables. He’s a master craftsman with His captivating characters, powerful prose, and vivid imagery. He tells them for one reason, and one reason alone: “that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.” The Lord Jesus suffers Himself to be rejected, missed, and misunderstood. He preaches Himself (especially in the parables!), but He doesn’t force Himself on anyone. For those who don’t want Him, they won’t have Him. They’ll find something else entirely, put their trust in something else entirely.

The problem is—left to ourselves—we miss Him, too. We turn the parables to our advantage. Find what puts us first, Jesus second. We do this most of all when Jesus, apparently, hides Himself the most, but yet He’s really there plain as day! Right in front of us! Just like our “problem” parable today. Continue reading →