| Redeemer Lutheran Church 1084 W. Bullard Ave. Fresno, CA 93711 Phone: (559) 439-8500 Fax: (559) 439-8585 office@redeemerfresno.com The Reverend Clarence Eisberg Phone: (209) 725-9082 Cell: (209) 631-3108 pastor@redeemerfresno.com Worship ~ 8:30 a.m. & 10:00 a.m. Family Ministries ~ 10:00 a.m. Holy Communion ~ 2nd & 4th Sundays |
| and to One Another! www.lcms.org |
The Reverend Clarence Eisberg |
March 27, 2011 |
March Madness has passed the sweet sixteen; elite eight will finish today. Sports analysis conversations. You may expected Butler to reach the Elite Eight or even Final Four…. But did you have Virginia Commonwealth.. A play in go this far? One sport analysis wrote: “Anyone who still considers Butler an underdog that wears a glass slipper and wins basketball games with magic doesn’t understand” how they arrived. Butler got scoring from more than a half dozen player and they fought off the Badgers of Wisconsin with tenacious defense… and good substitutions…keeping the right players on the hardwood floor. What happened to #1 seed Duke? And Florida? If you are somewhat familiar with basketball, football, baseball, soccer you will observe that the coaching staff often makes substitution a key part of their on field strategy. On the basketball floor some teams will substitute several 3 point shooting guards, giving up height and rebounds for speed and scoring. In baseball a coach may opt for a left handed pitcher if the other team places a number of left handed batters in the line up. Some players are simply on the team because they are the “designated batter.” As a culture we are quite familiar with the meaning of the word “substitution”. In sporting events the correct “substitution” can make the difference between winning and loosing. Yet, when the word “substitution” becomes part of our theological vocabulary it brings forth criticism. People ask: “How can we possibly believe that God needed some kind of satisfaction before He was willing to forgive.” Isn’t God a God of love? Why would Jesus Christ be a substitute for the punishment we sinners deserve? I remember very clearly the April 8th, 1966 Time Magazine cover. It was black cover with the words in bold white letters: “God is Dead”. The article was reflecting on several books that had been written claiming that the culture no longer needed a God of wrath and judgment. The secular world was then offered Jesus who lived a life of love. I believe that in reaction to the Time Magazine culture the preaching in American pulpits shifted from preaching a wrathful God who punished sinners… (a popular mode of preaching in the 1800’s early 1900’s) to the preaching of a God of love. Ultimately the balance and truth of God’s nature and character was lost. But the nature of God is simply not love… the nature of God can not be explained by one word. A holy God can not tolerate idolatry, immorality, injustice. Evil behavior provokes God’s anger. If evil did not provoke God’s anger we would loose respect for God. How many times have we heard people say: “If there is a God, and if God is a God of love how could he allow such tragedy to happen?” Thus when their mind only holds this one theological belief that God is a God of love…their only conclusion when they see evil… is to believe that God has removed Himself from our world. Rev. John Stott in his book “The Cross of Christ” writes: “The human mind finds it difficult to hold simultaneously the images of a God who is the ultimate Judge, who must punish evil doers and the Lover of humanity who must find a way to forgive them.” Just this past week the potential release of Michael Woodmanese who kidnapped and murdered a 5 year old boy in 1975 has caused great concern. He was convicted of a hideous crime. Not only did he kill the child but wrote in his journal how he had eaten the flesh of the boy and waxed his bones. It is an evil that brings revulsion to our soul and being. This type of crime fills us with anger. I only share this hideous crime because it raises within our being the emotion of anger over an evil action. What we must acknowledge is that our own sins, thief of a candy bar, gossip, speeding, failure to keep the Sabbath holy, and on and on provokes God’s anger. Sin is “lawlessness”. Sinners who break the law simply can not be let off. The law must be upheld. One act of disobedience in the Garden of Eden brought the wrath of God to humanity. God must always act in accordance with his moral law, his own holy character. Do you know the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den? Daniel was taken into captivity as a teenager from Jerusalem to Babylon. He remained faithful to his God. In time King Darius raised Daniel to a position of authority over the entire kingdom. The other administrators of the Persian Empire became jealous of Daniel’s exceptional qualities and new position so they began to plot his downfall. V 4 “but they failed because Daniel was trustworthy and never negligent nor could he be corrupted.” So they turned to his private life to seek ways to destroy him. (we see the same in our newspapers every day as people in political powerful positions seek to destroy the character of new rising popular political stars) Their only hope was to find Daniel guilty of some technical fault in connection with his religious devotion. They managed to persuade the king to “issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next 30 days, except the King himself, would be thrown into the lion’s den. V 7 With incredible naivety the king fell into their trap. When King Darius signed the decree he made it unalterable in accordance with “the laws of the Medes and Persians, which can not be repealed.” v 8-9 When the decree reached Daniel’s ears, he did not change his routine. He continued to pray to His God, three times a day. His practice was to kneel in his upstairs room, whose windows faced Jerusalem. There he was visible to those who passed by. When the King heard this he was distressed and tried every way possible to save Daniel. But the King could find no solution to the legal problem he had created for himself. According to the laws of the Medes and Persians no decree or edict that the king issues could be changed. That very evening Daniel was thrown into the Lion’s den. The law had triumphed. Darius respected Daniel and tried to find some way of saving him, but the law had to run its course. It could not be changed. So God loves us sinners and longs to save us, but cannot do so by violating the law which He created and justly condemned Adam and Eve, you and me. God can not abolish the moral laws He has established. The problem of forgiveness is the gravity of sin and the holy majesty of God. If God is going to forgive sinners His actions must be consistent with His holy character. All parents know the costliness of love. They can be torn apart by conflicting emotions especially when they see their children, whom they love, yet in need of punishment for their misdeeds. Maybe the best illustration of God’s costly love is lived out by the O.T. prophet Hosea. In Hosea the Lord refers to Israel as “his child”, his son whom he had taught to walk, taking Him in his arms, bending down to feed him.” Yet his son did not recognize his Father’s tender love. The children of Israel needed to be punished for their idolatry. Listen to God’ s pain. (Hosea 11:8-9 read) How then can God find “satisfaction”. In the Garden God provided a “substitute”. God himself had established the only way forgiveness could be provided to Adam and Eve. He said, “the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement…” Lev. 17:11 In the Passover story when God sent Moses to rescue the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt, God revealed himself as both Judge and Savior. Moses went to warn Pharaoh that midnight Yahweh Himself was going to pass through Egypt and strike down every first born. There would be no distinction between human beings and animals. If Pharaoh did not release the Israelites from slavery, the judgment of God would come. Pharaoh refused. There was only one way of escape. On the tenth day of the month each Israelite household was to choose a lamb… without defect… and on the fourteenth evening kill it. They were to take some of the lamb’s blood, dip a branch of hyssop in it and sprinkle it on the lintel and side posts of their front door. They were not to go out of their house that night. For Yahweh, had already announced his intention to “pass through” Egypt in judgment. He also promised to “Passover” every blood marked house in order to shield it from His judgment. In that event God revealed Himself both as Judge and Redeemer. When he saw the blood on the door frames He would save the family. Paul writes these words to the Christians in Colossae: “God was pleased to have all His fullness (His deity) in (Jesus Christ) and through him reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through the blood (of Jesus) shed on the cross.” “The concept of substitution lies at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is humanity substituting himself for God while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for humanity. God sacrifices himself and puts His “one and only Son”, Jesus on the cross beams of the cross where we deserve to be. The notion of substitution is that one person takes the place of another, especially in order to bear his pain and so save him from it. We cannot fail to be moved by the heroism of Father Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan, in the Auschwitz concentration camp. When a number of prisoners were selected for execution, and one of them shouted that he was a married man with children, “Father Kolbe stepped forward and asked if he could take the condemned man’s place. His offer was accepted by the authorities, and he was placed in the underground cell, where he was left to die of starvation.” God’s act of substitution on the cross is the only way of salvation. We can not escape the embarrassment of standing stark naked before God… who knows the secrets of our hearts. It is no use trying to cover up like Adam and Eve in the Garden. We have to acknowledge our sinful behavior and see the divine substitute wearing our filthy rags instead of us, and allow Him to clothe us in his own righteousness. No one has put it better than Augustus Toplady in his immortal hymn which we will sing during Holy Communion today. “Nothing in my hand I bring Simply to your cross I cling; Naked, come to you for dress Helpless, look to you for grace Foul, I to the fountain fly Wash me Saviour or I die.” |