Emmanuel Lutheran Church Asheville

Thanksgiving Eve, ??06 (11/22) Luke 17: 11-19
Emmanuel, Ashville, NC 
Sir, we would see JESUS!
In the name of Jesus!

?¨Giving Thanks to our Merciful God?Æ
by Rev. Frederick A. Stiemke, DD

Beloved, please pray with me: Gracious God and Father, Your mercies are new unto us every morning. Indeed great is Your faithfulness ?± so faithful that You sent Your only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to seek and to save the lost. You even grant us so very many earthly gifts and pleasures. For all Your love and kindness we praise and adore Your holy name. Through the gift of Your Holy Spirit grant us such sincere gratitude that we thank You not only with our lips, but also with our lives; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

In the name of our glorious God and Savior, beloved children of the heavenly Father:

For anyone who loves and follows Jesus, not just Thanksgiving Day, but everyday should be one of thanksgiving. St. Paul knew this when he wrote, ?¨Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him.?Æ [Colossians 3: 17] Centuries before that, the Psalmist urged the people of the living God, ?¨Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; His mercy lasts forever.?Æ Psalm 136: 1] With those entreaties these men of God confronted a major problem in our sinful nature. We are very inclined to take God??s gracious gifts for granted. Therefore, it is right and proper that we pause again this Thanksgiving Eve to see that we have every reason to give thanks to the Lord with genuine gratitude. 

Admittedly in trouble and danger, when needs press on us, most people turn to God. Back in WWII a common saying was, ?¨There are no atheists in foxholes.?Æ That??s quite true of life. When down, we are forced to look up. That was certainly true of the 10 lepers in Jesus?? day on earth. They had a serious disease that often led to death. In the ritual law given to Moses, because leprosy then was highly contagious, God commanded that anyone with this illness had to be excluded from the community. Thus, in their isolation these men came together in an attempt to find strength and support from one another. No wonder, once they heard that traveling through their area was Jesus, who had healed others with leprosy, they hastened to seek Him and His help, crying out, ?¨Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! [Luke 17: 13]

I see a parallel to this in what a reporter penned the Sunday following the great San Francisco earthquake, ?¨All that is left of San Francisco attended religious services today. Never in the history of the city has there been such an outpouring to divine services. All San Francisco was on its knees. Men who have never been to church in their lives were among the most devout worshippers today.?Æ That devastating earthquake was a powerful persuader that people needed the Lord and His blessing. That??s as it should be, for our gracious God encourages His people through the Psalmist, ?¨Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will glorify Me.?Æ [Psalm 50: 15]

Unfortunately, as already indicated, when trouble leaves, the natural, sinful reaction of people is to forget rather quickly our dependence upon God. Often people fail to continue to thank the Lord for being their Deliverer and Helper. That certainly was true of 9 of the 10 lepers Jesus healed. Only one returned to give Jesus his thanks, with the result that our Savior laments, ?¨Where are the other nine??Æ [Luke 17: 17] The prophet, seeing this same human response in his contemporaries, likewise wrote, ?¨The ox knows his owner and the donkey his master??s crib, but Israel does not know; my people do not understand.?Æ [Isaiah 1: 3]

How about us? Are there times when we take our earthly blessings for granted? When is the last time you thanked our heavenly Father for the gift of your body and all that its various parts can do? I trust that we all begin our meals with a prayer of thanks, but are there times when the words merely come without our hearts and minds also being genuinely thankful? Our gracious God has provided much more than food for our bodies. Just to name a few: Do any of us lack safe drinking water? The Lord has given most of us family to love, and we in turn are loved by them. I personally do not know of anyone sitting here tonight who does not have true and loyal friends. The Lord has provided us with health and resources, so that none of us lacks adequate clothing and shelter. We do have quality schools for our children. Why, Emmanuel has even been blessed with its own excellent Christian Day School. 

In spite of all the threats to the United States, we are still a free country with all its many freedoms and blessings. We are gathered here this evening without the threat of being arrested and hauled off to jail for our Christian faith and practice. Look again at the magnificent mountains in which we live with its multitude of plant and animal life. We have again experienced good weather with adequate sun and rain in the past year. Listing all these blessings from our Lord, we have barely touched the surface of the many material blessings our loving Lord showers upon us every day.

Yet bundle all our earthly blessings together and they are so very small compared to the spiritual blessings the Lord freely gives us, His children. God has not in just judgment for our sins taken His Word, the Bible, away from us. You know that Jesus has done everything necessary that you might have forgiveness and peace with our holy, sinless God. Day by day our Lord increases our joys and happiness. In days of trouble and testing, the Lord is with us to grant us His grace sufficient for all needs and His strength even made perfect in the midst of our weakness. In our life together our Lord gives us many opportunities to serve Him and one another. In the bond of faith in Christ Jesus, our merciful God transforms our daily labors and toil into another means of serving Him and others. He reaches out through the power of His Spirit to bind us to Himself and to one another in love. Why, through the saving love of Jesus, our Lord even promises us a place in the heavenly mansions where in great joy and glory we will be able to serve our glorious God in perfection of beauty forevermore! 

With a clear vision of God??s immeasurable grace and gifts in our minds, let us return once again to the account of the healing of the 10 lepers. Who returned to Jesus to give Him thanks and praise for the healing? It was the stranger, the Samaritan! Hopefully that will help us to remind us that many times we have been among the 9, rather those who walk in the footsteps of the Samaritan. Surely we have cause to confess humbly that far too often we fall short of the glory of God, not being the grateful folks we should be. Hopefully we see again the leprosy of our own sin, which strives to destroy us by separating us from the love of God. 

Yet I pray that our loving Father through the gift of the Holy Spirit enables you to look beyond your failings and sin to the Divine Healer to whom that healed Samaritan returned ?± Jesus Christ. He is not only the Great Physician who has the power to heal and cleanse the leprosy of sin. Jesus also in extraordinary grace and love does just that when we cry out, ?¨LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US!?Æ He doesn??t ignore our cries. He died on His cross long ago and rose again in triumph to wash and cleanse us from our sin and transgressions. Even now Christ sits at the right hand of His heavenly Father to intercede for us. Now as daily we turn to Him, Jesus cleanses away from the leprosy of our sin, so that we stand before Him restored and healed. Rightly Micah describes our Lord??s mercy in these words, ?¨Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our iniquities into the depths of sea.?Æ [Micah 7: 18-19]

Surely we have every reason to join the Psalmist in saying, ?¨Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. His mercy lasts forever!?Æ [Psalm 136:1] Please join me in humble gratitude for all of God??s mercy and blessings by repeating those words of sincere gratitude: ?¨Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good. His mercy lasts forever!?Æ Gracious God and Father, as we prayed before, with Your Spirit??s power help us to thank You with both our lips and our lives! Amen.
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And now may all of God??s wondrous grace and blessings fill you with great joy and peace in believing, enabling you to show increasing gratitude to our Triune God for all His bountiful goodness until we all can do that perfectly in heaven. Amen.

© Reverend Frederick A. Stiemke, DD
Vacancy Pastor

THE 2ND SUNDAY IN ADVENT, ??06 (12/10)
Sir, we would see JESUS!
Emmanuel, Asheville, NC
By Rev. Frederick A. Stiemke, DD

Malachi 3: 1-4
In the Name of JESUS!

?¨Ready or Not ?± Christ Is Coming!?Æ

Beloved, please pray with me: O eternal God and Father, if we were without Jesus to pardon all our sin, what terror His coming to judge the living and the dead would bring! But You graciously sent Your Son to be our Savior and Redeemer. In mercy may our Lord Jesus ever live in our hearts by faith that instead of experiencing terror, we know and trust His saving power, and as a result fervently look forward with joy and hope to His return to judge all mankind. To that end, bless now our hearing of your Word. O Father, bless us for Jesus?? sake. Amen.

In the name of Jesus, our Advent King and Savior, dearly beloved people of God:

What would your reaction be if when you returned home from church today you found the following message: ?¨The President of our national church body (or some other national dignitary) will be stopping by for a visit in just a few hours to share the evening meal with you? Would you be ready, or would you be frantically dashing about making preparations? 

Well, Malachi in our text today reminds his contemporaries and us that we have much more than a passing guest of honor coming. None other than the Lord of heaven and earth, our great Redeemer, is coming not only to visit His people, but Christ is also coming to judge His people. The Lord gives ample forewarning through the prophet. Malachi tells His people that God Almighty is about to send John the Baptizer to tell the children of Israel, ?¨Ready or not ?± Christ is coming!?Æ John cried in the wilderness, ?¨Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come??Æ [Luke 3: 7c] He also forewarned His people of the immanency of God??s Judgment, saying, ?¨The ax is already at the root of the trees. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is hewn down and thrown into the fire?Æ [Luke 3: 9a] Through the prophet the Lord also foretells the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem, His earthly ministry and ultimately God??s final judgment. 

But Malachi does more than that throughout his book of prophecy. Clearly the prophet tells people they are not ready because of their many sins and rebellion against the Lord and His holy will. Malachi takes his people to task for their manifold sins and failings. He rebukes them for stingy offerings to God, violating marriage commitments ?± even committing adultery, grumbling against the Lord, following occult practices, committing perjury and lying, oppressing the poor and foreigners, and above all being without fear of God. He rightly faults the clergy of his day, i.e., the priests, for being corrupt when they should be ?¨messengers of the Lord.?Æ In the verses just before our text, Malachi tells his people that the Lord God is tired of their words. They keep complaining about God not rewarding them for their piety because they self-righteously claim that our heavenly Father is not rewarding them as He should and that He is favoring the wicked. The prophet mentions that a frequent cry of the day is, ?¨Where is the God of justice??Æ Justly for all their sinful and rebellious ways, the Holy Spirit leads Malachi to ask, ?¨But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears??Æ [vs. 2] In effect, the prophet is warning his people, ?¨Ready or not ?± Christ is coming!?Æ That God of justice you seek is coming ?± but on His own terms!

Malachi??s listing of the sins of his own people sounds to me to be a very up-to-date inventory about our own society. But I plead with you forget about pointing fingers at other people. One wise man observed that when we point an accusing finger at others, there are three pointing back at us. So, what about us who are sitting here? Who of us can stand before the Lord, who even understands our thoughts and the motives for all our actions from afar, and claim that we have clean hands, a pure heart, unsullied lips, and a 100% clean mind by ourselves? Have we ever grumbled and complained that we are not getting a fair deal in life when things turn sour like the Israelites of Malachi??s day? Have we ever tried to bargain with God thinking He should be kinder to us because we are outwardly better than other folks? Have there ever been times when we have robbed or cheated God with our offerings? We could indeed profitably spend much more time examining ourselves on the basis of Malachi??s list of his people??s sins.

Because we as Christians tend to fend off what the world considers to be gross sin, we unfortunately can feel pretty pious and good about ourselves until we stand before the mirror of God??s holy Law that tells us, as reflected in the words of James, ?¨Whoever keeps the whole Law and just stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking all of it.?Æ [James 2: 10] And just why is that? It is because any sin, including telling a so-called ?¨white lie?Æ which many overlook as sin, is a direct attempt to dethrone God, setting our will above His will for us. Each and every sin is idolatry! And the cry goes out this Advent season, ?¨Ready or not ?± Christ is coming!?Æ ?¨Who can stand when He appears??Æ Hear what Malachi is led by God Almighty to foretell concerning the Day of Judgment, ?¨Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil doer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire.?Æ [4: 1] 

Yet for us who look to Jesus as our Savior, our Lord God covenants with us, promising, ?¨I the Lord do not change. ?ñ Return to Me, and I will return to you.?Æ [3: 6a, 7b] This happens when the Holy Spirit leads us to humbly acknowledge our sinfulness and failings, and we flee to the Lord God for mercy and God??s help to change our sinful behaviors. Then, as Malachi tells us, the Lord Himself comes to us like a refiner??s fire. With the fire of His love ?± not, of His wrath ?± Christ purifies us of all impurities and dross, much like gold and silver ores are refined in the fire. Our Savior also comes like launderer??s soap to wash out every guilty stain, so that by God??s action we stand before Him thoroughly cleansed and purged of all defilement. Wondrously Jesus does this every day for His trusting people, and He never tires of this. 

But through God??s saving work in Christ Jesus, our gracious heavenly Father does even more for us than cleanse us constantly of sin, guilt and all impurities. He has abolished the old rebellious priesthood and established an entirely new order ?± the royal priesthood of all believers. Because of Jesus?? death and resurrection in your behalf, you no longer need me or any other pastor to serve as an intermediary between our holy God and yourselves. You have direct access to the heavenly Throne of Grace to bring your offerings of love and thanksgiving to our God, as well as your burdens, pains and sin. Malachi foretells this act of grace by our Lord when he wrote, ?¨The Lord will have men,?Æ not, the priests of the old order, ?¨bring gifts in righteousness, and offerings ?ñ acceptable to the Lord, as in the days gone by, as in former years.?Æ [vs.4] Here the prophet is using the generic, inclusive form of the word, ?¨men,?Æ also to embrace women and children. 

Peter wrote about the fulfillment of this prophecy in the 2nd chapter of his 1st Epistle. There he wrote, ?¨As you come to Him, the living Stone,?Æ (i.e., to Jesus) ?¨ ?± rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him ?± you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.?Æ [1 Peter 2: 5] Ponder with awe the vastness of God??s mercy in Jesus. Our good works, which by themselves are tainted and would be considered filthy rags by our holy God, the Lord now accepts and sees as perfect for the sake of His own dear Son. Your striving to do God??s will with the help of the Holy Spirit is not in vain. The Lord transforms our imperfect works into gems lying at the foot of His Throne of Grace ?± much like coal compressed is changed into sparkling, precious diamonds.

As we move through this Advent season, God??s heralds are shouting for one and all to hear, ?¨Ready or not ?± Christ is coming!?Æ And wonder of wonders, it is the Lord Himself, who in immeasurable grace, first comes to us to prepare our hearts, our minds and our bodies to be His throne, clothing us with His own perfection and love. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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Now to our loving Father, ?¨who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy ?± to our only God and Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore.?Æ [Jude 24-25] Amen.
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© The Rev. Frederick A. Stiemke, DD
Vacancy Pastor

2nd Last Sunday in the Church Year
Sir, we would see JESUS!
EmmanuelLuthran Church, Asheville, NC
Rev. Frederick Stiemke

Mark 13: 24-31
In the Name of JESUS!

?¨On What Are You Pinning Your Hopes??Æ

Beloved, will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, You know better than we that things don??t always go the way we want. Life can at times be very unsettling. We are grateful for the times when by Your grace we share great joys and happiness. But our dear Savior, Jesus, has plainly told us that there will be increasing upheavals in nature and among people as we head toward the end of time. Help us always to fix our hopes upon Christ, the Rock of Ages, as the only One on whom we can build a sure and lasting hope. May Your faithful care and deliverance of believers who have gone before us increase our trust in You, dear Father. This we ask in Jesus?? name. Amen.

In the name of our Triune God, blessed children of the Heavenly Father:

While sitting in a restaurant in Minnesota during my wife??s and my mini-vacation this past weekend, I struggled for a few moments to read a plaque on the wall. The light was not the best, and I was beginning to wonder for a moment whether it was time to get my eyeglasses changed. Then it suddenly dawned on me that the motto was written in German script. Translated it read, ?¨No roses without thorns.?Æ Many of you already know that this is a very apt description of life in our fallen world. Life certainly has many beautiful and wonderful moments, but it also has its hard and difficult, trying days.

Unfortunately some radio and TV evangelists and other preachers proclaim that if a person really trusts God, then life on earth will forever be rosy. These false prophets imply that a ?¨true Christian?Æ will be blessed with good health and material riches. In effect they preach a false Gospel that with faith in Christ one will only have roses, and there will be no thorns. Jesus forewarned us, ?¨In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.?Æ [John 16: 33b] 

Having only roses without thorns in life is the farthest thing from the truth revealed in the Bible. Review carefully Mark, chapter 13, from which our Gospel readings have come over the past several weeks. There our Savior speaks about the End Times. In prior weeks we have heard from this chapter how Jesus tells us there will be wars and rumors of wars, upheavals in nature, families torn apart by varying beliefs and values, false saviors arising who give people empty hopes and lead them astray, and Christians being persecuted ?± even being put to death for their faith in Jesus. To His first disciples our Lord even told of the coming destruction of their beloved temple in Jerusalem, which actually took place in 70 AD. In the section we heard this very morning, Christ returns to the upheavals in nature ?± ?¨the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.?Æ [Mark 13: 24b-25] 

There are different ways one can respond to messages like this from the mouth of the Son of God. One way is to say, ?¨I want nothing to do with a God who offers those kinds of things.?Æ The amazing thing to me is that the Lord gives people the freedom to do exactly that. In loving-kindness He doesn??t want puppets on a string. Thus He permits folks to reject Him. But if you walk away from Jesus and want nothing to do with Him, then He will have nothing to do with you on Day of Judgment.

Another way to react to Jesus?? prophetic words is denial. One might try completely to ignore Christ??s warnings. That certainly won??t keep the world around us from going awry or our personal lives from being tested. Nevertheless, one might think, ?¨Well, that certainly is not going to happen to me or my family.?Æ How foolish! Recall again the readings from Mark 13 over the past Sundays. Christ forewarned us about wars and rumors of wars. We right now have men and women in harm??s way both in Afghanistan and Iraq. For that matter, terrorists across the world are plotting their dastardly deeds of destruction and mayhem. (Having a grandson who in the last two weeks enlisted in the US Navy, I am even more keenly aware of the nations warring against nations than ever before.) If denial is your response, you may want to do the same with upheavals in nature, but ?¨Burying our heads in the sand?Æ certainly is not a healthy option.

A third way to react to our Lord??s words is to become very fearful and frightened. But our Lord clearly and repeatedly tells us in His Word, ?¨Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am you God. I will strengthen and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.?Æ [Isaiah 41:10] On the other hand, we might take the exact opposite stance. One might begin to boast and brag, ?¨I can face anything the world or the powers of hell can throw against me.?Æ St. Paul quickly lets the air out of that trial balloon of bombast reminding us, ?¨Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competency comes from God.?Æ [2 Corinthians 3: 5]

Beloved, if we are brutally honest with the help of the Holy Spirit, each of us must confess that at times we have assumed one or all of those responses to threats to our comfort and ease. Each is sin ?± an attempt to dethrone God, not letting God be God. Each of those reactions does not trust the Lord to be the One who can help and shield us in any trouble. 
Yet our God is an awesome and loving God. Graciously in Christ Jesus every day He forgives our feeble and fallible ways of dealing with life and all its trying events. Jesus removes all our sin from us as far as the east is from the west when we acknowledge our sin, and in Him we have everlasting life. Why? Simply because He loves us and shows us undeserved mercy! 

In His Word Christ reminds us that while not one stone of the temples men build will be left on top of another, there is one Stone that remains ?± the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ, who is cleft for us. In Him we find more than hope. Jesus is the Shelter who covers us in every trial and temptation. Though pressed on every side, we will not be crushed and destroyed. For our God is faithful. He will not forsake His redeemed children. Even if we are killed because of our faith in Jesus, death cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. [Romans 8: 38 ff.]

In extraordinary love, Christ, who is that tried and living Stone, builds a new entity beyond the imagination of mankind ?± the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord builds it in His time and His own way. Surprisingly the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ, was rejected by many of His chosen people. In reality, the stones in this new temple in which God lives are most often now gathered by the Builder from places some folks previously might have considered to be unthinkable and an utter abomination. Most of us here have Gentile roots, not being members of the Jewish race. It is, after all, the Lord??s way, adopting us as His own people. It is His structure to do with as He will. 

The awesome, almost unbelievable reality is that you and I who trust Christ as our Savior from sin and death and hell are among the stones God selected for His grand edifice. With tender care and divine skill, He is shaping us into living stones in His temple, which is entirely the Lord??s doing. His words cement us to Himself and to one another. Through Jesus?? presence among us, our Lord fashions us to be a bold and eternal witness to His unfailing love and grace ?± God??s power triumphing over our collapsing world, sinful nations and mankind, and even our own betraying sinful flesh. 

This world and everything in it is moving toward its God-appointed end because of mankind??s sin and rebellion. Not one stone here will remain on top of another, no matter how solid and unshaken and indestructible earthly structures may seem to us today. Only the Lord??s words and His divine workmanship in building Christ??s Church shall remain. Only the Word of our Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit will keep us watchful, preventing our being easily deceived in these last days before Christ comes again. So, with the help of our merciful God be faithful in your worship and daily use of God??s precious Word.

ON CHRIST, THE SOLID, ETERNAL ROCK, WE STAND SAFE AND SECURE. In Jesus our hopes will not make us ashamed. In our Redeemer we know that our life now is worth living even though here on earth there are thorns with the roses. Our Savior, the beautiful Rose of Sharon, holds us even now in His strong, loving hands. And some day we will see Him face to face where there are no storms or pain or thorns forever. SO HELP AND KEEP US, DEAR SAVIOR! Amen.

To God Alone All Glory!

¬© Rev. Frederick A. Stiemke, DD 
Vacancy Pastor