Allen Lunneberg

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Text: Romans 3:28
Date: Pentecost XXI + Reformation Sunday + 10/25/09
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

When the Apostle Paul wrote, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom. 3:28), he was speaking, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the whole Church of Jesus Christ. Now, on Reformation Day it’s too easy especially for Lutherans to attempt to confiscate or kid-nap these apostolic words to serve as a protest against other Christian denominations as if the Apostle were saying, “For we LUTHERANS hold this-and-that” over-against the Papacy on the far right or the Reformed on the far left. As true as that may be, there were no Lutherans or so-called “denominations” when Paul wrote those words. There were those already, however, who were allowing the innate legalism of our common, fallen, sinful nature and spiritual blindness to get in the way of the Gospel. The “we” in “we hold that one is justified by faith” are all those who hold to the pure, central Biblical doctrine of the Gospel of salvation, the justification of the sinner by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works of the law. This is no new teaching of the 16^th century but the apostolic Gospel from the beginning. (more…)

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Text: Matthew 5:1-12
Date: All Saints’ Day (Observed) + 11/2/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Living in the northern hemisphere as we do, this time of year even meteorology and the changing weather help to turn our thinking and our mood to the subject of the end times—the end times of our lives, of our world and the only thing in God’s plan of salvation left to happen short of further conversions, as we confess of our Lord in the creed, “He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead.” Maybe it is in part to encourage us to hang in there, to persevere and endure that, once a year, we pause to remember all those who have gone on before us with the sign of faith, all the saints who from their labors rest while we continue to feebly struggle. Some of the saints are well known and famous, many more are not. And as we imagine in our minds eye St. John’s vision of “a great multitude that no one could number…standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,” maybe we see some familiar faces among them, a departed mother or father, a departed child, brother, sister, uncle or aunt. I’m tempted to imagine also the faces of those who nobody but their angels have ever seen, those countless millions (!) never given the chance to live outside their own mother’s womb. As with the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem, unwitting martyrs for Christ, who more than they are the “poor in spirit,” the “meek,” or those “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” who now are the possessors of the kingdom of heaven, the heirs of the new heavens and earth?

The saints are all those forever blest with the gift of eternal life and salvation. The eternal blessing of salvation is only for those who by faith before the world confess Christ as Lord and Savior. They are forever blest because the name of Jesus is forever blest—forever blest as the only “name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the key to understanding the blessedness of all saints and the blessed text from the Sermon on the Mount commonly called the Beatitudes, the Blessings. (more…)

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Text: Revelation 14:6-7
Date: Reformation Day (Observed) + 10/26/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

Christians, at least traditionally or historically, do not call attention to themselves. We do not brag, we are to always take the humbler part. As St. Paul said it, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5). For instance, for this reason in church we rarely applaud the choir or the musicians (or the pastor, for that matter) for their part in the Divine Service (at least not right at that moment), because their part is not intended to be as much a performance for us as it is an extension of us in our worship and thanksgiving to God.

Nevertheless the tradition has been that we quite freely call attention to and brag about other people especially for their part or role in our common witness to and praise of Jesus Christ. (more…)

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Text: Luke 10:42
Date: The Dormition of the B.V.M. + 8/15/08
Zion Lutheran Church, Detroit, MI

It is good to remember those who have died in the faith of Christ. Every Lord’s Day in the Prayer of the Church we commend to the everlasting peace of God those who have departed with the sign of faith and now rest in the sleep of peace. Because of our Lord’s saving work and His resurrection, and because in Holy Baptism we have already died and been buried with Christ, physical death, while it is still the enemy, has been overcome and transformed to be no more threatening than sleep—a “sleep,” however, that is fully aware of the joys of being with the Lord. (more…)

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Text: Galatians 2:7-9
Date: Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles + 6/29/08
Lutheran Church of the Incarnate Word, Rochester Hills, MI

I like Mel Brooks movies. You know, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, History of the World Part One. Mel doesn’t hesitate going for even the cheapest, most obvious joke. Every once in a while, however, his humor will stumble upon a profound truth. One such was in his movie, “Frisco Kid,” a story of a young, not-so-talented or experienced Polish rabbi, who was sent from Poland to an outback synagogue in San Francisco in the 1800s. On his way across America on a train, then on horseback, he was robbed, caught in a blizzard, captured by Indians and ran into all sorts of difficulties. Once when he was being cared for by an Amish family he was noticing the huge farms in the area and mentioned his own family’s farm back in Poland. The young man giving him a ride to the nearest town asked why or how he had become a rabbi instead of a farmer. It was almost as if he had never considered the question before. So he said, simply, “Because God made me a rabbi,” and then explaining to the young man, “I guess God had enough farmers.”

I give the same simple reason when someone asks why I became a Lutheran pastor. There can be lots of reasons why a man may think he’s called into the ministry and pursue it through attendance at one of our seminaries. But the bottom line is always, “Because God made me a pastor.” For unless it is God’s call and drawing and initiative and blessing, one can and will always wonder whether he has deceived himself. And we believe, teach and confess that God works through His Word rightly handled through His Church which trains, certifies and calls her servants. It is the certification and ordination by the Church that testifies to the reality and validity and divinity of the pastor’s call. (more…)

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Text: Luke 10:42
Date: The Dormition of the B.V.M. + 8/15/07

“One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

It is good to remember those who have died in the faith of Christ. Every Lord’s Day in the Prayer of the Church we commend to the everlasting peace of God those who have departed with the sign of faith and now rest in the sleep of peace. Because of our Lord’s saving work and His resurrection, and because in Holy Baptism we have already died and been buried with Christ, physical death, while it is still the enemy, has been overcome and transformed to be no more threatening than sleep—a “sleep,” however, that is fully aware of the joys of being with the Lord.

We remember especially those closest to us, a Christian father or mother or other relative; a Christian pastor or teacher from whom we heard and learned the “one thing needful,” the blessed Word and Gospel of Christ. This year we’ve remembered especially former Zion Pastor Eugene Evans and, not too long thereafter, also his wife, who were taken to be with the Lord, and now only this week also young Pastor William Thompson of Our Savior congregation in Hartland whose Christian funeral will be there tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. Beyond that Holy Church remembers especially those of the household of faith who were given special grace in the service of the Lord—the holy Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs, as examples for us of steadfast faith and holy living. We commemorate especially the apostles of the Lord usually on the anniversary of their death or martyrdom, their “heavenly birthday,” the date handed down to us through the long tradition of the Church. How much more so, then, should we remember the most blessed woman that ever lived, the Blessed and ever-virgin Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, who has always been and is an icon, a picture of the Church and the calm faith of every Christian?

Though it was a different Mary, the same can be said of the Blessed Mother and of all Christians, “one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” Like us the mother of our Lord chose the one good and necessary thing because the Lord God first chose her. Her humble and obedient faith responded to the angel of the Lord, saying, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). That is the prayer, the motto of all true faith that is born of the Word of God, that thrives and grows and hopes in the truth and promises of God.

It was by faith in the Word that the young Virgin Mary received and bore the only Son of the Father giving Him to take on our human flesh and blood. It was faith given, as she was filled with the Holy Spirit, that sang, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” It was faith that perceived and kept her Son’s words and works, pondering them in her heart. It was by faith that Mary told the attendants at the wedding in Cana, “do whatever He tells you,” even when she herself did not know exactly what He would say. It was faith alone, pressed through the agony of her Son’s crucifixion and death that enabled her to remain steadfast also to see her risen Lord. This same gift of faith, then, transforms also her death and ours, turning the grave to be but the gate to our resurrection and the eternal life of the world to come.

The most ancient, holy tradition suggests not that Mary never died. For she was neither immaculately conceived nor spared from the suffering of the sin that is but common to all the sons and daughters of Adam. Yet this same holy tradition claims that, not long after her death, her body was raised to join with the likes of Moses and Elijah…and her Son and Lord to be with the Lord in both soul and body. In her, as in the Church, both time and eternity have met. From her body the eternal Son raised our human nature to participate in the divine nature. The salvation He came to bring, therefore, more than restores our human nature to be what God originally intended it to be, but raises us to be fellow heirs with Christ who bestows on us a crown of life.

It is good for us to remember those who have gone before us with the sign of faith, the great cloud of witnesses who surround us and cheer us on “to run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God,” that we may not grow weary or fainthearted (Heb. 12:1-4).

In this same faith we are all called to be like Mary—the Mary who ponders the Lord Jesus in her heart, the Mary who carries the flesh of God in her own flesh, the Mary who hears and takes to heart the Lord’s Word, the Mary who knows the one thing needful and chooses the good part that will not be taken away from her, the Mary who lives by the motto, “Let it be to me according to Your Word.” For to all who possess such faith the Lord speaks His blessing, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.” As we imitate Mary in faith, may we also imitate her in death—that is, falling asleep in peace, surrounded by angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, to be held safe and secure in the holy arms of our Lord Jesus Christ and finally to be raised to eternal life in the new heavens and earth.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His faithful ones. May holy Mary and all the saints plead for us with the Lord, that we may be helped and saved by Him who lives and reigns forever and ever.