Messages from Pastor Raddatz

October 29, 2023, REFORMATION SUNDAY, Mount Olive Lutheran, Houston TX; Other Texts for today: Revelation 14:6-7 & Romans 3:19-28

“IF THE SON SETS YOU FREE, YOU WILL BE FREE INDEED” John 8:31-36

Grace Mercy and Peace, to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Dear People of God,

Freedom is a treasure!    The freedom that America offers its’ inhabitants is still a great draw for people.  If you live under oppression, I will guess freedom is about all you can think about.  

In the Bible times, after most nations were conquered, they became slaves of the conquering nation.   This is one way that you claim victory over another group of people, is to be their master.  Jesus reminds us that his purpose is to free people from sin.   If the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus, here, is talking about an INTERNAL FREEDOM from sin.  Only He can provide this.   While his listeners think he is talking about EXTERNAL FREEDOM from foreign rule.

Who Do You Follow?

If you use Instagram or YouTube you can become a follower of certain content providers.  They want you to follow, so then, they can get some benefits.   

Jesus puts out his content to the Jews.  He states in verse 32, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.  Some of the Jews had believed in him, but things are going to get a lot rougher for Jesus followers, so HE WANTS THEM TO STAY WITH HIS WORDS.   He initiates a conversation which is very pointed.  What Jesus is really saying is: If you cannot bear the word, you will not get what I offer.

The Jews who respond to Jesus do not see themselves as needing Jesus.  They say they are children of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. How amazing that these Jews do not admit that they have Roman overlords.  They are thinking about their EXTERNAL world and about their roots in Abraham.  Jesus is talking about their INTERNAL world.  

No One Will be Justified before God by their Works!

As I commented last week, there is One Lord of the worlds and there are different worlds within the Lord’s world.  Some call it systems or kingdoms.  The Kingdom of the Left is the external world.  It involves policies and politics, armies and police and sheriff’s departments and our taxes which provide for them.  

Jesus says, in v. 34, “TRULY, TRULY, I SAY TO YOU . . .”  Whenever he says this his comments are to be extremely penetrating.  His words will have gravity.  His words are not open for debate.  We lean on the edge of our seat like in the ninth inning of the baseball game, hoping our team will win.  He says, “Truly, Truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”.

Since the Son remains forever, you are free from your sins, forever!

            They get part of what he is saying, but they miss the truth.  They know that a slave does not live in the house.  If you are a slave, you live somewhere else than the house with the family.  The Son lives in the house.  They understand this cultural habit.  They do not get Jesus’ address of the human condition.  Jesus is putting down their casual view of sin, which can be expressed in the words, “EVERYONE SLIPS NOW AND THEN” to emphasize that when you sin you are dominated by sin.  You cannot free yourself.  You need to be born from above and not from below.

            The Jews are still back deciding, “Who’s your Daddy”.  Abraham is our daddy and because of him we do not need to be freed.   Jesus is telling them that Abraham cannot free you from sin, only the Son of God can free you from your sin.  

            If we take Jesus at his word we are freed.  We are not just freed now, until we confess our next sin, but WE ARE FREED FOREVER.

FOCUS UPON CHRIST WHO PURCHASED YOUR FREEDOM, take your hands off the rope of your grievances.

     Many churches would have a bell placed up in the bell tower with a long rope extending down to where if someone pulled on the rope, the bell would swing and the bell would ring.  To keep ringing you have to keep your hand attached to the rope.  If you take your hand off the rope, the bell will eventually slow down and stop ringing.

     Corrie Ten Boom saw this as an application of forgiveness.  “I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive someone, we take our hand off the rope. But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn’t be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.” — Corrie Ten Boom, Guideposts Classics, November 1972)

When we choose to forgive, it means we're finally willing to let go of the rope. The ringing may continue, but over the course of time, it will eventually stop, as long as we make the choice to not pick up the rope again. 

• That said, what area(s) in your life are bringing you to the verge of exhaustion from continuing to ring the bell? 
• In what situations is God asking you to put down the rope? When are you tempted to pick up the rope again? 

As you face your own battle with forgiveness, ask the Lord, as the Apostles did, to increase your faith!

Thanks be to God, who frees us from the internal dilemma of the domination of our sin.  The beauty of God’s action through Christ, is we don’t “have to get it”.   As if it involved some sort of intellectual journey.   Jesus doesn’t just talk he does what God wants him to do.  He goes to the cross and pays the price for our sin.  Therefore we are truly free.  We are free internally.

May this peace which passes all single human understanding keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus, Amen.

John F. Raddatz, Vacancy Pastor

July 2, 2023, Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Houston TX, Other texts for today: Jeremiah 28:5-9 & Romans 7:1-13

DID JESUS REALLY COME TO BRING A SWORD? Matthew 10:34f

Grace, Mercy and Peace to You, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

There is a theory that is used in long distance team running races called, “The Rabbit.”  One runner is sent out as the rabbit, to set the pace.  This person will not usually win the race, because they begin running at a much faster pace then other runners.  What can happen is that this person ends up either dropping out of the race or just slows way down later in the race, but you hope the other team gets deceived.   Some runners cannot resist being in second place so if you use this strategy you hope that the opposing team’s runners begin the race so fast that they tire themselves out so your best runners can win the race first.

Today’s reading set’s out a high standard.  Jesus want to be first in our life, but I admit, he says this in a strange way.

When you read the Bible, have you ever wondered, “Did Jesus really say that?”  Today’s reading from Matthew has some difficult statements:

• He came to bring a sword, v. 34
• Whoever loves family more than me is not worthy of me, v. 37
• Whoever does not take his cross is not worthy of me, v. 38
• Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life, for my sake, will find it, v. 39

Jesus reminds us that following Jesus can bring us into conflict and difficulty with others.  It can test loyalties.  It can test our strength.  It can test our actions.  His desire is that we would love him first and others second.

Do you remember your first love?  It may not be a person, but it may have been a situation where you kind of found your place in the world.  It may have been a time when you were in a position where you were respected.  It may be a time when you were a lot younger, and you were naive to the cruelties this world can hand out.  Jesus reminds us that we should love God first and love him most.  All other loves are to be second to our first love of God.   

Why did Jesus use such divisive and polemical language.   Well, he certainly did not muddle his speech when he described loyalties to God above all others.  Respect from other people is fleeting.  The faithfulness of God endures forever.  

Micah 7:6 “For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.”   The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Mic 7:6

10:37, Jesus here expounds on the text just cited (Mic 7:6) to make a point virtually inconceivable to most of his hearers. Loving family members, especially parents, was one of the highest duties in Judaism; the only one who could rightfully demand greater love was God himself.  Do you remember when Jesus called a man to follow him, and he said something like, Lord I cannot come now because my father has died, and I need to go and bury him.   Jesus responds with something like, “Let the dead bury the dead” (Luke 9:59–60). This man may have wanted to fulfill the oldest son’s duty to bury the father, to be near the father in order to obtain an inheritance, or to remain near the body of his father for up to one year to rebury the bones, a practice of some Jews at the time.  In any event, Jesus’ answer makes clear that this request would have involved putting tradition or the disciple’s own desires ahead of serving Jesus.

God had already set this standard in the Old Testament: Deut. 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  The Jews call this prayer, “The Shema.”  It is the most important prayer because for them because it reminds them of their monotheism.  For us it reminds us to love God first and foremost.

And as much as we find that loving other people in our life can be a burden God calls us to carry our cross.  I love this part of the reading because we often think that “THE CROSS” is to be in a relationship with a difficult person, but the cross is not found in the person.  The cross we must carry is our own weakness and ability to love as Jesus loved.   

The cross we must carry is our flesh.  It is this humanness we all have and our inadequacies.   Every minister of Christ, or professor of his name, has "his" own cross, his own particular afflictions, appointed by God, and laid on him by Christ, and which he should cheerfully take up, and patiently bear, for his sake.  (-Bul’s Notes) The cross reminds us that we are to suffer for the name of Christ.

THE PURPOSE OF SUFFERING

• Do not kick against suffering, for in so doing you may be fighting against God. - Spurgeon
• Life without struggle and difficulty is thin and tasteless. How can a noble life be constructed if there be no difficulty to overcome, no suffering to bear? -Spurgeon
• There is a great want about all Christians who have not suffered. Some flowers must be broken or bruised before they emit any fragrance. - Robert Murray M’Cheyne

The cross is our place of peace because Christ who was fully human and fully divine, at the same time, died for us and suffered all the punishment and anger of God for our sin.  The cross was necessary for our justification, and it is also necessary for our sanctification.

Justification – how are we saved, by Christ.

Sanctification – how we live, by Christ.

This is why at the end of our passage this morning, vv. 42 Jesus says, “And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”  A cup of water was the only gift the poorest person might have, but it would symbolize enough.

A Christian is a mind through which Christ thinks; a heart through which Christ loves; a voice through which Christ speaks; a hand through which Christ helps. 

Tan, Paul Lee: Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations  

So, no other relationships are to be superior to our relationship with Christ.  Christ does bring peace, not as the world gives, but it is not the force of compromise with evil, but of conquest over wrong, over Satan, the triumph of the cross. Meanwhile there might be inevitable division in families, in communities, in states. It is no namby-pamby sentimentalism that Christ preaches, no peace at any price. The Cross is Christ’s answer to the devil’s offer of compromise in world dominion. For Christ, the kingdom of God is virile righteousness, not mere emotionalism. -Bul’s Notes

As we live with our own frailties may we remember that Jesus calls us to follow him.  We are not to be out in front of him, no one is to be more important than him.  The benefit of his being out front is that his is the victor over our sin and all else that seeks to take his place.  We cannot finish the race set before us on our own.  We can finish it because he has won the victory for us.  His loving presence goes before us, beside us, above us and beneath us.  

May this peace, which passes all human understanding keep your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus, to life everlasting. Amen

Pastor John Raddatz, Vacancy Pastor