2.23.25 Sunday Drive to Church

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. [00:00:01] Speaker B: It's Pastor Wolfmuller. This is the Sunday drive home for February 23rd, 2025. Can you hear that sound? That is the Bach Cantata, BWV 28. [00:00:15] Speaker A: Which is Bach's version of My Soul. Now Praise youe Maker, which is today's. [00:00:21] Speaker B: Hymn of the day written by. I was just digging into this stuff. This is written by Johan Gramman, who was. Was this interesting? [00:00:30] Speaker A: He was secretary. [00:00:31] Speaker B: What was his nickname here? [00:00:32] Speaker A: He says his nickname was Polyander, which means many men. Polyander. Johannes Polyander, that's his pen name. He was a German pasha, theologian, Lutheran leader. [00:00:44] Speaker B: He was a student of Luther, a student of Melanchthon. [00:00:46] Speaker A: He was John X secretary at the 1519 Leipzig debate. [00:00:55] Speaker B: That's an amazing thing. And he met Luther there and he joined the Reformation. So remember, this is history of Reformation stuff. If you go back to 1517, Luther posts the 95 theses. [00:01:06] Speaker A: And this really gets these things going. He does the Heidelberg disputation 1518. He goes in 1519 to Leipzig for the Leipzig debate. [00:01:14] Speaker B: And Luther's kind of second fiddle in the Leipzig debate. [00:01:18] Speaker A: The chief guy who's going there was Carlstadt debating Eck. [00:01:23] Speaker B: But Karlstadt starts, but then really Luther. [00:01:26] Speaker A: Takes over and they're debating mostly the authority of the Pope. [00:01:32] Speaker B: And if I remember right this, Eck was there and. [00:01:40] Speaker A: Tetzel was there. [00:01:42] Speaker B: Tetzel died at the Leipzig debate. I gotta. I remember something like that. [00:01:46] Speaker A: I should probably look it up. [00:01:48] Speaker B: But remember, Tetzel was the guy who. [00:01:50] Speaker A: Started with all this indulgent selling, but Eck is the guy who took over. [00:01:54] Speaker B: Eck was famous because he published this. [00:01:57] Speaker A: 404 statements of Luther's errors. And he was the one who was fighting against Luther at the beginning. His name, Ek. If you put Dr. Dr. And Ek together, drek, it means dirt in German. And so Luther was always calling him Drek. And he was the early opponent until he. Well, he died. And really who took over was bondage of the will, freedom of the will. Erasmus becomes the next great disputer, Roman disputer, against Luther. [00:02:32] Speaker B: But he was part of this early Catholic pushback against the Lutheran Reformation. And it turns out that the author of our hymn, that's what I'm tracking down here, the author of our hymn was his secretary when he went to the Leipzig debate. And he must have met Luther and switched over, said, I'm not Catholic anymore. I am Lutheran. And he became a Lutheran pastor and he wrote this hymn, my Soul now praise your Maker, which is a beautiful paraphrase of Psalm 1.03, which is our psalm today as well. My soul, now praise your Maker, Let all within me bless his name, who makes you full partakers of mercies more than you dare claim. Forget him not, whose meekness still bears with all your sins, who heals your every weakness, renews your life within, whose grace and care are endless, and saved you through the past, who leaves no sufferer friendless, but rights the wronged at last. It's a beautiful thing. And remember how we asked this question, who's talking to whom when we look at the psalms. Well, Psalm 103 is a really amazing and unique one because it's talking to. Well, first it's talking to our souls. Bless the Lord, O my soul. That's the first verse. And all that is within me, bless his holy name. [00:03:54] Speaker A: What are the things that are in you? [00:03:55] Speaker B: Your mind, your heart, your feelings, your desires, your will, your memory, your conscience. It's rallying together all the parts of your inner life and saying, all I've got in here, everything that's in me, I want to rally it all together to the praise of God. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. What a beautiful psalm. We're going to sing the first 13 verses of the Psalm. There's 22 altogether there. Listen to the last one. Well, there's two pictures that come at the very end of what we're going to look at. It's going to talk about really the greatest height and depth that you can. [00:04:52] Speaker A: Imagine and the greatest distance that you can imagine. And this is going to be a description of God's forgiveness and love as. [00:05:00] Speaker B: High as the heavens are above the. [00:05:02] Speaker A: Earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. And then as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. How about that for beautiful? [00:05:18] Speaker B: By the time you get to the. [00:05:19] Speaker A: End of the psalm, which we won't tomorrow morning, or wait, you're driving to church. I'm recording on Saturday. You're listening on Sunday in a few minutes. We're not going to get to the end of the psalm, Bless the Lord. [00:05:31] Speaker B: But listen, it turns from talking to. [00:05:33] Speaker A: Our own soul to talking to the angels. Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his Word. [00:05:39] Speaker B: Obeying the voice of his word. [00:05:41] Speaker A: Bless the Lord all his hosts. [00:05:43] Speaker B: Verse 21, verse 22. [00:05:45] Speaker A: Bless the Lord all his works in all the places of his dominion. [00:05:48] Speaker B: And then the very last line of. [00:05:50] Speaker A: The psalm, back to the beginning. Bless the Lord, O my soul. [00:05:53] Speaker B: It's interesting if you want to just. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Make note of this as you're getting ready for church. [00:05:57] Speaker B: Those last verses of Psalm 103 and the first verses of Psalm 104 are. [00:06:05] Speaker A: Some of the verses that talk most about the angels. So it talks about. Let's see, where are you? [00:06:13] Speaker B: Verse 4, 1044. [00:06:15] Speaker A: He makes his messengers winds and his ministers a flaming fire. That's quoted in Hebrews 1 regarding the angels. So 103, 104 is the Psalms about the angels, but we don't have any of those. We have this general psalm of praise. Well, this psalm that rallies our soul to the praise of God. That's really beautiful. [00:06:35] Speaker B: Okay, before we get too far, we should pray the collect and then look. [00:06:40] Speaker A: At the lessons for today. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Here's the oh God, the strength of all who put their trust in you, mercifully grant that by your power we. [00:06:50] Speaker A: May be defended against all adversity through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Amen. [00:07:04] Speaker B: Old Testament is Genesis, chapter 45, 3, 15. I'll tell you, this is really not. [00:07:10] Speaker A: Fair, this text, although planning to have Vicar teach on this in the adult Bible study. So if you can make it to that, that's going to be really great. I'm going to duck in and teach the new member class for this week since I haven't. I haven't had a chance to meet all the folks in the new member class. Keep praying for them. They're getting close to the end, getting ready for confirmation here in a few weeks, which is great. It's a big class. It's been a great group of folks, but I can't wait to meet them. Vicar is going to teach on this Old Testament text which is so full of drama because it's the Joseph story and it's the moment that Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. Remember that they were jealous of Joseph because his father favored him and gave him this coat and they were going to murder him, but they ended up selling him into slavery. And Joseph, Joseph goes into Egypt and he's there, he's doing all right. Then he's thrown in jail and sits in jail. Then he is out of jail and he becomes the one who can interpret the pharaoh's dreams. And he's second in all of Egypt, which is this huge, massive empire. And he's basically like the pharaoh's right hand man. He's maybe more powerful than the pharaoh. And he sees this seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. And so it's deep into these, well. [00:08:25] Speaker B: Maybe two years into this year of. [00:08:27] Speaker A: Famine that the brothers are coming down and trading and getting grain from Egypt. And it's all this drama back and forth. And Joseph sets it up so that they get accused of theft and Benjamin's there and it's back and forth, back and forth. And then finally he can't stand it anymore and he's going to reveal himself to his brothers. They have no idea what's going on, like why all these crazy things are happening. But it turns out that their conscience is bothering them. [00:08:53] Speaker B: The whole story is a study of the conscience. [00:08:55] Speaker A: It's an amazing thing. And then at last Joseph says to his brothers, I'm Joseph. Is my father still alive? [00:09:01] Speaker B: And his brothers couldn't answer him for. [00:09:03] Speaker A: They were dismayed at his presence. [00:09:04] Speaker B: They're still afraid. And they're going to be afraid even to the end. Even when Joseph reconciles with them and gives them a place to stay and resettles them and they're down living in Goshen, down in northern Egypt and everything's well. And they still, when Jacob dies, they still think that their brother Joseph is. [00:09:18] Speaker A: Going to kill him. And he weeps. [00:09:19] Speaker B: Look, I'm not mad at you. I really forgive you. So beautiful. The story of Joseph and, and Joseph says to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near and he says, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Now don't be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. God sent me before you to preserve life. Remember how Joseph will say, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. And I'm on the side of God, so I'm able to receive this as good. That's just amazing. Beautiful story. This story of Joseph we should tell to our kids and we should know it and rejoice in it and read it all the time. [00:09:58] Speaker A: It's just such a marvelous story. [00:10:02] Speaker B: Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept. And Benjamin wept on his neck and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. And after that his brothers talked with him. [00:10:13] Speaker A: So, so amazing. So it, we just get the, it's. [00:10:16] Speaker B: Like in some ways this is like. [00:10:18] Speaker A: Going into the movies and you get to the movie right at the last battle, or right at the moment when everything is falling apart and being reconciled. It's the, it's, it's great. It's just great. And it reminds us of the whole context of this. And it should be good for us this week to go back and go through the whole story and get it. [00:10:37] Speaker B: All in the Epistle. We have a second reading in 1 Corinthians 15. We had the beginning part, the first few verses last week, and we're continuing on. This is the longest chapter in the letter 1 Corinthians. It might be the longest chapter in any of Paul's epistles. And the theme of the entire chapter is the resurrection. Now, now, this epistle lesson has a. [00:11:01] Speaker A: Lot, a lot, a lot of things for us to underline and pay attention to. There's a lot of theological assertions that are being made that should simply be underlined by us, starting with, well, verse. [00:11:15] Speaker B: 21, as by a man came death, by a man also came resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. [00:11:25] Speaker A: So that we have the universal reign of death through Adam, and the universal. [00:11:31] Speaker B: Reign of life, or of resurrection through Christ. Beautiful, but each in its own order. Christ first the first fruits and then at his coming, those who belong to him. [00:11:39] Speaker A: Then comes the end when he delivers. [00:11:41] Speaker B: The kingdom to the Father after destroying every rule and authority and power. And then listen to this verse, verse 25. For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. So that this is a description and this is one of these things that we just need to, like, keep in our minds as we watch the news and keep in our heads and hearts. [00:12:09] Speaker A: As we listen to all the things going on and see all the things. [00:12:11] Speaker B: Going on around us that right now Christ is reigning and putting all of his enemies under his feet. We don't see it. That's Hebrews 2. We do not yet see all things under his feet. We see all things looking like they're out of control, which is why we walk by faith and not by sight and know that the unfolding history of the world is the Lord Jesus putting all things under his feet. See this? [00:12:40] Speaker A: This is an amazing truth. [00:12:42] Speaker B: And the last thing is death. And that happens on the day of the resurrection. [00:12:46] Speaker A: That's when death is. [00:12:47] Speaker B: The destruction of death is finally made visible. [00:12:51] Speaker A: Then we see death's reign has ended. All the dead come up out of the grave. [00:12:58] Speaker B: Even the unbeliever comes up out of the grave, resurrected and then is cast into everlasting torment. [00:13:03] Speaker A: This is a frightful thing even to imagine. [00:13:05] Speaker B: But remember, we don't just speak of the resurrection of the Christians, but the resurrection of all people, just like all die in Adam, all erased through the resurrection of Christ. Then he says, why are we in danger every hour, knowing? Paul knows that Jesus will bring us out of the dead, which is why he's not afraid to die. It's why he's not afraid to even risk his life in the preaching of the Gospel now. He doesn't risk his life doing stupid things. Paul is not. [00:13:38] Speaker A: Hey, hold my beer. Watch this kind of recklessness. [00:13:42] Speaker B: No, but he's ready to die if need be, for the sake of the gospel. To go where it might hurt to go, to say what might hurt, to say, to do what might hurt to do. Because he's not afraid. Why do we die? Why are we in danger? Every hour I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. Listen to this. I die every day, but what do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? [00:14:12] Speaker A: If the dead are not raised, let us eat, drink. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Tomorrow we'll die. That's the Epicurean creed. Let us eat, drink, for tomorrow we die. And we are in an Epicurean age. It's changing, I think a little bit, but we're still in an Epicurean age. Eat, drink, tomorrow we die. But after death comes the resurrection. So epicureanism falls apart. There is more to life than life. There is life eternal on the way. Don't be deceived, he says, bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right. Don't go on sinning as those who have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. He says some will ask, how are the dead raised? And so he brings out the skeptical. [00:14:51] Speaker A: Question which must have been bouncing around in Corinth. How are the dead raised? [00:14:57] Speaker B: Come on, dead raised. When you die, the body and soul are separated from each other. How are they going to go back together? It reminds us of Nicodemus. How are you going to go into your mother's womb and be born again a second time? How are the dead going to come out of the grave? How are the dead going to come out of the sea? How are the dead going to come out of the ashes, out of the flames? Paul says, you foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. He said, you should be able to see this every day. You've Seen a farm, right? And what you sow is not the same body that is to be but a kernel wheat or some other grain. But God gives the bodies he's chosen to each kind of seed its own body. Not all flesh is the same here. He walks through the days of creation backwards. There's a kind for humans, another for animals, another birds, another fish. That's day six. Day five. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. Day four. But the glory of the heavenly is of one kind. The glory of the earthlies, another. There's a glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. And stars differ from stars in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What's sown is perishable. What's raised is imperishable. So the picture. And this is why the old Christians used to call cemeteries. [00:16:11] Speaker A: Well, cemetery means dormitory in Latin, I think the place where the soldiers sleep. [00:16:18] Speaker B: It's a garden. [00:16:19] Speaker A: The cemetery is the God's garden because. [00:16:23] Speaker B: Our bodies, like wheat or some other grain, are planted. And then on the day of the. [00:16:27] Speaker A: Resurrection, something immortal sprouts. The glorious resurrected body. [00:16:34] Speaker B: Who. [00:16:35] Speaker A: Can you imagine it? I remember one time I was doing a chapel at some Lutheran school, I think in middle school, and I. It was after Easter and so I. [00:16:44] Speaker B: I had some Easter lilies and I took the Easter lily and I took it out of the dirt. And I don't know if you've ever seen like the tubers and roots of an Easter lily. They're not that attractive. [00:16:56] Speaker A: It looks like a bundle of kind of brainy looking. It's not that pretty. And then you look at the top. [00:17:05] Speaker B: The stalks and the flowers. It's absolutely beautiful. Down at the bottom it's stinky. And at the top it smells glorious. And here, this is the picture we are currently the tuber. But the lily will sprout forth on the day of the resurrection. [00:17:23] Speaker A: The glorious body that's on the way. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Fantastic. All right, One last thing to look at. We have the Gospel lesson, which is a continuation of this sermon on the plain. [00:17:35] Speaker A: That's the name that the Bible scholars give to it. [00:17:37] Speaker B: Luke 6, 27, 38. We recognize these verses as pretty familiar verses where Jesus is giving instruction for our Christian living. [00:17:49] Speaker A: And it really is difficult. I mean, this is tough stuff where Jesus says, here's the first, very first lesson that Jesus says, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. The one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also the one who takes away your cloak, don't hold back your tunic. Give to everyone who begs from you to the one who takes away your goods, don't demand them back as you wish that others would do to you. Do to them. [00:18:24] Speaker B: And then at the end, be merciful. Judge not, condemn not forgive. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lamp, for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And all of this, the theme running through it is, you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and evil. So Jesus is teaching us a different way to live, a different way to think, a different way to act, a different way to live in this world. [00:19:01] Speaker A: To treat people, especially people who are. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Our enemies, to love them, to do. [00:19:06] Speaker A: Good to them, to bless them, to pray for them. And so he gives us these instructions of the children of God. [00:19:13] Speaker B: This is difficult, but we can't say, well, it's too hard. [00:19:16] Speaker A: I can't do it. [00:19:18] Speaker B: We have to, number one, recognize when. [00:19:19] Speaker A: We don't do it and beg the Lord for mercy. [00:19:23] Speaker B: And then recognize that the Lord is calling us to this over and over. And we can't simply get off the. [00:19:29] Speaker A: Hook by saying, look, I'm a sinner. No, the Lord has told us to do these things. [00:19:33] Speaker B: So here's my enemy, here's the one who hates me, here's the one who curses me. And now I'm called to bless and do good and serve and pray for them. This is what Jesus sends us into the world to do in the confidence of his great love for us. He sends us to be kind as he is kind and generous as he is generous and merciful as he is merciful, holy as he is holy. So we get after it, and we know that we're sinners. I was thinking about this. [00:20:05] Speaker A: I was at the Doxology retreat this week. [00:20:07] Speaker B: We know that we're sinners not because. Not just because the Bible says we're sinners, but we know that we're sinners because we go out there trying to keep the commandments and recognize that we don't. So we get after this command to love our enemies and to pray for. [00:20:22] Speaker A: Those who hate us. [00:20:24] Speaker B: We're getting after it, and it's in our failing to do these things that. [00:20:28] Speaker A: We recognize our own sin. [00:20:30] Speaker B: I hope that makes some sense. All right, that's good for. Oh, there's so many announcements. [00:20:37] Speaker A: Let me just look at these announcements. [00:20:39] Speaker B: There's so many here. Number one, is the joy group. The just older youth group is going. [00:20:44] Speaker A: To Fredericksburg here in a few days. [00:20:47] Speaker B: That's coming up. There's a high school bowling night coming up. The Concordia Wind Symphony concert is coming up. And we need host families pretty bad. [00:20:54] Speaker A: I think Carrie told me we need room for 14 more host families. So if you can do that, please let Jonathan know about that. [00:21:03] Speaker B: We have the men's retreat coming up, the Youth for Life retreat coming up in his image conference coming up and not coming up, but in a couple of years. But in summer 2026, we got this river cruise, but that's starting to fill up. I think we're like just over halfway full for that. So if you're interested in that, probably. [00:21:22] Speaker A: Let Carrie know about that. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Anyway. There's a ladies sewing night is in here. There's a Concordia High School celebration. There's a lot of announcements. So make sure that you take a. [00:21:33] Speaker A: Look at those announcements this week as well. All right. [00:21:36] Speaker B: Safe travels. See you in a few minutes. [00:21:38] Speaker A: God's peace be with.