Can't make it to church, but still want to hear God's Word, below are the recent sermons given during the Worship Hour.

Palm Sunday   --   April 1, 2007

“It Just Doesn’t Seem Fair”   --   Philippians 2:5-11

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from His Son, the Suffering Servant and honored guest at the parade into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Amen.

The text for our sermon today is the Epistle of the day, Philippians 2:5-11, which was read a few minutes ago.  This is God’s Word.

    As some of you are aware, there is much wisdom in the comic strips of the daily paper, especially Charlie Brown.  You comic strip aficionados will remember that Lucy is a forceful salesperson who year after year convinces Charlie Brown that she will hold the football so he may kick it.  Charlie, of course remembers the last several years and refuses.  He’s not that gullible, or so he says.  However, he is honest and wants to trust everyone, so Lucy finally assures him that this time she is really going to hold the ball.  Of course, when Charlie arrives at the football, with a full head of steam, Lucy yanks it out of the way and Charlie’s foot goes up into the air, having hit nothing and he plops heavily on his back, once again seeing stars.  It just isn’t fair.

    And, then, there was the Valentine’s Day cartoon where Charlie Brown is commiserating about how it is so unfair that he doesn’t get any valentines while all his friends receive hands full of them.  Charlie comforts himself by saying that at least Snoopy doesn’t get any either. In a few moments, Snoopy comes walking by with a mouthful of valentine cards.  It just isn’t fair.

    As our children were growing up, the oldest one always got to do things first, like riding a bicycle, and driving the lawn mower (until that got to be routine), and driving a car.  The younger ones thought that was always unfair.  Why should the oldest one ALWAYS get to be first?  It wasn’t fair, but that’s the way life works.

    We look around us and consider young Trey Hohnstreiter who has been fighting leukemia for a couple of years and is gravely ill at times, and young Rebekah Whitmore, daughter of a teacher at Sauers, who has a tumor in her brain.  These children are 5 years old or younger.  There is also Kim Johnson, in her mid-twenties, and Scott Pollert and Eric Kovener who are in their mid-thirties, and are fighting the awful battle with cancer.  It just doesn’t seem fair.

    It also is not fair that you and I can daily sin, often doing the same old things over and over again, and be forgiven repeatedly.  The things we do are so very common to all of us that we sometimes don’t even think about, such as, gossiping and spreading rumors while trying to appear piously concerned for the welfare of another.  And there are sins of gluttony that afflict so many of us, gluttony of TV, sporting events, garage sales, and of course, gluttony of food, drink and drugs.  Other common sins include the sin of being unhappy with what God has given to us.  We, so often complain that we do not have enough or that others have so much more than we.  And yet, God has made sure that we have enough – enough for ourselves and enough to share.  Unfortunately, Christ had to suffer for all our sins of gossiping, gluttony, grumbling, etc, etc, etc. 

    The Christian faith is not an insulator from the dark, icy breezes that blow through our lives.  Our faith in Christ is the confidence that God will bring another warm sunrise.  The Scriptures abound with assurances that the person of faith will have the final victory, in heaven, where there will be no more pain, no more tears and no more grieving.  There will be a few skirmishes lost along the way, but in the end the faithful believer will be protected and vindicated.  And even that final vindication is not fair.  We are saved because God above sent His One and Only Sinless Son to be sacrificed for us, thus paying the total indebtedness of our sins.

     It is not fair that the God of the universe should become one of His own creatures.  It is not fair that He should suffer in any way, let alone undeservedly, for people who were laughing at him and enjoying sinning against the very commandments of God.  It is not the way life works!  Everything we know about the way life works flies in the face of God’s amazing love, grace, and mercy.  Thank God!

    The inequities of Jesus’ life begin with his birth and are only compounded through the events leading up to his death.  The great hymn writer, Nikolaus Herman wrote these words in LSB hymn No. 389, verses 3-5,  “Within an earth-born form He hides  His all creating light; To serve us all He humbly cloaks The splendor of His might, The splendor of His might.”

“He undertakes a great exchange, Puts on our human frame, And in return gives us His realm, His glory, and His name, His glory and His name.”

“”He is a servant, I a lord:  How great a mystery!  How strong the tender Christ Child’s love!  No truer friend than He, No truer friend than He.”  Yes, God has made a great exchange, an unfair exchange, trading his perfect righteousness for our total lack of righteousness.

     During his life on earth, Jesus is described as experiencing fatigue, hunger, thirst, physical pain, emotional grief, and all the things he does NOT EVER experience in the rest of eternity.  In heaven, there are no weeds, no dust, no perspiration, no fatigue.  There is only beauty and perfect health.

    At the time of his trial, Jesus’ obedience to death includes being subject to a barrage of false charges, innuendo, belittlement, vilification, mockery, physical brutality, and the humiliation of being stripped naked and left for public display.

    That God should die is totally incomprehensible.  That He should die undeservedly is inexcusable.  That He should die in such a cruel and painful manner is indefensible.  And yet that is exactly what happened!  Just when the devil must have been gloating about his victory over God’s sacrifice, that living sacrifice shows up in hell, doing a victory lap, proclaiming His victory over death and the devil.  God has shown the devil and the world that Jesus is alive and well.  The grave is empty.

    Jesus’ suffering and death has been vindicated.  In the resurrection, our heavenly Father showed that Jesus was righteous, just and victorious over death and the devil.  It is interesting that neither Jesus nor our heavenly Father “rubbed it in” on Pilate, or Herod, or the soldiers, or the Jewish leaders, or anybody.  We call that grace, most uncommon grace.  Following the resurrection, Jesus’ mistreatment and wrongful death deserved vengeance.  Somebody ought to pay for that travesty of justice.  It just is not fair to let all those people get away with such cruelty and injustice!

     God has already made it clear that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  It will happen, either before we die or after.  It will happen before Christ comes again or when he does return, but it will happen.  Some will bow in reverence, honor, love and praise, while others will bow in dire fear.  God wants no one to live outside of His love, mercy and forgiveness.  He wants no one to bow only in terror.  And, he is willing to work in an unfair manner so that we, who truly are guilty, will, because of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, be declared “Not Guilty.”

     Every bit of Jesus’ birth, life, suffering and death runs counter to our sense of fair play, right, and justice.  It just isn’t fair!  At the same time, none of that is as mind-boggling as why he did it.  The most difficult and yet most important thing to comprehend is the intimate connection between these two phrases: “It just is NOT fair” and “He did it all for us.”  It was for you and for me that Christ came.  For you and for me he was born in that stable.  For us, he lived as a humble human.  For us he suffered.  For us he died.  For us he rose victoriously from the dead.

    Having the same attitude as Christ is a tall order, and we never do it perfectly, but one thing we can all do is to care, as he did, for those less fortunate.  Our greatest fortune is our faith in Christ.  Those who do not know of the unfairness Jesus suffered for them are the least fortunate people on earth.  Rejoice in what Jesus did and still does for you and tell the Good News about Jesus to all who do not know what he did for them.

    It just isn’t fair that an innocent Jesus should be found guilty.  It just isn’t fair that he should be punished like a common criminal.  It just isn’t fair that he should be ridiculed, tortured and mocked.  It just isn’t fair that he should die in a way that is particularly agonizing and that his followers considered to be especially cursed.  It wasn’t fair that he should have given up all his divine rights, possessions, and powers to become a human being in the first place.  It isn’t fair that it all happened to him instead of us. But thanks be to God!  Yes, thanks and praise be to God!  Amen.