Understanding Lutheran Faith and Identity

GRACE, FAITH, SCRIPTURE PORTRAIT OF A LUTHERAN DANIEL PAAVOLA November 4, 2019

I NEVER COULD SEE ORION Remember astronomy class and trying to see Orion and his belt? Three points make up the essential picture What three things do your neighbors know about you? Is that enough to start their picture of you?

YOU SHOULD JOIN US! St. Paul s Lutheran Church, Butternut, Wisconsin 650 members in a 400 person North woods town If you would know us, you would want to join us because .. How would you finish that sentence for your congregation? Should we have that expectation for everyone and for every church that we meet?

OUR IDENTITY AND THE TIES GOD HAS FOR US What identity do we have in view of God s relationship with us? How do we share our identity with others who also live in a relationship with God?

ANOTHER EXPLANATION OF LUTHERANS? Don t we already have these? A few come to mind .. Who is going to change or improve on them anyway? In fact, trying to do that just leads to .

THREE SOLAS While we might have several other key points for Lutherans, people such as Luther, Chemnitz, and Walther, let s use the three solas Scripture alone as the foundation of God s relationship with us Grace alone as our understanding of why God has chosen to be with us Faith alone as the way in which we can trust this relationship and where it is going

SOMEONE HAS TO SAY THE FIRST WORD Who started your first conversation? Where were you when you had that first talk? What were you each wearing? How long did the talk last?

GOD BEGINS THE CONVERSATION One of the keys of this relationship is God beginning with His Word. He begins with his elective choice before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:3-6 His Word is remarkably clear no middle man needed for interpretation His Word is convincing in itself so that no outside urging by another person makes us believe it

IF ITS SO CLEAR, THEN WHY We believe that the Bible is clear in itself. The Gideons do a wonderful job of handing out Bibles, trusting that you can read the Bible on your own and make sense of it. So if the Bible is clear in itself, why do we bother to study it? How do the people you re with make the Bible clearer and the message more appealing?

ONE MENU, THATS ALL We don t expect to find new Bible books anytime soon and God won t be giving anyone a completely new Bible to replace the one we know. So how can a lifetime of reading the same 66 books be enough? How can the lives of not only Jesus, but also Abraham and Sarah, David, Mary and Joseph, Peter and Paul still be interesting?

WE NEED TO TALK What frightening words, but needed. But what if we could hear not only the needed words of warning, the Law But what if we could also hear the Gospel, the message of how we are deeply loved? Then we should talk all the more. And this message for all becomes the believed and loved message for us

HAVENT WE BEEN TALKING? When has someone said, We need to talk and it turned out well? If we already know the messages of Law and Gospel, why keep talking with God? One of the mysteries of the Gospel is the news that God loves all the world the same. But we cherish unique relationships. How can this news of the universal love of God actually be good news to us?

GRACE, FAITH, SCRIPTURE PART TWO GRACE IS NEEDED WHEN WE BEGIN TO MOVE

BOWLING ON THE SECOND DATE Why go bowling on your second date? Anyone can sit through a movie, but bowling shows . So grace is needed and grace alone will show us this relationship with the Trinity We find grace alone in the Father s 6 day creation of the world and his intention of us being the clearest reflection of himself.

SO WHEN DID YOU TRY SOMETHING NEW? We went bowling and look where that led us. So when have you tried something new, something you re not really good at, but it all turned out surprisingly well? We are talking about grace, but grace is hard to define. How would you define it?

GRACE IS NOT A WARNING TICKET Grace is not being stopped for speeding on a 14 degree day Three questions hold up the mystery of grace: How fast were you going? and the white Camry Why were you going so fast? You ve gotta understand If I give you a warning

WE PREFER THE WHITE CAMRY Why do we prefer to be excused by comparison rather than forgiven by the cross?

SO WHY ARE YOU WITH ME? You want to know, but you don t dare to ask this. But with God s grace, it is the very question that lets God point to grace alone as his reason to be with us The answer is in his Son who is with us. (The little, old scratched table and the old four drawer dresser. Grace brings us in from the curb) This is all believable when the Spirit convinces us the story of Billy and the camping trip

GRACE BRINGS IN THE OLD DRESSER What old furniture do you have that means more to you than any price you could get for it? But we rarely find beauty in scratches and scars. So why is the rugged cross beautiful to our eyes? We can t ask someone in a new relationship: Why are you with me? But why can we ask that of God?

GRACE, FAITH, SCRIPTURE PART THREE FAITH IS NEEDED WHEN WE ASK, CAN WE DO THIS FOREVER?

WHERE IS THIS GOING? It would be great to know how the relationship is going How soon do you begin to wonder where a relationship is going? Or, can you relax and enjoy the moment? We have that assurance by faith alone through the gifts of God s Word and also by the gifts of baptism and Lord s Supper. Here is God s answer to the question he wants us to ask

BAPTISM AS THE WASHING FOR ALL TIME Images of baptism as the washing, the perfect cleansing of us as the bride Perfect in his eyes without change or fading It takes faith to trust that the image in the wedding mirror won t change and that it will be perfect in the eyes of the groom. Baptism is essentially washing. Why is washing of our sins, a cleansing, such a fitting image of forgiveness? See Psalm 51:2.

LORDS SUPPER AS THE CHECK A new car what a birthday gift! Or, a beautiful burden it all depends Show the cancelled check and then it is a gift. Cherish the check for its reassurance. The Supper is the cancelled check giving us the very payment made for our forgiveness. It is the complete, true meal, more than a picture in a cookbook

A MEAL TO REMEMBER We celebrate the Lord s Supper in his memory What miracles, teachings and actions of Jesus come to your mind when you are taking the Lord s Supper? The Lord s Supper was instituted on the Passover night. The Passover celebrated the passing over by the angel of death. What is striking about the nearness of God in the Lord s Supper?

CAN WE DO THIS FOREVER? Worship is our first forever activity. This we can do every day and this we do with the angels, archangels and all the company of heaven Our other everyday, forever is our vocation as we reflect the relationship God has with us.

CAN WE MAKE THIS LAST? What was the first meal you shared together? Was it a sign of the meals to come? In worship we re reminded multiply times that we are forgiven. Why do we need these repeated assurances?

LETS SETTLE INTO OUR FOREVER HOME Moving into that first apartment the sofa sleeper made of concrete What s your best moving story? Now we live in a starter house, the congregation with its limitations of place and history How is your congregation much like a starter home good for now, but certainly not perfect?

THERE IS STILL MORE TO COME But coming is a lasting resurrection home, both the transformed tent of our bodies and the lasting home in which heaven will house us. There is no lack of room, so join us in this relationship which God has with us. Announced by his Word, founded on his grace and received by faith