Sermon August 16, 1998 Made By God based on Psalm 100

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

There is an interesting little joke in the humor section of the August issue of Lutheran Witness, which you should have just received. A pastor of a Michigan church reported: "This past Easter, for the first time ever, our altar guild decorated our church and pews with helium balloons. On Easter Sunday morning, after being seated with the rest of the family, 6-year-old Kathy and her mother had the following conversation: Kathy: 'What are all the balloons for?' Mom: 'We're celebrating that Jesus rose from the dead.' Kathy: 'We're celebrating ... in church?'"

It is interesting to me how some of the most thought provoking writing can be humor. This joke caused me to reflect on why it was funny. We laugh at the little girl's idea that the church was not to be a place for celebration. So, we are laughing at her ignorance. Surely the church is a place for celebration. Then you might think, Where then did this girl get that idea? And then we have to wonder if our own attitudes about church services rub off on others. Did this girl get the idea that celebration was forbidden at church because her parents were so somber when they came to church. Do we treat attending divine services as a drudgery which we must do so that God will be happy with us?

Why not ask yourself the question right now: Why have you come this morning? For what purpose are you here? What is you attitude toward Sunday morning worship?

Today's Psalm gives us some powerful ideas about how God wants us to approach Him and what attitude we have toward Him. Make no mistake about it, when you come to worship, you are approaching the Almighty God. What does He desire from you?

The Psalm says: "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." What is the attitude mentioned in this Psalm? It is one of joy, gladness, thanksgiving, and praise. So, now consider your attitude. We Christians seem to seldom measure up to God's desires for us.

Some churches seem to have worship that is more joyous than our liturgy. However, on closer inspection, we may find that their services are really intended for entertainment, rather than allowing God to work on us and us to praise God. Some of these extra-joyful churches are ones where the people spend time singing songs about themselves, rather than about Jesus. At some churches, then, the people are more joyful, but that may be because they have come to worship themselves.

The idea of worshiping ourselves reminds me of the centerpiece of this Psalm. "Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture." This means we need to understand the Lord, that is Yahweh, is God. He is the boss, the head of all the universe. The almighty, all knowing, everywhere present, all powerful God of the entire world.

Then when we understand who He is, we also must understand our relationship to Him. He made us. We are His creation. We are His people. Other Bible translations might push our thoughts even farther along this line. The New American Standard Bible says, "It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves." This brings in the idea that we might have the attitude that we made ourselves.

This is not talking about a coarse idea where we think that we each built our bodies ourselves. However, the idea that humanity has made itself and brought itself to where it is today is more of what is being spoken of by the Psalm. This is the thought process behind evolution and secular humanism. We discussed these philosophies at the Adult Instruction class last week. Evolution is a system of beliefs saying that the world and all living things developed by themselves, through random, "natural" processes. Secular humanism worships human beings as a group which is getting better and better each day and will one day solve all problems. Behind both of these related ways of thinking is the idea that we humans made ourselves. This kind of thinking has really become dominant in our culture.

I see it in books, magazines, newspapers, on TV and radio. The subtle message is that humankind is getting better and better and that we can solve our problems. The message is that sin is a declining problem and that one day we will all works ourselves free of sin. See, this takes the idea of making ourselves even one step further, to say we can make ourselves holy and free from sin.

God teaches us something different. He teaches us in Genesis that the world was created perfect, but then man fell into sin. Sin corrupts the entire world. There is only one way out of sin, and that is through God. So we come back to acknowledging that Yahweh is God, He has made us, and we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. That means He will take care of us and He will take care of our sin.

Forgetting that God as made us, and thinking we make ourselves also appears as a sinful idea in the realm of control of human reproduction. Certainly abortion is an effort of women and men to get control of the creation of human life. If they believe they are in charge of creating it, then they can justify destroying it. This sneaks into other areas of birth control also. I mentioned the process of in-vitro fertilization a few weeks ago and how this can be used in cases where couples feel they have a right to create life and will spare no cost to do so. Some forms of contraception are also a problem from their nature of working by causing abortions. The famous RU-486 is such a pill, but there are others which also cast doubt on their use. This past week I had some time to study the issue of human contraception in general. Now the Scriptures may not say much directly about the use of birth control and our Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod does not have a statement indicating a problem with birth control in our teachings taken from Scripture. I do, however, think the issue is worth personal consideration. The question to ask is What is one's attitude toward birth control? Is it an attitude of God being the one making us, or we ourselves making us? Does God create all human life? If so, how does birth control fit into that? Then, the final question comes from our Psalm, Are you allowing God to be God, the one who created us, rather than thinking we humans create life at our will and command? You will need to consider that issue personally, for the attitude can certainly be a problem, even if the use of birth control is not a problem.

The Psalm goes on to speak of how we are the sheep of God's pasture. This reminds us of the twenty-third Psalm, which starts by saying, "The Lord is my shepherd..." This means the Lord is in charge of us. Not only did He create us, but He preserves us. In addition, we should submit our lives to His authority. We should live our lives for Him and in accord with Him. We should respect and fear the Lord.

Yet, all of us have trouble with this. We want to live our lives for ourselves. We measure our life by our possessions. We toil at our jobs and put our labors into the accumulation of wealth. What does it get us in the end? Meaningless says the Old Testament reading from Ecclesiastes (1:2, 2:18-26). It is just chasing after the wind, trying to catch it. This reading can leave us a bit in the dark about what to think, for it does not include the conclusion of the book. I think it is probably best to read the entire book of Ecclesiastes to get its meaning. The conclusion in chapter 12 can be helpful, however. It says: NIV Ecclesiastes 12:13 "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." The statement of the book is that our lives will indeed be meaningless if we forget God. Fear, that is, respect God and keep His commandments. That is our duty. That is our proper relationship to the one who created us, whose people we are, and to whose pasture we belong.

So, too, our Gospel reading from Luke (12:13-21) says the one who stores things up for himself, but is not rich toward God, will lose his life. They will be left with nothing.

So, how can we be rich toward God? That is simple, because God gives us riches as a free gift. He gives us unearned, unmerited, free forgiveness of all our sins. This comes through our Savior, Jesus Christ. In Christ we have great riches. In Christ, we who are poor in spirit are wealthy in grace.

In Christ, our meaningless life has been destroyed. He provides us with an ultimate meaning. In baptism, we die in our sinful nature. In Christ, we are raised as holy children of God. Through the awesome forgiveness our God grants us, we are freed of all our sins and become holy and sinless in God's eyes. The complete fulfillment of this does wait, however, for the return of Christ. So says our reading from Colossians (3:1-11). Our life is now hidden with Christ. "When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." So our goal is set for Christ's appearing. It is that time to which we look forward. And for this life, we set our hearts and minds on things above, that is, on Christ.

The Psalm directs our attention to this Gospel also. It says, "For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." This is good news. Yes, despite our sins, the Lord's love endures forever. He is good. In other words, He shows mercy to us. He is faithful too, for all people. God's promises are certain. His love is certain. His mercy is certain. Our forgiven state in Christ is certain. Our heavenly home, which Christ prepares for us is certain.

This certainty, this faithfulness, this love which endures is what we come to hear about on Sundays. We come to Divine Services to have God serve us with the Gospel. We come to be reminded of our forgiveness and the eternal life awaiting us at Christ's appearing. We come to be reminded of our God's wonderful grace.

Reminded of all our God is for us and all He does for us, we then respond. We: "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs." We: "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Praise be to Yahweh who shows us His love through our redeemer Jesus Christ. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.