Sunday Sermon July 14, 2024 - Who is this Jesus?
Posted on July 14, 2024
Who Is This Jesus?
MARK 6.1-6
The Apostle Paul, who is responsible for writing most of the New Testament part of our Bible, once said that he had many personal accomplishments to boast about.
To boast is to brag, or to talk with excessive pride about personal achievements, possessions, and abilities.
In the words and likes of the Apostle Paul, I, Frederick Reid Scragg V, also have many reasons to be confident and to boast.
I am the Pastor of Bethel Lutheran Brethren Church, baptizing, confirming, counseling, discipling, and ushering God’s saints into glory for almost 18 years.
I am a Board of Education Trustee in South Huntington, running the entire public school system with 6 of my peers.
I am a Trustee on The Town of Huntington’s Public Art Advisory Committee, securing artists and artwork to beautify our public spaces.
I am a Trustee on South Huntington Educational Foundation’s Executive Board, raising money to build art galleries, recording studios, and outdoor performing venues in our school district.
I received a full academic scholarship to college.
I am a recording and touring musician.
I am a cancer survivor.
I am a grateful recovered alcoholic.
I am a published author.
And, the list goes on.
But, when I go away from all of those places and positions, when I walk through the doors of my home, I am husband and father.
And, in my home, all that is cared about is what I will be cooking for dinner, and where I obviously “maliciously” hid the newest super tiny video game cartridge.
To the people outside my home, I am often told how amazing I am for all I do for them and our community.
To the people closest to me, those in my home, I am amazing at being annoying.
There is often a huge difference in how the people close to us think about us and how people who don’t know us as well think about us.
In this morning’s text, chosen for us, once again, by the lectionary, we return to the Good News according to Mark.
In this morning’s Biblical text, we are told about the time when Jesus returns to his hometown, after teaching amazing things and doing amazing miracles, to share about the grace and mercy of God.
However, Jesus, in his hometown, is met with rejection from those who knew him closely.
Mark 6:1–6 tells us this:
[1] He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. [2] And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? [3] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. [4] And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” [5] And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. [6] And he marveled because of their unbelief.
And he went about among the villages teaching. (ESV)
At this point in Jesus’ life, Jesus had been traveling around the Mediterranean region preaching about the need to repent of one’s Sin and the need to believe and receive the good news of God’s forgiveness, righteousness, and life, through faith in His life, coming death, and coming resurrection.
Jesus was also teaching what God’s Law, revealed throughout history (in what we now call the Old Testament), truly meant for life and love on a daily basis.
And, in addition to that teaching and preaching with Heavenly authority, Jesus was also healing the sick and raising the dead to demonstrate that He truly is God in the flesh, 100 percent fully God and 100 percent fully man at the same exact time.
We are told over and over again that people followed Jesus from town to town to hear him speak and to experience His healing touch. Up to this point, the crowds outside of his hometown experienced God’s grace when they came into contract with Jesus. And, the news about the things that Jesus said and did outside of his hometown certainly made their way back to his relatives and friends at home.
However, when Jesus returned to His hometown, the place where He grew up, those that were overly familiar with Him before His ministry days, laughed at him, mocked him, questioned him, and rejected the fact that He was God in flesh who came to help them, teach them, heal them, and save them.
After all, how could this rambunctious toddler, moody teenager, and unmarried and childless adult from their small and nowhere town, that grew up before their eyes, be someone great or do something great?
The people outside of His hometown often told Jesus how amazing He was for all that He did and was doing for them.
To the people closest to Jesus, those in his hometown, He was amazing at being arrogant, annoying, and overstepping His humanity.
Their initial amazement at Jesus’ words and actions, that Mark tells us about, quickly turns to skepticism.
They would immediately ask:
Where did Jesus get this teaching?
What is this wisdom given to him?
How are these miracles performed by his hands?
Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon?
Are not his sisters here with us now?
Two weeks ago, at the beginning of my piano lesson, my teacher asked me, “How close are you with Jesus?”
To his question, I replied, “So close that we are united. Everything that He has is completely mine.”
He sat back in his chair after I answered and thought quietly. He then spoke up and said, “I have never heard an answer like that before.”
He asked me that question because he has a Catholic and Franciscan background and is no longer connected to a church or religious institution. I think he is trying to figure out how a guy like me, his age, with a love for music and black heavy metal t-shirts, operates in daily life as a pastor.
If we asked the people in front of Jesus in this morning’s Biblical text the same question, “How close are you with Jesus?,” we would get a bunch of different answers.
Some would say, “We are so close that I babysat for him and changed his diapers when he was a toddler.”
Some would say, “We are so close that he built the table in my house with his father, Joseph, during his carpentry apprenticeship days.”
Some would say, “We are so close that our kids played games with him out in the field when they were teenagers.”
So, when Jesus attempted to teach them about the promise fulfillments from God’s Word in his presence with them that day, they had a hard time believing that this Jesus that they knew so closely was something other than the guy they could see at face value.
This visit to his hometown was actually his second and final visit. On his first visit, those that were relationally close with Jesus accused him of overstepping his bounds and attempted to kill him.
But, Jesus, having a heart of compassion for everyone and a desire and will that all men and women be saved from their sin, returns to those who tried to kill him, to once again give them the opportunity to repent, believe, and receive forgiveness for sin and eternal life.
What we see and hear in this text should lead us to consider and answer three questions.
The first question is, “When Jesus is before you, are you only amazed?”
What we learn from Jesus’ hometown acquaintances is that being astonished by Jesus’ teaching is not enough, being captivated by Jesus’ miracles is not enough and Jesus’ unimpressive background is no big deal.
Like Jesus’ hometown acquaintances, do you find yourself only amazed at Jesus this morning? Or, do you have faith in Him as God’s Savior sent to you?
The second question is, “When Jesus is before you, are you offended?”
What we learn from Jesus’ hometown acquaintances is that in spite of clear evidence, we may reject him, and in spite of being in close proximity to Jesus, we may dishonor him.
Like Jesus’ hometown acquaintances, are you offended by Jesus this morning? Or, do you have faith in Him as God’s Savior sent to you?
And, the third question is, “When Jesus is before you, are you guilty of unbelief?”
What we learn from Jesus’ hometown acquaintances is that unbelief limits Jesus’ work in your life, and unbelief is one thing that amazes Jesus.
Like Jesus’ hometown acquaintances, are you guilty of not believing in Jesus this morning? Or, do you have faith in Him as God’s Savior sent to you?
I can guarantee that those that rejected Jesus on this day in his hometown would no doubt attempt to use their physical closeness to Jesus when they stood before God’s throne.
Caught by God apart from faith in Jesus, they would say:
“God you have to love me, I changed Jesus’ diapers.”
“God you have to love me, I hired Jesus and his poor father to make furniture for my house.”
“God you have to love me, I fed Jesus dinner when he came in tired after playing games with my boys.”
And, I can guarantee that those who reject Jesus today, will do the same.
“God, you have to love me, I went to church most Sundays.”
“God, you have to love me, I gave money into the collection every time I went to church.”
“God, you have to love me, I sat through the boring Confirmation class for 2 whole years!”
“God, you have to love me, I took sermon notes and reviewed them when I got home.”
“God, you have to love me, I helped with VBS every single summer.”
Although those things are all good things, they are not things that make you lovable and acceptable to God.
The apostle Paul, who I mentioned at the outset of this message, knew that the things of this life, regardless of how good they seem, do not matter and do not earn you anything when standing before God’s throne in Heaven.
The apostle Paul said this in his letter to the church in the city of Philippi during the 1st Century:
[4] …I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: [5] circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; [6] as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. [7] But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. [8] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—[10] that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, [11] that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:4–11, ESV)
Oseola McCarty, 87, did one thing all her life: laundry.
Now she’s famous for it–or at least for what she did with $150,000 of the $250,000 she saved by washing the dirty clothes of wealthy bankers and merchants in her hometown of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. For decades she earned 50 cents per load (a week’s worth of one family’s laundry). But when she finally laid down her old-fashioned washboard–which she always preferred over new-fangled electric washing machines–McCarty decided to ask her banker how much money she had stowed away.
The figure astounded her. Then it set her to thinking. “I had more than what I could use in the bank,” she explained to Christian Reader, “and I can’t carry anything away from here with me, so I thought it was best to give it to some child to get an education.”
To the astonishment of school officials, the soft-spoken, never-married laundry woman from a not-so-posh part of town gave $150,000 to the nearby University of Southern Mississippi to help African-American young people attend college.
The first recipient is 18-year-old Stephanie Bullock, a freshman at USM, who has already immediately invited Miss McCarty to her college graduation ceremony which was 4 years away.
To date, McCarty has been interviewed by Barbara Walters, each of the major network news programs, CNN, People magazine … and the list goes on. Though she had never traveled out of the South before, McCarty visited the White House, where President Clinton awarded her the Presidential Citizenship Award.
McCarty attends Friendship Baptist Church and reads her Bible every morning and prays on her knees every evening.
Discounting the publicity, she says she is simply grateful for the chance to help others gain what she lost: in the sixth grade she was pulled out of school to care for an ailing family member and to help her mother with the laundry.
“It’s more blessed to give than to receive,” she tells reporters when they ask why she didn’t use the money on herself. “I’ve tried it.”1
Jesus returned to his hometown to help people gain what they lost—a connection to God, their Father in Heaven, because of the Sin that so easily entangles.
Jesus returns to you time and time again in your baptism, in the Word, and in the Sacrament of Communion, to help you gain what you lost— connection to God, your Father in Heaven, because of the Sin that so easily entangles.
In all instances, Jesus knows God’s promise that He is more blessed to give—to give His life over to death on the cross to provide you and me with forgiveness for our sin—than to receive the temporal rewards and fading glory that this world would give him.
The people of Jesus hometown were hard hearted and rejected Jesus because of their past experiences with Him and His people.
This morning, do not be like those that were physically close to Jesus but spiritually separated from him.
Repent of your sin of being hard hearted when it comes to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection of you.
Repent and confess that you have been amazed by what you heard about Jesus and from Jesus, but never believed in what you heard about Him or from Him.
Repent and confess that you have dishonored and rejected Jesus because you were offended by the evidence of your Sin and need for a Savior.
And, repent of your sin of unbelief.
When I stand before God, He will not care that I spent my time in this life a pastor, or a Trustee on the Board of Education, Huntington’s Public Art Advisory Committee, and South Huntington’s Education Foundation.
When I stand before God, He will not care that I received a full scholarship to college, that I am a cancer survivor, a published author, and that I had been a recording and touring musician.
The only question God will have for me and you is, “How close are you to Jesus?”
And, the only answer that matters comes from having in faith in Jesus and Lord and Savior.
The answer that God wants to hear is, “I am so close with Jesus that we are united. All that He has is mine today, tomorrow, and forever. His perfect and righteous life is mine, His atoning and sin forgiving death is mine, and His resurrection life is mine.”
Go into the villages of your world this week—your home, your office, your camp, your school—and teach this good news of rescue to all that you come into contact with.
The Apostle Paul tells you how to teach that Good News in 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 when he says:
[9] [Jesus] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (ESV)
I leave you with Jesus’ words from the Good News according to Matthew:
[32] So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, [33] but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32–33, ESV)
This is the Word of God for you today.
This is the Grace of God for you today.
Amen.
Reverend Fred Scragg V.
July 14, 2024.
Kevin Dale Miller, Christian Reader, “Ordinary Heroes.” ↩︎
Posted on July 7, 2024
Jesus Cancels Your Lies
PSALM 5
Do you feel guilty about lies you have told in the past?
Do you find yourself re-running over and over and over the moments that you got caught in your lies?
Do the feelings of embarrassment, shame, guilt, and anger at yourself continue to follow you around?
Do you feel like you are being crushed by the lies you are telling now?
Do you feel like it is a full time job with a full schedule of overtime trying to keep the lie going while you meticulously obsess over covering up your tracks to make sure, to the best of your ability, that you aren’t found out and don’t get caught?
Do you feel angry about those around you who seem to be living their best life (better than yours) but are lying to get what they have?
Jason Walker, the Austrailian country music singer and song writer penned this thought in one of his songs:
Everybody lies, lies, lies
It’s the only truth sometimes
Doesn’t matter if it’s out there somewhere
waiting for the world to find
Or buried deep inside
Yeah, everybody lies
Everybody lies
I tend to agree with Walker’s assessment of the human race in these words.
A few years ago, two defendants who appeared in a Montana County District court received unique punishments as part of the sentencing phase of their trial. Their punishment involved wearing signs.
Back in 2017 and 2018, Ryan Morris and Troy Allen Nelson were in violation of their respective probations related to previous criminal offenses. They both lied to the court about having served in the military in order to receive more lenient sentences for their previous criminal behavior.
Judge Pinksi sentenced Morris to ten years for felony burglary, and Nelson five years for felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, both with years suspended.
The judge ruled that Morris and Nelson would be required to write letters of apology to various veterans’ groups as well as complete 441 hours of community service. This was one hour for each citizen of Montana killed in combat since the Korean war.
Then, during the years of their suspended sentence, they would be required to spend each Memorial Day and Veterans day visiting the Montana Veterans Memorial. While they are at the memorial they would be required to wear a placard that reads, “I am a liar, I am not a veteran. I stole valor. I have dishonored all veterans.”
Judge Pinski said, “I want to make sure that my message is received loud and clear by these two defendants. By lying, you’ve been nothing but disrespectful in your conduct. By lying, you certainly have not respected the Army. By lying, you’ve not respected the veterans. By lying, you’ve not respected the court. And, by lying, you haven’t respected yourselves.”
In our text this morning, King David, the writer of most of the songs found in the book of Psalms, wants to make sure that God’s rules surrounding lying is received loud and clear.
Let’s hear what King David prays in Psalm 5.
Psalm 5 says this:
[1] Give ear to my words, O LORD;
consider my groaning.
[2] Give attention to the sound of my cry,
my King and my God,
for to you do I pray.
[3] O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
[4] For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil may not dwell with you.
[5] The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
you hate all evildoers.
[6]You destroy those who speak lies;
the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
[7] But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in the fear of you.
[8] Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
[9] For there is no truth in their mouth;
their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.
[10] Make them bear their guilt, O God;
let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.
[11] But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
[12] For you bless the righteous, O LORD;
you cover him with favor as with a shield. (ESV)
One of God’s major commandments, found in the list of His Ten Commandments has to do with truth telling and denying the temptation to lie in order to make yourself look better or feel better.
In the Ninth Commandment, God tells you this:
[16] “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16, ESV)
This commandment to “fear and love God so that we do not misrepresent, betray, lie about, nor slander our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and say the kindest things we can about all he does,” obviously extends truth telling in all areas of our lives.
If we have been honest thus far, we have established that we are all liars to some degree.
And, if you are listening to me now and you respond, “I am not a liar!,” the ironic thing is that you are lying to yourself, to me, and to God with that statement.
By lying, you’ve not respected God.
So, if we are all liars, what does lying get us?
What is the end or the fate for liars?
This morning’s text has much to say about that.
Here is what King David says in Psalm 5 about those who lie.
First, King David says that God does not delight in you.
Second, King David says that you will not be able to stand before God.
Third, King David says that you will not be able to live with God.
Fourth, in one of the strongest statements, that I find it hard to say out loud, King David says that God hates you.
Fifth, if knowing that God hates you, the liar, isn’t enough, King David says that you who have lied or are lying or who will lie in the future, will be destroyed by God.
And, finally, King David says that God will not even look at you if you have lied or are lying or lie in the future.
When we hear how God thinks and feels about liars and how God treats liars, it is terrifying, but it is also heartbreaking.
When he came face-to-face with God, who is holy, the prophet Isaiah was driven to examine himself. In that examination, the prophet Isaiah realized that he had used his mouth in unGodly ways, including lying.
Here is what Isiah said as he stood before God’s throne:
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6.5)
Isaiah was both terrified and heartbroken when he realized that the things that came out of his mouth affected his relationship with God.
He was terrified because he realized that his misuse of his mouth made him guilty before God and therefore God had every right to punish him with all of the power in the Universe.
He was also heartbroken because his misuse of his mouth separated him from God, who chose to create him and love him. His God couldn’t even look at him because of the garbage and filth and lies that poured so easily out of his mouth.
He realized what James, the brother of Jesus, would vocalize and write down thousands of years later.
James puts it this way:
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! [6] And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. [7] For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, [8] but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. [9] With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. [10] From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. (James 3.5-10, ESV)
For each of us listening this morning to what God has to say about liars and lying, we should be saying the same thing as Isaiah:
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
However, there is good news for you this morning.
In fact, there is great news waiting for you as you confess misusing your mouth as Isiah did.
As you confess that sin, you will be assured or reassured of God’s grace, which acts quickly to forgive us, just as Isaiah was.
Isiah tells us that after his confession of using his mouth for evil purposes, including lying, this happened:
“Then one of [God’s angels] flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6.6-7)
When you confess your sin of misusing your mouth to both boast and lie, you have the good news that we hear at the beginning of every Sunday morning service:
[9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1.9)
When we confess our sin to God, our Father in Heaven, our fears are calmed and our broken hearts are mended.
Through the life, death, and Jesus Christ, God forgives our boasting and lying.
Therefore, the good news for you is that Jesus cancels your lies.
His death on the cross took the guilt of your boasting and lying away.
On the cross Jesus took your sin, which includes boasting and lying, and gave you his perfection, his holiness, his righteousness, in truth telling.
In what has become my favorite Bible verse, Jesus says this in John 14.6:
[6] Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (ESV)
This week as you make your way throughout the days that God gives you, speak the words that King David spoke which remind you that your past, present, and future sins that involve the misuse of your words and mouth are forgiven.
Say, with King David:
[6]You destroy those who speak lies;
the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
[7] But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house.
This is the Word of God for you today.
This is the Grace of God for you today.
Amen.
Reverend Fred Scragg V.
July 7, 2024
Pastoral Responsive Prayer:
Lord God Almighty,
As we gaze upon your holiness, we are left devastated by our sinfulness. We are lost in the uncleanness of our lips. Unimaginably selfish, utterly prideful, and crushingly unloving words have been spoken freely from these lips. At the same time, we often use our lips to say good things only so that we will be praised by others or so that you will accept us based on our righteousness. We constantly fail to use our lips to say loving or truthful things because we would rather save ourselves the trouble of loving you and others. We live among others who also have unclean lips: we have been mocked, offended, and hated through the lips of others. We confess that we have often responded to these sins with spiteful anger.
Show us our Savior! The prophet cried, “Woe is me!” as his unclean lips were exposed in light of your holiness. We come boldly to you because the woe that we deserve has been entirely poured out on your Son, Jesus Christ. The sacrifice appointed to redeem our shameful lips was none other than the gruesome death of one whose lips were perfectly clean. Jesus’ lips spoke love to children, quieted storms, declared forgiveness to sinners, and remained silent before his accusers. When Jesus was angry, his lips remained pure, as his anger was expressed in ways that continued to fulfill your commandment to love you and others before himself. The very lips that spoke, “Father forgive them,” that we might be saved, cried out in agony, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” so that we would not be forsaken. We are left in awe at this unfathomable act of love.
Thank you, Father, that the cross stands empty now. Jesus is risen, and you have made us alive in him. Help us, Lord, to speak in light of this gospel news. May we use our lips to speak the same grace and love that have been so richly lavished upon us. When we fail, Lord, help us to remember the words of forgiveness that have been so powerfully guaranteed by the blood of Jesus. Help us to wait patiently for the day when our faith will be sight, the day our lips will finally and purely sing, “Hallelujah, what a Savior!”
In Jesus’ name, amen.
