Mark 4:38 But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.

When a crisis hits, is that a time of peace? When everyone is frantically looking for a solution, is that the moment to take a nap? When frightened voices get louder and louder, is that the time for sleep?
 

Most of us would answer "No!" to these questions. When there's a crisis, we're on full alert. So it was with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee when the storm hit. Though many of them were fishermen who were used to being on the sea, they feared for their lives.

But in the midst of the storm, Jesus slept. They asked, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" To them, His silence meant that He either didn't know their danger or He didn't care. When we're in the storms of life, we often ask the same questions, wondering if God knows or cares.

The wonderful news is that God's apparent silence is neither ignorance nor carelessness. God knows and cares for us at all times. Peter said it so well: "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God....casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:6-7). Don't despair in the storm. Look to the Savior, who is with us, closer and more powerful than the wind and the waves.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

Mark 4:35 When evening had come, He said to them, "Let us go across to the other side."

Have you found the perfect place of peace? When you are surrounded by to do lists, wouldn't it be wonderful to escape to a place of perfect peace? What would that look like for you? How about a lonely lake where you are the only cabin on the shore? The water is calm. The sky is blue, and the sun shines on the maple trees on the far shore. Ah, there's a place of peace!

We can imagine the disciples in our text seeking that same calm place as they sailed on the Sea of Galilee that evening. All day they had watched as Jesus taught the crowds. The lake promised to be a familiar, welcoming sanctuary.

We can wish for this same place, but we'll only find true and lasting peace in the Savior born in the stable. Remember the calm and beauty of the nativity scene, where the Savior sleeps in the manger. It is His unique peace brought by the presence of the Child, who is God Himself. We find peace wherever we are when we remember He has chosen to be with us, bringing us His lasting peace.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

1 Corinthians 11:23-25  For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, "This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

We call it "real presence." It's no representation. It's His body and blood in, with, and under bread and wine. We take Jesus at His Word.

Preoccupied by sacramental logistics, however, it's possible to miss the point. Jesus is there! He is present and active there for you. You take Him at His Word, but you take Him! Risen and reigning, He returns through a meal to deliver to you the fruits of His cross: the body and blood, broken and shed then and there but given to you to receive here and now.

So, before He accomplishes anything else, He establishes His presence. He gives you new eyes of faith to see with your ears, to wonder and marvel at His way of coming to you in such a humble way, and to trust that, through the bread and wine you consume, He enters as Lord and Savior.

Not everyone received Jesus in His ministry (John 1:11). Many did. Receiving Jesus means receiving His presence, His Word, His work, and His gifts. Wherever He is, that's where the kingdom of God is, that's where the Church is, that's where heaven is (Matthew 4:17)! Not only that, but every Christian receives the same Jesus; in Him the Church has its unity (1 John 1:1-10).

Jesus, really present, continues to teach you to receive Him (Hebrews 5:14). He teaches you to see with your ears and trust His Word. Best of all, He promises to receive you at His heavenly table (Luke 22:30)
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

Ephesians 4:11  And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers.

John 20:21 Jesus said to them, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you."

"Who's in charge here?" The principal may ask that question on entering an overly noisy classroom. The teacher appears to be teaching, but the students do not appear to be learning. They talk and giggle and disrupt. Who's in charge?

The question may come up in Lutheran congregations as well. Who's in charge? Is it the pastor? He is a highly trained theologian. He received a certificate of ordination. He knows the biblical languages. He preaches, teaches, baptizes, consecrates, marries, and buries.

Or is it the congregation? They called the pastor. They pay his salary and provide him housing and health insurance. They make important decisions in voters' meetings. They elect leaders and establish boards and committees.

Who's in charge, the pastor or the congregation? Neither!!! Christ is in charge! It is His church. However, He works through people to accomplish His will for His church. He calls men into the Office of Public Ministry, yet He does so through the congregation. He gives His pastors authority to forgive and retain sins, but He gives it through His people in a local congregation.

Think of the harmony that would prevail in congregations when we all acknowledge who is actually in charge! Members would respect their pastor as the undershepherd of the Good Shepherd, sent to minister to them. Pastors would respect their members as the sheep of Christ's pasture to love and nurture as Christ Himself does.

So, pastors, relax. Laypeople, relax. Christ is in charge! Joyfully serve Him together.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen rave, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
 

A change takes place in children at roughly age 9 or 10. Prior to this change, children will respond to a teacher's request with enthusiasm. "Who would like to erase the whiteboard?" "Pick me! Pick me!" As children pass into adolescence, they respond to the same  request with sullen reservation. What was once a privilege is suddenly a burden. Christians often respond in a similar fashion to God's call to, as Luke writes, "teach, instruct, admonish, comfort, and rebuke." Far from an onerous liability, telling others about Jesus as part of the priesthood of all believers is described as a consummate joy! Peter writes that we are chosen, royal, and holy. 

So it is! Chosen, we recognize that God stepped forward to rescue us from sin and darkness. We receive the benefits of His saving work. God made us royal and holy as a reflection, not of who we are, but rather of who our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is. The King of heaven came into the world to save sinners. Through His suffering and death, Jesus earned our forgiveness. God's Holy Spirit brings that forgiveness to us through faith, setting us apart, making us holy and ready for heaven. There is no title more precious than Christian, and no message more important than salvation in Jesus - and God has given His priests the right and power to share it.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

John 20:22-23  And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld."

We know that Jesus has given two keys for the door of heaven. One key locks the door shut. The other key opens the door. Sometimes, as a Christian, I need the key that locks the door shut to me. I need to see the true severity of my sin. I may think the door is open to me, even though I continue in my sin without any concern for God's Law. This is the binding key. It binds my sin until I turn to Jesus. And it's good for me because it shows me my evil and calls me to faith.

Other times, I need only the key that opens the door to heaven. This is the best and most comforting key. In my guilt and shame, I imagine that the door to heaven is closed to me and will never be opened again. Yet  I confess my sin to Jesus and beg for mercy. And I hear the sweetest sound of heaven's doors swinging open to me in these words, "By the command of Christ, I forgive you all your sins." And I know that when a called pastor of the Church deals with me in this way, it's just as true and certain as if Jesus Himself dealt with me.

This is how my good and faithful pastor Jesus Christ loves me and cares for me. He uses these keys to keep me on the middle road between prideful arrogance and hopeless despair. He walks me down that road of humble and joyful faith into the open doors of heaven.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Matthew 16:19  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland guides visitors through a pirate's life as they drift down a stream on the boat ride. One scene depicts prisoners in jail, calling for a stray dog to come over to their cell. The dog just so happens to be holding the keys to their cell in his teeth. Dangling a bone through the bars of the cell, the prisoners know that the dog possesses the keys that will set them free.

While most people have not been locked behind bars, we have all been in chains that bind us. In Romans 6:17-23, Paul described us as once slaves to sin but now set free because of Jesus. Our sin separates us from God and from others, but Jesus' work of salvation on our behalf opens the prison and sets us captives free, just as the prophet foretold in Isaiah 61.

The power to forgive sins is God's alone, but He entrusted His Church with His authority and power to bind and loosen the sinner's chains, saying, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Perhaps it is because God created us as relational beings that our churches call pastors to hear our confession and, by God's authority and because of Jesus' death on the cross, look us square in the eye to specifically tell us our sins are forgiven and proclaim liberty to the captives.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,