The Lutheran Hour
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"The Savior’s Home"
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Text: Acts 16:14b-15
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Today the living Lord Jesus stands at the doors of our homes and knocks. At many households, the door will remain locked and barred; but I pray, this day, the Savior and living Lord may come into your home bringing forgiveness, peace, and joy. Amen.
One of the things I miss about being a parish pastor is visiting with people in their homes. Nowadays, when I go out to speak, I sometimes still stay in people’s houses, but they always are prepared for my coming. Back when I served a congregation, I sometimes dropped by
unannounced at the homes of my members. I wasn’t trying to be rude, it was just maybe I had made a sick call in the neighborhood, or happened to be driving by when I saw a light in their window, or maybe I wanted to visit with folks who hadn’t been in church for a while. When you’re a parish pastor you notice when faithful people who never missed a Sunday all of a sudden stop coming to worship. It usually means you’ve done something wrong, or they’ve had something go wrong in their lives – something which has disrupted their relationship with the Lord.At any rate, I liked going to see people in their homes. You just never knew what was going to happen. I remember one instance, an instance which was repeated more than once, when I came calling unexpectedly. From the street I had seen shadows of my people moving around in their home. As I came up the walk I could hear music on the stereo or television. I knew someone was there. Knocking, I heard footsteps coming toward the door. The steps stopped, and in a rather loud whisper someone said, “Oh, no, it’s the preacher.” Another voice said, “No, not the preacher; not now. What does he want?” Then I heard the mother of the house whisper loudly enough so that I, and everyone else, could hear: “Don’t let him in yet. Clean up the house first!”
Normally this mother was a quiet, soft-spoken soul; the kind of lady who was loved and was respected by all who knew her. Normally, she was gentle as a lamb, and her words were filled with kindness and love. But when she said, “Quick, clean up the house!” those words had iron in them. There was no discussion, no argument, no “Do I have to,” or “It’s not my job.” When Mom said, “Quick, clean up the house!” everybody hopped to. I heard people running, doors slamming, and drawers shutting. With – I must confess it – a devilish heart, I knocked again.
Everybody kicked into high gear as Mom barked out orders like a drill sergeant: “You – get the Sunday paper and put it away! You – put the Bible on the coffee table!” To another she said, “You – get your dirty socks off the kitchen counter!” To her husband, “Put on a clean shirt.
I won’t let the pastor see you in that old thing. Next time I throw it away, I’m going to do it on garbage day so you can’t fish it out of the trash.”
Now, all of this took less time to do than it does to tell. Eventually, when Mom was assured that at least the living room was clean enough for inspection, the door opened and Mother, brushing a few disheveled hairs back from her brow, invited me in. With a flushed face from running around, she began with a little white lie. She said, “Pastor, I’m sorry, we didn’t hear you. What a wonderful surprise; how good of you to pay us a visit.” For the next five minutes, one-by-one the rest of the family, having completed their portion of the clean up came in and dutifully greeted me. With a corner of the newspaper peeking out from under the couch, and a single Nike sneaker visible behind a stereo speaker, I had a hard time keeping a straight face. I can’t remember what we talked about that day; all I remember is the Mother inviting me into her home.
On Mother’s Day it’s appropriate for me to talk about the home. When God made Adam and Eve, He took that first couple and gave them a home called the Garden of Eden. With a sky as their roof and the horizon for their walls, that couple lived in perfect peace and unspoiled harmony. Their home would have stayed that way if our first parents hadn’t been tempted, hadn’t decided they could make some improvements on God’s design; if they hadn’t fallen into sin. Since that day of transgression, sin has come into every household and brought along brawls and battles, pain and problems, strains, struggles, distrust, disappointment, dissatisfaction, displeasure, and discontent.
This Mother’s Day – this day when we celebrate those who have loved us, who have shaped us, who have given of themselves; who are the keepers of hearth and house, we ask, “Who and what are you inviting into your home?” Understand, in asking this question I am not referring to the old-time vacuum cleaner salesman who used to dump a bag of dust and pencil shavings on your carpet so he could demonstrate the superior
picking-up power of his machine. When I ask, “Who are you inviting into your house?” I’m not thinking of the Fuller Brush man, or the individual who sells encyclopedias, the kid from the neighborhood school who is selling candy, the Girl Scout with her cookies, or the college student selling 20-year subscriptions to magazines.
No, this Mother’s Day I’m referring to the multitude of objectionable people, the host of unsavory ideas who sneak in over your threshold and worm their way into your home. Do you have children and grandchildren? Do they watch television? If your children watch the tube for two-to-four hours, which is the national average, they will see 40,000 television ads every year. Forty thousand ads which have been written by the most creative minds that can be found. Forty thousand advertisements being presented by the most beautiful, the most popular, the most glamorous, the most well-know personalities that money can buy. Forty thousand advertisements selling everything from sugar-coated cereal to products I won’t mention in a religious broadcast. Forty thousand advertisements which tell your child, again and again, how he or she can be popular, desirable, accepted – loved. Forty thousand strangers every year are coming into your home and your children’s lives.
Whom are you inviting into your home? Do you have a computer? Do your children and grandchildren have access to it? While I’m thankful that the industry offers parental controls to filter out some of the filth coming into your home; it is a rare household which can escape the equally creative and innovative purveyors of pornography who, with singular passion are dedicated to slipping sleaze into your home via a high-speed Internet connection. Perversions which an older generation considered to be unmentionable, partly because we never heard of them, are now routinely shown to the young and most impressionable.
Who are you inviting into your home? There are many “mature” video games on the market which have made murder and mayhem a sick art form. No longer is it sufficient for a player to merely kill his opponent; he is encouraged to brutalize, maim, and torture his victims. Who are you inviting into your home? The list of objectionable characters and offensive ideas trying to gain entry to your home is ongoing and ever-changing. With the coming of each of these visitors, the room left for the Savior, and all of God’s good and gracious gifts, becomes
less and less. This situation in our households has revealed itself in shocking stories being played out in city and country, and in communities both rich and poor. It is a situation which will not get better as faith in the Lord is no longer part and parcel of our homes.
That is because there are few left in those homes who know the Savior well enough to tell the family of His story, to speak of the Savior’s suffering, His death, and His resurrection.
Millions of families would understand if I were to speak about how it has become increasingly difficult to ask the Savior’s blessings upon a family meal since family meals are a thing of the past, squeezed out by over-full schedules of sports, lessons, clubs, and projects.
Countless newspapers would verify the truth of my words if I were to speak about how our children are paying for this disrespect of that which is holy, and this denigration of the Savior’s story of salvation. I could say, and I would be right in saying it, that when mother and father let their children do as they like, when they like, with whom they like; if parents allow their little ones do that which is ungodly without correction, those children will grow up disenchanted, disenfranchised, and disrespectful.
This Mother’s Day it is time for us to remember that our children, the little ones God has given us for us to assist, are more than mind and bodies. Children have a soul, and to neglect these immortal souls is the most tragic thing which any parent can do. Of course there are many who would say that I am stating the case too strongly. Let me ask, do any of you remember back a few months to when the story of Anna Nichole Smith dominated the news? Do you find it tragic that this lady who had beauty, a fortune, all that most people consider to be important, achieved her greatest fame by dying and leaving behind a baby who inherited millions of dollars, but whose father could only be discovered through the conducting of a genetics test? What will happen to that child, that soul for whom the Savior died? I have no prophetic insight; I don’t know what her life will bring, even as I do not know what will happen to all those children who are being adopted by movie stars. Yes, those stars are rich enough, influential enough, to give these children everything they could ever want or need; but most will not give their children the one thing they need most: faith in the Savior. Far better for these children to be given a Christian mother and father who will love them, and nurture them, and give them a stable home where they are able to love and speak of the Savior’s love.
Which is why, this Mother’s Day, allow me to suggest that it is time for us – and I especially am addressing you honored mothers – to grant the Savior admission into your homes. Having watched the failure of so many popular programs and foolish fads which told us how to raise our young ones, I believe it is time that we turned to the Savior for guidance, and turned our children to Him as well. Long ago, a woman did exactly that. When she heard the apostle Paul preach about the love of the Savior, of the sacrifice that the Christ made by dying upon a cross; when she heard about how the world’s sins – her sins – were carried by that Savior, and how all who believed on Him as their risen and ever-living Lord were forgiven, she believed. Indeed, Lydia, for that was her name, became the first person in Europe to be baptized and the members of her household were the first Christians on that continent. But Scripture tells us more than Lydia’s name and her job as a seller of expensive purple cloth. The Bible tells us that after a while the lady Lydia came to the Apostle Paul and extended this invitation to him and those who were around him: “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay” (see Acts 16:13-15).
How I pray that every home which is today filled with violence, pornography, discord, and anger might be brought to faith and say to the Savior, “Come to my house and stay.” When Christ is brought into a home, the changes cannot be measured. Years ago I heard of a mother who went to visit her son at college on Parent’s Weekend. She got there early and was granted entrance to her son’s room. She was prepared to see dirty clothes scattered everywhere; she was expecting to see half-finished pop-cans and pizza which had, from the growth of the green mold on the crust, been sitting out for a few weeks. What she wasn’t prepared to discover were some of the immoral magazines which were also lying around. Using the kind of Solomonic wisdom which Christian mothers seem to possess, mother didn’t say a word to her son. Instead, when she got home, she went out and bought her boy a picture of Jesus, sent it to him, and asked him to hang it on his wall. When he came home for Christmas vacation, she asked about the Jesus picture. Her son said he had hung it… and then, after a lengthy pause, added, he had also cleaned up his room. He told her that some of the magazines he owned couldn’t stay in the same room with Jesus. He had to get rid of them. He had to stop visiting the porn sites on the web. He had made some changes in his life.
That is, my friends, what happens when Jesus comes into a home. It doesn’t make any difference if that home is the mansion of a multi-millionaire, a single-wide mobile home, or a college dorm. When Jesus comes into our homes, things change. With Jesus standing by their side, mothers and fathers find the courage to say to others, “I don’t care what you think I need, or what you think my child should be. I care about what my Lord will think of me as a parent for this child, these children, on the Day of Judgment.” When Jesus comes to a home, things change.
If you doubt me, look at Scripture. In the city of Jericho there was a despised tax-collector by the name of Zacchaeus. That man’s home was changed when he warmly welcomed Jesus into his house. By the end of the night, Zacchaeus became a reformed believer. With faith in the Savior, he promised to help the poor and, with a bonus, return anything which he had stolen (see Luke 19:1-9). A frightened father by the name of Jairus invited Jesus to his home and visit his dying daughter. It was an invitation Jairus never regretted having made. Before the Savior left Jairus’ home, he had changed things. With the power only the Son of God could posses, Jesus raised that little girl from the dead and restored her to her family (see Luke 8:41, 49-56). A Samaritan village – they invited Jesus to stay in their homes. Having heard of the Savior’s Godly insight; having seen how He changed the life of one of the town’s more morally questionable characters, they extended their invitation. Before He left that village those Samaritans were changed by the faith which the Spirit gave them in Jesus as their Savior (see John 4:4-42). Peter invited Jesus to his house and his mother-in-law was healed (see Mark 1:29-31); Mary and Martha invited Jesus and their brother was raised from the dead (see John 11:1-44). Jesus went into an unknown house and freed a daughter of an unclean spirit (see Mark 7:24-30). Matthew invited Him into his house and became an apostle (see Matthew 9:9-10).
When Jesus enters our homes, He changes them. Let me make that personal… when Jesus enters your home, your heart, He will change them. Now that may sound nonsensical to you, but it’s true. It may sound foolish, but can it sound any more foolish than allowing thousands of advertisers, a plethora of pornographers, into your home? Do you think they won’t change your household and not for the better?
Let me ask: What is your home like? Are there problems, arguments, distrust, disunity? Jesus can change those problems, just as He can change any other. He is the sinless Son of God. He lived His life for you; He fulfilled all the laws of God you have broken; He said “no” to every temptation which has a hold on you. He gave His life so your life might be freed from sin’s condemnation; so your life might be filled with joy. That’s what the angels said about Him when He was born: Jesus was to be God’s good news and great joy for all people. That includes you.
That includes your home. Who do you invite into your house? If Jesus is there, He who forgave those who crucified Him, can teach you how to forgive those past pains which make your house so hurtful. If Jesus is there, He who loved those who were unlovable can teach you how to love those in your home who are causing discord. All this, and so much more will come about when the living Lord Jesus enters your home.
In was in the mid 1800s that a number of children were abducted from their families by Indians. Every home that lost a child was understandably filled with sadness and an overwhelming sense of loss. It was, I can tell you, no different in those households where Jesus lived. The days passed, and no news was heard about the children. Days became weeks, weeks became months and the months turned to years.
Finally, quite unexpectedly, after more than a decade, the children were recaptured. The passing of the years had, ever so slowly, erased their past lives, their language, even their names from memory. One mother, a Christian mother who had lost two of her children went to the fort to identify her little ones who were no longer little.
The children were put into a line for inspection, but she couldn’t recognize them. I know you may not believe that… she couldn’t either.
Heartbroken, the mother went off into a corner and cried. With her shawl wrapped around her, she rocked, she cried, and without thinking she began to sing. She sang one of the songs she had lullabied to her children: “I am Jesus Little Lamb.” Scarce a line had been sung, when two children, her children, rushed from the group exclaiming, “Mamma, mamma!” When all else was gone, the children remembered that Jesus had been in their house. They remembered that Jesus had been in their house, and they remembered the woman who had sung of the Savior. Mothers, may every one of your children, looking back on his early years, be able to remember the same. To that end, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR: 74-35
AIRS: May 13, 2007
TOPIC: Why Sunday Worship?ANNOUNCER: Now Pastor Ken Klaus answers questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: Hello, Mark.
ANNOUNCER: Here’s a question that comes to us via the e-mail. A listener wants to know, “Why does the church worship on Sunday, when the Old
Testament specifically says Saturday is the day of worship. Isn’t Sunday worship just a tradition invented by the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant churches just went along with it?”
KLAUS: What an interesting question. If you don’t mind, Mark, I’d like to deal with the last part of the question, actually the observation part of the listener’s comments, first.
ANNOUNCER: You mean that part about Sunday worship being a Catholic tradition that Protestants accept?
KLAUS: Yes, that part.
ANNOUNCER: OK.
KLAUS: When the Reformation took place, the Protestants lived up to their name. They protested that which they found to be contrary to the
Gospel, or which they felt was in error with the church of that time. Those Protestants had no difficulty throwing certain things out. They certainly looked at everything the church did. With a magnifying glass they checked things out. As they checked things out, they found no difficulty with Sunday worship.
ANNOUNCER: So it’s not just a case of oversight on their part?
KLAUS: Absolutely not. Protestant churches continued to worship on Sunday because they found merit in Sunday. They certainly found nothing that contradicted God’s laws.
ANNOUNCER: Which I think now is that bridge that we need in order to get back to the original question: Why do we, as Christians, worship on Sunday and not the Biblically-mandated Saturday?
KLAUS: Mark, Luther’s Small Catechism, one of the greatest pieces of Christian writing, correctly says that the Old Testament Sabbath was a sign that pointed to the Savior. Since Jesus has come, God no longer requires us to worship on any special day.
ANNOUNCER: Well, that’s a pretty bold statement.
KLAUS: Yes, well look at St. Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae. In chapter 2 (Colossians 2:16-17) he says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
Talking about things that are neither commanded nor forbidden, Romans 14 (verses 5-6) says, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.”
Saint Paul was letting people know that God hasn’t specified what day we should set aside for worship.
ANNOUNCER: But, on the other hand, that doesn’t mean God doesn’t care at all. He still expects people to worship Him, doesn’t He?
KLAUS: Well, let’s say that a different way. People who know they have been forgiven of all their sins by Jesus’ blood will be grateful, and will want to live their lives in thanksgiving and praise to God. One of the ways we do that is through corporate, or group worship. The Divine Service is also where God continues to serve us with His gifts of life, faith, and forgiveness.
ANNOUNCER: Is that, then, a response to those people who say they can go and worship God when they’re out fishing or walking in the woods.
KLAUS: Yes, absolutely. You can worship God in that way… but they should also want to worship God as part of a congregation. God thinks
that’s important. Hebrews 10: (verses 24-25) says, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
ANNOUNCER: And are there any practical reasons why we worship together?
KLAUS: Absolutely. Together we do mission work; together we bring our requests to the Lord; together we commune; together we can support each
other. Together we can give to the work of the Lord around the world. These are the things that don’t happen when we’re on our own, or meditating on the golf course.
ANNOUNCER: Still, the question might arise, “Why worship on Sunday?”
KLAUS: Right from the beginning the early Christian Church worshipped on Sunday. Why? Because the single, most important event this world has ever seen happened on a Sunday.
ANNOUNCER: And you’re talking here about Jesus’ resurrection.
KLAUS: That’s right. On the first day of the week, Jesus rose from the dead. Sin, death, devil had been defeated and now all who believe in Jesus as their Savior can rejoice. The church comes together on Sunday to remember Christ’s resurrection. Every Sunday is a day of
resurrection celebration.ANNOUNCER: And one final question?
KLAUS: Yes.
ANNOUNCER: Could the church worship on Saturday?
KLAUS: Certainly we may, so long as we don’t make it a rule for others.
ANNOUNCER: This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“All the Day Long” by K. Lee Scott. From O Lord of Life by the Concordia Concert Choir (©1999 Concordia University College of Alberta)
Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Nun danket alle Gott” arranged by John Behnke. From For All Seasons, vol. 2 by John Behnke (© 2001 John Behnke) Concordia Publishing
House/SESAC
“Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart” by Arthur Messiter, arr. Albert Travis. From Hymns by Dan Miller (© 1991 DSDS Enterprises) Broadman/SESAC