The Lutheran Hour: Sunday, May 26, 2024

Episode Transcript

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The Lutheran Hour bringing Christ to thenations. This weekend, our listeners in
the US observe Memorial Day. Thosewho gave their lives in service to country
are said to have made the ultimatesacrifice. However, there was a sacrifice

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infinitely greater. Followers of Jesus,if they're so lad, can participate in
a holiday like Memorial Day, appreciatingit as pen ultimate. Perhaps we can
participate in it better because we've acceptedthat we can't prove ourselves with our service
or our sacrifice, and we don'thave to try. We can just serve
and be grateful for those who servebefore us. Doctor Michael Ziegler. Today

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I'm the Lutheran Hour. Later,author and teacher, doctor J. F.
Gibbs comments on national pride and theKingdom of God. Thank you for
your prayers and financial support. TheLutheranowur is made possible by donations from listeners
like you. This is the finalweek of our Spring giving campaign, so

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if you haven't had a chance todonate, I hope you'll consider taking that
step today It's Memorial Day weekend,and maybe you know a service member who
receives encouragement from the lutheranowur. Youcan donate online at Lutheranower dot org,
slash give or call us toll freeMonday through Friday at eight five five John
three sixteen. The number again iseight five five John three one six and

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the web address is Lutheranower dot orgslash give, Thank you and please keep
us in prayer. Now Here istoday's message. Hey everyone, Happy Memorial
Day. Pastor Mike here, justgive you a quick disclaimer on this message.

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It's gonna be intensely personal for meand a little bit emotionally raw.
So I hope I can get throughit without crying too much, and if
you stick with us to the end, you'll understand why. So here we
go. Jaw muscles, flexed,haircut high and tight. Straight out of

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Kansas, reporting to his new battalion. Stephen had finally arrived. He was
an Army ranger, the ultimate accomplishment, at least for boys like me,
boys who'd grown up in the Midwestwith our Gi Joe guys enacting some battle
scene we'd seen in a war movie. Boys who caught glimpses of our granddads

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and old family photo albums when theywere young. In their world War II
uniforms for boys like us. WhatStephen had become Special Forces Army Ranger.
That seemed to be the ultimate accomplishment. He had arrived. He was somebody,

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and he had the patch to proveit. But he was still the
new guy. He may have beensomebody the other day when his mom made
the track from Kansas to his graduationfrom ranger school, but today, on
his first day at the new battalion, he was just another nobody. You're

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not in Kansas anymore. You're thenew guy who has to prove himself all
over again. That's how it goesin the military, and in a lot
of life. You think you've arrived, but you haven't. You have to
keep proving yourself even when you're theold guy. I'm still in the military,

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in the Air Force Reserves, andI used to work for this.
If he's some full bird, colonelColonel H. People snapped to attention when
Colonel H stepped in the room,but then he retired. I attended Colonel
H's retirement ceremony. I saw himhonored with some patches and a plaque that

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proved that he was somebody. Afew months later, Colonel H, mister
h Jim showed up at our unitpicnic in jeans and white tennis shoes.
It was like he didn't know whatto do with himself, and nobody snapped
to attention for him. We hada new colonel and he was just Jim.

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And on the other side of it, for Steven from Kansas, it
was the same. He was anewly minted Army ranger, the ultimate soldier,
but at his new unit he hadto prove himself all over again.
But Pat welcomed him. Stephen andthe other new guys had just arrived on

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post like fresh meat, and untilthey were assigned to a platoon, that's
all. They'd be something for somesergeant to grill and eat for lunch.
They were all waiting there at thefront desk and Pat, one of the
more seasoned soldiers, was on dutythere. Hey, guys, I'm Pat.
How can I help you get squaredaway? He said. Pat sticks

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out in Steven's memory because he wasso much bigger than all the others.
Most of the guys in the battalionlooked like they'd just come off a soccer
pitch, but Pat looked like he'dstepped out of an NFL backfield, and
it turns out he had. Hisname was Pat Tillman. He was the
professional football player who'd become famous inthe wake of nine to eleven. News

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spread how Pat had turned down amultimillion dollar NFL contract to enlist to serve
his country in the army. Patdidn't mention any of that when he met
Stephen that day. It was just, hey, guys, I'm Pat.
How can I help you get squaredaway? Pat, you see, was
the real deal, a real Americanhero. In the years to come,

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they would put his picture on thecover of Sports Illustrated and on his own
box of Wei's, a symbol ofreadiness to make the ultimate sacrifice. But
in two thousand and four, Pat'sstory took a turn toward tragedy. On

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April twenty second of that year,somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan, Pat
was killed not by enemy fire butfriendly fire. There was so much confusion
the day that it happened they weren'teven sure who fired the bullet that killed

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Pat. It was most likely eitherone of two rangers, and Stephen,
the new guy from Kansas, wasone of them. Just a few weeks
into his first deployment, just whenhe was starting to prove himself. It's

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a war story you won't see ina John Wayne film or hear about in
a typical Memorial Day speech. Theguilt ridden horror you feel when you become
someone who's killed a friend during awar that, twenty years later seems to
have ultimately accomplished very little. Becauseof the notoriety surrounding Pat Tillman's death,

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Stephen and the other soldiers involved weregrilled through multiple official investigations. Ultimately,
they concluded it was just a partof the fog of war and they didn't
place blame on any single soldier.But no army investigation could save Stephen from
the shame. Stephen served out theremainder of his enlistment honorably and was discharged

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honorably, healthy medically, but carryingwounds of a different kind. Stephen had
started self medicating with alcohol. Afterthe army. He tried to find himself
in the world of wealth management,out of the military and endo money from

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one slippery semblance of security to another. He thought that being successful in business
would fill the void, but somenights he would sit in the dark with
his pistol loaded around chambered. Thenhe would think about it, about ending
it. Not because he had nothingto live for, but because he was

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tired, tired of having to provehimself. Stephen had been raised in the
Christian faith, but had since stoppedgoing to church. God for him had
become something like an insurance policy,a nameless entity he paid to underwrite his

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own plans. Where were the benefits, he wondered. He paid the premiums
with good behavior and church attendance.Where was the payout? Today? Stephen
would tell you that he sees thingsdifferently, that God himself is the ultimate
benefit, that simply knowing God,being part of God's family is the only

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benefit that matters. It was Godworking through that family that saved Stephen,
that kept welcoming him back. Therewere Christian friends from the various churches that
he'd been a part of reaching out. And there was his family in rural
Kansas who were part of the localLutheran church, the one with the cemetery

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where they held the local Memorial Dayceremony, the community that had baptized Stephen
as a baby and welcomed him inthe name of Jesus before he'd done anything
to deserve it, like how Pathad welcomed him even before he tried to
prove himself. But that's all easyto forget when you're drowning in shame and

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you wish you were a nobody.Stephen was living in the Northwest during this
season of life. One day hedecided to go on a long hike alone,
a seventeen mile loop in the mountains. He didn't bring along much because
he wanted to do the whole hikein just one day. Maybe it was

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just another way to prove that hewas up to the chair challenge, that
he was somebody. He had hikedall day, and in the mountains the
path twisted and turned through switchbacks andwas covered with snow. Stephen lost track
of where he was. It wasgetting dark, but he kept going and
the terrain kept coming. This isso big, there is so much,

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he thought to himself, Half inawe, half in terror. He suddenly
felt small. He ended up sleepingunder a tree that night, stuck out
in the cold, with nothing buta windbreaker and a cliff bar, and
lots of time to talk to Godand to listen and whether or not it

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was an audible voice, like whenJesus spoke to Saul on the road to
Damascus. Stephen sensed God speak tohim that night a single word stop.
It was both a command and aninvitation. I can saw him forty six

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when God says, stop striving andknow that I am God. Stop fighting,
stop hiding, stop striving. Maybeit's a word from God for you
today, confrontation but not condemnation,A stern but kind reminder that you don't

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need to prove yourself. You don'thave to make the ultimate sacrifice. Sometimes
we hear that on Memorial Day,right about those who died for their country
and made the ultimate sacrifice. ButI wonder about that phrase, about how
it might be well meaning but misleading. I wonder if we might do better

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to call it a penultimate sacrifice.Something penultimate can be important, just not
the most important. Penultimate is astep back from the ultimate. It's like
how certain gifts are penultimate to thegiver of the gift. An engagement ring,
for example, is penultimate to marriageor switching to the sporting world,

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the tailgate is penultimate to the kickoff. Regular season is penultimate to the playoffs.
First down is penultimate to touchdown.Army football to air force, and
so on. There are also penultimatemoments in a story. In a story
of a rescue at sea, gettingsurvivors of a shipwreck into life rafts is

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a step better than drowning at sea, but it's penultimate to welcoming them back
home again. The rescue story inthe Bible is peculiar because the ultimate rescue
has already come in the middle,with the resurrection of the crucified Jesus and
the rest of us still catching up. The point is penultimate is not the

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ultimate, but it's still important.Followers of Jesus, if they're so led,
can participate in a holiday like MemorialDay, appreciating it as penultimate.
Perhaps we can participate in it betterbecause we've accepted that we can't prove ourselves

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with our service or our sacrifice,and we don't have to try. We
can just serve in the military andfinance wherever without these insecure strings attached,
and be grateful for those who servebefore us. There's a story about a

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Roman soldier who becomes a follower ofJesus. It's recorded in the Bible's Book
of Acts, chapter ten. We'retold his name is Cornelius and you should
know that it is astonishing in athoroughly ancient Jewish book like the Bible's Book
of Acts, that we are toldCornelius's name, and that he's spoken of

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so highly. Now to grasp theastonishment, we might try a thought experiment.
Imagine there was a nuclear war yearsago. Many fought and died for
their countries. It was awful.Most were bombed back into the Stone Age.
Out of the rubble, Communist Chinaarose as the world power. China

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invaded and occupied the United States,Canada, Mexico, colonized them and stationed
several million soldiers on the continent tokeep peace. And then comes along Jesus,
our Messiah. He comes among us, and he interacts with these soldiers,

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but he never tells them that theymust stop being soldiers before they can
be forgiven and learn to follow him. That's what it was like between the
Jews and the Romans. And asfar as we know, in Cornelius,
this soldier of the evil Empire,when he was filled with the Holy Spirit,

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baptized in the name of Jesus forgivenall his sins, none of the
followers of Jesus told him he hadto stop being a soldier, although they
certainly would have taught him how tobe a different kind of soldier, like
John the Baptist taught soldiers when theycame to be baptized by him see Luke,
chapter three, verse fourteen. Andmaybe it makes you wonder how how

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could these Messianic Jews be so welcomingto a newly baptized Roman soldier and his
family. It's because they had beencaught up together in a new ultimate in
Jesus. The Bible teaches that ultimacybelongs only to Jesus because he is the

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son of God. Become human,because he bought us with his blood,
because he rose from the dead toset us free from false ultimates, because
he loves us. Jesus set usfree, but he doesn't have us separate
ourselves from the world. Instead,he gives the whole creation back again as

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a gift to cherish in a placeto serve, with nothing to prove,
but plenty to do to help thingsget squared away, knowing that what we
do is an ultimate, but byGod's grace, can be a step better
than drowning, and maybe even good. Ten years after that friendly fire incident,

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some sports journalists from ESPN, thesports network, called Stephen. They
wanted to do a story on PatTillman, the NFL player turned Army soldier,
on the tenth anniversary of his death. They called Stephen because he had
come to be known as one ofthe Tillman shooters a decade later and he

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was still being defined by what hehad done. What's your angle, Stephen
asked the ESPN reporters, Why doyou want to tell the story again?
You tell us? They said,why would you want this story to be
told again? To help people?Steven answered, veterans or anybody who's been

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through something like this, so thatthey would know that they're not alone,
that there's a community that can forthem, that their past doesn't define them,
that there's hope. The ESPN reportersagreed, and they did the special,
and they encouraged Stephen to write hisstory down in a memoir. Stephen's

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book was published in twenty nineteen,titled War Story. If You're interested,
The author's name is Stephen Elliott.That's Elliott with two l's and two t's,
and one hundred percent of the author'sproceeds from the book will be donated
to support the mental health needs ofthe military community. Shortly after Stephen's book

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was released, my dad gave mea copy. Turns out, Stephen is
my second cousin. His grandmother fromKansas and my grandfather were brother and sister.
When I was in school studying tobe a pastor, Steven's grandmother mailed
me a check for twenty five dollarsevery week to help support my f I'd

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written several letters back to his grandmotherover the years, but I didn't know
Stephen. I didn't know his story. My dad helped us connect and I
called Stephen recently. We talked forabout an hour. I told him that
I'd read his book and how thankfulI was for his story. Told him

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I'd like to share it on thisprogram that we do called the Lutheran Hour.
Figuring that he'd never heard of it. He said, Oh, I
know the Lutheran Hour. I rememberhearing it on the radio on Sundays whenever
we'd go visit my grandparents. Iwanted to share Stephen's story with you today,
not only because it's Memorial Day weekend. Ultimately, Stephen's story isn't about

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Memorial Day or the military or America. This country or any country that you
call home, is a gift fromGod. It's been used in abuse by
sinners such as we are, butit's still a gift to be shared and

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celebrated and stewarded well. But itcan't be our ultimate because we were made
for the giver of those gifts.We were made for God, the God
who sent his son to prove toyou what you mean to him, that

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you are worth his ultimate sacrifice.I share Stephen's war story with you because
it is ultimately about God. Stephenexplains to his reader, quote it may
be that the God talk in thisbook is a turn off. I get
it. The name of God hasfar too often been invoked to manipulate and

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control, when in actuality, Godcame as Jesus to heal the broken and
to destroy the kingdoms of earth thathave kept and continue to keep people in
chains. Stephen continues, If youfollow Jesus, I pray you'll be encouraged
by the work he has done inthe life of one who could not be

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more undeserving. If you don't followhim, I pray that you would come
to know and experience the love Hehas for you. And even when the
world is ugly and broken, hislove does not cease to be real and
true in the name of Jesus.Amen. You're listening to the Lutheran Hour.

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For free online resources and archived audio, go to Lutheranour dot org.
Now back to our speaker, doctorMichael Ziggler. We are visiting with doctor
Jeff Gibbs, a beloved Bible teacherand our church body. Welcome back to
the program, Jeff, Thank you, Mike. It's good to be here.
It's a day of national pride,remembrance of those who died in service

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to their country, and as areservist member in the armed forces, I'm
thankful. I'm grateful for a holidaysuch as this. At the same time,
as a Christian, as someone readingthe Book of Acts, I'm sensing
that there's at tension between the ruleand reign of God that's coming in Jesus

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and the Holy Spirit and national prideof any kind Roman empire in this case,
but the implication of any kind.As long as flawed people are in
power, there will always be abuseof power. Right governments are God's idea,
but they're always peopled by people,and that means there's going to be

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something wrong somewhere, and so ourultimate allegiance and loyalty is not to our
country, although it's perfectly natural andright to love your kind. And as
Christians, we are bound to obeythe government. But see here's why our
loyalty is not ultimately to the government, because we must obey God rather than

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men when push comes to shove.And so you're right, there is a
tension. Christians should never lose sightof that, or we can become citizens
of a country first and Christian second, and that's wrong. And this is
trying to live out a real tensionwe sense in acts and throughout scripture of

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On the one hand, we're holdingon to this truth that God has established
government for a lood and for therestrain of evil. But on the other
hand, it's peopled with sinful folk. And also there's this whole spiritual dynamic
of principalities that are somehow you know, maybe you know, messing with things.
It's a broken system that's going tobe replaced by the Kingdom of God

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in Jesus. He has cast downthe mighty from their thrones. That's Mary's
song, right, Yeah, Andpeople sometimes forget that at least a standard
interpretation of the Book of Revelation isthat the beast is the government. So
it's not just Romans thirteen, whichis obey those are an authority over you,

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but it's also watch out. Thatcould be the beast. Well,
bringing it back to a Memorial day, I continue to serve in our nation's
armed forces. Yes, I earnestly, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
want to be a follower of Jesusfirst, Yes, and a faithful
member of the armed services and servein that location. Yes, that has
called me. What would you sayto me and others like me to encourage

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us? I would say that youcan do that, That's what I would
say. You know, when Johnthe Baptist was asked by a munch of
soldiers, you know, what dowe do? You know, he said,
well, don't beat anybody up,don't steal stuff, be content with
exactly. Yeah. That's the hardestone. Yeah right, that's right,
that's right. So, but see, the skepticism and the alertness applies to

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that as well, because you're ina as a member of the armed services,
you're in a chain of command whosecommands sinful human beings. Well,
of course, yeah, yeah,So again. It's just be alert,
you know. Remember that the realchain of command, if I can say
that way, is the one thatleads from God through Jesus to us in
the Holy Spirit. Thank you foryour words of jurigement. You're very welcome.

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Lord Jesus, remember us in yourkingdom, and teach us to pray
our Father, who art in heaven. How would be thy name thy Kingdom?
Come, I will be done onearth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as

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we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Thineis the Kingdom and the Power and the
Glory forever and ever. Amen,receive the blessing of the Lord. The
Lord bless you and keep you.The Lord make his face shine on you,

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and be gracious to you. TheLord look upon you with his favor,
and give you peace. Amen.The Lutheran Hour is made possible each
week through the support of faithful listenerslike you. To learn how you can
extend the worldwide outreach of the LutheranHour, go to Lutheranour dot org and

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join us next week as doctor Ziglertalks about illuminating those around us with the
light of Christ. I'm Mark Eischer. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Our Ministries