The Wartburg

May 29, 2011 - The Sixth Sunday after Easter - St. John 16:23-30

2011-06-17T09:05:00.000-05:00

St. James tells us to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. Good example of people who are just hearers and not doers? Those Old Testament folks. The Lord saved them from Egypt and was bringing them to the Promised Land. He promised to be their God and told them how to live and behave. They HEARD His Word. But did they do it? Nope. They kept turning to false gods. They grumbled and complained and spoke about the Lord as if He didn't care for them at all. They HEARD the Word but instead of clinging the Lord's promises and trusting in Him, they let it go in one ear and out the other. They kept hearing but not doing and finally the Lord sent snakes to punish them. But there was a way out, a way to be saved from the snakes, a way to be rescued from this punishment of death. Look to the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses.

Be doers of the Word and not just hearers. You know who else is hearers and not doers? You. Me. We come in to church to hear and the Word goes in our ears: Love God. Love your neighbor. We don't. The Lord isn't first in our lives, all kinds of other things are. If you don't believe me, just think about the last time you were grumbling and complaining that things weren't going your way. Is that trust in the Lord? That sort of worry and complaining is just plain unbelief! Or how about your neighbor? Do you love others more than yourself? No. We put ourselves ahead of our kids. We don't honor our parents. We try to one up the people around us and take whatever angle works things out best for us and not for others. James' words cut us to the heart because we don't practice pure religion at all! We all too easily let ourselves become filthied up by the world in what we watch, and what we look at on the internet and the company we keep. Oh, we might do good or something for someone else if there's something in it for us. But the fact is that we, just like the Israelites, are good at letting God's Word go in one ear and out the other. So what to do if we don't want to be consumed by our sins like being bitten by snakes? Look to the one lifted up to save us!

Jesus tells His disciples that because He is going to the Father, they can ask the Father anything in His name and the Father will grant it. All right! Time for that new sports car! A winning scratch off ticket! For that person we don't like to get transferred somewhere else. Um, no. Did we not just hear what James said? James reminds us what it is we need to ask of the Father in Jesus' name. We need to pray to be doers of the Word and not just hearers! Think about what we prayed earlier in the Collect: that God would make us "think the things that are right and accomplish them." Our problem is that, on our own, we don't even know what is right and good to do. That's where the Lord's Word comes in. It's the Word that directs us to the One who is lifted up to take away our sins. It is the Lord's Word that saves us by teaching us the right way to think and believe in the Lord and His promises.

That's why Jesus goes to the cross. Because we are hearers but not doers. Jesus HEARS the Father's command to save sinners and He DOES it. He humbles Himself and is born of the virgin and spends His life hearing and doing the Word. He cares for the widow by making her His Bride and He cares for the orpan by giving us a heavenly Father. And Jesus remains unspotted by this world and yet when the time comes, He is filthy and covered with the sins of the world. All your idolatry, adultery, murder, lust, coveting, lying, deceiving, Word despising, hearing-but-not-doing is answered for by your Savior on the cross of Calvary. And He does it so that we have a Father who hears and answers prayers in the Name of His Son. You see, our sins would have kept us from daring to ask anything of our heavenly Father. So we go through the One who has taken our sins and taken them away. When we pray, our Father hears us because in the Name of Jesus, there are no sins to see. THAT is what makes us able to go straight to our heavenly Father and ask away: His Son Jesus who has opened the way to the Father's heart and throne.

So the answer to our being hearers and not doers is the same as the Israelites being bitten by snakes: look up to the One lifted up to save us. The Israelites needed to look to a snake to be saved from the snakes. So we look to a sinner to be saved from our sins: Jesus, not Himself a sinner bu, the bearer of our sins, nailed to the cross for us. The answer is not going to be found in our trying harder, but in having more Jesus. More of your Baptism every day. More absolution for your sins. More hearing the Word by which the Spirit promises to be at work in you. More Body and Blood to keep you in the faith. The fact of the matter is, as long as we've got Old Adam hanging around, it is a battle and struggle to be doers and not just hearers of God's Word. So the answer to our conflict is found in Christ, who has won this battle for us. So cry out to the Father every day! Cry out that you want Him to make you a DOER and not just a hearer. When the sting of God's Law reminds you that you are hearing God's Word and not doing, then confess it! Ask the Father in Jesus' Name to forgive you and work by the Spirit in you to be one who glorifies Him and loves your neighbor in all that you do. And because our Lord Jesus has gone to the cross and through death to life again, have no doubt that your heavenly Father will hear and answer, just as Jesus says He will. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

May 22, 2011 - The Fifth Sunday of Easter - St. John 16:5-15

2011-05-22T20:42:00.000-05:00

In case you hadn't heard, the Rapture and Judgment Day were supposed to happen yesterday. I actually went to that false preacher's website to see what he had to say about it, especially since Jesus told us pretty plainly that no one knows the day or the hour. One thing he said was that over 20 years ago the Spirit was taken away from the church. The fact that we are here today I'd say pretty well proves that the Spirit is right here in Christ's church and not with that false prophet. But that's the problem. Today "the Spirit" is tossed around as the answer for everything. If someone feels like doing something, they do it, right or wrong, and says, "well I was moved by 'the Spirit.'" If some lifestyle is judged by God's Word to be wrong, the teaching is changed because "the Spirit" is at work living in the church to bring us to new understandings. When it comes down to it, things that are clearly not taught in the Scriptures are all over the place attributed to "the Spirit" even when such a teaching is directly contrary to the Bible! We're guilty of this too. For how often do we get a notion or opinion in our heads and figure that even if it doesn't square with what the Bible teaches, God or "the Spirit" must be leading us to do it? And if it's not the Holy Spirit, it's a false, deceiving spirit and we need to know the difference. So how do we sort it out?

Jesus gives us the answer when He tells us what the Spirit's job is. Jesus teaches us that the Spirit is going to convict the world with respect to three things: sin, righteousness, and judgment. And then Jesus says the Spirit will take what is His and give it to the disciples thus leading them into all truth. Not part of the truth or some of the truth or someone's version of the truth. All Truth. The Spirit works in the church and He works only where Christ's Word is. That means where Christ's preachers are preaching and teaching what is in the Bible, not what someone SAYS is in the Bible or what they think the Bible means. So what about the Spirit's convicting the world? First of sin because they don't believe in Jesus. Sin, boiled down to its most basic, is denying Jesus and the forgiveness He gives. The world is sinful because it goes against God and doesn’t want to be forgiven. Righteousness because Jesus goes to the Father. You don't get righteous by somehow getting a hold of Jesus. Rather, His righteousness is bestowed upon us and given to us as a gift by the preaching and Sacraments in His church. Of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Here we learn that Christ, by His death on the cross has defeated sin and death and the devil, the ruler of this world. That's why He became man: to suffer and die and rise for sinners. So everything the Spirit is about is Jesus. If it's not about Jesus and His forgiveness, it's NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Jesus says the Spirit doesn't speak for Himself. Instead, He takes what is Christ's and gives it to you. And He does that by the Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is apart from the Bible, preaching and teaching, and Baptism, Absolution and the Supper is NOT the Holy Spirit. If we're not talking about those things, then we're not talking about the Holy Spirit and we're not talking about Jesus. And these things are not neutral. Either what is preached and taught and heard is from Christ or it is from the devil. It can't be both. If what goes into our ears isn't from the Holy Spirit, it won't save us but tear us away from Christ to false belief and despair. This is why the Spirit takes what is Christ's and delivers it to us. That Jesus became man and died for your sins and rose again. That you are washed and given Christ's righteousness in Baptism. That Christ's own words are that your sins are forgiven. That Jesus' Body and Blood are the feast of salvation. That's what happened with the End of the World guy. He tried to teach and preach apart from the Word. Apart from the clear Scriptures. Jesus Himself says, “No one knows the day or hour. Not the angels in heaven, not even the Son.” So we know it will come but not when. So to say when simply goes against the Bible and the only way to do that is to say “the Spirit” led him. No. I'll repeat it again: It CANNOT be the Holy Spirit if the simple and clear words of Jesus are contradicted.

And this is why, dear Christians, that it's more important than ever to learn the words of Jesus. So that you will know all He has said and done for your salvation AND be able to discern the false from the true. There's a reason we're ALL—parents and kids and everyone—going to meet this summer in Sunday School to hear about the life of Christ. To read and hear Jesus' own words. And by those very words of Jesus, He promises His Spirit will forgive our sins and strengthen us in the faith. We all have something to repent of here: thinking we can know Christ apart from His Spirit, neglecting learning God's Word, parents not making sure their children are taught the Word and learning it themselves. So let's take this summer to gather as Christ's people and learn his words and deeds so well that no false spirit can ever deceive us. Make time, brothers and sisters in Christ, to come and receive every one of those good gifts that is given by your Father in heaven.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: the world around us is filled with “spirits” and the devil wants nothing more to confuse us with all the seeming contradictions and interpretations. But listen to Jesus, our Good Shepherd. His voice, His Word is clear and simple: He goes to the Father by His death, resurrection and Ascension and sends the Spirit who leads us into all Truth. Since Jesus is the Truth, the Spirit leads us to Christ. Gives us what is Christ's: his forgiveness and salvation. And having Jesus, you have everything there is to have. Everything God has for you. The Spirit has one job: that through the Word and Sacraments you would believe in Jesus, have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. That is the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent who brings us to Jesus and gives us life everlasting. That is what it means to have all truth: to have Jesus. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

May 8, 2011 - The Third Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday - St. John 10:11-16

2011-05-11T19:23:00.000-05:00

If you work a job that requires running a cash register the boss will usually tell you, and it's the same advice the police will give: If you're being held up, don't resist or fight back. Give them the money and don't do anything to provoke them and get hurt. Sometimes they do fight back. More than one store clerk has lost their life when they tried to save the bit of cash in the drawer. Why would you do that? Just so, why would you bother getting torn to shreds by a wolf or lion who came after the sheep? They're just sheep! Run! But when they're the Lord's sheep, it's different. Unlike every minimum-wage earning convenience store clerk or shepherd, the Lord doesn't let His sheep get eaten. He doesn't run when the wolf comes. No, this shepherd, the Good Shepherd, lays down His life for the sheep. Better this Good Shepherd get taken down by the wolf than He let the sheep be attacked! And that's what you need to know about your Good Shepherd: He lays down His life for you.

But don't be fooled! He doesn't lay down His life for us because we're worth it! Ezekiel and Peter nail it: The sheep love to wander off. God takes care of us and provides for us and we wander off. Go away to do our own thing. To live how we want. Do what we want. Worship the gods we want. Go after the things we want. Put ourselves first. All that is sheep wandering away. The Lord has given us the sheep pen of His Law, to guide us and corral us and we just find a way over it or around it or out of it. Never mind God. Never mind our neighbor. Off we go, wandering away, happily doing our own thing even when we wind up in the tangled branches that are the consequences for our sins. Or even when we are suddenly all alone, away from the Lord and the wolf, that devil, is right there ready to pounce! If sheep are really that stupid, they deserve to get eaten! They deserve to starve to death while they're all tangled up. We sinners deserve what we get! There is no reason the Lord should come after us. But He does. Because He's the Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd knows His sheep. He knows that they go astray. He knows what you think and say and do that is your wandering from God. The Good Shepherd also knows His Father. That's why He lays down His life for the sheep. Don't think He did it because we deserved it or were worth it. He did it because that's what His Father wanted Him to do. It's as if He said, “Son, the wolf will come after our sheep. And the only way we can keep that wolf from tearing up the sheep is if you lay down your life for them. That will save them.” So the Good Shepherd does. He baits the wolf with Himself. He lays down His life by being lifted up on the cross. And that protects the sheep. The death of the Good Shepherd on Calvary is what rescues you form the wolf, the devil, whose one desire is to devour you! You see, the Lord doesn't just come looking for you, He lays down His life to protect you and rescue you. Yeah, the Good Shepherd knows you are a wandering sheep. He also knows His Father wants you back. And so He does what only the Good Shepherd does: He lays down His life for you and takes it up again!

And so He knows His sheep and is known by His own. There is one flock and one shepherd. That one flock is the holy Christian church and that one Shepherd is Jesus. It's HIS flock. The church doesn't belong to the pastor. It doesn't belong to you or the Voters or the Council or any Christian. The church, the flock is the Lord's. So what goes on here is what the Good Shepherd gives and does. And so just how do we know our Good Shepherd? Well He told us: He laid down His life for us. Any preaching or teaching which isn't about that, about the Good Shepherd laying down His life for the sheep, isn't the Good Shepherd caring for us. Any church where the sheep are not led to the still waters of their Baptism and the green pastures of Christ's Word is no church where the Lord is the shepherd. And where the overflowing cup of Christ's blood is not rejoiced in and given out, there the Good Shepherd is absent is well. But where those gifts are given, the gifts that deliver to us the life that Good Shepherd has for us, there we can be certain and confident that Jesus our Good Shepherd is caring for us and bringing us back whenever we wander away.

No, the cash in the drawer is not worth dying over. But neither are the sheep that love to wander. Christ lays down His life for us not because we are worth it but because He knows His Father. But now that Christ has died for you, laid down His life for you, know that you are precious in His sight. You are His little lambs. When you wander, He finds you and forgives you. In the pastures of His church He feeds and cares for you. And When the wolf comes to get you, He's got to get past your Good Shepherd! Jesus is the Good Shepherd because He has laid down His life for you. And He is the Good Shepherd because He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

May 1, 2011 - The Second Sunday of Easter - St. John 20:19-31

2011-05-05T10:21:00.001-05:00

Dear Babies in Jesus. Yes, I said babies. We heard it from St. Peter in the Introit: “Like newborn babies, crave the pure spiritual milk of the Word!” Why are we babies? Well, babies are helpless. Babies can't do things for themselves. The Readings we have this Second Sunday of Easter teach us that we are babies who need the Lord to do for us because we can't do for ourselves. Now pay close attention. Because the Christian faith that is for helpless people isn't usually what is preached and taught most places. We are surrounded in this world by other those who suppose that in order to be a Christian, you have to do something. But how can we? We're helpless. It is the Lord and His Word that rescues us and gives us that pure milk by which we are fed and nourished. Just consider the Word of God that we've heard today.

Apart from the Word of God, we are nothing but dry bones like Ezekiel saw. Before we were baptized and given the birth from above by water and the Spirit, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Can that big pile of bones live? Can they put themselves together? Can they come to life on their own? Of course not. The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath, that is, to preach and the Spirit will give them life. By the WORD, which is outside of them, those bones are given life. Just so you don't become a Christian by somehow bringing yourself back to life. The Spirit of God is given to you by water and the Word and THAT is what makes you live again. See? We're too helpless on our own. It's only when the Word is spoken that the Spirit awakens us from being dead. We could never do that on our own.

Our problem is that we were dead. Unable to come back to life. Unable to live. Unable to do anything. That is why Jesus came. To do what we could not: pay for our sins by His death. To do more that we couldn't do: conquer death and rise to life again. Jesus' death and resurrection accomplish what we could never accomplish. We are taken down by death. He takes death down. We were in slavery to our sins. Jesus sets us free. We were spiritually dead, unable to fear, love and trust in God. Jesus makes us alive by His Word. St. John says we have overcome the world in faith. That's because we could never overcome the world ourselves, so we trust in Jesus that He has overcome it by His suffering, death and resurrection.

Then we come to Easter evening and a week later. The disciples are locked inside, unable to do anything. Paralyzed by fear it seems. But Jesus comes and does what they can't do for themselves, He gives them life. By speaking His Word, He breathes the Spirit upon them and gives to them the power to absolve and retain sins. Why does He give them this task? Because sinners can't forgive their own sins. Sinners can't get rid of their own sins. Sinners can't unlock the shackles of their sins; they can't free themselves; they can't remove sins and take away death. But the Word of God can. The pronouncement of holy absolution can. For Holy Absolution is the testimony that because Jesus is crucified and risen from the dead, our sins are taken away. We can't get that ourselves. It must be given to us as it is in the church. You can't earn it or work it out. It is a gift that must be given to you. And so the Lord sends His apostles to give that gift, to forgive sins and deliver to the world the forgiveness He won for them and which we could never get for ourselves.

When Jesus tells Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe,” He's talking about us. We haven't got to put our fingers in the nail holes of Jesus' hands like Thomas did and yet we believe in Jesus and confess that He has died and risen from the dead. This we know, not because we can figure it out on our own but because the Word of God tells us this and the Spirit works through that Word to bring us to faith. Think of the ways in which the Lord delivers the forgiveness of sins to us: by the washing of Holy Baptism, by the Absolution and preaching and teaching of God's Word. And by the Holy Supper. These are all things that are OUTSIDE of us. EXTERNAL to us. Think about it: A baby can't make its own food either in its body or prepare something to eat himself. He must be fed. So likewise, babies in Jesus, you need to be fed and taken care of. This Jesus does by His Word and Sacraments. Remember we are surrounded in the world by those who say that you have to do something to become a Christian and that there is a part for you to play in remaining a Christian. Jesus teaches us exactly the opposite! We cannot become or remain Christians at all any more than dry bones can come back to life. We need Jesus to accomplish these things for us by His Word. Only His Word can bring us to life and keep us alive by the forgiveness that it delivers to us.

And that is all for your comfort. A baby doesn't have to worry about how it will be taken care of. Just so, we needn't worry that we've got to do our own religion. Christ has been pierced for you on Calvary. He has risen from the dead for you. He washed you. He absolves you. He preaches to you and He feeds you. These holy gifts are the pure spiritual milk we are to desire just as a newborn wants to eat! And just as the newborn is fed by his mother, so we are fed by our Mother, the church, who gives to us the pure milk of the Word and gives to us life that the Risen Jesus bestows, for we could never get it for ourselves. But Jesus gives it to us for free as His gift! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 27, 2011 - Wednesday after Easter - St. Luke 24:36-49

2011-05-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

The fact of the matter is, the disciples just weren't sure what had happened. They didn't believe it. They didn't get it. When Jesus appeared to them, they thought they were looking at a ghost. So what better way to prove that He is still a man even though He was dead and is now alive, than having something to eat. The disciples are amazed, confused, bewildered, frightened and there's Jesus: “You got anything to eat?” Then they realized that this was the same Jesus in the flesh, with flesh and bone, who was alive even though he had been dead. Then He opens their hearts so that they would understand as He explained to them how everything that went down was according to the Scriptures. Then it all came together and they understood that Jesus' death and resurrection were all foretold in the Old Testament. They Jesus sent them into the world as His witnesses to preach and teach that He suffered and died and rose for sinners and that repentance and the forgiveness of sins are given in His name. In other words, salvation comes from the One who died and who was alive on the third day—Jesus!

Now we need to understand something. There are teachings in the Bible that are important, but if you didn't know them, you can still be saved. For example, in the book of Genesis, we learn that Nimrod was a mighty hunter. Now, you can be saved without knowing anything about Nimrod. But there are teachings which are central to the faith and without knowing them, we cannot have eternal life. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is one of these. If someone denies that Jesus rose bodily from the dead, they are no Christian. Christ was and is truly alive on Easter and ever since. In fact, the resurrection stands at the heart of the Christian faith. If Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, we're all just fools in a silly religion. But Jesus DID rise from the dead and that means that sin and death have been taken care of for you. It means death cannot hold you down. You will rise too. Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross but it is by His resurrection that He demonstrates that death and the power of sin are truly overthrown. Without the resurrection, we have nothing. With the resurrection, we have salvation and everlasting life.

Now it's all well that the disciples can see Jesus enjoying his broiled fish and can see his nail holes to believe that He is really and truly alive. But what about us? We haven't seen Him like they did? That's why Jesus tells them, “You're my witnesses to the ends of the earth.” The apostles don't just tell others what they've seen and heard, they tell future generations by writing it down. By reading it in the Scriptures, it's as if we're hearing it from them ourselves. Think about it. How many of you knew your great-great-great-grandmothers? But you believe in THEM don't you? Isn't it funny how people in the world can talk about Henry VIII or Julius Caesar or Genghis Khan or any other person in history as if they really lived, but when it comes to Jesus they want to argue that it's all made up or just stories! No! We have EYE-WITNESSES. And because they saw and wrote it down, the Spirit uses that Word to teach us that Jesus died for us and rose again too. By that Word, that preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name, the Spirit creates faith and trust in us which clings to Christ even though we haven't seen Him with our eyes as the disciples did. Such faith and trust is a gift which believes that Jesus has taken away all our sins and gives us everlasting life. After all, if he rose from the dead, our bodies will rise from the dead too, for that's what our Baptism promises to us because of that same forgiveness of sins!

Jesus doesn't just die on the cross and rise again and let a few people know it! He shows Himself to His apostles so that they will show Him to us by the Word. Jesus doesn't leave us guess but shows us plainly and clearly by His Word that He is alive. By water and the word and also in His Supper, the risen Christ comes to us and lets us see Him with the eyes of faith. While it may not be with our eyes, we have the eyes of the witnesses who have written it down for us so that there can be no doubt. And having that word, we have what it says: repentance and the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus who died and rose; who ate fish and fulfilled the Scriptures; who is even today alive and will come again. That's why when we say the Easter greeting we add that great big INDEED! Christ is risen! He is risen INDEED! Alleluia! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 24, 2011 - Easter Day - St. Mark 16:1-8

2011-04-24T13:50:00.001-05:00

“Location, location, location!” That, they say, is what's most important for a business to do well. Well, our Easter Gospel is about, location, location, location. All too often, when we get into a discussion about God, we leave location behind. God is just “out there” or “up there” somewhere. You can't see Him. You just assume He's there and doing something or other. That's how the world thinks of God and the devil loves to trap Christians into thinking that way too. But through all that abstract, “out there” God talk and clutter, the Easter Gospel shines brightly, reminding us that God is really a location, location, location God. He tells us where He is and what He's doing. And Easter is really all about that.

Location: Nazareth. The angel says to the women, “You're looking for Jesus of Nazareth.” That's a location. A specific person from a specific place. It's a reminder to us that God became man. He was in Mary's womb and born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. Our Lord isn't just “out there somewhere.” He was in Nazareth. He lived there. Grew up there. Played there. Ate there. Worked there. And when He began His work of salvation in earnest, He preached there too. The point is this: God is located in the flesh. He went places and did stuff. When we speak about God, especially to unbelievers, we don't need to get caught in their trap of “abstract God somewhere.” Talk to them about Jesus, the God who grew up in and was from Nazareth. You can still go there today. It's a real place. And He's a real person that was there.

Location: The cross and tomb. The angel goes on: “Jesus...who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him!” Now Jesus went lots of places but the most important place He was, was the cross and tomb. On that cross, God died. On that cross, God took away our sins. On that cross, Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave Himself as the sacrifice for sins. It happened there on a hill called Calvary. And that hill is still there today. And then there is a garden tomb. He was there too, resting in the tomb until He rose on Easter. The women knew where that tomb was and they and the disciples saw clearly that it was empty. But there in a particular place, our Lord hung on the tree. There, God was. He didn't look like God, all bloody and dead, but you can't get a more specific location than that. It's where, in the midst of all our suffering and asking that question, “Where's God?” we can point to Calvary and the cross and say, “Right there, pierced for you!”

Location: Galilee. “Tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going to Galilee. There you will see Him just as He told you.” Because He's risen! He's alive! He WAS on the cross. And He WAS in the tomb but now He is alive. And He is where His Word said He would be: In Galilee. Eventually He would appear to all His disciples, where they were, in His Body. He is no ghost or spirit. No vision or dream or delusion. He's alive and He can prove it by showing His disciples the LOCATION of those nail and spear holes. The God who walked around Galilee and Judea before He died is the same God who walked around Galilee and Judea when He was alive again. Once more, God is not an “out there” kind of God, but the God who is in the flesh, who suffered for our sins, rose again and was seen by all of those eyewitnesses.

Location: Christ's church today. Just as our risen Lord had told His disciples where He would be (in Galilee), so He tells us where He will be. After He had conquered sin and death, died and risen, before His Ascension, Jesus told His disciples to go and preach and baptize and that He would be with them always to the end of the age. So now, today, where is the Lord? Where do we find Him? Sure, He's everywhere because He's God, but remember: Location, location, location. He tells us where He is going to be located for our salvation. For our comfort and strength. And where is that? Right here in His church. Where water is put upon you at the location of the font. Where your pastor is located to preach and teach Christ's Word to you and absolve you of your sins. Where Christ Himself is located in His Body and Blood on the altar in the meal of salvation. In these locations, these specific, concrete, actual places, we don't get caught up in the “somewhere out there” God but the God-with-us in the flesh who is still with us in His church. If you want to know who God is, He is there in Christ. And if you want to know where Christ is, He's right here in His church. Therefore we are rescued from useless arguments about a God “out there somewhere” because we have a God who has come in the flesh and still comes in His flesh through His Word and Sacraments in His church.

So Easter is about location, location, location! God has a location! He's not just everywhere and anywhere. He's somewhere. And He's somewhere FOR YOU. That location, that somewhere is His holy Christian church on earth where His gifts are given for forgiveness, life and salvation. His church whereby the forgiveness of sins He won by His death and resurrection, sin and death and the devil and hell are all defeated. His church in which we are nourished in the faith and kept in that faith til the day our Lord comes back and raises US from the dead, just as He rose from the dead on Easter. Therefore don't seek Him in there, in your feelings, “out there,” in nature, our “up there” in the sky somewhere, or anywhere else. He is right HERE for you. For to say that Christ is risen is to confess that He is right here in this location for you. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 23, 2011 - Easter Vigil - St. John 20:1-18

2011-04-24T13:49:00.001-05:00

Easter morning was something of a mess! Mary doesn't know where they've taken Jesus. Peter and John run to the tomb and they believe and yet still don't know the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Jesus speaks to Mary and it is only that which opens her eyes to recognize that it is Him. The other Gospels tell us about the angels announcing He is risen and the disciples on the road to Emmaus who don't believe what has happened. Then, of course, there's Thomas, too. Everything seems to confused and up in the air. But what straightens it all out is the Word. The Word that Jesus speaks. The Word of the Scriptures that He has fulfilled. Easter is more than just about the fact of the resurrection, though that's the big part of it. The fact of Jesus being alive the third day and the tomb being empty can only matter if the Word declares it. After all, you and I weren't there. We can only hear and believe from the Word. And so it is the Word that tells us that Jesus was going to rise. It is Jesus' own words that tell His disciples He's going to rise. And it is the Word that the apostles, who were eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus wrote, it is that Word which tells us Christ has indeed risen.

This is also why Jesus tells Mary, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father.” Now, after the resurrection, we aren't to find Jesus by hanging on to Him outside the garden tomb. Now, He will ascend to the Father and will go all over the world through the preaching of His death and resurrection, that is, by His Word. Jesus tells Mary not to cling to Him but to go to where the disciples are. Where the church is gathered. There is where you'll find Jesus. Now, after His resurrection, Jesus is alive and until He comes back, He lives and reigns in His holy church, where His Word is given. Here we are forbidden to find Jesus anywhere else than where His Word is. To look for Jesus in some other place like our feelings or some physical location like the tomb in Jerusalem (and which one is it?) is to seek Him where He hasn't promised to be found. To try to have God apart from His Word is what our Easter repentance confesses.

So what about that Word? It's there in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament which foretold all that Jesus would do, including His resurrection. In the New Testament in which the eyewitness testimony of His life and words and suffering, death and resurrection are told and expounded. In the preaching of that Word today by which Jesus Himself is among us. In the speaking of that Word with the water that washes us and makes us children of God. In the speaking of that Word which declares our sins are forgiven. Where that Word is that delivers Christ's Body and Blood with the bread and wine in the Supper. Our whole life as Christians, worshiping a crucified and risen Lord is all about His Word. It is that Word by which the Father shows us His Son, by which the Son reveals Himself and dwells among us, and by which the Spirit calls and preserves us in the holy Christian church. Without the Word, we perish, we wither and die. And with that Word that brings us Jesus, the Jesus who died for our sins and rose again, that Word brings us life now and life everlasting. The Scriptures told it. We shouldn't be surprised. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 22, 2011 - Good Friday - St. John 18:1-19:42

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Your sins are Jesus' suffering and death. The commandments teach us plainly and simply to love God above all things. We don't. The commandments teach us plainly and simply to love others as ourselves. We don't. The commandments decree that the punishment for breaking them is the awful wrath of God. But there, on that cross, that suffering, that death, that's yours. But now it's His. Your sins. They're His.

Therefore Jesus' sentence is your “not guilty.” Christ who is innocent takes the place of a guilty man, Barabbas. You. Me. Christ is given the sentence of a guilty man. He is condemned. But His condemnation, the judgment and verdict of “death” is your “not guilty” from God. Because He has taken your place.

Jesus' nakedness is your covering. Those soldiers took those garments of Jesus. Sinful men received the clothing of Christ. On the cross, naked and covered in shame, Jesus, by His death as the Lamb of God, provides for you a robe of righteousness. A covering of perfection and holiness so that when you stand before the Father, you stand there dressed not in the filthy rags of a sinner but in the spotless and untorn robe of your Savior.

Jesus' leaving His mother behind is your adoption into His family. As St. John was commended into Mary's care, so you are given into the care of your mother, the church. By grace, you have been adopted by your heavenly Father, under the care of your spiritual mother, the church. Christ, who leaves behind His mother and is forsaken by the Father on the cross, suffers these things that you might no longer be an orphan because of sin but once again in the family of God, the Christian church.

Jesus' thirsting is your being refreshed. The one whose parched lips touch a sponge filled with vinegar in order to fulfill the Scriptures is the One who gives you the Holy Spirit, to well up in you as a fountain of living water, a fountain that means you'll never thirst but always have Christ's unfailing and refreshing forgiveness.

And finally, Jesus' death is your life. His “It is finished” is your promise that there is nothing you need to try to do to get right with God. It's done. His giving up His spirit at the moment of His choosing means that this is not some random act of violence; our Lord fulfilled the Father's will and died for you. And the blood and water flowing out of His side are your life. The life given in the water of the font and the life given in the blood of the cup. All that Jesus has suffered, all that Jesus has undergone, all that is BAD for Jesus—is GOOD for you. Happy GOOD Friday. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 21, 2011 - Maundy Thusday - St. John 13:1-15,34-35

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When Jesus washes the disciples' feet, he's not giving us an example of how to wash other peoples' feet. He's giving us an example of forgiving sins. The foot washing is just an example and picture of this. We know this because Peter objects and Jesus tells him he has no part of Him unless He washes His feet. Peter, ever impetuous says, “Well then wash my hands and head!” To which Jesus replies, “You're already clean. You don't need a bath. Just a foot washing because you step in it.” In other words, Peter is already baptized. He doesn't need to be baptized again. But as he goes around stepping in sin, Jesus must wash him again, that is, forgive and absolve him. He does this in preparation for this special Supper in which He then gives them His body and blood to eat and drink, body and blood that are about to be given into death on the cross for them and for the world.

So what about you? Would you wash someone's feet? You might. But here's a tougher question: Would you forgive someone when they step in it? Your husband or wife; your kids or parents; your other family members? The dirt and crud on someone's feet doesn't seem half bad compared to the things people do against us. The hurtful words we can't let go. The pain of having someone let you down. The promises not kept. The awful attitude and bitter disappointment that come when others go against us. We'd touch a person's smelly tootsies faster than we'd forgive them and treat them like they DIDN'T sin. It'd be much easier to scrub the grime off someone's feet than to put away whatever it is they did against you and stop holding a grudge and forgiven them. Repent of such unforgiveness to whomever and hear Jesus' Words again. Jesus tells His disciples and us, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

And how did He love us? How does He still love us? On this night, He loved us by giving us a holy Supper of forgiveness from His Body and Blood. On this night He let Himself be arrested and taken before evil men. He allowed Himself to be beaten and slapped around and to be dragged before Pontius Pilate and tortured some more before finally being humiliated and nailed to a cross. And He has washed you in Holy Baptism and still washes your feet by Holy Absolution as you daily step in stink piles of sin. And all that is not merely the EXAMPLE of how you're supposed to love others. His forgiveness is the very forgiveness which you pass on to those around you. When they step in it, wash their feet. Forgive them. Don't hold their sins against them. That is hard to do. Which is why Christ did and still does it for you: so that by HIS strength, the blessing of His forgiving you will be the blessing of your forgiving someone else. Now come to the feast of forgiveness. After all, you're all washed up for dinner!

April 10, 2011 - Tuesday of Holy Week - St. Mark 15:29-32

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It seems so despicable. Cruel. Evil. Those wicked men standing their mocking Jesus. Laughing at His torment on the cross, making fun of Him and His apparent inability to save Himself. “He saved others; let Him save Himself. Let Him come down off the cross if He's the King of Israel.” That's Satan talking again. “If you're the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. IF you're the Son of God, come down off the cross.” See? That's the devil mocking. The funniest or most disappointing thing people can think about Jesus is that He could save others but then He couldn't save Himself. He can heal the blind and deaf and dumb and even raise the dead but He somehow couldn't avoid getting Himself crucified? And once He's crucified, He can't get down off the cross? Some Savior He is! What a joke! They mock. They ridicule. They hate. And when we see it, we think to ourselves, “I'd never do that!”

Oh, really? When you're sick and God doesn't seem to answer your prayer for healing do you get upset with Him? When you want something that is going wrong in your life to go right, you don't demand from God to do things your way? “If you're really God, then why don't you help me? Heal me? Fix me? Save me?” If God is really God, why does He let bad things happen? Why doesn't He prevent them? Oh, it's not that you would tell Jesus to come down off the cross. You'd just tell Him how best to run your life. Work things out. Make things happen. And when He doesn't do it, perhaps you consider He can't because maybe He's not everything He's supposed to be. No, we wouldn't mock God on the cross; we would just question His grace and mercy all the other times of our lives!

But once again, those who mock Jesus speak the truth. “He saves others but Himself He cannot save.” Yep. That's how it works. Jesus COULD save Himself. But then you would be doomed. It's you or Jesus. Someone's going down for your sins. Someone's going to pay the price. And it won't be you. That's why Jesus doesn't save Himself. He doesn't save Himself so that He DOES save you. His not saving Himself means you are saved. His not coming down from the cross means your sins are paid for by His blood. His suffering means you being spared. That's just how it works. Jesus won't save Himself in order that He saves you. Jesus not coming down from that cross means there will be a washing to forgive you and give you new life; a Supper of broken body and shed blood to give you forgiveness and life and salvation. Jesus' undergoing the mockery of evil men means evil ones like us have our sins forgiven. It all comes down to this. He IS the Son of God most of all not because He can save Himself but because He saves others. Saves you and me. The devil doesn't get it. But then again that salvation isn't for him. It's for you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 18, 2011 - Monday of Holy Week - St. John 12:1-43

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Jesus is troubled. Does that trouble you? Jesus is troubled. Upset. His suffering has already begun. He knows what He faces. And there's a way out. He could ask. He could bail. He could abandon ship and escape before it's too late. He's that troubled. BUT...That's why He came. He can't leave it. He came to do it. “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour?' But for this purpose I came to this hour.” What purpose is that? To be the grain of wheat that dies to bear fruit. To be the Lamb who is sacrificed for our sins. To be the Savior who suffers horribly and has it all topped off by being crucified. To be the object of wrath and the curse of the Father as He bears our sin. To be the fulfiller of the Law and the Prophets. To be the God who dies for His creation. To be your Savior. Your Lord. Your Lamb. That's the purpose for which He came to this hour.

He came to be troubled because we are not. We live in an age where we can fight wars around the world and they're hardly mentioned on the news. We live in a world where as long as things are working out for us, there's not much reason to be troubled. We live in a world which teaches us not to be troubled over our sins and so we aren't. We daily despise God and His Word. We daily pick and choose whom we'll love and whom we'll ignore and have nothing to do with and acting that way doesn't really bother us, does it? And if something does go wrong, we may be troubled but only because in our selfishness, we think whatever is wrong is the end of our world. When it comes down to it, we are not so troubled by our sins. We aren't even really troubled by Jesus' death. If our eyes glaze over to the tragedies we see far away on a new broadcast, how much more do we not get worked up about Jesus death for our sins?

Repent of not being terribly troubled at your sins. But more than that, recognize the reason Jesus is troubled. It's not just because He's going to suffer a whole lot of pain and He's not looking forward to it. Our Lord is troubled by our sins. He takes them as His own and feels their guilt upon Him. He makes our sins His own and suffers the weight of God's judgment upon those iniquities and transgressions. We ought to be troubled by our sins, but only in the sense that we realize how bad they are: They killed God Himself in the flesh. But then hear Jesus' words again: “It is for this purpose that I came to this hour.” You can't get Jesus off track. He came to be troubled by our sins, to be crushed and bruised and stricken, smitten, and afflicted for us. His one entire purpose was this: to be troubled for you. In your place. On your behalf. And having taken the trouble of our sins upon Himself, He trades it for a pure and clean conscience. Washed clean at the font. Fed and strengthened at the altar. The grain of wheat goes to die. It fulfills its purpose by dying and then producing a plant. The Lamb goes to His purpose. To His sacrifice. The Savior goes to His cross. To his suffering and death. To make what was yours, His, your sins and death. And to give you what He has for you: forgiveness and life. Jesus doesn't ask the Father to save Him from this hour. Rather, He goes to His hour, to His purpose, for you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 17, 2011 - The Sunday of the Passion - St. Matthew 27:24-25

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There are two reactions to Christ being sent to death. The first reaction is that of Pontius Pilate washing his hands. “I am innocent of this man's blood!” It's not MY fault. I can't do anything about it. He's the ROMAN governor. He can certainly stop it. But he's had too many run ins with the Jews and they hate him. And the Emperor told him to keep the peace. So let's make a grand show of washing our hands and pretending we can't do anything to keep an innocent man from getting nailed to a cross. Sound familiar? It's not MY fault. Jesus' death wasn't caused by MY sins. Or maybe a little bit but hardly as much as someone else's sins! No, Pilate, you don't get off the hook like that. And not us either. We don't get off the hook like that. We are responsible for sending Jesus to the cross. It was for our sins that He suffered and died. You can't say those words you said to someone aren't your fault. That it wasn't your responsibility. You can't get away with “they did it first.” There is no “I'm not to blame” or “I have an excuse.” We sin against God and others all the time and it is because of those sins that God is nailed to the tree. We don't get a pass just because we think it's a bit uncomfortable to say that it's our fault.

The other reaction is that of the Jews. “Fine! Let His blood be on our heads!” They so hate and despise Jesus that they don't care if they are judged for killing God Himself. They so hate and cannot stand God in the flesh that they want Him dead and they'll gladly take the blame as long as it gets done. Pilate's answer is to pretend we don't have sin. The Jews' answer is to not care about their sins. Even if they know it's wrong, they'll do it anyway. And that's our reaction too. I know what I'm about to do is wrong but I'm going to do it anyway. I know that I have a Savior who forgives my sins but I don't care. I'm going to sin anyway and I'm not really sorry for it. I'll take responsibility later. What matters now is what I want to do. I don't care if my sins killed Jesus. You can't tell me what to do! Don't call me a sinner. I don't care. I just want Jesus out of my life so I can do what I want. How'd that work for those who cursed themselves. Forty years later the city of Jerusalem was leveled by the Romans and the inhabitants, men, women and children were slaughtered. How will that end for you if you think like that?

But here's the twist in all of this. Pontius Pilate and the Jews just show us pictures of ourselves and how we react to sending God Himself to suffering and death. And yet, in a deeper way, both what Pilate and the Jews say is true! Jesus goes to suffering and death to take away our sins after all. So when Pilate says that He is innocent of this man's blood, He really is! And when the Jews say that His blood be on their heads, it really is. And you, whose sins sent Jesus to the cross, because He shed His blood for them there, YOU are innocent of His death. God doesn't count your sins any longer as your own but Jesus' sins. You are innocent and He is made guilty. And His blood IS on your head. It's sprinkled upon your head in the waters of Holy Baptism. It's forgiveness is preached into your ears and it is even given you to drink in the Sacrament. The very death that is caused by those who try to claim they're innocent and those who are so angry they don't care; the very death that is caused by ALL of our sins, takes those sins away. Wipes them out. They are no more. Understand this, dear Christians, that it was YOUR sins that sent Jesus to Calvary. But when He was there upon that cross they were no longer your sins but His. And now, washed by His blood, you have everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. It's not that we got away with out sins. Our sins were taken away by our Savior. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 13, 2011 - Wednesday of Lent 5 - The Sacrament of the Altar

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In the Ten Commandments we learn to confess our sins. With the Creed, we learn what God has done for us. In the Lord's Prayer we cry out for our heavenly Father to keep us in the faith. In Holy Baptism we confess that we are the Lord's and in Confession we have the opportunity to hear the sweet words of Holy Absolution. Then, finally, in the Sacrament of the Altar, Christ is truly present among us to forgive us and bestow upon us what He won at the cross. What is it and what does it do for us? Let's read in the hymnal page 326 and 327, the first and third questions about the Sacrament of the Altar...Every question or misunderstanding about the Sacrament of the Altar can be answered by Jesus' words. His Words tell us what this Sacrrament is: His Body and Blood. What to do with it: Eat and drink. What good it does: gives the forgiveness of sins. The Catechism reminds us that everything we need to know about this gift is all there in those words: “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” With those words, Jesus gives His gift to us and guards us from all false teaching and misunderstanding of this gift.

“Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Given and shed. These words point us straight to Calvary where God Himself in the flesh bled and died for us. There, on the cross, He gave Himself into death to take away our sins. His body was mocked, spit upon, crowned with thorns, pierced with nails and a spear. From those holy wounds His blood spilled forth, washing away our sins. As the Passover Lamb was slaughtered and eaten in the Old Testament, so this Lamb of God is slain upon the cross and gives His Body and Blood as a holy Passover food that rescues us from death. When we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus, have no doubt that it is the same Body and Blood that was upon Calvary. When Christ's Words are spoken, the bread and wine that sit upon the altar now has with it the true Body and Blood of Jesus. Then our Lord who was on the cross 2000 years ago and is now at the right hand of God is yet here with us now, today, not just in our memories or imaginations but really and truly present is this special and sacramental way.

Given and shed. FOR YOU. For the forgiveness of sins. It's not just that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. His death wouldn't do you any good if its fruits and benefits weren't ever given to you. You weren't there when they crucified the Lord. But He is here now in His Body and Blood for you. And what does His Body and Blood bring us? Forgiveness of sins. Again, in yet one more way, the Lord bestows upon us His forgiveness, His promise that He will not treat us as our sins deserve but rather has cast them into the depths of the sea and made them white as snow. But along with that forgiveness comes eternal life and salvation. Jesus said quite clearly: “If you eat my flesh and drink my blood I will live in you and you in Me and I will raise you up on the Last Day.” (John 6). There it is. The Lord's Supper is not JUST that whatever sins you committed this past week are wiped out. It's so much more. It's the promise that Christ Himself now lives in you and that because He overcame death by His resurrection you will too. So it is perfectly acceptable to say, “Because I have eaten and drunk the Body and Blood of Jesus, my sins are forgiven. I am saved. I am in Christ and He is in me. I will rise on the Last Day and be alive forever!” All of those things are the gifts and promises Christ gives with that Body and Blood that were given and shed for you.

Now we all know what will happen if we stop eating. Not just dieting or even fasting, but just don't eat. We'll become malnourished and eventually we'll die. Now I don't know many people who decide they want to stop eating and let their bodies waste away. But there is always the temptation that we despise the Sacrament and think little of it and so let ourselves drift away from it. Many people do this and they are putting themselves in spiritual harm because eventually their faith that is sustained and made strong by Jesus' Body and Blood will wither away. Therefore let us never despise this holy gift of Christ's Body and Blood, the Sacrament of the Altar! But let us hunger and thirst for it as the medicine of immortality and the cure for our sin and death.

The Sacrament of the Altar is not just a ceremony or something we do in church. It is the highlight and center of our life as Christians that here, at His own altar, Christ Himself feeds us and strengthens us and nourishes us in Him. Here at Christ's altar is not a symbol of something but the Lord Himself, letting us feast upon Him for salvation. “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Those are Jesus' words that mean what they say and give what they say: His Body and Blood that were crucified and raised for you so that you your sins are gone and you have eternal life. “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” It's all there in His Words. At His altar. His gift to you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 10, 2011 - The Fifth Sunday in Lent - St. John 8:42-59

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If the season of Lent is about anything, it's about our Lord's fight against the Devil. Jesus says that the Devil is a liar, and the father of lies and a murderer too. The father of lies and a murderer. The way that the Devil murders is by being a liar. If the Devil can lie to you about God's Word and get you to believe it, then you die, because you are cut off from Christ's Word. The Devil may try to get you to believe the lie that you live a good enough life for God to love you. He may try to get you to believe the lie that all religions are the same and it doesn't matter what you believe. He will lie to you and tell you that there is no God and that all religions are a joke and to be avoided. He will lie and tell you that you can't be a child of God with the sins you've got. He will lie by trying to get some pastor to say that what the Bible teaches is old and outdated or irrelevant. Or he will lie and try to get you to focus on the Law instead of the Gospel as your salvation. It doesn't matter. The Liar and Father of Lies will lie to you in any way, shape, or form can make you doubt Christ's Word and fall into unbelief.

So that is why Jesus says THREE TIME in this Gospel lesson to the Jews who hated Him, that those who are belong to God keep his Word and will not see death. The thing that saves us from the Devil's lies is the Word of Christ. That is the Word that says that God Himself has come in the flesh to carry our sins to the cross and die for them. God dies so that we shall not taste death. Just think of that! Because Jesus died for our sins and rose again, we will not taste death. Wait...does that mean we won't die? No. At least not unless Jesus returns first. What it does mean is that for you who are in Christ, death becomes nothing more than a nap, a falling asleep, a brief passing from this life to eternal life. Being baptized into Christ and having feasted upon Jesus' Body and Blood, know this: for you, death has been overcome. Its power has been neutralized. When the moment of your death comes, it is no more than falling asleep in Jesus. That may not be a pleasant thing to think about, but it's the truth: your death, when it comes, is nothing more than falling asleep in Jesus.

But there is more death than physical death from which Jesus' Word rescues you! There is eternal death. Eternal death is the death that comes after Judgment Day, the eternal separation from God which comes for those who'd rather hold on to their sins than let Christ carry them. Eternal death is everlasting punishment which results from being unrepentant. And from this horrible and eternal death Christ's Word also saves you. Christ's Word delivers His forgiveness so that on the Last Day the verdict you will hear is “not guilty.” Christ's Word is the word that is combined with the water to wash you in Holy Baptism and rescue you from sin, death, and the power of the Devil. It is Christ's Word that your pastor speaks, declaring your sins to be forgiven. Christ's Word is the Word which delivers His Body and Blood for you to eat and drink with the promise that He will raise you up on the Last Day. It is Christ's Word that promises you shall not see death; that physical death cannot harm you and that eternal death is not yours either. It is Christ's Word that gives life and protects us from the lies of the devil.

Now, all this Jesus talk sounds good as long as it's theoretical. But as soon as the rubber hits the road, the Devil is right there to accuse us of...having a devil! Just like the Jews did to Jesus. All Lent Jesus has been casting out the Devil and now they say he has a Devil! That's the Devil's trick. As soon as you try to tell someone that Christ's Word is right, that His Word is true, they will accuse you of being “unloving” and “closed-minded.” In today's world, there's almost nothing worse than being called THOSE things! Don't believe me? Talk to your Baptist friends about Baptism. It matters whether Jesus baptizes and saves babies or He doesn't. “That stuff doesn't matter,” they say, “As long as we all believe in Jesus. Talk to your non-Christian friends about Jesus being the only way to heaven and they will likely reply, “You can't say that someone who doesn't believe in Jesus will go to hell. You're close minded!” Tell someone else in our own church body, the Missouri Synod, that they shouldn't be giving Communion to just anyone and they will accuse you of meddling and questioning their intentions. In short: the moment you confess that Christ's Word is the truth, the absolute, unchanging, saving Truth, the Devil goes into overdrive to throw his lies at you and wear you down until you just want to give in and say, “It really doesn't matter!” And if the Devil can't get you with that, he'll go after you some other way. Just as the Jews, when they couldn't argue with Christ's Word, became so enraged they grab stones to kill Him!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, take this battle seriously! Repent of any despising of God's Word or not learning that Word which protects and saves you! Here, in Christ's church, where His Word is preached and His holy Sacraments are given out, you need not fear the Devil and his lies. Here you have the Truth of Christ delivered to you from God's Word, the Holy Scriptures. Here in your Baptism, Absolution, Supper and the preaching and teaching of the Scriptures, you have every weapon against the Evil One who seeks to confuse you and lie to you and ultimately murder you. In the end, the Devil is a total fool. He worked so hard through evil men to get a hold of the Son of God and kill Him! And yet it is by that every death that Jesus tramples the Devil and his kingdom and swallows up death in the victory of Easter. You are of God, for you have God's Word. And Christ's Word means that you will not taste death. It's a fact that the Devil hates but that he can't do anything about, for you are safe in Christ Jesus. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 9, 2011 - Higher Things "Baptismal ID" Retreat Matins - Psalm 130

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Are you ever down in the dumps? Life's the pits? Feelin' low? In over your head? That's all what the psalmist calls “the depths.” The “depths” are the deep places where the devil, the world and our sinful nature overwhelm us. The depths are where you are when your parents are mad at you, your friends stab you in the back, and you're troubled by something you said or did or thought and think that God is mad at you and won't forgive you. Yep. The depths. Not a fun place to be. So what do you do when you're there? Whine? Complain? Cry? Sob? Get in a foul mood? The Psalmist gives us some help: Cry out to the Lord! “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Lord, I'm sinking in the depths! I'm drowning! Going down! Help!”

Look around. Not here. I mean look around those depths. See who else is there? No, not just pretty much every other kid you know. Jesus is there. In the depths. That's right. Right there in the depths with you. Because Jesus knows all about the depths. He knows that down there in the depths, the Devil is swimming around like shark waiting to gobble you up with despair and sadness. So that's where Jesus is. In the depths. To save you. And He can do that because He's been in even deeper depths than you. First of all, even though He's the sinless Son of God, god Himself, He came down to this world, to the depths of where sin lives here among sinners. Then He went even lower. He went to the cross and even though He was lifted up on the cross, He was sunk down in the depths. Our sins were like a great block of concrete or some other weight chained to Jesus dragging Him down into the depths of our sins and God's judgment and finally into death. He went even lower, but this time not to suffer. He descended into the depths of Hell itself to let the Devil know that he has no claim on you. Then He came bursting out of the depths of the grave and was alive again. The depths aren't so deep now, because Jesus has been through them.

So what about your depths? The psalmist says that with the Lord there is forgiveness. With the Lord is abundant redemption. Jesus has pulled you from the depths once. He pulled you out from the depths of sin and death on the day you were baptized and pulled, as it were, from the water. On that day, with water and the Word, your Savior has rescued you from the depths so that even when you think life is the pits, Jesus is right there with you by His Word and your Baptism to rescue you from despair and unbelief and everything else that seems like it's going to completely overwhelm you. Remember what we sang just a bit ago? “The deep places of the earth are in His hands.” Remember that: when you are down in the dumps, the pits, the water's over your head and you are in the depths, the Lord has those in His hand. And that means you in His hand. And that is the hand that was pierced with a nail for you and the hand that splashed the water and Word upon you. It is the hand of Jesus that lifts you up out of the depths and puts you at the highest place alongside Him, where sin, death, devil and hell can't touch you. So when you're in the depths, make the sign of the cross and remember you Baptism and cry out to the Lord. He'll save you. He already has! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 6, 2011 - Wednesday of Lent 5 - Confession and Absolution

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The struggle that we face as Christians is NOT one of trying to improve ourselves but rather learning to believe that our sins which would condemn us are truly and completely forgiven in Christ. That needs to be repeated: The struggle of being a Christian is not one where we try to improve ourselves but rather learn to believe that the sins which would condemn us are truly and completely forgiven in Christ. The gift that Christ has given us for this battle and the focus of our Catechism tonight is that of Confession and Absolution. Let's read on page 326 in the hymnal... Now, all of the Gospel and Sacraments—Baptism, Absolution, the preaching of the Gospel and the Lord's Supper—all give us forgiveness of our sins. But each one has something special about it. The special thing about Confession and Absolution is that it is forgiveness targeted to the sins that bother us in particular. My sins aren't the same as your sins and your sins aren't the same as someone else's. So in Confession and Absolution, in particular, PRIVATE Confession and Absolution, the Lord delivers forgiveness to you for the sins which trouble you. You see, the Devil wants you to believe that because of your sins, you're out. Out of God's kingdom. Out of God's family. Out of the church. Out of luck. Doomed. You know what I mean. We have all done something or said something or thought something about which the Devil whispers, “You did, said or through that. You're no Christian. It's Hell for you!” We all have sins of which we're ashamed, or by which we are burdened or bothered. Absolution stands between you and the lie of the devil because by Holy Absolution, the minister that Christ has ordained speaks as Jesus' own representative to declare that your sins are forgiven and not held against you.

So what's the deal with Confession? How does it work? Well, it has two parts. First, we confess our sins. We admit and acknowledge that what the Commandments say we should do we haven't done or that we shouldn't do we did. Now the truth is most people don't like to go to private confession. Why not? Because when you tell the pastor what you've done, you suddenly realize that God really DOES see and know what you've done. As long as we avoid Confession, we can pretend that not even God sees and hears our words and deeds and thoughts even though we say He does. As long as we hang onto our sins and hide them, we think no one, least of all the Lord Himself will know. But when we confess our sins, we come to the awful realization that they are known. They're known to the pastor and God Himself too. But perhaps more than that, we realize that if we are telling our sins to the pastor, they must be really bad. In fact, so bad that they killed the Son of God! Put another way, the sins we confess are the cause of Christ's suffering and death and so we don't like confession because it brings us to the realization not only that our sins are not hidden from God, they are bad enough to kill God! After all, it was for the words we say, and the deeds we do and the thoughts we think the deny God and our neighbor that Christ shed His blood on Calvary and died.

And yet the very sins that caused Christ's death are the very reason He gave Himself up as a sacrifice: to take those sins away! To wipe them out! To blot them out! To forgive them so that they no longer accuse and condemn us. To rescue us from the devil and the eternal punishment we deserved. Notice that when the Catechism talks about the two parts of Confession, it says a few words about Confession but a whole bunch of words about Absolution! Yeah, sure, we confess, we speak what sins are bothering us and admit that we are sinners. But the BIG DEAL, the whole reason for going to confession, is the Absolution. What is Absolution? It's when the pastor forgives our sins and we know that His forgiveness is from Christ Himself. And if that forgiveness is from Christ Himself, not the devil, the world or even our own sinful nature can contradict it or say otherwise. In Absolution, the death of Jesus for our sins and the forgiveness He won is personally and uniquely bestowed upon you, robbing the devil of any chance he has to accuse you! Absolution is the pardon from God just as certainly as if you were a death row inmate and received a call from the governor pardoning you, told you by the warden! Absolution declares that you are free. Forgiven. It's a reminder of what God has given you in your baptism and it's an invitation to come and receive more forgiveness in the Supper too! When you are absolved, you are pardoned by Christ Himself.

Now I know that private Confession and Absolution are often seen as “Roman Catholic.” Sometimes people say to me, “Lutherans do that?” Yes, we do. But the emphasis isn't on your sins. Bring the sins that bother and nag you, the ones the devil is hanging over your head, the ones you can't even admit to another person. Bring those sins and have the comfort and relief of absolution applied directly to you and you alone! To go to Confession is to battle sin the only way we can: in Christ, to defeat sin and take away its power by Christ's forgiveness. Tomorrow your pastor has set times for you to come and confess your sins if you want. Remember, we never say you HAVE to! Confession is a gift, not a law, not a curse, not a burden! If you look at your life according to those Ten Commandments, you'll find something that accuses you! So bring that tomorrow at noon or six o'clock to have it wiped out by Holy Absolution. And when you struggle with that sin, and fall back into it, then come to Confession and be absolved again. Over and over as much as you need. THAT is the real Christian struggle; not that we can fix ourselves but that Christ forgives us and then by that forgiveness gives us His Holy Spirit to work in us to make us love God and our neighbor more and more. And if you've never been to private Confession? No problem. We do it straight out of the book so that we're guided entirely by God's Word. Our Savior left us with this gift, that His pastors loose our sins. So come and make your pastor work! Come and make him do that joyful job of laying his hands on your head and pronouncing that all of your sins are gone for Jesus' sake. For Confession and Absolution are the Lord's gift; one more in His pile of gifts by which He forgives you and strengthens and comforts you unto life everlasting. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

April 3, 2011 - The Fouth Sunday in Lent - St. John 6:1-16

2011-04-04T15:31:00.002-05:00

Remember back at the beginning of Lent how we heard the devil trying to tempt Jesus. “Turn the stones into bread. Bow down and get all the kingdoms of the world!” We hear something very similar today when Jesus feeds the 5,000. Everyone had as much as they wanted to eat and so they tried to seize Jesus and make Him a king. A King who provides unlimited free groceries. Who wouldn't want to avoid standing in line at Kroger or Wal-Mart if they could? But that's not why Jesus came. And it's not why He fed the 5,000. If we were to go on and hear the rest of John chapter 6, we'd hear Jesus say “I am the Bread of Life” and be talking about forgiveness and salvation, not the all-you-can eat catfish buffet!

Jesus fed the people their daily bread so that He could teach them His Word. But the people got stuck on the bread and fish. That's all they wanted. They chased Jesus around the lake to find Him because they had eaten and been full. That's what they want! A King who will give them whatever they need without them having to work for it. Jesus promises to provide for us our daily bread but people instead think that's all there is to the Christian faith. I can prove this is true by turning on the the TV and seeing a preacher who flat out tells people that if you are a Christian and especially if you give to his “ministry,” you'll have all kinds of “blessings” like money and cars and happiness. It's as if the Word of God is used to lure people in to a religion where it's really about the stuff you can have. But Jesus teaches us not to worry about the stuff because what's most important is His Word. He's got the stuff covered; so really He's rescuing us from a love of worldly things that doesn't give us what we really need. Just as in the desert, He promise to feed and take care of them but they tried hoarding the manna and gathering it on the Sabbath when it wasn't there. Their hearts were turn to the love of the STUFF rather than the Lord and His promises. Stop for a moment and consider what good things the Lord has given you in this life and how much of an idol you make out of them. And repent!

The feeding of the 5,000 gives Jesus the opportunity to talk about true bread. The true bread is not the manna the Israelites ate. That didn't keep them from dying. The true bread is not the barley loaves Jesus multiplied for 5,000 people either. They wouldn't keep them from dying. No, the True Bread is the Bread of Life, which Jesus says is His flesh which is given for the life of the world. Jesus says that to eat His flesh and blood is to have life. What's so special about His flesh and blood? Why is it the Bread of Life? Because it gives life. Consider a loaf of regular bread. Grain is planted in the ground and essentially dies so that it can grow up and produce more grain which is then harvested and crushed and milled and made into flour and into bread; all to give us nourishment. So it is with Jesus. He is crushed for our sins and planted in the ground to become our life. Our bread. By His flesh, we overcome death. That's because His perfect flesh was crucified for our sins and rose again on the third day. But His flesh is not just true bread by analogy or comparison. His flesh IS true bread and food for He gives it to us to eat and drink in the sacrament of the altar. Of course, this is no cannibal way of eating His flesh; it's a sacramental way in which He gives us His Body and Blood to eat and drink when His Words are spoken over the bread and wine. But then they are no mere bread and wine but along with them the Body and Blood of Jesus by which Jesus promises that He will raise us up on the Last Day. His flesh is really given to us in the holy sacrament so that all that He won for us on Calvary is delivered to us.

So let's realize that our daily bread, the things we need for this life, are taken care of. The Lord's got that covered. In most cases, the Lord provides us a job by which we can earn the money to provide daily bread to our families. But when that is not possible, the Lord provides our parents or sometimes our children to help us. Or even our brothers and sisters in Christ. I surely hope that if anyone here fell into such a need, there would be no hesitation among the rest of us to generously provide for them and help them, in much the same way we provide food for children who don't get enough at school. If you consider that even the poor and homeless in our nation are often well fed and have shelter if they want it, you will quickly realize that our Lord is gracious in providing our daily bread. So the Lord is teaching us that He will indeed take care of our bodily needs, our daily bread. And since He does, we just don't need to get all worked up over it or obsessed with it or turn our daily bread into an idol.

Rather, the most important thing that Jesus gives us is His Word and forgiveness. He gives us Himself as the Bread of Life which gives us life way beyond our Pop-tarts and cheeseburgers. The Bread of Life gives us everlasting life by taking our sins away and providing the promise that He will raise us up on the Last Day. By feeding the 5,000, Jesus is teaching us that we just don't have to worry about that stuff; He's got it covered. Rather, our greatest joy and treasure is to be Jesus Himself and His gifts. It's sad how many people even try to be thankful for God's gifts but still neglect the most important. How many do you know who might honestly say they are thankful for what God gives them and yet they are never here in the Divine Service, feasting upon the Bread which will give them everlasting life. There is simply no greater gift that the Lord has for us than to gather us in His church and fill our ears with His Word and our mouths with His Body and Blood. By doing that, He is giving us something far greater than food for our bellies. He is giving us forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. What a promise! The Lord says that those who eat His body and drink His blood will be raised to everlasting life. No wonder the early church fathers named the Sacrament the “medicine of immortality!” This life-giving feast is what the Lord truly has for us. By it we overcome the devil and have eternal life!

So rejoice today that Jesus came not to be a king just for this life, just for our bellies. Rejoice that He has come as the Savior-King, the One who gives His own flesh for the life of the world. He's got all the daily bread stuff covered. Don't worry about that! Jesus has way more for you than your next sandwich! He has forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation. He has bread which does not perish and that even keeps you from perishing forever. Thanks be to God for our daily bread but even more so for the Bread of Life! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

March 30, 2011 - Wednesday of Lent 3 - Holy Baptism

2011-03-30T15:49:00.000-05:00

The Ten Commandments are the mirror that teaches us to confess our sins. The Creed teaches us who our Lord is and what He has done for us. The Lord's Prayer is the living out of our life as Christians as we learn to trust our heavenly Father for all things. Now we consider Holy Baptism. Let's read these questions from the Catechism, p.325... These words of Jesus should make it clear: Baptism is something God does, not something we do. It is by Holy Baptism that the blood of Jesus which poured from His side on the cross is sprinkled upon us. It is by Holy Baptism that the Lord marks us with His own name as His own children. It is by Holy Baptism that the death and resurrection of Jesus become OUR death and resurrection. Baptism is our birth from above by water and the Spirit. Baptism is our being born again. It is our new birth and our regeneration and our new creation. Just as after Baptism the pastor writes our names in the church's book, Baptism is the writing of our names in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven. We could go on. The fact is you just can't say enough about Holy Baptism! But let's consider how we use our Baptism in our daily life.

Baptism says that your sins are forgiven, that you are no longer a part of the devil's kingdom and that you have everlasting life. That's what the Word and water do. Because that is so, we only ever need to be baptized once, never over and over. But since it happens once and very often when we are younger, we may not remember it. The devil wants nothing more than for you to forget about your Baptism. He doesn't want you remembering that you are a child of God. He wants you to forget that you bear God's name upon you by that water and word. He wants you to ignore, forget and despise your Baptism. He comes after us in two ways. First of all he comes at us outwardly by teaming up with the world. He tries to convince us that God either loves us or hates us based on the things going on in our lives. Got a job? Got a raise? Got over some illness? See? God loves you. But then, someone died. You got sick. You lost your job or got bad grades or something really bad happened. God must hate you. He's against you. The devil wants you to judge whether God loves you based on the ups and downs of your life. But he also comes at you inwardly by teaming up with your sinful nature. He likes to tempt you into sinning. Hating. Lusting. Coveting. Lying. Whatever it is. And then the Devil uses those sins against you by saying, “See what you've done? What you've said? What you've even though? God can't love a sinner like you. You're no Christian. You are going to perish eternally!” So both inwardly and outwardly the Devil tries to pile up evidence that God is against you.

That's where Baptism comes in! We know what the Bible says about Jesus and our sins. We know that He died and rose to take away our sins. We also know that He has overcome the world for us. Baptism is God's way of making sure YOU know that all that Jesus did is for YOU. It's a physical proof that Jesus died and rose FOR YOU. And because Baptism is water combined with God's Word, there isn't anything that can contradict it. Therefore when the devil comes along with the world to trick us and say that God is against us because of some bad thing happening, we lay our Baptism against it and say, “It doesn't matter what good or bad things I have or have happen to me. Baptism says I am rescued from all that and God loves me.” Or when the Devil tries to throw our sins in our face we reply, “It's true that on my own I am a sinner; no argument there. But my Baptism says that my sins were taken away by the Lamb of God and that no matter what I've done, I am God's Child.” In other words, Baptism is the antidote for every lie that the devil, the world and your sinful nature tell. The devil can play his games, the world throw disasters at you and your sinful flesh doubt God's Word, but none of those things is more powerful than the Word of God that was attached to that water that was splashed on you at the holy font. Whenever these things come against you, you lay your Baptism against them and the triumph of Christ conquers these things.

The Catechism says that every morning and every evening, we should make the sign of the holy cross and say, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The sign of the cross is no mere superstition! It is a reminder that we are baptized, that we are marked with God's name and belong to Him. Making the sign of the cross is one way to use our Baptism every day, not just think of it as something that happened in the past. The Large Catechism even suggests that when something bad happens, we make the sign of the cross as a reminder that we are not going to let the Devil tell us how it is with God. How it is with the Lord is already established by our Baptism. The sign of the cross is just the reminder that because of that Baptism, nothing in this world can truly harm us, not even death.

Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation. Is there any better gift than that? Is there any more sure or certain promise that the Lord is on your side? In our Baptism, we have a whole life's worth of God's promises to live in and believe. The power and promise of Jesus Himself and all His power over the devil is all yours because you have been washed with water and the word at the holy font. So whatever the world throws at you, don't worry about it. You're baptized. And that means you are Christ's. And if nothing can take Him down, nothing can take you down either since you are baptized into Jesus. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Your Baptismal name! Amen.

March 23, 2011 - Wednesday of Lent 2 - The Lord's Prayer

2011-03-23T16:11:00.001-05:00

The Ten Commandments are our mirror to show us our sin and to teach us what gifts the Lord gives to us and protects. The Creed lays out for us who God is and what He has done for us. Tonight we consider the Lord's Prayer. There's a lot of confusion out there about how Christians should pray and why we should pray. Too many people learn to pray from TV or movies or babbling preachers who repeat the same words over and over and never seem to say much of anything. When we pray, we struggle to find the words. We might just talk “naturally” except that our minds wander and we never seem to cover everything we need to. But our example for prayer isn't the little girl on a TV show who says “Dear Lord, I know you're busy” or the rambling preacher who says, “Father God” fifty times. Jesus, recognizing that we really have no idea what to ask God for or how to ask for it, teaches us the short and simple words of the Lord's Prayer. There is nothing you can ask for that we don't ask for in the Lord's Prayer. Let me say that again. There is nothing you can pray for that is not prayed for or about in the Lord's Prayer. And before the Lord's Prayer is words on our lips, it's promises that Jesus makes about the Father. To put it another way: He wouldn't tell us to ask for those things if the Father wasn't going to give them to us!

Remember that woman in our Gospel reading this week. She cries out to Jesus as the Son of David to have mercy on her. She KNOWS He's the One to take away the devil's power over her daughter. But if Jesus wants to ignore her and call her a dog, then she'll take that and then demand the crumbs! In other words, she prays and asks Jesus based not on HERSELF but based upon HIS PROMISES and HIS WORD and the kind of Savior He is. And that's what the Lord's Prayer and all prayer are about. Prayer isn't the way that we shift God to think like us and do what we want. It's the way that we are shifted to think like the Lord and receive from Him what He wants us to have. Let me say THAT again too: Prayer isn't getting God over to your way of thinking. It's the Lord's way of bringing us over to HIS way of thinking. Prayer is given to us so that we can learn God's Promises and then learn to live by them. What do I mean? Consider this particular petition of the Lord's Prayer: Deliver us from evil. When we pray that petition we learn to believe that the Lord is the One who delivers us from evil. But how and in what way is up to Him. Take for example our dear Mary Mydler. We prayed fervently that the Lord would deliver her from sickness. Many times He gave her health and strength and she improved and we gave thanks for that. But then she died. Does that mean that the Lord doesn't answer prayer or stopped listening? No, because as we prayed for her we learned to pray that God's will be done, that she be kept in the holy faith of Christ and pass from this life in Jesus, which she did. So either way, we learned that it is the Lord that we call upon in every need. In this way, prayer teaches us that we aren't just focusing on one particular need but that in EVERYTHING, we cry out to the Father to care for us and deliver us.

Consider Jesus' own prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prays that the Father take the cup of suffering from Him. He doesn't want to go to the cross. But He prays, “Not my will but Yours be done.” Did the Father not answer Jesus' prayer? Jesus, by praying that way, shows us that it isn't the THING we pray for that is most important but learning to believe and trust in the Lord and that His will is done for us. So Jesus went and suffered and died and rose from the dead and ascended and is crowned with all power and authority. But more than that. His death isn't for His own sake. Because He suffered and took away our sins and because He's raised to life and the right hand of the Father, we know God's promises are true. Just imagine if Jesus said, “Pray all these words that I am teaching you,” and then He died and stayed dead! His Words would be pretty worthless. But since He conquered sin and rose from the dead, we can be certain that the words of the Lord's Prayer that He taught us are true promises that we can rub in the Lord's ear just as this dog woman clung to Him by His Word!

The fact is, prayer does NOT come naturally. We want it to be like chatting with God at a coffee shop or something and that's just not how it works. Sinful by nature, we don't even know what to pray for or how to pray. Now I'm NOT saying it's wrong to use your own words when you pray. But if you're anything like me, your words either ramble and repeat or wander off or just never come to the point. Then prayer isn't about God's promises, it's about me and my wandering heart. That's why when you pray the BETTER prayers are the ones that say simply and clearly what we need based on the simple and clear promises of God. And the BEST prayer we could ever offer is the one that Jesus taught us. Remember, Jesus says NOT to babble like the heathen but RATHER to SAY, the Lord's Prayer! It doesn't matter what is going on in your life or in someone else's or around the world, the words and promises Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer will cover it. Consider the horrible tsunami. So we pray the Lord's Prayer and remember the Lord's promise to provide daily bread and deliver from evil. We or someone we love is sick. We pray for the Lord's will to be done and that means not only the daily bread of good health but also the Lord working through His Word to keep us from despair and unbelief while we suffer. Or consider our children. Surrounded by so many dangers we pray that simple promise that the Lord preserve them from the temptations of the Evil One. And so it goes. Whatever we have going on or need to pray about or for, the Lord's Prayer, above all other prayers, gets our thinking in line with the sure and certain promises of Jesus.

So grab hold of those words of the Lord's Prayer and take a hold of the Lord with those words just like Jacob grabbed the Lord and wouldn't let go until He blessed him and the dog lady wouldn't let go of Jesus until He helped her daughter. The death and resurrection of Jesus, your adoption by grace in Holy Baptism, the declaration that your sins are forgiven, and the Body and Blood of Jesus by which He lives in you all testify that the promises He teaches you to cling to in the Lord's Prayer are true and certain and the will of God. So above all other prayers, pray the Lord's Prayer. Learn what its petitions are all about. Pray these Words, as the Catechism teaches, when you get up and before you go to sleep (along with the Creed!) When you pray and you don't know anything else to say, let those words of the Lord's Prayer be your words to grab a hold of the Lord and cry out for mercy. The Lord's Prayer is the way in which we do battle as Christians. It is the way in which we who have learned how to live from the Ten Commandments and what to believe in the Creed call upon the Lord to give us His grace and Spirit so that we will live as we ought and believe as we should and in all things find our help and comfort in His Word and promises. So take hold of the Lord through prayer! He Himself has given you the words to use! What better way to call upon Him than with His own words which He has given you to do exactly that! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

March 20, 2011 - The Second Sunday in Lent - St. Matthew 15:21-28

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We know that the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh are against us, tempting us to turn from the Lord's Word and give in to sin. But what if our problem is with the Lord? What if God is the problem? This Canaanite woman's daughter was possessed by a demon; the devil had control; his evil attacked her daughter and her family. But when she cried out to the Lord, then what? He ignored her! He didn't even answer her! She kept at Him, stalking him, I guess because finally the disciples got annoyed and told Jesus to get rid of her! Can you imagine? Here is the one man who can help this woman's daughter and He's blowing her off like she doesn't exist. Then, as if that's not frustrating or insulting enough, He talks right over her and tells His disciples, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Talking like she's not even there. And then she falls down to beg Him to help her and He calls here a dog! A DOG! Now I'm pretty sure calling a woman a dog back then is just about as bad as it is today. Just try calling your mother or wife or girlfriend a dog and see what happens! We thought this woman's big problem was that he daughter was demon possessed. It seems like that's small potatoes compared to the treatment she's actually getting from the Lord! And haven't you gotten the same treatment from Him too? You pray and pray and nothing happens. No answer. The Lord ignores you. You see someone else get the result you wished you had and you wonder if God is YOUR God or not! So what about it? What about when the Lord Himself is the One who is our problem?

“Yes, Lord, but even the dogs get the crumbs that fall from the table.” Wait! What? Did that lady just admit to being a dog like Jesus called her? In our day and age, the woman could file libel or harassment charges; perhaps a slap or a nasty post on Facebook! But she agrees! Admits she must be a dog. Not worthy of Jesus. Not worthy of the Jewish Messiah. Not deserving of anything. No claim on Him at all. Except one. She's got one thing that will force His hand. That will compel Him to help. That will make Him save her daughter. What is that one thing? His WORD! When Jesus calls her a dog and she agrees, she's got Him! “OK, Lord, I'm a dog. Fine. But even dogs get crumbs and just crumbs from you will be enough to overthrow Satan's kingdom and save my daughter!” Well there's no getting out of that. Jesus is back against the wall, in the corner. He's trapped by His own words! Notice that this woman has claimed nothing about herself. The only reason she has for Jesus to help her is...Jesus! Because she's a dog but He's the Master and His crumbs will be enough. And so He does what He does: He saves her daughter. With a word, He casts out that demon and rescues this woman and her daughter from the tyranny of the Devil. And says to her: “Great is your faith.” NOT because she's so persistent. This story isn't about the woman; it's about Jesus giving the woman something to trap Him with: His Word. And she grabs a hold of it and does exactly that. And so Jesus does what He does, and is the kind of Savior He came to be.

That's because Jesus came to be the kind of Savior who rescues us from the devil. He rescues from sin and death. That's the kind of Savior He came to be and He can't be any other kind of Savior than that one. From before the foundation of the world, the Lamb has been slain. From the earliest promises the Lord made to Adam and Eve throughout the Old Testament and the promises and pictures of the coming Savior. From His birth of the virgin to His baptism and temptation, to His casting out demons. From His arrest and mocking trial, His scourging and crucifixion and death. From His resurrection and ascension and His future return in glory: From all these things we know: Christ is the one who saves. He is our God and Lord and Savior and Master from whose table even the crumbs save us. Jesus was not born with one purpose but then got sidetracked and ended up at the cross. The cross was always His destination, always the Father's plan. Remember that when it seems as if God isn't listening, that Jesus is always Jesus, always the Savior, always the Lamb who is slain for our salvation.

So what about it? What about when you pray and pray and the beg the Lord for something. To be healed or for someone you know to get better? For overcoming a temptation and sin that you keep sliding back into? For health and protection and the disaster strikes? What do you do as a Christian when it seems that the biggest problem you have in your life isn't the devil or the world or your sinful nature but the Lord Himself not doing anything about them?The answer is that you continue to take Christ's promises and rub them in His ear. That you repent of trying to negotiate with the Lord based on anything in you and go at Him full force based on HIS Word and HIS promises! You've already got some strong promises to cling to: He's the Savior who died on the cross and rose again. “Lord, you gave your life for us! Don't let this person perish! Don't let the devil win here!” He's the Lord who has washed and named you in Holy Baptism. “Lord, don't let go of your servant whom you washed and claimed as your own by water and the Word!” He's the Lord who has absolved your sins! “Lord, don't treat me as my sins deserve! Don't ignore my prayers because of my sins!” He's the Lord who gives not crumbs but His very Body and Blood from His table. “Lord, you have given me Yourself! Hear my prayer and be the Savior that you are!” And never stop taking those promises to His ears and praying, “Lord, save me. Save this person. Help and sustain us. Because you said so! So Lord, end this sickness; Lord deliver me from temptation and sin. Lord, give me your Holy Spirit so that in Christ I overcome every evil of body and soul!”

And know this: The Lord can't be any other Savior than He is. So when will He answer? It may be a long time in coming. It may not be until after death, on the Last Day when we are once and for all delivered from death and sickness and sorrow. Know that when it seems the Lord is ignoring you, or even telling you He's not for you, He's just teaching you to trust in Him all the more. He's teaching you to deny yourself and anything in yourself that you think is worthy of His attention and to have all of your faith and trust solely and completely in Him. Like Jacob, grab a hold of Him and don't let go until He blesses you! So while it may SEEM as if the Lord is against you, it can't be so. All that He does is to work out all good for you in Christ. He can only ever be the Savior that He is. The Savior who saves you. Hold Him to that, dear Christians, for He delights, as with this woman, to be trapped by His own Word and promises. For that Word and those promises declare He will not leave you to your enemies but rescue you from them all. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

March 16, 2011 - Wednesday of Lent 1 - A Sermon on the Apostle's Creed

2011-03-16T16:40:00.002-05:00

In these weeks of Lent, we want to learn how the Chief Parts of the Christian faith teach us and how we use them in our daily lives. Last week we heard how the commandments give us a mirror by which we learn to confess our sins and the blessings the Lord gives us. This week we consider the Apostles' Creed. You can find it on the inside back cover of your hymnal. Let's read it together.... Now if one thing is clear from the example of Eve in the Garden of Eden is that the devil will always try to twist and lie about God's Word to confuse us and lead us into temptation and sin. We need to know what God's Word says simply and clearly. Thankfully, the whole Bible can be summed up in what the Lord is doing for us in the words of the Apostles' Creed. Now of course the Creed isn't IN the Bible word for word. However, every word of the Creed, every statement, is drawn from the Holy Scriptures. You could call the Apostles' Creed the “Cliff Notes” of the Bible, summarizing what the most important things are that we are to know about God. In the Ten Commandments, we learn what the Lord wants us to do. But in the Creed we learn what God has done and still does for us. The Creed then becomes our daily defense against despair and the lies and confusion of the Devil.

All around us, the world operates on the assumptions taught by evolutionary science, that is, everything randomly evolved from something else and there is nothing special about man and nothing intelligent or directed about how all things have worked out. Life and happiness are what YOU make them to be and that's about all there is to this life. The Creed guards and protects us from such a despairing way of thinking by drumming into our ears that God the Father has made all things. He not only made them, but He made them for US, since He is our heavenly Father. And He not only made us but still takes care of us. The Creed pulls together all of the stories of the Lord taking care of His people and providing for them and teaches and reminds us that God is our heavenly Father. Not a disinterested “life force” or a “clockmaker” God who just winds up the world and watches it go. No, our heavenly Father is actively involved in this world to make all things work together for the good of those who love Him. Against all the randomness and lack of purpose and importance that science causes for mankind, the Word of God tells us that God is our Father who loves and provides for us in all things.

We are also surrounded by so many different religions which teach so many different ways to God, yet the world says that all religions get you to God. But all the religions of this world teach US how to get to God. Whether it's living a good life, or following the Five Pillars, or keeping the Torah or being born over and over in this world until you live a good enough life to get out, they all are the same: YOU do something to work it all out. But against this, the Creed declares that we have a Savior. God Himself. The Son of God who became man, was born of Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate—a real, historical person—and died and rose again. The Creed pulls together everything that is most important in the Scriptures about what God has done to save us: coming as a man and dying and rising for us to take away our sins. The Creed teaches us and reminds us that the central, most important thing in our faith and religion is not ourselves but Jesus and what He has done for us. Against the religions of the world that all clamor for our attention and tell us what we have to do, the Creed defines the Christian faith in which it is Jesus, God Himself, who does the suffering, dying, rising and saving. And against all the false and misleading lies of the devil about Jesus, the facts are laid out for us to cling to: He came into this world and truly died and rose and will come again.

The Creed also sets us straight on the Holy Spirit. And we need that since the Holy Spirit is so misunderstood and preached falsely in so many churches. The devil tries to get us to see the Holy Spirit as merely our feelings. So if we want to do something or say something, whatever we feel must be the Holy Spirit, even if it's against God's Word! But against all that, the Creed sets forth what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit, namely, that He works through God's Word to deliver to us the forgiveness of sins in the Christian church. He's all about uniting us in Christ in the communion of saints, making us holy through the forgiveness of sins. The big deal in our life in the church is not strange miracles like so called “speaking in tongues” or some emotional rush. THAT'S not the Holy Spirit. Rather, as the Creed reminds us, the Holy Spirit is all about the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us delivered in Baptism, the Word and the Sacrament of the Altar. And lest we think that we somehow end up when we die just floating around a spiritual heaven on the clouds, the Creed reminds us that the same Spirit who gives us life in Christ will raise our bodies from the dead and we will have everlasting life.

We could go on and on but you get the point: all of the ideas and notions of the religions and this world that are contrary to God's Word and clearly and simply debunked by the words of the Creed. For ages the church has summarized her faith in the words of the Creed, taking comfort in all that God does for her. Now you and I, we are surrounded daily by news reports and TV shows and books and the internet and other people, all of whom the devil uses to fill our head with doubts and questions and strange ideas and philosophies and wrong notions about God and His Word. That is why we must pray the Creed daily. As the Catechism directs, pray it in the morning, fortifying yourself against the nutty ideas that are out there, hearing the Good News of all that God has done and still does for you as you go out into the world to live your life each day. Then pray it again before bed, flushing your mind and heart of all those ridiculous and wacky notions the devil has tried to plant in your mind and heart that day.

The Bible is a big book, but we should hear it and study it and learn it and grow in it. Yet even as we do, we have its most important teachings laid out for us simply and clearly in the Apostles' Creed. In the Creed we have our daily reminder of who God is and what He has done and still does for us so that the devil cannot deceive us and lead us astray. When we hear something whispered by the devil or shouted by the world, we simply compare it to the Creed and see that it is false and go joyfully on our way, not worrying because God's Word does what it says: it keeps and preserves us in the Christian faith. For after all, we hear the Father made us and takes care of us; the Son saved us and pleads for us; the Spirit makes us holy by the forgiveness of sins and will raise us to life everlasting. The Lord has done all this for us and continues to give us every grace and blessing just as the Creed tells us. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

March 9, 2011 - Ash Wednesday - The Ten Commandments and Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

2011-03-09T14:38:00.002-06:00

I want you to get out your mirrors and look into them. No, not your compacts, ladies. I mean everyone. Your mirror is the Ten Commandments. They're on p.288 in the hymnal. Let's read them together...Those commandments are a mirror. They are not a pair of binoculars to spy on others so that you can see what sins other people are doing. They are a mirror so that you can look at them and see what you are. What do you see? Love God, His name and His Word? No. You don't. So look in the mirror and see the ashes on your head that tell you what you are: dead. Dust. Doomed. Do you honor your parents? Keep from harming others even with your words? Lust after those the Lord hasn't given you? Honor and love your spouse? Take what doesn't belong to you? Gossip and talk about others? Covet and daydream about things you don't have? No, you don't love your neighbor either. What does the mirror show? Ashes. You're dead. You're dust. You're doomed. This is the holy Law of God. Those who don't keep it will suffer everlasting death and judgment. That's what the Law says will happen.

But it gets worse. The Commandments don't condemn us because we don't keep some rules. As if God just said one day, “Hmm, what are ten rules I can come up with and smite people when the don't follow them?” No, the Ten Commandments condemn us because Jesus says that our hearts will be where our treasure is and the Ten Commandments show us where our treasure is NOT. God Gives us Himself. You want other things to be more important. God gives us His name. You don't pray and call upon it. He gives us His Word. You ignore, fail to study and grow in it. He gives us parents and children but we despise them and wish we had others. He gives us life, but we take it from others with our words and actions. He gives us our spouses but we lust after other people. He gives us our possessions but we try to take what doesn't belong to us and don't help others keep what is theirs. He gives us our reputation which we love to preserve while tearing down someone else's. He gives us contentment by promising to take care of us but we daydream and covet other things, always wanting more, never satisfied with what our Father in heave gives us. Get it? Our biggest problem is not that God gives us rules and we can't keep them. Our real problem is the Lord gives us an abundance of treasure in Himself and others and we could care less. We despise and want other things. And the punishment of the Ten Commandments is this: If you don't want the things God gives you, you don't have to have them. And you can spend eternity with yourself apart from God with all the others who don't want those things either. That's a pretty ugly face to see when we look in that mirror!

So the Lord gives every good thing to us and we love the things of this world more than Him. So He sentences us to turn back into dust. But there is love even in that curse. Look in the mirror. See the ashes? It's a reminder you will be dust again one day. It's a reminder that you won't last. That the things of this world won't last. The Lord teaches us in our sins that we cannot save ourselves. We can't cheat death or avoid it. And there is nothing we love so much on this earth that won't likewise pass away no matter what or who it is. The treasures of this world, our money and things and people, these get eaten by moths and rust and stolen and fade away. Ash Wednesday is the reminder that when you strip it down and take away all the things we love so much, other people, and the money and things of this world, and finally, most of all, ourselves, none of it can be relied upon. The only thing left is the Lord. If we would be saved, if we would be rescued from our sins, if we would overcome the death that awaits us, it's all on Him to do it and to save us.

Look in the mirror again. See the ashes? But what shape? The cross. The cross is the sign that God has done something about our sins. In the Old Testament, one of the sacrifices and ceremonies that took place was the making of the water of purification. To make the water of purification, the priest sacrificed a heifer, and burned it along with cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop. The ashes of all this were then mixed with water, to be a water of purification. The symbolism and picture is obvious isn't it? Jesus, mocked in a scarlet, is then sacrificed on the wood of the cross to pay the price for our sins. The punishment that the Lord sets upon us for our sins—death--is the punishment He Himself undergoes for us. For us, who treasure everything else but what we should, our Savior Jesus makes His treasure this one thing: doing the will of His Father; saving sinners. Jesus treasures His Father because we don't. Jesus is the sacrifice that purifies us. The dust reminds us of death. But the ashes remind us of mercy. God's mercy to us through His Son Jesus Christ!

Just as the ashes of the heifer and the items were mixed with the water, so it is the sacrifice of Jesus, the blood He shed which is mixed with the water of the font to become a purifying water, a water that washes away sins. We have looked into the mirror of the Law and seen the ashes of our dust and death. What can take that away? What can save us? The Law doesn't make us pure and holy. It can't. It only shows us that we're not. So we wash with the water of purification. Washed in the water and word of Baptism. The words of Absolution. The Body and Blood of Christ's Supper. How can you be sure that the cures of death upon you has been lifted? That you will beat death? Because you're been purified by the blood of Christ. The font is open tonight. As you come up for the Sacrament, why not splash your fingers in that water and make the sign of the cross? Remember the waters of purification that have been made by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for you. And, dare I suggest it? If some of that water is marked on your forehead and washes off your ashes? A reminder that through Holy Baptism we have the victory of our Lord over sin and death and the curse. A reminder that the treasure the Lord gives us in Holy Baptism is greater than any treasure that is passing away in this world!

So you check yourself in the mirror every day before you go to work or school or out and about. Hair combed, nothing in your teeth, right? Check yourself in the mirror of the Lord's commandments each day. And whatever sins and blemishes you find there, wash them off with the remembrance of your Baptism. In this way, learn to use the Ten Commandments to prepare yourself for confession of your sins. But learn also to use them as your treasure list, to daily see the good gifts the Lord gives you. Learn to see these commandments as the true and trustworthy guide in how the Lord wants you to live toward Him and toward others. And yes, doing that will eventually show you how ugly your sin makes you. So its more washing with the remembrance of Holy Baptism. And that's the Christian life, that we struggle against the sin which despises what God gives and are purified by the sacrifice of Jesus which takes away our sins. Ash Wednesday calls to mind our death and dust. But the purifying waters of Jesus triumph over that. So we can't help but say, “Happy Lent!” In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

March 6, 2011 - Catechesis at Bethel: What is Lent?

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Lent is a season in the Church Year which focuses upon the Passion (suffering and death) of Jesus to accomplish our salvation. Lent is often called a “penitential” season because of the emphasis on repentance. Remember, however, that “repentance” also includes faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. So the emphasis in Lent isn't US and OUR sins, but JESUS and His giving Himself as the Lamb of God to take away our sins.

Historically, Lent has had different meanings and purposes. At one time, it was a period of “discipline” for those who had sinned publicly and were waiting to be publicly absolved and readmitted to the fellowship of the church. In other times, it has had a Catechism emphasis, being the time when catechumens were instructed in the faith in preparation for Baptism and Confirmation at the Easter Vigil. The best understanding of Lent is that it is about Jesus and what He suffered to save us. In worship, we forego the joyous sound of “alleluias” until Easter and our hymns will concentrate more than ever on Jesus' saving work as the sacrifice for our sins.

The Season of Lent is 40 days long. (Sundays in Lent are not counted and neither are Good Friday and Holy Saturday). These 40 days remind us of the 40 days of the rains of the Flood, the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the desert, and the 40 days Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted, among other “40s” in the Scriptures. These times remind us especially about the battles we face in this life and that we trust in the Lord to fight for us against our enemies and provide for us until we reach the safety of eternal life.

Three particular Christian practices are emphasized in Lent. Lent is seen as a time of extra prayer. During Lent and throughout Holy Week, the Church has extra times for worship so that we can give more attention to the preaching of Christ and the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Lent is also a good time to practice daily prayer in our personal devotions. A simple order of prayer is available right in the Small Catechism (p.327 in the hymnal).

Fasting or abstaining is another Lenten discipline. Fasting means not eating for a length of time. Abstaining means not eating certain foods or, as is the more modern custom, “giving something up.” The point of these practices is NOT to deny ourselves some pleasure but to remind ourselves that Christ is our true bread and that the food of this world does not last. Sometimes meat (which really includes fish, too!) is not eaten on Fridays as a simple reminder that our Lord suffered in His flesh on a Friday. It's a devotional reminder of our Lord's suffering, again, not to deprive ourselves, but to focus our attention and meditation upon our Savior.

Almsgiving or works of charity are another type of Lenten practice. Here we learn again to crucify our own sinful flesh and its desires by remembrance of our Baptism and instead use our time or money for the benefit of our neighbor. You might take money that you would otherwise spend on something for yourself and use it for your neighbor in some way or practice loving your neighbor by helping them in some way.

Remember, the purpose of Lent is never to make ourselves miserable or focus on how sorry we are. When Lent is about US, then it's a gloomy season indeed! Rather, there is a subtle joy in Lent because even though the suffering and death of Jesus are quite awful and caused by our sins, it is exactly to save us from our sins that He underwent His Passion. Therefore we don't have to mope or seem subdued in Lent. Rather we can smile and be happy, knowing that Lent is all about what our Savior accomplished!

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, the day we are reminded that the curse of sin is death, and that we will one day die and become dust once again. Yet this very reminder of our mortality because of sin kicks off a season in which we hear with great joy the work of our Savior Jesus to rescue us from sin and death. So Happy Lent, because of Jesus!

March 6, 2011 - Quinquagesima - St. Luke 18:31-43

2011-03-05T21:15:00.001-06:00

How many times did the Lord tell His disciples that He had to go to Jerusalem to be handed over, mocked, spit upon, flogged, and killed and then rise the third day? And they still didn't get it! They didn't understand what He was saying, what He was talking about. It was hidden from them. Sometimes when Jesus told them what was going to happen, they were afraid to even ask what He meant. Other times they gave up and instead argued about which of them was greatest. “Do you understand what Jesus is talking about?” “No.” “Me either.” “So anyway, which of us do you think is top dog?” How about us? We've heard it all before. Jesus suffers and dies and rises again. We hear it in every sermon. Most of us have heard it our whole lives. But do we get it? Do we understand what Jesus is saying? What He did? We can hear over and over and over that Jesus is true God and man who suffered and died and rose. And yet we still have notions in our heads that we somehow please God by what we do. Or that Jesus was just a good teacher. Or that it doesn't matter how we live. Or that somehow we need to have a God other than the one who suffered and bled and died and rose for us. The fact is, from pastor on down, we live as if we haven't heard it before or that we don't get what it means for our faith and life.

Contrast that with the blind man that Jesus runs into outside Jericho. This man, when he finds out it's Jesus going by cries out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!” He's heard of Jesus. He knows who Jesus is, the Son of David, the promised Savior, and He knows Jesus can heal Him. Even when the crowds try to shush him, he just cries out louder, “Lord, have mercy!” Nothing will stop this guy from having His Jesus save him and help him. And Jesus does have mercy on this poor man. He opens his eyes and gives him his sight. And this man probably has heard somewhere that Jesus is on His way to die. You'd think now that his eyes were opened he could see Jesus for what He is and run the opposite direction. But instead he follows Jesus. Follows Him toward His suffering and death. The disciples have heard Jesus over and over talking about His suffering and death and resurrection and they don't get it. This blind man receives his sight and follows after Jesus. That's quite a contrast! Disciples with hard hearts compared to a blind man who sees and “gets” it and gos with Jesus.

Because when it comes down to it, the only Jesus that saves us is the One who is handed over, spit upon, mocked, scourged, killed and rises again the third day. The only Savior who saves is the One who suffers and dies in our place. People don't want that kind of God. A seemingly weak, suffering, crucified God. But nothing else saves us from our sins. Nothing else removes from us the curse that would otherwise leave us cast out from God forever. Nothing else but the Son of God crucified for sinners will shut down the accusations of Satan against us. When Jesus tells His disciples over and over that He must suffer and die, He is teaching them what sort of a Savior He will be. And when we hear it preached over and over that Jesus suffered and died and rose, we are learning by God's Spirit to trust in no other God than the One who became man and did what it seems God should never do: die. But that's what He did for us.

So the blind man knew that Jesus could save him and so he cried out even when the crowd was against him. Do you pray like that? Do you cling to Christ like that? When we come to the Divine Service, and Christ Himself passes by in His Word and Body and Blood, are we “ho humming” in our hearts as if it's just the same ol' same ol' or do we cry out with the blind man, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus does have mercy on this blind man. I get to study God's Word and preach Christ all the time and yet it feels like I'm just preaching the same old sermon. What we need is our eyes to be opened by Jesus. And that's exactly what He's doing when He washes us at the font, absolves us of our sins, speaks His Word into our ears and gives us His Body and Blood to eat and drink. By the same Word that said to the blind man, “Receive your sight,” The Lord tells us, “Receive your sight. Your sins are forgiven. You are the Lord's. This Savior who suffers and dies and rises has done all that for you.” When we come to church, we are doing exactly what the blind man does: crying out for Jesus to have mercy on us. And His answer is, “Your faith, your Jesus has saved you,” for here in His church, the Lord is opening our eyes and forgiving our sins and granting us eternal life.

But a Savior who suffers for us means being disciples who will suffer with Him. The blind man who could see probably presumed he would go and suffer whatever Jesus might. Maybe he did. Maybe he was later killed by those who hated Jesus. We don't know for sure. But we do know that those who follow Jesus will die. You've already died. Died to sin. And you die daily, meaning life isn't about YOU but about the people around you who need you. To be a Christian is to die to yourself, to crucify by the daily remembrance of Holy Baptism that Old Adam who only thinks about Himself. But more than that it may mean that we literally suffer and die with Jesus. Already around the world our brothers and sisters in Christ are tortured and killed for confessing Jesus. Who knows but that our time may come too. But now, our eyes have been opened and along with his disciples after Easter, we know what His suffering and death is all about. Now it's not just words and nonsense but it means something. Now we know that our Lord's suffering and death has rescued us from anything in this life that can hurt us. There is nothing to fear and we can follow Jesus, not blindly! But with open eyes, crying out to Him to have mercy upon us and trusting that He will do exactly that.

Now the season of Lent is coming. Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday. It's the time of our open eyes following Jesus to the cross for us. It's the time of learning to die to sin, crucifying the sinful flesh and cling to Jesus. Lent is the time when our open eyes are off of ourselves and fixed on Him because He goes to be handed over, mocked, spit upon, scourged, killed and to rise the third day. That's our God. That's our salvation. We've heard it countless times before and we'll hear it countless times again. Because it is that Good News that He has done all that for us that saves us, gives us victory over all evil in this world, and bestows upon us everlasting life. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

March 2, 2011 - Wednesday of Sexagesima - Isaiah 55:10-13

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Hollywood spends millions producing so-called “reality” shows which are often quite scripted and not real at all. And even if they are not scripted the editing that goes into these shows to produce a certain effect is enormous. Just so companies spend millions on trying to persuade us to buy their products. But just because we see an ad doesn't mean we'll buy whatever is being sold. All over our lives we can see examples of the way in which we try to control things and make people do what we want and make things come out the way we want and it can still fail. But compare that to God's Word. He sends His Word and it does what it says. Consider for a moment the power of God's Word. He speaks and calls forth creation out of nothing. He establishes a kingdom with a word and tears down another. He pronounces judgment and punishment that cannot be avoided. He promises grace and every blessing and people are blessed. Just listen to that promise from the prophet Isaiah: “As the rain and snow water the earth and it produces a harvest, so the Lord's Word goes forth and does accomplishes the things for which He sent it. And no longer will their be briers but myrtle trees.” The promise is that wherever God's Word goes, the curse of thorns and judgment against sin is overcome.

It was God's Word that created man from the dust of the earth and Eve from Adam's rib. It was abandoning that Word that caused mankind to fall into sin. It was God's Word that promised a Savior someday to Adam and Eve and it is His Word which goes forth to save sinners. After all, when we are talking about the Word, we are most of all talking about Jesus, the Son of God who is the Word of God made flesh. What does God have to say? He says, “Jesus.” The Son conceived in Mary's womb by God's Word and born according to the promises of God's Word. The Savior who preached God's Word of mercy for sinners. The Word of God that spoke God's love and forgiveness from Calvary when He was nailed to the tree, wearing those thorns, that sign of the curse. Jesus crucified wearing thorns teaches us that the Word that brought the curse against sin has taken the curse Himself so that the Word which curses us for our sins would be instead the word that forgives our sins.

And now that Christ is risen, He still sends His Word into the world to do what it says: save sinners. There is the Word that is attached to the water of the font that says your sins are washed away. There at the font is no symbol but the work of God being carried out: the Lord Himself making a new creation and claiming you as His own, rescued from death and the devil. The Word of Holy Absolution declares that your sins are forgiven and nothing in heaven or on earth or hell itself can say otherwise. Your guilt is pardoned. The Word is preached and read from the Holy Scriptures. There we have the promises of God laid out from the beginning of time and even after our Fall into sin. In that Word we have repeated for us the Lord's mercy in sending His Son to be our Savior and take away our sins. Done deal! Then there is the Word of Jesus that makes present His true Body and Blood to eat and drink for forgiveness, life and salvation. Over and over in His church, the Word comes to us and does what it says: it forgives, it makes new, it gives life, it promises hope and blessings, it rescues us from despair and sadness. The Word of God comes forth and waters us so that live ever in Christ.

Now since the Word of God does all those things, why would we dare despise it? Neglect it? Ignore it? When we plant something, we don't just leave it to wither and die. We water it and fertilize it so that it grows. Why then would we neglect the water of God's Word which causes us to grow? Here we ought to pause and examine our lives and ask ourselves: What is it that keeps me from being in church more often to hear God's Word? What is it that keeps me from studying and learning and growing in God's Word? What is it that hinders me from paying attention when God's Word is preached and read? Here are all kinds of opportunities to repent of neglecting and despising God's Word. In fact, here is our encouragement to pray that the Lord would continue to provide us His Word and do what it promises, that is, forgive our sins and keep us in the faith. And since we have that promise we can pray boldly that His Word will do exactly that!

Who knows how a show will end or if an ad on TV will persuade you to buy anything? But the Lord's Word is not uncertain like that. It is given to save sinners and that's exactly what it does. It is the Word that bestows what it says: forgiveness of sins, faith, life, salvation, a clean heart, the blessings of communion with God Himself. Whatever is promised in God's Word His Word gives. Whatever gifts His Word says we have, we have! For the Lord's Word goes forth and it doesn't return empty. It gives and does what it promises and therefore it is the most sure and certain thing our Lord has given us. For the Word gives us Christ and there is nothing more sure and certain than Him. God's Word says Jesus is for you. His Word says you are His. So you are. Because He said so and that's the kind of Word God has. Not uncertain and wishy-washy. Sure and certain. Rock solid. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

February 27, 2011 - Sexagesima - St. Luke 8:4-15

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Jesus says that the seed sown is the Word of God. Seed is sown into the dirt. That means...wait a minute! Did Jesus just call us dirt? Well, that's what we are. God took some dirt and made Adam. When we die we turn back into dust, dirt. So yeah, we're dirt. But think about it. Where do you put a seed when you want it to grow? Into the dirt. Just so the Lord sows His seed, His Word into us that it may grow up and bear fruit. And look at how He sows! This is the same generous Lord who last week paid everyone the same no matter how long they worked. Now He's sowing seed everywhere, flinging it all over the place. Sending His Word around the world. Sometimes it's snatched away or doesn't have root or gets choked off. But sometimes it grows in good soil and produces a big harvest. It doesn't matter. He just keeps sowing. What matters is what Isaiah says: The Word of the Lord goes forth and does what it says, it saves sinners and bears fruit in their lives.

The Word of God goes forth. In the flesh. To get planted in the dirt. Jesus comes, the Son of God, the Word of God, made flesh. To be planted in the ground at His death and to rise again to give the world life. When the Father sent the Son, the Word into this world, He did what the Father sent Him to do: save sinners by His death on the cross. Jesus said once that unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground, it can never grow. But now our Lord has been planted by His death into the earth and by His resurrection He brings forth the fruit of forgiveness and life which are given to the whole world through the Word that delivers them. Once again we see the generosity of this Lord who doesn't spare His only begotten Son but gives Him up for us all, for the whole world!

When He is risen, and before He ascends to the Father, Jesus ordains His preachers to take His Word to the ends of the earth. By the preaching of the Gospel ever since, the Lord has been sowing His Word all over the place. More generosity. Doesn't matter where or when, the Lord's Word is going forth. Around the the world. Wherever there are sinners. But not all received it. The Word was preached to rescue sinners from sin and death. But sometimes the devil snatches it away. Sometimes the troubles of this life cause faith to wither. Sometimes just all the stuff this world gives us to worry about chokes off that faith the Word implanted. The Word of God is not magic. It can be resisted and rejected. There's a warning for us there. There's a warning to repent of despising that Word. Of letting the devil have it. Or letting the troubles of this life wither your faith or paying so much attention to the riches and cares of this world that faith and trust in Christ are choked off. Notice when Jesus speaks this parable, He isn't talking about the unbelievers. He's talking about those who have heard and believed but for one reason or another have given up on God's Word! Beware! Satan wants to snatch God's Word from you. The temptations your sinful flesh faces will try to wither you faith into nothing. The cares and riches of this life will choke off your faith.

But we have God's promise that His Word does what it says. And in the good soil it produces fruit. What's the good soil? A noble and good heart? Well that's a heart that's been prepared to receive this Word by the rich waters of Holy Baptism. It's a heart that's been tilled and plowed by the Law which drives us to repentance and prepares us to receive the seed of the Gospel that grows in us producing fruits. Here's more of Jesus getting our eyes off of ourselves and teaching us that religion isn't about us but about Him. It's HIS Word. HIS seed. When the Word of God bears fruit in us, that is the Spirit's work. Not ours. To bear fruit is the work of God's Word in us. The seed planted in you is the Savior who was planted in the grave and rose again now planted in you for salvation and life. And what is that fruit? It's the fruit of faith that trusts in Jesus and knows that for His sake all of our sins are forgiven. It's the fruit of good works which does whatever needs to be done, not to impress God, but for those around us who need our love and help and encouragement and support. In short, the seed of God's Word in us grows up in us in a life that looks to Jesus for all things and serves our neighbor in every way.

So if this is the strength and power of the Word of God, why aren't there more people sitting in these pews? Why are there those who used to come but now we haven't seen them in so long? Why is it that Someone receives instruction in the Word and is eager to be a part of the church and not long after they drift away? The Lord has laid it out for us. That's just what happens to His Word and faith. The devil, the sinful nature, the world. The fact is, there are lots of things out there that drag us away from church and Christ's Word. People get mad at God. Don't have time. Find something better to do. But He tells us this parable to warn us. To teach us to look to Him to fulfill the promise of keeping us in His Word. That's always what we need: His Word. Brothers and sisters in Christ, how can I persuade you that you need the Lord's Word? I can't. But the Word of God does its work, even this very parable. May this very parable of our Lord do what He promises, that is, turn you away from ever despising God's Word deliver to you the key to the mysteries of God's kingdom. And that means faith and trust in Christ.

Jesus told His disciples that to them was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. That's what His Word is all about. Delivering salvation and forgiveness to us and preserving us against all that would steal, wither, or choke off that faith. That means watered with the nourishing water of Baptism and fed with the holy food of Christ's body and blood. You here today, you who are a part of Christ's church by the Lord's generosity—you have the implanted Word which is saves you. So here we are, a week and a half from Ash Wednesday and Lent and prepared by our Lord to receive His Word and to have it live and grow in us unto eternal life. And that means that you're not just any kind of dirt but holy and sanctified dirt! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

February 20, 2011 - Septuagesima - St. Matthew 20:1-16

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Lent is coming up. And the danger in Lent is that somehow it always becomes about us. What we're giving up and how much sorrow we can have over our sins. So, because there is such a danger of making Lent into a season of “Me,” the Church Calendar gives us three weeks of Pre-Lent in which the Gospel readings teach us to repent of making religion about US and see that everything is about Christ and what He does. When you boil it all down, those are the only two religions. Either it's a religion about you and what you do for God or religion is about God and what He does for you. This is the point of the parable of the workers in vineyard today. So let us hear it and learn repentance which turns from making everything about us to faith in Christ which trusts in the Lord's generous grace!

The You and Me religion is the religion of the first workers. At the beginning of the day, they haggle over how much they're going to make. At the end of the day, they complain because those who worked less are making the same as they did. It's all about them. This was the religion of the Pharisees. They believed that how you stood before God was based upon how well you kept the Law. Keep the Law and you'll be acceptable to God. And they judged others who didn't or couldn't keep the commandments as well as they did. There's our warning! The temptation is very great to be a Pharisee in God's kingdom and assume that we are going to get what we deserve and that others should get what they deserve. But in the end, if they want to live by the Law, they'll die by the Law. They'll get exactly what they've got coming. If your attitude toward God is that He OWES you, then He'll be sure to give you exactly what you're owed! And that will be the judgment and condemnation of the Law, the payment of a denarius. If a person wants to be a part of Christ's church just because they think there's something in it for them, they'll get their reward here and now and that will be it!

But what about those who don't work all day? Who are hired at different times? They all receive a day's wage too. They didn't earn that. It is the generosity of the vineyard owner who decides to give them the same wage no matter how long they worked. They aren't comparing what they did with what others did. They just rejoice to have been shown this generosity. This is the religion that is of God's grace. When the Father sent His Son into this world, it wasn't for those who earned God's love. It was for those who have not worked like they should. Those who have not loved God. Those who have not loved their neighbor. For them, Christ bore the heat of the day on the cross. For them He suffered many things so that in the end, we would be treated like Jesus. Given glory and honor and the title of children of God. In fact, this is the religion the Lord is all about: giving us not what we deserve and making us like His own Son. To have this faith is not to worry about what you do or how much you'll get. It's just to rejoice that we are given such a gift in Jesus Christ.

Now the temptation of that “me” religion in the life of the church is make the things we do in the church about us. There are many who join churches to gain some advantage. There are preachers who are preachers because they think there is big money in it. And there is. And that's their reward. And on the Last Day the Lord will say, “Well, you got your money and earthly fame and glory. That's what you wanted. Now away from Me into hell.” If religion and the church are about ME, then there is simply no salvation there. No blessing from the Lord. For those who want to make religion about themselves, they have their pay. They get what they deserve: the condemnation of the Law. You want to live by how well you keep the Law, then you will get paid by how well you keep the law.

On the other hand, the sinners who know they have nothing going for them but the generosity of the Master have many great gifts. Their Baptism forgives their sins no matter what they've done or how much they've worked. The gift of Jesus' Body and Blood are theirs as a gift for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Where these gifts are, it's not about You and Me. It's about Jesus. It's about the Master's generosity which gives out these gifts to all His people. With such a faith, people can work and do and not worry about what they'll get. What reward the Lord has for them. His gifts give them each what they need: the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. What joy that we don't have to worry about nickeling and diming our good works. Have we done enough? Have we worked enough hours? In fact, this religion of the Lord's generosity is true freedom: for we can work and do what we need to to do for others with no thought of what we're earning or trying to calculate what we're owed. For all that we receive from our Lord is a generous gift!

Two religions. The religion of the guys who worked all day and though they should get more than the others. It's all about them. Then there's the religion of the Master's generosity that doesn't pay what we earn but makes us equal to Jesus. One is the religion of the Law. Of trying to work your way to God. Of making everything about you. The other is the religion of grace. The Christian faith. The religion of Jesus being the Savior of sinners. Thanks be to God for this parable which rescues us from the religion of the Pharisees and trying to get more than others and brings us into the church of Christ where we receive more than we could ever have hoped for by His grace and generosity! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

February 16, 2011 - Wednesday of Transfiguration - Exodus 3:1-14

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The Transfiguration is not the first time that Moses spoke with the Lord on a mountain! When Moses was hiding from the Egyptians, the Lord appeared to Him in the burning bush. The bush burned but it didn't burn up. It wasn't consumed. Can you imagine? I suppose we would turn aside and check out such a sight too! Now, nearly 1500 years later, Jesus stands atop the mountain shining in His glory and talking to Moses and Elijah. In both instances, Jesus' transfiguration and the burning bush, we have the answers to two questions: Who is God and what exactly is He doing?

Consider the burning bush. It burns and yet it doesn't burn up. This is more than just a fancy billboard to get Moses' attention! The burning bush is a foreshadowing of Christ. In the bush that burns but doesn't burn up, we have a picture of what the Christ will be like: true God and true man in one person. The divine fire that burns but does not consume the bush points to the way in which the Divine nature will be united to a human nature in Christ without destroying it. Here is the picture of the God who saves us: True God and true man. The mystery of the incarnation, of God becoming a man, is that He can do that without turning His human nature into cinders. Here is the mystery and the miracle: God in the flesh, on this earth. In Jesus' transfiguration we see the same thing clearly: the glory of the Son of God shines forth in the man Jesus for that Jesus is both God and man. There's no mistaking who this is. This Jesus is God. This God is a man. But for what purpose is He here? Are we all in trouble? What's He up to?

The Lord speaks to Moses from the burning bush that He will lead His people out of slavery in Egypt through Moses. The Lord is about to rescue His people form their enemies. After the burning bush, Moses goes back to Egypt and not too long after, the Lord sends His plagues upon Egypt until finally they throw the Israelites out and the Lord defeats His enemies. After He comes down from the mountain of Transfiguration, Jesus begins to tell His disciples (more than once!) that He is going to Jerusalem to suffer, to die and to rise the third day. After the burning bush, the Lord saves the Children of Israel. And this points ahead to Jesus, who after the Transfiguration goes to the cross to save all people. The Lord brings His people out of slavery in Egypt. In Christ, He brings all of us out of our slavery to the devil and sin, rescuing us from the evil one's kingdom and bringing us to His own promised land. So what is God up to? Why is He here on earth? To save! To rescue! To bring forgiveness, life and salvation! The Transfiguration of Jesus is the sign that Jesus is know going to be heading in the direction of our salvation. To Jerusalem. To Pilate. To Calvary. To the tomb and out of the tomb! The Lord is here. The Transfiguration leaves no doubt that this is indeed the Lord. And He's here to save us.

Of course, it is the Lord's power that inflicts the plagues of judgment upon Pharaoh, but it is Moses whom the Lord uses as His messenger. Just so it is Jesus alone who can suffer for the sins of the world, but it is through His chosen apostles and pastors after them that this Good News is preached and delivered. As Moses brought the people through the Red Sea, so our pastors baptize us, by God's Word bringing us from death to life. As Moses and the children of Israel at the manna in the wilderness, now we feast upon the Bread of Life, Jesus's own Body and Blood which don't run out and give us not just life but eternal life. In Moses' time, the Lord was faithful not just in delivering His people from Egypt but also in seeing them safely to the Promised Land. Just so our Lord who has died and risen makes sure we receive that salvation and by His Word and Sacraments carries us to eternal life.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord reminds us who God is and what He does. He is true God and true man who saves us from our sins. The Transfiguration, prefigured by the burning bush, reminds us that when it comes to our faith and religion, it's eyes and ears and faith off of ourselves and on our Lord who is the One who does all things for us. Moses wondered at the burning bush but it turned out to be the beginning of the Lord's salvation of Israel. The disciples wondered at their Lord shining in glory on the mountain but it turned out to be the beginning of our Lord's way to Jerusalem for the salvation of sinners. Now our Lord brings us to His holy mountain, Mt. Zion, His holy church, here to receive Him by His Word and to see a glimpse of what we shall be in the glory of everlasting life. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

February 13, 2011 - The Transfiguration of Our Lord - St. Matthew 17:1-9

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It is a constant temptation that we make religion into something all about ourselves. We begin to measure and calculate religion as to “what I get out of it.” Does it make me feel good? Am I living a good enough life? Do I really love the Lord enough? Do I have enough faith? Can I prove to others that I am growing in holiness? Do I tell enough people about Jesus? Does God love me because I try hard to be a good person? Me, me, me! When we lose interest in church because we don't seem to get something out of it, because it doesn't strike an emotional chord, or because we just think it's boring, we have made religion and faith about us instead of what it really is about: Jesus. That is why we have the Transfiguration today. Today we see Jesus shining in all His glory to remind us that it's all about Him. Who He is. What He has done for us. Eyes off of ourselves and onto Jesus today. Ears turned from listening to our sinful nature to hearing Jesus' Word. Mouths turned from complaining and grumbling or talking about ourselves to confessing Christ and His Word!

When Jesus is transfigured, He talks with Moses and Elijah. Moses the giver of the Law and Elijah one of the great prophets. The Law and the Prophets. Moses and Elijah point to the Scriptures which pointed ahead to the coming Savior. To see Jesus with Moses and Elijah means that He is the One who fulfills the Word, who fulfills the Scriptures. And He will fulfill them by going all the way to the Jerusalem and the suffering and death of the cross. Here, on the mountain, Jesus is strengthened in His purpose to go and do the work of saving sinners. It's all in the balance. If Jesus doesn't go to Jerusalem, we're doomed. If He doesn't go to suffer and die, we have no hope. We can't hope in ourselves. Our hope and trust must be in the Son of God. If He doesn't fulfill what He came to do, there is nothing for us but to remain in our sins. But Jesus is strengthened for His mission. He is reminded once again by the Father's Voice that He has come to do the will of the Father. It will be hard. It will kill Him. He will suffer much. But He does it because He loves and obeys the Father. And He does it to rescue you from sin and death and a religion that is all about you.

When the Voice of the Father speaks it says, “Hear Him!” Peter, ever the example of the kind of religion we like to have wants to stay there with the bright and shiny Jesus and the prophets of old. “Lord, let us make some shelters, tabernacles, booths for you guys.” Peter wants to stay there. He wants to be where God's glory is shining and evident and easy to see. Peter doesn't want the dead God on a cross, He wants the bright and glorious one. So it is with so many Christians who worship by trying to have some feeling and somehow touch or experience God's “glory.” In many churches, worship is carefully crafted to bring about a deep and powerful emotional experience and response. And again, we see that in doing that, we've made religion about us. Peter has made this about Him. What he will do for Jesus. But the Father corrects all that with these words: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” Hear Him because our faith, our religion isn't about our emotions but about Jesus and His Word. His saving Word that gives us life.

And what does Jesus say? The Father says to listen to Him and the very next words out of Jesus' mouth are to the frightened disciples saying, “Do not be afraid!” You've just seen the glory of God Himself shining in Jesus Christ and glaring from the cloud. That's enough to scare poor, miserable sinners. So don't be afraid. When we make religion about ourselves, we're constantly trying to find a way to make ourselves feel good. But when faith is centered in Christ, His Word says, “Don't be afraid.” There is true comfort because it is the Lord who says it. He is the One who brings true peace to us by the forgiveness of sins that He accomplished for us on Calvary. This “don't be afraid” extends to the font where the Word and water rescue us from death and the devil. It is heard in the Absolution which tells us not to be afraid of our sins. It is spoken with the Words of Institution so that we don't fear death because Jesus' Body and Blood overcome death. That is our religion! That is our faith! What Christ has done and what He delivers to us by His comforting Word. Here it is no longer about what we can do and how we live and how we feel. It is about the promises of God Himself to be our God and defend us from all evil even unto eternal life. The big deal isn't that we can feel good about Jesus but that Jesus saves us from sin, death, devil, hell and all things that are against us!

Now, after they come down from the mountain, Jesus tells His disciples not to tell anyone what they've seen until after He's been raised from the dead. After that, Peter tells us that because He was an eyewitness of the glory of Christ, the Word He preaches is sure. To hear St. Peter preach is to hear Christ. To hear our called and ordained pastors preach is to hear Christ. The Transfiguration of Jesus means, now that He has been raised from the dead, that the Word that is preached has all of God Himself standing behind it to make it so. Peter's words in His epistle remind us that the Word we hear preached is not made up (like the world thinks!) But Jesus was seen by eyewitnesses and they have passed down His Word faithfully since, especially as it's confirmed and kept for us in the Bible. Those two things always go together. The preaching and the Scriptures. The preachers must always preach what is in the Scriptures and the Scriptures serve to show us whether what is preached is a religion about us—bad!--or the faith of Christ, which delivers His salvation faithfully. Hear Him means hear Jesus. And that's what the Bible is all about. And that's what the Word preached and taught in His church delivers to us.

When Jesus speaks to them, the disciples look up and see Jesus only. What a picture of our faith! Jesus only. The Transfiguration is written down for us to rescue us from a religion that is all about ourselves to to turn our hearts in faith to “see Jesus only.” Only in Him do we have the truest comfort and the voice of God Himself telling us not to be afraid. With such a Savior who is God and man, we have the unshakable promise that now, in Christ, we too are God's beloved sons. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

February 9, 2011 - Wednesday of Epiphany 5 - Genesis 18:20-33

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We need to learn to pray like Abraham! The Lord planned on wiping Sodom and Gomorrah off the map and so Abraham pleads for his nephew Lot who lives there. Will you destroy the city if there are 50 righteous? No, it will be spared. Destroy it if there's 45? Nope. 30? No. 20? Nope. Just ten? Still no. It's like Abraham is bargaining at a car lot or something! But look at what's going on! Abraham in faith trusts that the Lord won't destroy the righteous with the wicked. So even if it means letting the whole evil city survive for the sake of Lot and his family, Abraham asks that. We need to learn to pray like Abraham! For one thing, we're so quick to pray and ask for something from the Lord and then give up when it doesn't seem our prayer is answered! See how Abraham presses God and why? He tells Him: You are the righteous Judge. You can't kill the righteous with the wicked. So we need to grab hold of God's promises in Christ and drum them in His ears with no fear, beseeching Him, pleading with Him, interceding for others based on what He has done for us in His Son.

Now here's the thing. God DOES destroy the righteous with the wicked. But He doesn't do it at Sodom. He does it on Calvary. Who is more righteous than the Son of God? Who is more innocent and holy than Jesus? And yet, who is more evil and wicked than that Lamb who is covered in our sins? When The Son of God dies for us on the cross, there is the judgment of God on the righteous and the wicked together. Christ is perfect and holy and yet He's covered with our sins and is guilty of them there. That is our salvation. That God does not deal with us WE deserve but deals with Christ as we deserve. When the Lord came to Sodom, He rescued Lot from that evil city. But when His Son comes to earth, the Lord allows His Son to be taken by wicked men and tortured and killed for the sake of the whole world. Always the Lord constantly rescues His people but when it came to the rescue of His own Son, He gave Him up into death as our sacrifice.

But Jesus rose from the dead. His righteousness overcame our sin and death and the grave were left behind on Easter. Now the Bible tells us that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father always INTERCEDING for us. What is interceding? It means doing what Abraham did: praying for the Lord to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous. Jesus is righteous and has accomplished our salvation so He prays to the Father: “For my sake, spare them, Father and forgive their sins.” Think about it. We do all kinds of things every day that ought to rouse God's anger and have Him throw us into eternal judgment. But you are baptized. You are righteous with the righteousness of Jesus. When we sin, if the Father were ever to say, “I'm going to wipe that one out,” the Son intercedes, “No, Father. For my sake. Because I paid that price. Because I am righteous and have taken their sins away. You can't.” Jesus speaks to the Father even more boldly than Abraham for standing behind His prayers is all He did as the Father commanded to save us from our sins! Know this: because Jesus goes to bat for you, the Father will never destroy you along with the wicked. Your sins are taken care of and they can't cause God's judgment and punishment against you ever. As long as Jesus intercedes for us before the Father, our sins can never cause our doom.

There's something in there for us to learn too then for our neighbor's sake. Just as Jesus told His disciples not to go pulling up the weeds and so damage the wheat, and just as Abraham prayed even for wicked Sodom for Lot's sake, so we can learn to pray the Lord to spare those who are evil around us for the sake of His holy ones. Every day the Lord puts up with us for the sake of His Son even though we thoughtlessly sin against Him and others. So we ought to learn to pray for those who sin against us and trouble us. When we see the people around us sinning our first reaction ought to be Abraham's: Spare them, Lord, for the sake of the righteous. Since your Son has died for them too, don't hold their sins against them. Rather rescue them from their sins too and bring or keep them safely in your holy church. It is tempting to be offended at others and pray that they will just go away or leave us alone. It is much harder but more godly to throw the Lord's promises in His ear to have mercy upon them for Jesus' sake just as He has had mercy on us!

So what happened to Sodom? Well, I don't think there WERE ten righteous people there, ten people who trusted in God's promises. But the Lord was faithful. He led Lot and his family away from Sodom before He blasted it into ashes, never to be seen again. It's a reminder there WILL come a day when the Lord condemns and punishes those who oppose Him, who love wickedness more than righteousness and who persecute His holy church. Jesus says that day will come when the holy angels will gather up the weeds and burn them. But until that day, we live in the mercy of Jesus and we pray for the wicked as Abraham did, for the sake of the righteous. Always remember that your Lord stands before the Father, ever pleading for you, ever protecting you from judgment and wrath. And by His Word and gifts He will continue to keep you in the faith and remind you that He pleads for you and that for His sake the Father is always pleased with you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

February 6, 2011 - The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany - St. Matthew 13:24-43

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There's an old saying that goes “Whenever the Lord builds a church, the devil builds a chapel next door.” That means that wherever God's Word is preached, the devil will be right there with a false word. Jesus tells us this in the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Christ has planted His people all over the world through His Word and the devil is right there to plant false believers, his evil children. Just look around. Look at all the religions out there. Surrounding the Christian church are Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and pagans and atheists (almost like their own religion!) and so many more, many of whom actively persecute and attack Christ's church. But then if you look at Christianity, you see so many denomiations: Lutherans and Roman Catholics and Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Pentecsostals, Non-denominationals and on and on. And you could pick any one of those groups and see that they are further subdivided. Just think of all the churches claiming the name Lutheran: the ELCA, LCMS, ELS, WELS, and tons more. The world is full of religions and denominations all clamoring for attention, most thinking they're right and others are wrong. It's a huge mess that could easily lead one to throw up their hands in despair and say, “Why bother!” And that's exactly what the devil wants you to do. He wants you to see all these different churches and religions and figure they're probably just all the same and it's not worth worrying about.

But if that were true, Jesus wouldn't have told us this parable! Just think. Farmers are always looking for the next best fertilizer that will help the crops grow while cutting down the number of weeds that grow up. Weeds are bad. They mess up the crops. They can ruin the harvest. So they try to prevent them. But here comes the devil sowing weeds to ruin the Lord's kingdom if He can. But He can't. Jesus tells us this parable to rescue us from despair. He wants us to be aware that where His Word is preached, it will be surrounded by false teachers and false religions and false believers, the children of the devil. The true sons of the kingdom, Christians, are sown by the Lord Himself who has shed His blood for sinners. Jesus knows that left to ourselves we'd just be confused and give it all up. So He comes to save us from our sins and make us His own people. You were sown in His field, made a part of His church when you were baptized. There you were planted as a son of Christ's kingdom and made His own. Now the Lord teaches us this parable to rescue us form the devil's lies and the danger of the weeds around us that want us to trust in something other than Jesus Christ.

St. Paul says to the Corinthians who had all kinds of divisions and splits in their church, that there MUST be divisions so that we can tell right from wrong, those who have God's Word and those who don't. So how do you identify the Christian church? How do you tell which is the wheat and what are the weeds? Simply apply this test: Jesus sent His apostles out to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name. Is the preaching of a church about Christ dying and rising for sinners? Or is it focused on something else. Does the teaching of the church point us to Christ or to ourselves. Are Christ's gifts of Baptism, Absolution and Holy Communion the big deal or is it something else? Is God's Word of Law and Gospel properly distinguished and proclaimed? Or is the Bible made into whatever people want it to be? The center of the Christian faith is Christ crucified for sinners and sinners justified through faith in Jesus Christ. If He is not the center, if His gifts aren't faithfully given, then whatever is going on is the devil's work. It is the enemy sowing bad weeds.

Jesus tells us this parable so we don't get all worked up over these devil weeds all around us, so that we don't look at our little church and despair that we're surrounded by false teaching in the world. But He also tells us the parable so that we don't become some kinds of zealots trying to go and purge the world of what is false. “Master, do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?” “No! You'll pull up the wheat too. Let the angels sort it out on the last day.” Muslims do this. They think they have to physically destroy those who will not convert. The church of Jesus has no such command. Rather we are to bear patiently with confessing the faith in this world and life until the Lord takes care of it on the Last Day. On the other hand, we are not to ignore that there WILL be a Last Day. The world loves to skip along, saying that all religions are the same, all faiths lead to the same place. We confess, from Jesus' own teaching, that on the Last Day, those who denied Him and taught their false religions and denied His Word will be taken away and removed from being around God's holy flock. So on the one hand, don't think it's your job to take down the enemy weeds. On the other hand, don't deny that there will come a day when those enemies will be taken care of.

So how then do we live? How SHOULD we react to these weeds all around us, to false teaching and all these denominations and religions. We should pray like Abraham. He knew His nephew Lot would be doomed if the Lord destroyed Sodom so He prayed the Lord to spare that wicked city even if He only found a few righteous living in it. Rather than rejoice in the destruction that the Lord was going to bring on Sodom, Abraham kept praying that the Lord wouldn't do it for even a few righteous people. We can look around the world and hope that the Lord will destroy those places where wicked and false religions run rampant but then what would happen to our brothers and sisters in Christ? We should pray for those places that the Lord would preserve His church and keep it from being torn apart, either by the enemy or by over zealous Christians. In short, as Christians, the Lord would have us praying for this world, putting up with those around us who hate us, and having our trust and hope in the Lord to make all things right when He comes again, and to preserve us in the true and pure faith until that Day. That's also what His parable is teaching us: to trust not in our own ability to get rid of evil but that He will do it while granting us grace to distinguish the false from the true.

Christ died and rose for sinners and sent His preachers into the world to deliver that Good News. Wherever that Good News is preached you can be sure the devil will be running alongside to try to establish some teaching that takes people away from Christ and His salvation. Jesus tells us this parable of the weeds and the wheat to protect us from the despair the devil would try to bring by confusing everything and ruining what Christ has done. He teaches us so that we might identify His true church and Word which rescue us from the devil. He teaches us so that we long for the Last Day when He removes all things which are against us and establishes His kingdom of righteousness and peace forever. You, dear Christians, are the sons of the kingdom. And when our Lord comes again, He promises to take away all of your enemies and you will shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father forever. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

February 2, 2011 - The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord - St. Luke 2:22-40

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If you're anything like me, if you don't have to do something, you won't. Oh, sometimes we'll go out of our way but more often we'll take advantage of the fact that we're not required to do something. No sense doing it if we don't have to. Our selfishness often overcomes the desire to go above and beyond. Jesus, however, does exactly the opposite. When He DOESN'T have to do something, He does it for our sake. On the day He is presented in the Temple, Mary offers the sacrifices of the firstborn that the Law of Moses requires. The Law of Moses says that you have to redeem the firstborn; the firstborn is the Lord's but He graciously allows you to “buy back” your child for the life of a couple of turtledoves. But Jesus isn't under the Law. He made the Law. He gave the Law. He is perfect and sinless. The Law doesn't apply to Him. So why is He presented in the Temple? Because He came to do what He didn't have to do: whatever the Law says. Unlike us, who if we don't have to do it, usually don't. Jesus, who didn't have to do it, does it for our sakes.

But not only does Jesus do what He doesn't have to do, in doing so He's doing what we don't do. See, we ARE obligated by the Law. It demands of us that we love God more than anything else and that we love and serve our neighbor with no thought for ourselves. It's not just that you and I would not do something we didn't have to. We also don't do what we're SUPPOSED to do. We are born thinking our life is our own to do with as we please. If it pleases us, then we do it, with no thought for God's Name and glory or the cares of the people around us. We live our lives as if we are God and our the people around us are put here to serve and worship us. Idolatry. Adultery. Stealing. Trash-talking. We've got all the commandments. But we all know they only apply in certain times and when it's to our advantage. Otherwise we can quietly ignore them and do what we want. Our sin is that we don't do what we are commanded to do. Our salvation is that Christ does what He doesn't have to.

This festival today is all about seeing Jesus under the Law for our sakes. The reason Jesus came in the flesh is, as the book of Hebrews says, so that He could face death as we do and by that death He could destroy the devil whose power is death. Our salvation depends on Jesus putting Himself under the Law. He doesn't need to keep the Law. He hasn't broken it. But we have. The Law condemns us to death because we are born turned in on ourselves and we are haters of God and neighbor. So Jesus comes to fulfill the Law. To do what we couldn't do and have it count for us. In His life, He does what the Law commands Him to do: be circumcised, be presented and redeemed in the temple, to love His Father above all things. To love His neighbor as Himself. Jesus' whole life is one big work of doing what the Law commands. And His death too is the fulfillment of the Law. The Law's punishment is God's wrath and condemnation, so that's what Jesus faces on Calvary. The judgment of our sins. In His life, He did what we were SUPPOSED to do, lived how we are SUPPOSED to live. And in His death He was punished with the punishment WE were supposed to get. The cross is Jesus keeping the Law most of all: loving and obeying His Father above all things, even the pain of death; and loving His neighbor as Himself, even more than Himself by giving HIS life in exchange for ours. His resurrection then proves that He has done this saving work completely and once and for all. There's no question: Jesus has kept the Law and paid the price for our sins.

And that is the Blessed Exchange. Jesus trading with us. Jesus doing what He doesn't have to do because we don't do what we do have to do. Jesus keeping the Law because we didn't keep the Law. Jesus dying because we deserve death. By being united with Jesus in Baptism, His doing what He did becomes ours and we know that our sin has become His. That's the Blessed Exchange. His life for ours. His righteousness for our sin. His holiness for our transgressions. And in forgiving our sins and dwelling in us by His Body and Blood, our Savior Himself makes a Presentation. As He was presented in the Temple, so He presents us before the Father as pure and spotless and holy. By coming in the flesh and putting Himself under the Law, Jesus purifies and redeems your flesh and rescues you from the curse of the Law. Because He is presented in the temple as if He were under the Law, He presents you to the Father, free from the curse of the Law. This holy festival today reminds us of this Blessed Exchange in which Jesus, by trading places with us, gives us the highest place along with Him before the Father. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

January 30, 2011 - The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany - St. Matthew 8:23-27

2011-01-30T07:59:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure what sort of help the disciples were expecting from Jesus. It must have been a pretty bad storm to scare these fisherman. Maybe they thought He'd help row or grab a bucket and start bailing. What they apparently didn't expect is for Jesus to stand up and tell the wind and the waves to quiet down! “Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” And that's the question. Who can this be? It's the question every person has to come to grips with. When you consider what is most important and central to the Christian faith it's really the man this question is talking about. So who is He? Jesus answers their cry for help by saying, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Faith is all about the answer to this question. Who is this man? Who is this Jesus? The answer matters. It matters for us who believe. It matters for a world that refuses to hear it. Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey Him?

Who can this be? Well for starters, He's the One who can stand up in a boat and tell the winds and the waves to be silent. The only One who can do that is the One who created them in the first place. Ever notice that when a hurricane approaches the coast we can't stop it. Or a tornado or some other disaster. But here is Jesus standing in the boat telling the wind and waves to pipe down. This power right there tells us that this Jesus, whatever else He is, is the Lord of creation. He is true God who made all things. Jesus is God. When we talk about God, we should be talking about Jesus. Of course we also confess the Father and the Spirit and the teaching of the One in Three and Three in One. But right here, on the Sea of Galilee, God the Son who is in the flesh is the One stilling this storm. This sets our faith apart from the rest of the religions of the world. Understand that. To confess that Jesus Himself is God is to deny everyone's opinion who thinks that Jesus is just some good teacher or religious prophet like Buddha or Mohamed. No, Jesus is not just a man. He is God Himself stilling the storm.

Who can this be? Notice that God doesn't speak from heaven to stop this storm. The Lord is standing in a boat. Which reminds us that this God is also a man too. Jesus is God. Jesus is man. And as if the fact that the God who made everything is standing in a boat is not amazing enough, the reason why He is there is truly astounding. He's there to save them. Despite their unbelief, He stands up and calms the storm. He doesn't say, “Look guys, I'm God and I'm really tired. Can you just go bail the boat out yourselves?” He doesn't do that. He DOES call them on their unbelief and then does what He does because He's their Savior. He saves them. And not just from the assault of some waves and wind. He's there in the flesh in the first place to save them from the assaults of sin, devil, death and hell. Jesus saves because He's a Savior, not just from storms but from everlasting death. That's why He's there in the flesh. So He can bear our sins and carry them to the cross. On Calvary is the Lord's reply to the cry, “We are perishing.” He goes for us. He sinks down into the depths of our sin and death and destroys then. Who can this be? It's the God in the flesh who saves sinners by being the sacrifice for their sin.

Who can this be? This is the God-man who doesn't just take the hit for us. He's the God-man who stops the storm. Quiets the wind. Calms the sea. Of sin. Of death. Of judgment. He does it by His resurrection which declares to the world: the power of sin and death are over. Done with. Paid for. Conquered. Overcome. Taken care of. There's something even greater than, “Who can this be whom even the wind and waves obey?” It's, “Who can this be who was dead and is now alive?” THAT is the heart and center of our faith as Christians: that Jesus isn't dead but alive. Who can this be? It's the One person who has died and come back to life on His own. Even unbelievers acknowledge the fact that that tomb was empty on Easter. But why? Because the One who lay dead in it is alive. Calming storms has got nothing on stopping death in its tracks. For that is what the Lord did. He rose to show that sin and death are taken care of. Who can this be? It's the God in the flesh who has calmed even the storms of sin and death and hell.

Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey Him? I'll tell you: It's the same Savior who calms the storms of your life and delivers you through them all. There is nothing in your life so bad, not even death itself, that can destroy you. You are God's child in Christ. On the day of your baptism, the Lord spoke to calm the storms that threatened to sink you. When sin lashes out at you with hurricane force to drive your troubled conscience to unbelief and despair, your Lord speaks the calming Word of Absolution. When the things of this world come at you and threaten to sink your boat, Jesus isn't in the back sleeping. He's here in His church standing among us with His Body and Blood to speak to the things that would harm us and drive them away. Think of all the disasters and difficulties you have faced and how the Lord has brought you through them all. Even when it seems as if He's asleep, He is with you by His Word and Sacraments to give you forgiveness, life and salvation. Who can this be? It's the God in the flesh who calms even the storms that threaten to swamp you and drown you.

The disciples surely weren't expecting Jesus to stand up and make the storm stop with just a word. Then again, we would never have expected God Himself to become man in order to suffer and die for us. Or to rise from the dead. Or to save and forgive us all. Who can this be? As the Gospels go on we find out. This is not just the One who can stop a storm with a word. This is the One who is God with us in the flesh. Who gives Himself as the payment for our sins. Who rises from the dead. Who washes and feeds us. The Savior of sinners. The Calmer of storms. The Lamb of God. Confess that, dear Christians, for that is your comfort and peace. He is your comfort and peace. Never doubt the answer to that question, Who can this be? It's Jesus. True God. True man. All Savior. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

January 26, 2011 - Wednesday of Epiphany 3 - 2 Kings 5:1-15

2011-01-26T14:55:00.001-06:00

Naaman asks a pretty good question, “Aren't the rivers back home in Syria better than the Jordan River?” Seriously? Dip in the Jordan River? The backwater of some rinky dink little kingdom? To all appearances, the Jordan River's got nothing on the mighty rivers of Naaman's own country. To all appearances, a little splash of water in baptism doesn't seem to have anything on the great spiritual experiences people seem to have. Hearing God or some agonizing feelings of conversion or some peaceful feeling that makes you think God must love you: that's what people are looking for. There are so many strange and powerful experiences people have regarding religion that it doesn't seem like Baptism is really a big deal at all. But here's the thing. The Lord did not tell Naaman to dip in the waters of his home rivers to get rid of his leprosy. He told him to dip in the Jordan River. And He doesn't tell us to go looking for Him in some strange experience or burst of feelings. He tells us that being washed with water and the Spirit is what makes us a new creation and takes our sins away. In other words, the big deal isn't what LOOKS like the big deal. The big deal is the the thing to which the Lord attaches His Word and promise.

The devil always wants to lead us to look for God in our experiences and feelings rather than where His Word promises Him to be for us. That's the religion that Naaman starts with. “I thought he would come out and call on the name of his God and wave his hand over my leprosy.” Yeah, Naaman, that's how they do it on TV. That's what the devil wants us to look for. Something flashy. Or fancy. Or that looks spiritual or religious or miraculous. People love to “experience the Holy Spirit” or get wrapped up in strange History-channel religious puzzles or have some sort of dream or vision and think, “This must be God doing it.” Even if we don't go to those extremes there is still the temptation for us to try to figure God out from the way things are going in our lives. Something good happens and we cry, “God is good!” Something bad happens and we wonder, “Where was God?” But the Lord rescues us from all that sort of thinking by giving us His Word so that we can be certain where He is and what He is up to.

We know from today's Gospel reading that what Jesus says happens. He told the centurion his servant was healed and so the man was healed. When Naaman is told to dip in the Jordan, the Jordan washes away Christ's Word does what it says. But since Christ is Himself the Word made flesh what Jesus says and does is so. Make sense? If Jesus says it, it happens. If He does it, it is accomplished. Naaman would be surprised again. The world doesn't get it. Instead of a powerful shining in glory God who makes sure everyone knows He's God, Jesus is arrested, beaten, tortured, crucified. Doesn't look like God there does He? He doesn't look much like God when His corpse is being taken down from the cross and laid in a tomb. Aren't the rivers of Damascus better? Isn't some good feeling in my heart better? Nope. God dead on a cross. That's what takes away your sins. That's where God saves you. That's where He's most God, when He looks least of all like God and is doing everything for you. That's not the kind of religion Naaman believes in. It's not the kind of religion we'd go for either.

But pay close attention to Naaman. He walks into the water of the Jordan an unbeliever and comes out a believer. That water and Word and promise of God turn Him from one who denies God's truth to one who receives and believes it. He goes in an unbeliever and a leper and comes out a clean-skinned believer. He goes in as an enemy of God and comes out as one of the faithful of Israel. That is the power of God's Word and the water. It's the same power that works when a person is splashed with water and God's Word at the holy font. We bring an unbelieving baby who is stained with the leprosy of sin and they come away healed, forgiven, a child of God. That's what God's Word says happens. It doesn't look like anything fancy. The baby or person doesn't look any different after than before, other than being wet. But what is not seen is what God's Word says: a new name, a new creation, forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil and eternal salvation! Now what does Naaman say? “There's no other God than the one in Israel!” The Lord did that. With His Word.

Your life will be filled with good and pleasant things that may tempt you to conclude that God loves you and is happy with you. Your life will also have its share of troubles and awful things that the devil will use to persuade you that you are doomed and God is against you. The devil will stop at nothing to try to convince you from your experiences or feelings something other than God wants you to know and believe. So learn from Naaman that there is nothing more solid than Christ's Word which does what it says. It can take a river like the Jordan and turn it into a leprosy-erasing bath. So learn from the centurion's servant that when Jesus speaks a thing, it is what it says it is and it gives what He says it gives. Thus you will be freed from trying to “read God” in the experiences and feelings of your life to trusting in Him surely and certainly by the promises He gives in the word and water of Baptism, the words of Holy Absolution and the Words of Institution of His Supper. For those words all say that you have the forgiveness of sins for His sake. That you are a child of God in Christ. That you are a new creation by His Word. That you have eternal life and a God who loves you, no matter what's going on around you. Jesus says it and that makes it so. For you to be certain! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

January 23, 2011 - The Third Sunday after the Epiphany - St. Matthew 8:1-13

2011-01-23T10:04:00.001-06:00

It's funny how we deal with authority. When we're under authority, we don't like it. Yet when we have authority, we like to make sure others know it. Take parents for instance. When our kids challenge us, we give the time-tested answer: “Because I said so.” That is, we expect children to listen to us just because we're their parents and we have authority. But then consider when your boss tells you to do something you don't like or you get pulled over for speeding. When authority is over us, then we don't like it. We expect others to honor OUR authority but we chafe when someone tells US what to do. It happens this way in our marriages, in our families, in our jobs, in society. We want others to do things our way but we don't want to be told how to do anything.

When Jesus heard the centurion, He said, “I have not found such faith in Israel!” What does that mean? “Such faith.” Well, the centurion knew his place. He knew he was under authority and he had authority. There's no ignoring authority in the Roman army! If the centurion's superior told him to do something, he did it. If he told his troops to do something they did it. No fooling around there. In the Roman legions, you obey authority or you're in trouble. And because he understood this sort of authority, he understood that Jesus was under authority too. The centurion is under no illusions that he is worthy of Jesus coming under his roof. Worthiness doesn't enter into it. He doesn't ask Jesus to heal his servant because he deserves it. He asks him to heal the servant because Jesus is under authority. The authority of the Father. The Son of God did not come into this world because He liked what He saw. He didn't come because He thought we were worth saving. Look at this world: everyone for themselves. No, the Son of God came into the world because He is under authority. The Father's authority which sends Him to save sinners. Jesus comes because His Father has sent Him. And He fulfills that calling and work faithfully and without fail.

This is good news! Good news for sinners! It means there is no sin so large, so horrible, so wicked, so awful, that the Son of God can say, “Well that's it. I'm out. Not gonna do it.” He obeys His Father and comes to stand with sinners. To shed His blood for sinners. To die on the cross for sinners. To rise for sinners. Whoever said, “Lord, please come and save us?” “Lord, we are your people. We deserve for you to come and die for us. You owe us, Lord.” That's not faith. Faith doesn't say, “Well I'm not the world's worst person, so I guess the Lord can love me.” Faith doesn't say, “There must be something in us God loves enough to cause Him to send His Son. There must be something worthwhile in me.” Nope. Faith clings to Jesus' obedience. “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Lord, I am not worthy of anything. My sins condemn me. But you are under authority. The Father sent you. You obeyed Him and therefore I am saved.” Faith clings to what Jesus does and that rescues us from the devil's game of trying to show us that we're not worthy. When the devil comes and says, “No way you can be a child of God,” you just answer and say, “Duh. No surprise there. But I am because Jesus is under authority and He obeyed the Father and saved me from you and your lies.” Jesus comes to saves sinners on the authority of His Father and that is as solid and sure a foundation as you can get!

Notice how the faith of this centurion operates. He doesn't trust in His own worthiness. He doesn't trust in Jesus feeling up to it. He simply clings to the promise that Jesus is under authority and therefore His Word will have authority. Let that be the lesson for our faith! On the one hand, don't have the thought in the back of your mind that you're living a good enough life for God to do anything for you and that what you have is what you deserve. On the other hand, don't tie God to your feelings as if when you're down and out then God can't or doesn't love you. Rather, cling to the WORD. The authority of that Word that Christ demonstrates. Know that Christ has taken away your sins no matter how big or small and has made you a child of God. This is why the means of grace, the Word and Sacraments, are so important. They aren't just churchy things we see done. They are the very way in which Christ speaks to us to heal us and forgive us. When Christ's Word declares that centurion's servant healed, then the servant is healed. Because Jesus says so. When you are baptized, your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life. Because Christ's Word says so. When the Words of Holy Absolution are spoken your sins are forgiven. Because Christ's Word says so. When you eat and drink the Body and Blood of Jesus, you will be raised up on the Last Day. Because Christ says so.

So what does that mean for us authority-hating and authority-abusing types? It means this: Just because we say something, doesn't make it so. People under our authority may or may not obey. When we are told to do something, we may fall into the sin of disobedience. But when pastor speaks with the authority of Christ and declares your sins forgiven, they are. Because that's Christ's Word. He has to forgive you because He's under authority. He can't get out of it! But then, with such forgiveness, you pass that forgiveness to those around you. You can declare to another person that you forgive them. Not by YOUR authority but by Christ's. What is most sure, most certain is not whether we FEEL forgiven or not but that Christ's Word declares it to be so. What is most sure isn't whether we deserve anything from God but that He gives us all things through His Son. What is most sure isn't whether we can figure out what God is thinking somehow. We know in and through Jesus Christ. He stands under the authority of the Father and has saved us and given us everlasting life.

It would be great if everyone would do what they're told. If we could give orders that got followed and we could take orders without making a fuss. But our sinful natures rebel. But Christ came under orders, under authority, to save us. He comes with all the authority of being True God and true man so that no one can cancel out or contradict His Word. With the very Words of God Himself, Christ speaks forgiveness, life and salvation. He goes to death by the orders of His Father and accomplishes your salvation. The centurion knew this and so he knew Jesus would heal his servant. That same faith is yours, which clings to a Jesus who does what He says: gives you forgiveness and life. Orders in the name of Jesus. Amen.

January 20, 2011 - Funeral Sermon for Mary Mydler - St. John 11:17-27

2011-01-20T21:17:00.002-06:00

Dear Roy and Alan, Wade and Jane, Royce and Char, Amy and Marcus, Kathy, Nancy, Karen and Andy—all of Mary's family and friends: Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

It was Good Friday. I got a call that Mary was in the hospital. Bad case of strep throat. But it wasn't. It was leukemia. And how many times did Mary have to go to St. Louis and suffer treatments and come in peril of her life and bounce back? You know a person's been too long in the cancer hospital when they know how to sneak into the hotel next door and get to the Applebee's without walking outside! And yet after all that it was some other kind of cancer that took her life. We want to say with Martha who told Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here she would not have died.” The thought has perhaps crossed our minds: why it is the Lord let cancer take Mary? Why did she die? Why did she go through all that treatment and in the end it didn't save her? And the answer to that question is the one Jesus gives: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even though they die, they shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” Our question is the wrong one because we get wrapped up thinking that somehow death is the worst thing ever. Oh, it hurts. It makes us cry. It takes our loved ones away. But it is not the end. It doesn't get the final say. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He gets the last word.

On that Good Friday that Mary began her long ordeal, the church celebrated her Savior nailed to the cross for the sins of the world. Sin brought death. And Mary was a sinner. She told me so herself. She would get annoyed when people would ask “How can a good person have all this happen to them?” She knew that whatever she had from the Lord was a gift. Not earned and deserved but given by grace. Mary knew that her only hope in this life and through death was that Savior, the Son of God nailed to the cross for the whole world and for her. Mary knew that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and therefore death is not the end. Not the big deal. That's what our Scripture readings today all say. They teach us that where Christ is, death has no dominion, no power. Job says it. He declares that even though he dies, he's going to see God in his own body. St. Paul says it. He says nothing, not even death can separate us from God's love in Jesus Christ. Then Jesus Himself says it. He says to Martha and to us, that to those who believe in Him, even though they die, they shall live. So that's what we say about Mary. Even though she died, she will live. On the Last Day at the resurrection of our bodies, when Jesus returns in glory. Jesus died on the cross so that Mary's sins were wiped away. Then Jesus rose again on Easter so that Mary's death would not keep her down.

It is what Jesus did that was Mary's comfort through all this cancer. All these ups and downs. One day I went to visit her and she said, “Pastor, I've thought about this. I've realized that everything that is wrong has already been taken care of the day I was baptized.” Everything that is wrong has already been taken care of the day she was baptized. The day Mary was baptized, she was made a child of God and her sins were wiped away. She was given Jesus' own promise that He would raise her up on the Last Day. Ever since then, it was Christ's Word of forgiveness that strengthened her. It was His Body and Blood which nourished her. It was His Body and Blood by which Jesus lived in Mary and did so many good works through her for others. Our comfort today is not in what Mary did or how she lived. Our comfort is in what Christ has done. His perfect life for Mary. His death for Mary. His resurrection for Mary. His baptizing, absolving and feeding her which gave her comfort and strength in the roughest days of her illness and is now her sure defense against death. That pall on her casket reminds us that what the Lord began in her the day of her baptism will be finished when she is raised again on the Last Day. And that pall is a reminder of exactly what Mary said, applied to death: On the day she was baptized, her death was already taken care of by Jesus.

So Mary's all taken care of by her Lord. On her baptismal day, His washing of water and the Word made her a saint. A saint because Jesus makes her holy. But there is a way for us to honor her and remember her and to celebrate her life. And it is this: let her confession of faith be an example to you. For Mary, the comfort of Christ was a lifelong gift. Don't let this comfort of Jesus be a just-for-today sort of thing. Don't make sitting through this service something for Mary's sake. Rather, be found in Christ, in His church, where His Word and Sacraments are. Be where the preaching of Christ crucified and risen is delivered for the comfort of sinners. Be where you have the care of a pastor given for when you suffer the struggles of this life and for when death draws near. Learn as Mary did that religion isn't about her but about Jesus and what He has done. What joy it was a couple of days ago to pray with Mary the last prayers commending her to Jesus before she died. I pray the Lord will grant each of you, in His church, a faith which clings to Jesus Christ alone and a Christian death in Jesus, like Mary's!

Today is a day of sadness. There will be plenty of tears. There will be lots of laughter and remembering too. It is a day full of all kinds of emotions. But above all it is a day when we hear Christ's promises that death cannot come between Him and us. He has defeated death. He has defeated Mary's death. And while it is a good thought to think that those in Christ will see Mary again in eternity, the true Good news is that we, along with her, will be with our Lord forever. And that is why even though we cry today we rejoice. You can't ask for a better death than one like Mary's, to fall peacefully asleep in Jesus. Jesus is the Conqueror of sin and death. For Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. The Savior of sinners. Mary's Savior. The One who will raise her up on that Last Day. She sleeps now and is with the Lord. On that Day she will rise again. Jesus has said so. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

January 16, 2011 - The Second Sunday after the Epiphany - St. John 2:1-11

2011-01-16T14:04:00.000-06:00

Our Lord' first sign. His first miracle. At a wedding. Why at a wedding? St. Paul gives us a clue: because Jesus came to have a bride, the holy, Christian church, for whom He gave Himself into death to cleanse her and make her holy. When the Lord first made man and woman, it began with a wedding when the Lord brought Eve to Adam. Now, with this miracle at a wedding, we learn what the Bible says elsewhere, that this Jesus is the new Adam. The old Adam brought death but the new Adam brings life. And there's going to be a wedding. A heavenly bridegroom and a beautiful bride. That wedding doesn't take place in Cana but this first sign of Jesus done at a wedding points us to that fulfillment and eternal wedding feast that is coming and begins at the cross. In fact, Jesus' turning water into wine points us in many ways to His accomplishing our salvation on the cross later on.

But first, a wedding. I want you to consider something: weddings back then have this in common with weddings today: they are an occasion to party. And consider this: Jesus' first miracle is essentially what we would call an “open bar” at a wedding. Let's first declare quite simply, in contrast to the folks around us, that when Jesus turned water into wine, it was wine. Good wine. The best wine. Not grape juice. Wine. Because, as the Psalmist says, “You make wine to gladden the hearts of men.” Jesus came to gladden our hearts. That means make us happy. One gift for that is a bunch of good wine at a wedding. The fact that it was a wedding is also important as it means that even in this sinful and fallen world, marriage is still a blessing from God. With His first sign of wine at a wedding, our Lord is teaching us that He came to save what He created. Wine and weddings are good things. They are not bad. They are not evil. They are gifts from God. And so the first thing our Savior teaches us by His first sign is that the things the Lord makes and gives to us are to be received with joy. Enjoy wine. Enjoy marriage. Enjoy creation! The gifts your heavenly Father has for you are to be enjoyed. Received with thanksgiving. The physical gifts of this life that God has given to you: marriage, your kids, your hobbies and sports and food and drink—enjoy those things as gifts that were meant to be enjoyed!

And there lies our problem. Our heavenly Father gives us all kinds of good gifts and we depise them or abuse them. Take wine for example: there's nothing wrong with wine. But when we abuse it and begin hurting others, we've taken God's gift and ruined it. Or take marriage. Our heavenly Father gives us a husband or wife and we treat them not as a gift but as a burden. So much so that often it seems easier just to end the marriage than learn to love the ones God gave us. Or our kids. They are given us to love and train up in the faith and instead we treat them like annoying inconveniences. Take your pick. Whatever our heavenly Father gives us, instead of cherishing it, we despise it. We reject it. We want something else. Something different. If you've ever given and given and given and gotten nothing in return but rejection for your efforts, you have a glimpse of how we treat the Lord and His gifts. Here's some repentance! Take a moment and realize how ungrateful you are for the things and people the Lord has given you. It's why we need a Savior

What we need, instead of being left to work things out of ourselves, is an arranged marriage! So the Father arranges the marriage of His Son with the church. The Lord's miracle at the wedding of Cana points in many ways to what He's going to do on the cross. First of all, the jars. Those jars were Law jars for the ritual cleansings according to the Law. They are filled to the brim. Jesus fulfills the Law on Calvary when He pays the price the Law demands for sin: death. Then water into wine. It reminds us of the water and blood that flowed from the Lord's side when it was pierced with that spear after He died. Now, let's back up and see how all this relates to marriage. When the Lord made Adam a wife, He caused Adam to sleep, opened His side, took a rib, and made Eve from that rib. Adam's wife was “born” from His side. On the cross, Jesus leaves behind His mother and His side is opened: water and blood came out. Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar. The Sacraments which gives us life and sustain our life. The church's sacraments. So from Jesus' side comes His Bride, the holy church. See? The cross is about the Lord having Himself a Bride. A Bride who is washed and cleansed of every spot and stain. A Bride whom the Lord looks at and sees no sin. A Bride whose selfishness and sin is covered by her husband. A Bride who is given birth from our Lord's side at His holy font and nourished and fed at His altar by His own body and blood. Having such a Savior who has such a Bride, it's no wonder our Lord first shows His glory at a wedding!

And then there is Mary, who has always been a picture of the church, trusting her Son to take care of the running out wine problem. Even when Jesus seems to say to Mary that it's not His problem, she still tells the servants to do what Jesus says. That's faith which trusts in Jesus. That's our example of faith. The truth is, the Lord often lets things in our lives get to the point where we seem to have “run out of wine,” that is, we can no longer rely on or trust in ourselves. There are times when it seems the only answer the Lord has for you is, “Not my problem.” But it IS His problem to take care of in His way and time. And the Lord's gifts are always the best ones. They're the kind of gifts, when we receive them, that we can't help but say, “Wow! You saved the best wine for last!” What else should we expect from such a Bride groom who came from heaven to redeem us and make us His own beloved Bride? After all, He loved us and gave Himself for us. He made the wine flow at a wedding. He'll take care of you too in every part of your life.

You, dear Christians, dear church, are Christ's holy Bride. You have been made from the side of your Lord. Born in the waters of baptism and made glad with the wine of Christ' blood, you are a Bride who is holy and precious in His sight. When your Lord looks at you, He doesn't see your sins, faults, spots, blemishes or imperfections. And where you see empty jars, He fills them with the wine of His forgiveness, life and salvation. Our Lord's first miracle. Done at a wedding. Because He came to take a Bride. Jesus came for your. And when He comes again, it will be the wedding day, the eternal feast in celebration of the union of Jesus and His church. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

January 12, 2011 - The Baptism of our Lord (Wednesday) - 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

2011-01-12T14:22:00.001-06:00

It just doesn't make sense. Jesus is the Son of God. John is baptizing sinners in the Jordan River. What on earth is Jesus doing standing there in the water to be baptized? John is the sinner. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus should be doing the baptizing. John is not even worthy to untie Jesus' shoes and He wants John to baptize Him? The fact is: when we focus on God's glory and power and majesty and might and awesomeness, we get religion all wrong. Paul tells us that God uses the foolish and despised and weak things of the world to shame the strong and mighty. He uses the things people think aren't worth anything to accomplish mighty things. That's what Jesus getting baptized is all about. Nobody would have suspected that God Himself would stand in the water with sinners to be baptized as if He were one of them. But St. Paul explains it in our epistle lesson: Christ has become for us the wisdom of God, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. How does God save us from sin and death. It starts with His Son standing in the Jordan River which the world wouldn't consider a big deal at all. But that is where He takes on our sin to take it away.

You talk about foolish? How about the cross? We are so used to the cross being a symbol in the church that we forget it was a brutal and torturous form of execution. How foolish is that? How weak or silly is it that the most important symbol in our religion is an instrument of capital punishment? The notion that the Father would sacrifice His Son and that Jesus is true God and true man who is sacrificed for our sins is just ridiculous. Yet it is in this way that the Lord accomplishes our salvation. To overcome our sin, He takes our sin upon Himself. To overcome death, He dies and rises. To defeat the devil, He goes head to head and resists all temptation and robs the devil of his power to accuse us. All this He does by letting Himself be handed over to evil men to suffer not only physical tortures but the crushing weight of the wrath of the Father. Thorns, nails, spear—these aren't the things people think of when they think of God's glory and might. But the Lord chose these instruments of pain and death to use in rescuing us all from sin and death. What is lowly, despised, looked down upon, foolish, crazy—what doesn't make sense—this cross—is what the Lord has chosen to shame the devil and everyone else by using that cross as the means of our salvation.

But there's more foolishness to be had. The Lord doesn't blast people with lightning bolts to save them. Glowing cosmic energy doesn't engulf people. The Lord doesn't work the way we imagine or that put in movies. He doesn't come to us now with flash and sparkle. Nope. Water. Bread. Wine. Words in a book. All around the world people get wrapped up in amazing and strange religious things. They flock to the big box thing in Mecca. They meditate peacefully in a mountaintop Buddhist monastery. They shake and shriek in some so called Holy Ghost revival. You can find a million different ways people try to get some spiritual something or other. But God just uses water, bread, wine and words. Water. It doesn't seem like much but in that Baptism you have been given a holy calling as a child of God and a disciple of Jesus. At the altar, Christ Himself is present, not to our eyes but the eyes of faith as we receive His Body and Blood. A man in a robe reads and preaches from a book that's 2000 years old. Does any of that sound impressive? To the world, not at all. It's a joke. A curiosity. Something foolish. But to you, who have been called by the Holy Spirit, St. Paul tells us that these simple things are used by God to shame the wise and mighty. For it is by these things that we have the forgiveness of sins, the promise of everlasting life and the sure knowledge that the Lord Himself is with us.

The world, whenever it has any religion, has it for the purpose of getting some knowledge about secret things or things that can't be seen. For the world, religion is a way to try to figure out God and what God is and how to get to God. For many, religion is a way of experiencing something they call God. It's also a way to make yourself feel better because you aren't like all the rest of the poor people out there who don't have your secret knowledge. Or perhaps religion is just a way to feel better when things are going badly. Whatever it is, the religion of the world is about flattering us mightily. But the true faith, the Christian faith, the faith of Jesus, is not any of those things. Rather, it is Jesus Himself, coming to us in His church to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Christ has become for you the wisdom of God that is, the way of eternal life, by His life and death and resurrection. Christ has become your righteousness by taking your sins and being baptized, crucified, and risen for you. Christ has become your sanctification and holiness because it is by His blood that you are made holy and it is Christ who lives in and through you. Christ has become your redemption by paying the price for your sins and setting you free. It all looks so simple and common but it is the very power of God unto salvation. Where the religions of the world run after glory and exalting themselves, in His Church, Christ saves sinners by common and ordinary things that He uses for His holy purposes.

No, it doesn't make sense that Jesus the Holy One should be getting baptized. But then it shouldn't make sense that splashing some water on you should give you eternal life. Welcome to the Kingdom of God where things don't work the way WE think they should, but in a way that casts down all that we thought was important and mighty and gives to us forgiveness and life in Christ. Were you noble? Rich? Popular? I don't think so. Doesn't matter. The Lord has called you and made you His own. And that calling to life in Christ is better than anything the world has, though the world can't see it. But for you that calling means forgiveness of sins and eternal life. It is what God gives through His gifts which are foolishness to the world but your life. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

January 9, 2011 - The Baptism of Our Lord (First Sunday after the Epiphany) - St. Matthew 3:13-17

2011-01-10T22:24:00.002-06:00

The Christian life is not ABOUT Christ. It IS Christ. What do I mean by that? I mean that being a Christian isn't about knowing some facts about Jesus. It's about being in Christ and Christ living in you and transforming you into a new creation by His forgiveness and life. We are surrounded with churches that teach that Baptism is just a symbol, a sort of public ceremony that you've grasped some facts and accepted something. But the Scriptures teach us that our Baptism is something else entirely. Baptism is GOD'S work. When you were baptized, it is the Lord who did something. He draped you with Christ and stamped His Name on you. He washed your sins away and claimed you as His own. He took you, who were destined for everlasting death and hell and rescued you and gave you eternal life. Baptism is the amazing work of God by which you are united with Christ so that all that He is and has becomes yours. So your life as a Christian isn't about you. It's about Jesus. Oh, we want to make it about us. But it's not. It's about what Christ has done for you and what He does now as He lives in and through you. Everything that Jesus has is yours. Everything He does is yours. His life. His death. His resurrection all become yours in Holy Baptism. Let's take a look and see how this is so.

John's got it nailed. Jesus should be the one doing the baptizing. John is the sinner. Jesus is the Savior. But Jesus has it backwards. He's acting like He's the sinner. THAT is righteousness. Jesus taking on our sins. Jesus is as much as saying, “I am indeed the Savior. And I save by becoming the sinner. Taking the sins on. Making them mine. Getting rid of them for you.” He will take those sins and carry them to the cross of Calvary and there bleed and die for them. That's righteousness. The sinless Son of God becoming sin for us. For you. So now, in your Baptism, that sinlessness gets put upon you. In His Baptism, Jesus takes on your sins. In your Baptism He puts on you His perfection and holiness. It's a trade. An exchange. What's His for what's yours. That's righteousness. Learn that simple and clear definition of this big church word. Righteousness is Jesus taking your place. Say it: “Righteousness is Jesus taking my place.” Now no one can ever say they don't know what “righteousness” is when I ask! It's Jesus taking your place. That's what's going on in the Jordan River and at this font.

But there's more. A dove landing on Jesus. Doves go with floods and floods mean the Lord is killing and saving. When the Flood happened, the Lord destroyed a whole earth of sinners. But Noah, the only guy who trusted in God's promises is spared, for the sake of God's promises. The Lord couldn't very well bring a Savior into the world if everybody was gone, now could He? When the Flood, the punishment of God's wrath was over, there was a dove. A dove means God's wrath is done. It's over. So there's a dove at Jesus' baptism to say that because of Jesus, God's wrath is done for. Now there is peace with God. And it's on the other side of the Flood. When the flood is past. More baptismal stuff! Just as Noah came through the flood, Jesus comes up out of the water and there's a dove. Landing on Him. This is the one who brings peace. So now, in your Baptism, the Holy Spirit descends upon you and that means you have peace with God. No more thinking God is going to pay you back. No more making silly deals with God to bail you out. No more thinking you're not really God's child because of your sins. The Holy Spirit who descended upon you at the font says otherwise. He says there is peace with God. The price has been paid. The war is over. Olly olly oxen free. God is not going to get you. The dove has landed on you. Peace with God because the Spirit landed on Jesus the bringer of that peace by His death and resurrection.

But there's still more! The Father's voice from the heavens: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!” A divine “That's my boy!” The Father loves the Son because the Son does what He tells Him too: dies for sinners. God the Father asks only one thing of His Son: to become man and save sinners. And the Son does it without fussing or arguing or pouting or any of the other things we do when our parents tell us to do something. The Son does what He came to do: save sinners. On the day of His Baptism, the Father loves His Son because His Son is standing with us sinners. How could the Father be proud of a Son who is hanging out with such people? Because He does so to save them. To redeem them. To make us the children of God. So now, in your Baptism, the voice speaks about you: “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!” Jesus is beloved and that means you are beloved. The Father is pleased as punch with His Boy and so now He is pleased with you, too, in Christ. By your Baptism. Never worry or doubt whether God loves you. Whether He forgives your sins. Whether you are His child. He has said so on the day you were splashed at the font with His water and word. Your Baptism connects and joins you to Jesus Christ. So if He's God's beloved Son, so are you!

So you see? The Christian life isn't ABOUT Jesus. It IS Jesus. No trying to living righteously enough: Jesus has done so by trading places with you. No more trying to get God off your back. Jesus has brought the Spirit of peace to you. No more trying to impress God with your life. Jesus has made you His beloved Son. So no more living as if the Christian life is about you. When it's like that, then there's no room for God and your neighbor. Just you trying to do it. But Christ has already done it and does it now living in you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, when we live as if knowing Christ is just some book knowledge to pin the name Christian on ourselves, that is no good to anyone. But when Christ lives in us and through us; when HE is our righteousness, our peace and our sonship, well then God is glorified and our neighbor will be served and loved. On this day, Jesus was numbered with us sinners when He got down in the water. So that when you have come from the water of your Baptism, you stand as a righteous, at-peace, child of God. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Epiphany of Our Lord (observed; Wednesday) - January 5, 2011 - Ephesians 3:1-12

2011-01-05T16:13:00.000-06:00

Access. Do you have access? If you have an “all access pass” to a rock concert, you get to walk backstage and even meet the band. No one can just go up to the President of the United States and engage him in a conversation. You've got to have “access.” You can watch a show like “Access Hollywood” because you can't go behind the scenes of the rich and famous but their cameras and reporters can. Access. Gotta have access. Well if it's that hard to get the ear of the president or a close up pic with a superstar, how much more difficult is it to have access to Almighty God? The birth of Christ and the coming of the Wise Men happened for this purpose: so that we would know we have access to God. St. Paul says it: “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.” To have God's ear, to speak to the Lord, to come to Him, you need only Christ. You don't have to be Jewish in the bloodline of Abraham. You don't have to make an appointment with His secretary. Because of Jesus you have access not to the fleeting starlets and politicians of this world but to the Lord and Creator of all the universe. In Christ, you have access to God.

Epiphany, the coming of the pagan Wise Men from Babylon or Persia or wherever, is God's promise that His Son was born for all people. The birth of the Son of God in the flesh is His promise that it doesn't matter where you're from or what you've done, His salvation is for you. What is it that gives access to Jesus for these Wise Men? It's the Word of God. The Lord puts a new star in the sky to guide them and they go and learn the Scriptures which say the Baby is born in Bethlehem. When they get to the house in Bethlehem, there's no guards to get by or papers to fill out. Just Baby Jesus to be worshiped as the King and Savior. Access. This Baby isn't like other Kings. You don't have to have special access. He came to be the King and Savior of these Wise Men and the shepherds who came when He was born and for you too. The fact that Jesus was not born in a palace with guards or kept under lock and key in some fortress is a sign that He is born to give access. And it is with boldness and confidence that those magi open their gifts and give them to the Child.

The reason for this access and boldness that St. Paul speaks about is what this Child will grow up to do. In the Old Testament, nobody entered the holy part of the Temple without some blood being shed from a sheep or goat. Just so, the access to God that Jesus gives us isn't accomplished by Him waving His hand but by having His hand nailed to the cross. We do indeed come into the Father's presence through Christ but only because He has paid the price for our sins. We can only enter the Holy Place because what is unholy in us has been forgiven by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. And Jesus died for all. Shepherds. Wise men. Jews. Gentiles. Everyone. There is no one who is left out of shedding of Christ's blood for sinners. The coming of the Gentile Wise Men on Epiphany is your reminder that you too are the ones for whom Christ was born and died and rose.

St. Paul writes to the Ephesians that he was made an apostle for the sake of the Gentiles. He was sent to preach to everyone that they now had a Savior. So in the church today the preacher does the same thing: preach that you have a Savior. Here it is: You have a Savior! And the ways in which that Savior delivers His forgiveness are what give you that boldness and confidence to come before God as His beloved child. Your Baptism. It means you're a child of God and your sins have been washed away. Absolution. It declares that nothing stands between you and the Lord. The preaching and teaching of the Scriptures: the unchanging promise that for Christ's sake the Lord won't turn you away. The Lord's Supper: the very blood of the Lamb by which we have access to God the Father. In these ways you can stand before the Lord with all boldness and confidence instead of fear of judgment. This is why Jesus came. It's why he gives you forgiveness in His church. So you can stand before Him as His own dear child.

You're surely seen the kinds of prayers that people pray in the movies. “Dear God, I'm sure you're busy right now. It's me, little Bobby. I know my problems aren't that important but if you're not too busy...” And so on. No! To pray like a Christian is to come before God with boldness and confidence because we have access in Christ. It is to pray this way: “Lord, I am not worthy to be called your child or ask anything, but you sent Your Son for all people and that includes me. He shed His blood so that I can stand before your throne in the Holy of Holies. He washed me and gave me His own body and blood. So pay attention, Lord! Listen up, Father, for I ask your blessings and help!” That's what it means to have access with boldness and confidence. Because of Jesus you can bend the ear of God and have Him pay complete attention to you and never turn you away. You may never get to chat with the President or hang out with a movie legend. But in Christ, you have infinitely more: access to God Himself. That access is granted by Jesus who shed His blood to open the way to you. And now, in Him, you are right there with the Lord as His own dear child and friend. Access. With boldness and confidence. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Epiphany of Our Lord observed) - January 2, 2011 - St. Matthew 2:1-12

2011-01-05T16:12:00.001-06:00

“The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth shows forth His handiwork.” So the creation itself testifies to the glory of God in Jesus Christ and a star is employed to guide pagan magi to the infant Christ. That's the historical bit of Epiphany: Magi, Wise Men, Persian astrologers—whatever you want to call them—came at the sign of a special star, knowing that a king was born. But Epiphany isn't just that the magi came and the church put it on the calendar! Epiphany means something. The Epiphany Gospel teaches us once again that Christ was born for all people, shepherds and kings, for all sinners, for you and me. After all if pagan magi can receive Him, there's hope for you and I! And not only was He born for us but the Lord will never fail to bring us to His Son so that we have forgiveness of sins and salvation from sin, death, devil and hell. The Epiphany Gospel teaches us where we shall find Jesus and also teaches repentance for seeking Him anywhere other than the places He has promised to be.

Jesus said of the Holy Scriptures, “These are they which testify of me.” And to the disciples after Easter he “showed them in Moses and all the Prophets the things concerning Himself.” Recall our Gospel reading, dear Christians. Where does the star lead the Wise Men? Does it lead them straight to Jesus? It does not! Rather it leads them to the place where they may hear the Holy Scriptures. And it is the Holy Scriptures which tell the Wise Men where the Child is. Do not pass lightly over this point, brothers and sisters. It means this: There is no coming to Jesus apart from the preaching of the Holy Scriptures. Even the Lord who brought forth a miraculous star to guide them didn't guide them straight to Jesus. Even the Wise Men learn that to receive Jesus, we must hear the preaching of the Holy Scriptures. It is those Scriptures which sent the Magi to Bethlehem. It is those same Scriptures which send us to receive Jesus in His holy church, where He comes to us in the washing of water and the Word, in the absolution and preaching of the Scriptures, and in the Supper He instituted. The Lord comes to us nowhere else to be our Savior and to deliver the forgiveness of sins. And the Scriptures point us nowhere else to receive Him.

And there is our Epiphany repentance, because we by nature ignore the Scriptures and seek Jesus somewhere else than He has promised to be for our salvation. Notice something. Did Herod and the all Jerusalem know the Christ has been born? Did they understand that Israel's long-promised Savior had finally come? Absolutely! Did they hear and understand the Scriptures? Herod asked where the Christ was to be born. The chief priest and scribes all said with the certainty of the Scripture, “In Bethlehem.” But why did they want to know? So that they could get rid of the Christ! Herod and “all Jerusalem” show us that to simply know the Scriptures is no guarantee of anything. Even the Devil knows the Bible inside and out! Herod and “all Jerusalem” did not have faith which trusted in the infant Christ for their salvation. They wanted their own righteousness. Their own power and authority. Themselves being the big deal. They had the Scriptures but they didn't want to have Jesus. And there's our repentance! How often that is our confession, that we “know all that stuff already” and therefore have no need of learning the Scriptures, growing in our Catechism and advancing in the faith beyond where we were when we were confirmed years ago. Who wouldn't love to follow some spectacular star zooming around the sky? But search the Scriptures? Hear and learn what God's Word has to say? Grow in your knowledge and understanding of God's Word? Forget all that! This, dear Christians, is the religion of the world and the bulk of most of so-called “Christianity” today. It's even most of what you hear in the good ol' Missouri Synod anymore: We find Jesus where we want to find Him. We look in our hearts or lives. Where we don't want to look is to where the simple words of Scripture point us: to His church, to the means of grace, to the ministry of the Gospel under the care of a pastor. Dear Christians, let us repent of despising God's Word and hear again the Holy Scriptures which point us to Jesus and the Gospel and Sacraments in which we receive Him.

“Arise, shine, your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!” Dear Christians, the Lord will never leave us in darkness. By the pure light of His Word, He “calls, gathers and enlightens us.” As He did the magi, bringing them to the place where Jesus was. There they presented Him with their gifts: gold frankincense and myrrh. All gifts which confess who this Child was. Gold which surely helped Joseph and Mary escape. But it would be this Child's holy precious and blood and His innocent suffering and death—not gold or silver—by which sinners escape from their sins. He who was given gold as a Child spills His lifeblood on Calvary for the sins of the world. For the sins of the magi, for your sins and my sins. Incense which was used in worship and represents the prayers of the saints. Here in this Child and Him alone we can pray. Only in Christ do we have access to the Father. Only in Christ do we learn the Father's will which is not to destroy but save us, not to condemn but redeem us, not to punish us but to set us free in His Son. Myrrh. The spice of burial foreshadowing the death of this Jesus for sinners. So the Three Kings presented their gifts. And they did so not because they owed this Child, but because their gifts confessed that this Child was the King and their salvation. So we, dear Christians, also make offerings. We give our treasure, we come to church, not because God “expects” or “demands” such worship, but because such worship is the confession and testimony and exercise of our faith, that our only hope, our only salvation is the Child who grew up to be King on the cross.

“Nations will come to your light and the Gentiles the brightness of your rising.” So speaks Isaiah the prophet, foretelling that the nations will come to see the Lord's light and glory. But where? Among God's people! For that is where Christ dwells. Anyone who sees the Lord's light and glory sees it only in His church, where Christ is found in His means of grace. The prophet's words teach us that we don't go looking for the Lord just anywhere, but where He has promised to be, and that is where the Scriptures point us: among God's people where the means of grace are. What ever happened to the Magi? The church has believed for a long time that it was St. Thomas the Apostle who made his way to lands of Persia and actually baptized those magi! Of course that history is not recorded in the Scriptures, but the fact that the church has believed it teaches us that not even magi are converted by simply showing up at Jesus' house, but through the preaching and baptizing that Jesus Himself commanded His church to do after His resurrection. Just so there is no salvation for us in trying to find Jesus' childhood house or going to Calvary and looking for bits of the cross. No, to be certain of our salvation, to receive forgiveness of our sins, we look no other place than the holy church in which Christ Himself dwells. The church is the house wherein Jesus lives and to which the Scriptures direct us and to which the stars of our pastors point us. There is your forgiveness, dear Christians: in the water of the font, in the words of your preacher and in the body and blood of the Christ in His Supper. Never despise His Word and never look anywhere else, but receive Him there for your salvation and comfort.

“In Christ we have boldness and access with confidence by His faith.” By Christ's faith. St. Paul, who was called by God so that the Gentiles would hear the preaching of Christ and believe and be saved, testifies to the Ephesians that it is through the church that the Lord's mystery is made known, the mystery which is our salvation in Christ. What is Epiphany all about? It's about learning where Jesus is and knowing how we know where Jesus is. The Magi were led to the Holy Scriptures which told them where Jesus is. So you, dear Christians, have the Holy Scriptures, which direct you not to a house in Bethlehem, nor to a cross on hill, nor to your heart or the changes in your life or any place like that. No, the Scriptures the Holy Spirit has written through His apostles direct you here. To this house. To this font. To this altar. To your pastor. Here is where Christ is. Now worship Him, not as one who owes Him something, as if you could ever repay! Rather, worship Him by receiving Him, by grasping in faith those promises of the Gospel which declare your sins forgiven. The promise of your Baptism which says that as Jesus is the beloved Son of God, so are you His beloved child. The promise of His body and blood that He lives in you and you in Him and He will raise you up on the Last Day! Christ was in the house for the Wise Men to see. Now He is in this house, His church, for you and for your salvation. Happy Epiphany! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

December 26, 2010 - The Sunday after Christmas - St. Luke 2:22-40

2010-12-25T23:06:00.001-06:00

The song that Simeon sang on the day He held Baby Jesus in His arms has been sung ever since by the church. Let us ponder the words of this song and make them our own. “O Lord, lettest now Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word.” Simeon is now ready to die. He has held in His arms the Child who is His Savior and the Savior of the world. He can depart in peace, which means to die in peace. He can die knowing that He has a Savior who will take away His sin and so he will not be judged for it. The same for you. When the pastor says after you eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus, “depart in peace,” he's saying, you can die now. In peace. In Christ. Whatever things out there in the world can happen to you cannot harm you because you are full of the Body and Blood of the Savior. The same Body and Blood which was given for your sins and rose from the dead. To depart in peace means that because of Jesus there are no sins hanging over you. No outstanding warrants for your judgment by God. No condemnation for you. And this is according to God's Word. Simeon had the Lord's Word that He would not die until He had seen the Christ. You have God's Word that having seen the Christ, received Him in His Word and Sacraments, you will die in peace.

“For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou has prepared before the face of all people.” Salvation isn't an abstract concept. Salvation is something Simeon can hold in his arms. This Baby is God's salvation. This Baby is the Savior. This Baby is the One who will do the work of taking away Simeon's and your sins. This is the One St. Paul tells us was born under the Law in order to redeem us who were under the Law. There is a reason that Simeon tells Mary that a sword will pierce her own soul too! This Baby is the Lord's salvation. And that salvation will come at a price. The price of His precious blood and His innocent suffering and death! But the salvation of the Lord is right there in Simeon's arms. He can hold it. Salvation isn't some abstract religious idea. It's the Son of God becoming flesh. It's Jesus taking our place. It's Jesus suffering and dying for our sins. It's Jesus rising from the dead. Not that Simeon gets all that in the flash of a moment, but he knows enough: this Child is the One who is the salvation of God.

“A light to lighten the Gentiles...” Here Simeon says something extraordinary. This Savior is a light to the Gentiles, to the nations. He was not just born for the Jewish people. He was born for all people. For all nations, races, languages, tribes, peoples. Even us in Southern Illinois! We live in a dark world. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. The weight of economic hard times and the crumbling morals of our society mean there is ever more and more pressure to live like the world does and to look out for just ourselves. But Simeon's words proclaim that there is Light in this darkness. Not just a hopeful outlook. Not just a “brighter tomorrow” or some other feel good rubbish. Here is true Light, shining in the arms of an old man. Here, in this Child is the Light of the world which will shine brightly from the top of Calvary, a beacon of hope for sinners on a day when the skies were dark over Golgotha. This is the Light that shines in the darkness and cannot be overcome.

“...and the glory of Thy people Israel.” When Simeon held Jesus in his arms, he was holding the fulfillment of God's promises since Adam and Eve, renewed to Abraham and proclaimed by prophets for thousands of years. Simeon knew that in this Child, God had kept His promises. It was the ultimate sign of God's faithfulness. Yet many of God's own people refused to believe that the Christ had come. But now it is not a physical bloodline that links us to Abraham but faith in Christ. St. Paul says that we are all sons of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ. The true Israel is not a chunk of land in the Middle East. No, the true Israel is the holy Christian church where we rejoice in the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We, along with Simeon, are God's people among whom His glory shines. Where is that glory? In the Word that is preached in Israel, in the church. Where the Baptism of water and the Word brings people into Christ's church. Where holy absolution is spoken and the crucified Savior is preached. Where the glory of God Himself is hidden under the bread and wine as we feast upon His Body and Blood in the holy Sacrament. The glory of Israel is Christ, who is the glory of the church. For it is here that He bestows upon us His salvation by coming to us and giving us Himself.

That is Simeon's song. The song that welcomed the Savior and confessed the fulfillment of God's promises. Where do we sing that song? Right after the Sacrament of the Altar. For there, at the end of the Divine Service, we have remembered our Baptism, been absolved of our sins, heard the Word read and preached, and feasted upon the flesh and blood of Christ. The pastor says, “Depart in peace,” that is, let nothing in this world and life worry you. You are in Christ. And you will be in Him when you die. And so we sing these words of Simeon to confess ourselves the good things God has given and shown to us. So now, to the welcome the Lord at His altar and then, having seen the Lord, having received the Lord's salvation once more, you can depart in peace. In Christ. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

December 25, 2010 - The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day - St. John 1:1-18

2010-12-24T23:37:00.001-06:00

I know of no other God than the One in the manger, on the cross and on the altar. St. John tells us why: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God became man. The Son was incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin's Womb. Jesus is “God-with-us” literally because He is God and man in One Person. People everywhere have certain conceptions about what God is or what He is like. But to look anywhere other than in Jesus is to have no real or true God at all. God isn't defined by what we think about Him but by what He does. And He has become man. One of us. Human. Flesh and blood. In fact, the most important thing you can say about God is not that He is almighty or all powerful or that He knows everything or can be everywhere at once. The most important thing the Scriptures teach us about God is this amazing mystery: that God took on flesh. That God became Man. And He has taken on flesh not for Himself but for your sake. For you salvation. To redeem and save you from sin and death. On this holy Christmas day, let us ponder what it means that the Son of God has flesh and blood.

The Son comes into this world in the flesh not simply appearing and walking into town one day but by being conceived in the womb of the Virgin and born as a baby. This is so that we who are born in sin may be born anew from above. You see, ever since Adam, we have inherited the curse of sin. It is passed from one generation to another. We are conceived and born in sin. We don't like to hear it but even when we are babies we are sinners. This curse of sin is passed from father to children ever since Adam. We are born with it, born under the condemnation of God. So Jesus is born in the flesh. He does not have an earthly father, therefore He has no sin. His holy and perfect and spotless flesh comes to us because ours is ruined and tainted. By His holy flesh, He gives us new birth. Paul says that in the Epistle today, that God's kindness and love are given in the washing of rebirth and renewal. When you were baptized you were born from above. This is the new birth that St. John talks about: not of the flesh or of our own will but by God's grace. Jesus is born perfect into this world in order that you would be born again from above by water and the Spirit unto eternal life. Without His coming in the flesh, your flesh could not be redeemed and washed clean by His water and Word. Jesus is born in the flesh so that you will be born from above in Him.

The Son of God comes into this world in the flesh so that His flesh can suffer and die. So that His flesh can be pierced with nails, thorns and spear. Our sin has brought the curse of death. Sinners die. That's our fate. So God comes to take care of death by dying Himself. He takes our sins upon His spotless flesh and dies for them on the cross of Calvary. It is hard to think that the little baby in the manger is headed someday for the cross and death but that is why He came. In our flesh is sin and death. Jesus' spotless flesh takes our sins so that He may die our death. And that holy flesh that is pierced and that holy blood that is poured out, these are the price of our redemption. The price paid by Jesus for our sins. Not with gold or silver but with His holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death: that's how he redeems and saves us. Christ comes in the flesh so that His flesh and blood may pay for our sins.

Christ comes in the flesh so that He may give His flesh to us as food. Later in St. John's same Gospel Jesus says, “Eat my flesh and drink my blood and I will raise you up on the Last Day.” Jesus gives us His flesh to eat so that our flesh will be raised from the dead. Jesus has died and risen from the dead. So will you who have eaten and drunk His flesh and blood. Death couldn't keep Jesus down. It can't keep you down either if you have His flesh and blood in you. If sin and death want you, they have to get through Jesus! He's already taken care of them. When we eat regular food, it gives some life to our bodies, at least for a little while and then we must eat again. But the flesh and blood of the Son of God give us a life that does not end. Eternal life. So much life that even though we die we are going to be raised the Last Day. How it is that Jesus gives us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink is just as much a mystery as how God can become man, but there it is: He has flesh so that He may give it to you for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. The same flesh that is crucified is given to you as food. Is it any wonder that our Lord is born and placed into a feed trough? His flesh is true food! His blood is true drink. And by them you have eternal life.

Christmas teaches us to look for no other God than the one who is in the manger, on the cross and on the altar. Beware of a god that isn't there in the flesh. Beware of a god who's too big and powerful to be a Baby, or too big and mighty to suffer and die or to distant and far away to be in the Sacrament. Beware of a god that's found in your feelings or in the ups and downs of life or the world around us. Beware of any god who doesn't have flesh and beware of any Jesus who isn't truly God. And for ourselves, let us be reminded by this Christmas flesh of Jesus to repent of looking for God anywhere other than where He is in His flesh. God is not in our ideas and our notions about Him. He's in the flesh. In the manger as a baby. On the cross as a man. On the altar with the food of His flesh and blood. Because no other God saves you than the One who has taken on flesh for you!

So rejoice on Christmas, dear Christians, to know of no other God than the One who is in the manger, on the cross and on the altar. Rejoice in the Savior whose pure flesh makes your sinful flesh clean at the font. Whose pierced flesh is the Good News of your salvation. Whose flesh and blood are given as your food. It is that God who has come to us and become man, not for His own sake but for your sake. To give you new birth. To redeem you. To feed you. You have flesh. So does God now. Merry Christmas in the Name of Jesus! Amen.

December 24, 2010 - The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Eve - St. Luke 2:1-20

2010-12-24T17:20:00.002-06:00

Is God happy with you? Is He pleased with you? He gives you His Word and name. Do you study it? Learn it? Grow in it? Meditate upon His Word every day? Is it your joy and pleasure to study God's Word and grow in it? Or do you forget it. Ignore it. Don't know what's in it. Do you think God is pleased with you? The Lord gives you a neighbor. People around you. Husband. Wife. Kids. Parents. Family. Friends. People you work with. How do you treat them? Do you love the ones who love you back and do you harbor anger and a grudge against those who don't treat you right? Do you go out of your way to help others who need something or do you try to avoid doing something for others? And if you are helpful, do you help all the people or just the ones you get along with? Do you think God is pleased with you for that? If we stand in the light of God's Law to love Him and to love others, we realize pretty quickly that the Lord doesn't have any reason to be delighted in us.

When Jesus is born the angel host appears to the shepherds and sings, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men!” Peace and goodwill. What are those? What do they mean? If we consider “peace” and “goodwill” as just ideas then we will be stuck forever in the various personal meanings they have for people. “Peace” and “goodwill” will mean pretty much whatever people want them to mean. But if we understand that by “peace” and “goodwill” the angels mean Jesus, then we see what true peace and goodwill are all about. We ran through the Law. We see that we don't keep it. That makes us enemies of God. At war with Him. God says we are supposed to live one way and we want to live our way. And who do you think will win that battle? You or God? But when Jesus comes to be our peace, that means peace as in “no more enemies. No more fighting.” How is Jesus that kind of peace? Because He is born to die. Born to go to the cross. Born to pay the price of our sins. Born to suffer and die in our place. Born to take on the wrath of God Himself and absorb it for us. Deflect it from us. Rescue us from it. On Calvary, the One who was born in Bethlehem becomes our peace by dying for our sins. Now, you have peace with God. Whatever you have done against Him has been wiped out. Cancelled. Forgiven. No more warring with God. No more fighting. No more God being your enemy. Now, peace which means Christ for whose sake your sins have been forgiven.

Peace on earth and goodwill toward men. What is goodwill? It's God's favor. It's God being “well pleased” with you instead of condemning you. God being happy with you instead of angry. But again, how does that happen? How does that take place? The baby. The Son of God. Jesus. When the angels announce “Goodwill to men” they don't mean a happy feeling between people. They mean the Son of God for whose sake the Lord is now pleased with you. According to the Law, God is not happy. But according to Jesus, He is. According to Holy Baptism which sprinkles you with Jesus' blood by water and the Word, He's tinkled pink to rejoice that you too are His holy and precious child. According to Holy Absolution He says He is pleased with you because you have no sins to your account any more. According to His Holy Gospel He is pleased with you because His Son has taken your place and given His righteousness to you. According to Holy Communion He is pleased with you because He is pleased with Jesus His Son and Holy Communion puts that Son in you by Body and Blood. Is God pleased with you? Is there goodwill toward you? All of the gifts of Jesus—His Word and Sacraments—say yes He is. The Word and means of grace which give you Jesus are the ways He gives You His goodwill and the ways by which you know you have it.

Do you ever wonder if God's got it in for you? If you're in trouble? That happens. Sometimes life piles up around us and we can't help but think, “God's out to get me!” The shepherds thought that when an angel appeared. They were sore afraid. They feared a great fear. Or, to put it another way, freaked out and terrified! Until the angel preached to them. Until the learned a Savior had been born. Then what? They couldn't but run to Bethlehem and see their Savior. They couldn't keep their mouths shut about what they had seen and heard. Suddenly God's Word which delivered their Savior was the only thing they could talk about! When you hear Christ's Word preached, you have the answer to your question, “Does God have it in for me?” The answer is, “No way!” He's sent you a Savior. His own Son born in the flesh for you. Christmas means you never have to wonder if God hates you or loves you. Because His Son is born in the flesh and He is your peace and your goodwill from God.

Is God happy with you? The birth of our Lord Jesus means we don't answer that question according to the commandments any more. It means we answer it according to Who this Baby is that is born. The Son of God. His name, Jesus, “The Lord Saves.” Peace. Goodwill. That's what He is and does and gives. Is God happy with you? He can't be any happier with you than He is in Jesus His own beloved Son. That's through the cross and death and into eternal life glory happy with you. In Jesus. Who is peace on earth and goodwill toward men. Peace and goodwill toward you. Merry Christmas in the name of Jesus! Amen.

December 22, 2010 - Wednesday of Advent 4 - Deuteronomy 18:15-19

2010-12-22T15:31:00.001-06:00

So when the children of Israel got to Mt. Sinai, they did NOT like it! The Lord was there. Thick smoke and clouds covered the mountain. There was fire and flashes of lightning and rumblings and the blast of the horns. If you even touched the mountain, you were dead. The holy God was there and you didn't dare get too close! So they said, “Moses! You go talk to the Lord. We'll just stay here while you go do it. You talk to God and then tell us what He says, OK? If your survive?” You know we often think that if we could just see God with our eyes, or see some miraculous revelation or glimpse the Lord in some way, we'd really believe, really be faithful. But the truth is, we'd be like the children of Israel. Run! Let someone else go talk to that God!

The Lord confirmed that their idea was a good one by establishing Moses as His prophet. It was through Moses that the Lord spoke to His people. If you wanted to know what God said, you didn't go to the mountain and ask God, you went to Moses. Moses would tell you the Lord's words. But it wasn't that Moses was trying to be power hungry or act like a big shot. The people WANTED it that way. The Lord won't deal with His people apart from His Word, delivered by Moses. You don't get to God except through Moses. Well, you could, but you'd be dead in a flash! The Lord does this to protect His people. Rather than approach Him in their sins, He comes to them through Moses and His Word so that the people are not destroyed. But Moses won't be around forever. So the Lord tells His people that He is going to raise up a prophet like Moses who will do the same thing. But there will be one thing different...

The difference, when this Prophet comes, is that He will be the Lord Himself. The Son of God in the flesh. When Jesus is born, we learn that God is not going to make us come to Him but He comes to us. When we go to God on our own there is nothing there but the terrors of Mt. Sinai. But when God comes to us, there is a God you can see and deal with without being destroyed. When people approached Mt. Sinai, there was the fearful expectation of God's judgment. But when the Prophet comes, Jesus, He goes to Mt. Calvary to save us from the wrath of God. On Mt. Calvary is not the scary but the hidden God. Not the mighty Lord but the weak and crucified. Not the mountain crowned with fire and smoke but the man crowned with thorns. Not men who quiver in fear but men who stand and mock or weep. And yet, on that mountain, there IS the wrath of God. But now it is not to destroy us but to wound and kill God's own Son. On Mt. Calvary, the Lord of Sinai takes our place and spares us from His destructive power that would doom us.

The Lord does not want to deal with us apart from His flesh and His Word. How does He do that? By His flesh and His Word! Word, water, body and blood—in the means of grace, the forgiveness of sins given in His church. There's no need to go looking for God. He's right here. Right here for you. Repent of seeking the Lord anywhere other than where He has promised to be found. Out there, in the world, in the amazing things and in the disasters, in your experiences and emotions, there's no sure and certain God. Look at the sunset! God loves you! Your house burns to the ground. God hates you! See how quickly and easily what we want to think about God can be confused? But here, in His church, your Baptism says He loves and forgives you. His Word says He loves and forgives you. His Body and Blood say He loves and forgives you. Always. No matter what is going on out there. Because He has come in the flesh for you.

You see, there are two ways to have God. You can approach Him yourself, on your own, apart from Christ. But then there is nothing but the fiery thunderous judgment of Mt. Sinai. There is the God who can and will kill you because He is holy and you aren't. Or you can have God the way He comes to you. Hidden. In the flesh. To save and forgive. On a cross. As a Savior. That God is the One who gave His life for us and took it up again and who promises that He did it to raise you up on the Last Day. The children of Israel needed a prophet like Moses to keep them from getting destroyed by the Lord. Now we have the greater Prophet, God's own Son Jesus Christ who does the same thing only greater, not just protecting us from Mt. Sinai but from all of God's wrath and giving us eternal life by His Words. So off to Mt. Calvary. But first stop is the city of David where the Lord first appears in the flesh at His birth. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

December 19, 2010 - Rorate Coeli: The Fourth Sunday in Advent - St. John 1:19-28

2010-12-20T10:01:00.002-06:00

There's John the Baptizer baptizing in the Jordan river. A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Teaching people to repent, to do good works, and to trust in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. A guy dressed like a prophet in camel's hair at the Jordan River? That gets the attention of the clergy. They head down from Jerusalem and start asking questions. “Are you the Christ.” John: “Nope.” “Elijah?” “No.” “The Prophet?” “No.” It's like everyone cares who and what John is. Except John! Surely you're some big name preacher, John? Nope. The Lord sent John to preach and baptize. So that's what he does. Does he have a bestseller on the market? His picture on a billboard? Is he a nationally renowned and respected religious adviser? Has he filled football stadiums with people who want to hear him? No. He's just John. Preaching and baptizing in the wilderness, pointing to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So why does John not make a big deal about John?

John the Baptizer is only good for being a voice. A voice that points to Christ. That's His job. His calling. The work the Lord called Him to do. To be a voice. A voice that proclaims the coming Savior and points Him out. It was John who told the people to repent and be baptized for their sins to be washed away. It was John who preached that soldiers should be content with their pay, that people who had extra should share with those who had less, doing good works. It was John who warned those that thought they weren't sinners that the Lord was coming with the ax to the root of the tree to chop down all who didn't bear fruit. It was John who, when He finally saw Jesus, cried out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The clergy all wanted to know who John was but he just said, “The voice crying in the wilderness.” They want to make John the big deal but for John the only big deal is that he gets to point out which of the people coming to the Jordan is the Christ. You see, it's not about John but about what John preaches. It's not about the man, but about what the voice proclaims. About whom the voice proclaims. About the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

So why is John baptizing they ask? “I baptize you with water but there stands one among you whom you do not know.” But when He comes to the Jordan, John will point Him out: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” This is the Good News John preaches: That the Lamb of God stands among us. God has become a man. He is one of us in order to die for us and to be the sacrifice for the sin of the world! God is not hidden, not “up there somewhere.” He's here on this earth, born of a woman to be our Savior. When John points Jesus out a little later, he identifies Him as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. There. That guy. The One he baptizes who has the Spirit come down on Him—that one is the man who has been born among us. Stands among us. Will be nailed to a cross among us. The Good News that John preaches is that the One who is before Him, the One whose sandals he's not even worthy to untie—this man comes to humble Himself even unto the death of a cross for sinners.

Now last week we heard how Jesus is pointed out by the testimony of the Scriptures which foretold His words and deeds. This week we hear how Jesus must be pointed out by the preacher. It is true that Jesus stands among them, but no one will know who He is until John the preacher points Him out to them. That's the preacher's job: to point out the Lamb who takes away our sins. Today, if we were to go looking for Jesus, we wouldn't know where to find Him either. There are so many fake and false Jesuses out there. How then do we tell? Our preachers point Him out. They tell us to look at the One who washes with water and the Spirit at the font. They speak Jesus' own words of forgiveness to sinners. They point to the Lamb of God sacrificed on the cross and alive three days later. They direct our attention and faith to the Christ on the altar in His Body and Blood. We would go looking for Jesus in our hearts or emotions or experiences or in a thousand other ways. But His Word, proclaimed by His preachers, is what points Him out to you. Want to know where Jesus is? Font. Lectern. Pulpit. Altar. Behold in these things, where Christ's Word and Sacrament are, behold the Lamb of God who takes away YOUR sins.

And that's all your pastor is good for. To be a voice that points to Jesus. The Scriptures record the prophets like John who came and preached and then usually passed away as martyrs. Or the Apostles whom the Lord chose and we don't even really know what happened to them. They preached Christ. That's all we need to know. That was the big deal. But today, it seems it's all about the preachers. Preachers who write bestsellers or have their pictures on billboards or have their own TV shows. Even in our own churches we get worked up about what sort of a man a pastor is, what his personality is like, what we like about him or can't stand about him. Rather we should simply ask one question of our preacher: Does he point me to Christ? Does He deliver Jesus? Does He point to the Lamb of God who takes away my sins? Because that is all your pastor is good for. Whether he's outgoing or keeps to himself, a nice guy or grumpy, whether he's personable or awkwarrd in a social situation—does he point you to Christ and His gifts? If so, there is the Lamb of God who takes away your sins. That's why your pastor wears black. Pretty much all the time. It's not about him. It's just a reminder that he's a preacher. His job is to point to Jesus, the Lamb. The Lord sets it up this way, that He calls a man to point Him out so that you'll never be without Jesus. Never be uncertain that He died for you and forgives you all your sins.

Who are you, John? Just a voice. A voice telling you the Lamb has come. He's among us. Immanuel, which means “God with us.” The Lamb who takes away sins by giving up His life. The Lamb who saves sinners by taking on their sins. The Lamb who is the world's Savior. The Lamb who is your Savior. So says John. So says your pastor. Rejoice! The Salvation of God has come to you in Jesus. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

December 15, 2010 - Wednesday of Advent 3 - Isaiah 40:1-11

2010-12-15T14:40:00.002-06:00

The Old Testament readings for Advent remind us that Israel was pretty much always in trouble. Though they were God's own people, they continually turned away to false gods and continually treated each other like dirt. How did the Lord put up with them? Over and over they sinned and He punished them in order to turn them back to Him. In the wilderness, they ended up having to stay 40 years because they did not trust in the Lord to keep His promise of giving them the Promised Land. Once in the Promised Land, the Lord had to continually chastise His people with enemies because they didn't trust in Him. After so many wicked kings who led the people into idolatry, the Lord sent His people into exile among the Assyrians and the Babylonians. And what is the preaching that would come later? “Comfort my people! Tell them their struggle is done. Their sins have been paid for double.” How is it that the Lord continues to put up with these people? They turn away. He brings them back. They run off. He seeks them out. He comes in the flesh and they nail Him to a cross and He prays, “Father, forgive them.”

It should be apparent that the Lord is not like us. When someone wrongs us, we don't let it go. How many of you have had someone say or do something that hurt you. What did you do? Let it go? Forgive them? Or hang on to it? Hold it in your heart? Sit around imagining the conversations you would have with that person and what you'd say to put them in their place! “Yes, pastor,” you say, “But you don't understand what they did. You don't understand how much it hurt. You don't understand how much they deserve the treatment they get.” I'm sure I don't. And I'm sure when I do the same thing, nobody else would understand how much the person that sinned against me deserves my scorn and hatred either. Advent reminds us with these vivid words that we are not like God. He constantly puts up with people we'd be done with after the first wrong thing they did to us. He sends His prophets and preachers over and over to tell His people that He has forgiven them and to turn their hearts back to Him in repentance and faith. Advent reminds us that is what repentance is all about. To repent isn't to feel an abstract “sorriness.” It is to recognize how unlike God we are and how much we need a Savior or we are doomed. It is a time to turn from the sins we love to cling to the God who is still bearing with us and putting up with us. Repentance is the Lord's gift which rescues us from thinking we're so good in comparison to others and teaches us that we are such awful sinners our only hope is the Son of God. Let that be your Advent repentance: to put aside your sins and the sins of others and trust in Christ all the more for His forgiveness and grace.

Now let's be clear here. If you're holding a grudge against someone and you act like you like them and forgiven them, that's not going to fool God into thinking you've made yourself repentant and worthy. Likewise any other sin. Just trying to kick a bad habit or change your ways is no proof to the Lord that you've figured out how to act like a Christian. You see, repentance means you want to do better but it doesn't mean you can. And it doesn't mean you can get rid of your sins yourself. For that you need the Lord to do what He does: forgive sinners. And how does He do it? By coming in the flesh Himself and being crucified by those very sinners. The Lord doesn't do what you and I would do. He doesn't plan His revenge and then, when the moment is just right, spring it on all those evil unbelievers who hate Him. No, He lets them take hold of Him, mock Him mercilessly and drag Him out to be nailed to the cross. The Lord brings us comfort by undergoing suffering. He brings us peace by being hated and crucified. He earns forgiveness for our sins by paying the price for our sins: suffering and death. The One Man who really could give us what we deserve for our hatred of God and others instead takes that hatred upon Himself and bleeds and dies and then rise from the dead. There's double for your sins! There's an answer to your sins that wipes them out! There is the comfort Isaiah is talking about!

Isaiah says that a voice will cry out in the wilderness. That's John the Baptizer. What does He cry out? Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight His paths. All flesh is grass and will fade away!” John came to remind people that the way to be prepared to receive Christ is repent of their sins. Not that they could get rid of their own sins, but rather repentance was being baptized in the Jordan and believing in the Christ, the Lamb of God that John pointed out. The warning that we are grass and that we fade away is a warning that we have no strength to save ourselves. John's preaching is a reminder not to be like the Pharisees who came to see Him and didn't get in the river to be baptized. They looked around and down their noses at others because they knew they were better, knew they were less sinful. They didn't have any need for a Savior. Advent, with Isaiah's and John's preaching, is a warning not to be like that. Don't think that you are better than others. Don't think you deserve the Lord's forgiveness but someone else out there doesn't deserve yours. Don't act like you can live without God's Word and Christ's Body and Blood. Don't live as if your neighbor owes you everything and you can treat others however you want. That sort of living is like the grass that fades and dies!

But while the grass fades, the Word of the Lord does not. And here is our Advent comfort. The Lord gives us a double portion of taking care of our sins in His Word and Sacraments. Baptism: the water and the word that washes us. Absolution, the words of forgiveness target to our particular sins. The Preaching of the Gospel: the Good News heard over and over that Christ crucified has rescued us from sin and death. The Lord's Supper: the Body and Blood of Christ by which He gives us forgiveness, life and salvation. Double portion? That's like a quadruple portion! The Lord's forgiveness is given to us in all these different ways, so overflowing and abundantly. To be in the Lord's church, to be in His Divine Service, to live in these gifts is to know the comfort of Isaiah's preaching: that we have received double for our sins. That they are taken away.” There are no other gifts by which we are forgiven before God than these. There are no other sources of our strength and the Spirit working in us to teach us to let go of the sins of others and to love our neighbor as ourselves. True repentance is to turn from our sins, not to something in us by which we can improve ourselves. True repentance, the repentance of Advent, is to flee from our sins into Christ's church where He gives out His saving and forgiving gifts. Where His never-passing-away Word is heard.

How is it that we are so quick to hold on to the sins of others and the Lord is so quick to forgive? That's what makes Him our Lord and Savior and we the people who need saving! Brothers and sisters in Christ, Advent is the time to throw out those things which drag us down, both our sins and the sins of others. Comfort, comfort, people! Your Lord is speaking tenderly to you today from the lips of Isaiah. His tenderness is that He will not pay you back for your sins. He has paid FOR them by His Son. Cling to that Savior whose birth is near and whose Second Coming is not far away! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

December 12, 2010 - Gaudete: The Third Sunday in Advent - St. Matthew 11:2-11

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John the Baptizer, locked up in Herod's dungeon sends His disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the One who is to come? Or should we be looking for someone else?” Maybe John has some doubts? He preached about the guy who was coming to cast the unrepentant into the fires and yet here he is, locked up by an evil king. So is Jesus the real deal? What's the answer? The answer is, “What is He doing?” The sick are healed, the dead are raised and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. Does that mean He's the Christ? See how Jesus points John to His works which fulfill the Scriptures. In other words, the answer to John's question is: What is Jesus doing? And is He doing the things the Bible says the Savior will be doing. Jesus' answer reminds John and us that His kingdom isn't about the things we'd make a kingdom out of. We'd like power and glory and fame and money and all that. Jesus' kingdom is about those who can't help themselves. It's about the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dead and those who need forgiveness. That, above all, the forgiveness of sins, is what the Lord is bringing as the Savior. The Old Testament said He would. Do these things. He does them and so He is indeed the Christ, the Coming One. Be at peace, John, Jesus is indeed the One, as you faithfully preached.

How about today? There are so many religions and faiths and philosophies. We are surrounded by a world that doesn't know anything about Christ and doesn't want to. We may well wonder as John did, “Is Jesus the One? Seriously? Where is He? What is He doing? What good has He done?” How do we answer that? We answer it with what we have seen and heard through the eyewitnesses of Jesus. He was born of the Virgin, baptized for sinners, tempted in the wilderness. He walked on water and He preached that we should trust in Him. He was arrested, tried, beaten and crucified. He died on the cross of Calvary. He rose from the dead the third day. Again, all things the Scriptures said would happen. One of the most important ways we know that Jesus is the true Savior is that He fulfilled the prophecies made of him hundreds of years before. The world and its history are full of prophets and wise guys and all that. But it is only Jesus Christ who was killed in the most horrible way and yet was alive again three days later! How do we know Jesus is the One among all those religions? Because He was dead and is alive just as the Scriptures taught beforehand and just as the Scriptures give witness to. And by dying and rising He has done what no other prophet has done.

What about today? In His church? When we struggle to pay our bills and wonder why we don't have more people here. What then? Is this really the right faith? The right religion? The right Jesus? Well, what do you see and hear? Sinners are baptized and absolved. Christ crucified is preached. Those hungry and thirsty for righteousness have the Body and Blood of Christ given to them. For the answer to his question, Jesus points John to the Scriptures. For our answers we go to the Scriptures. What does Jesus' Word say? “Therefore go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Go and preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in my name. Whosoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven.” Is that what this church is about? Is that what's going on here? Look around. Listen up. Everything in this church is about Christ crucified and risen forgiving our sins by His Word and Sacraments. That's Christ at work doing what He says He would be doing. If those are the things Christ said are His works in His church and those are the things going on, then never worry that Christ is here among us doing what He promised to do.

What about you? When someone asks whether you are a Christian, when the opportunity to give witness to your faith comes up, who and what do you talk about? Give them the answer that John was given: what has Jesus done and is He doing for you. Tell them, “Well, I am baptized. My pastor forgives my sins. I hear Christ crucified preached every time I'm in church. Christ feeds me with His Body and Blood.” Those are the gifts which make and keep you a Christian, a child of God. When it comes to your religion, don't talk about you. Just as Christ didn't promote Himself but rather pointed to the Word and His fulfillment of it. Not that He didn't know Who He was but He wants all things done by and according to His Word. So for us. We don't rely on the testimony of ourselves but of the Word and what Christ says and gives in His Word. Then we're on solid ground, as John was, for He had the Word of God to give His answer and proof.

But the answer to all these questions is not one that will satisfy most people. To point to the Word of God and see Jesus as the One who fulfills it is not what people want to hear. “Blessed is he who is not offended by Me,” says Jesus. There were many in Jesus' day who denied the Word and refused to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah. There are many today who have one religion or another but deny the true God, instead seeking gods and philosophies that are all about them. There are many in the church who measure things by the works of men rather than by what Christ is doing in His Word. There are many who profess to be Christians who based their claim upon something they've done: how good they are or what decision they made or how faithful they try to be. Even we are not immune from the doubts that wonder whether Jesus is it. Repent, brothers and sisters and look again at how Jesus fulfills the Scriptures. Look at how He directs us to the Word for the answer. Look how the Word points to Him and what He has done for us by His cross and empty tomb. Look how the Word directs us to what He still does for us by water, Word, Body and Blood. There are many who are offended by Jesus because He isn't the god they want. But He is the only God who saves. He is the only God who became man and died and rose for sinners. He is the only God who preserves His holy church even in this evil world until He comes again. All that Christ does for us the Word teaches and it is our comfort amidst all trouble.

When Jesus first appeared at the Jordan River, it was John the Baptizer who pointed Him out saying, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” That's why Jesus came. That's what Jesus did. That forgiveness is what He delivers to us now. Whenever we doubt, whenever we wonder, let us look to what Christ has done and still does. His works, according to God's Word declare Him to be the True Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God who saves sinners. It is He who has brought us into His kingdom by grace. John the Baptizer died before he could see the fulfillment of his preaching, Jesus' death and resurrection. But you have had that death and resurrection preached to you from the Word of the eyewitnesses. But we, like John, are saved the same way: by the works of the One who was to come, who came and who will come again, even Jesus Christ our Lord. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

December 8, 2010 - Wednesday of Advent 2 - Malachi 4:1-6

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All right! The proud and the wicked are gonna burn! The Day of the Lord is coming and all those evil people out there are going to get it! We like to take comfort in the fact that those who are so full of themselves and who are so evil and wicked are going to one day get what they deserve. When the Scriptures talk about the Day of Judgment burning like a fire, there's a part of us that wells up with eager anticipation for the vengeance of God on the proud and the wicked. But there's just one problem. WE are the proud and the wicked! Are we not full of pride? Thinking we can live just fine without God's Word? Are we not proud thinking that we are somehow better than all those evil people out there who do such bad things? Are we not proud assuming that we will escape that burning Last Day because of how religious we think we are? Are we not the wicked who act so sincerely that we're coming to church for forgiveness yet won't let a single bad comment against us go unpunished by our anger and holding a grudge? Are we not the wicked who love to call ourselves Christians but have so little regard for learning and growing in God's Word? Are we not the wicked who lightly ignore our Lord's command to love others as ourselves? Indeed, the burning-like-an-oven Last Day doesn't sound so exciting now if we face the prospect that Malachi is talking about us!

But the Lord says that before that Day comes, He's going to send Elijah to preach and turn the hearts of children to their fathers. That Elijah who would come is John the Baptist. Jesus says so. So the Day of the Lord that Malachi is talking about is the time when God's Judgment for sin would come. So, again, in Advent, we are pointed to Good Friday. Because the Day that the Lord's Judgment is coming is the Day Jesus faces it for us on Calvary. In fact, who are the proud and wicked that God is going to destroy? On Good Friday, the proud and the wicked is Jesus! On Good Friday, the selfish and the hater is Jesus. On Good Friday, the idolater, adulterer, murderer, coveter and hard boiled sinner is Jesus. Not with His sins, of course. They're our sins. But on Calvary, they're His. He takes them. He bakes in the oven, as it were, of God's Judgment, sweating blood and being pierced. Suffering and dying under the weight of our sins and pressed to death by the heat of the Father's judgment. On the cross is the curse of sin, Jesus, who was a made a curse for us. When Malachi talks about that awful day, he's directing our attention to the day when God's Son died for sinners, as if He Himself were every sinner, the worst sinner, to save us.

So how does this cross and death of our Lord rescue us from our pride and wickedness? By burning it up. But killing it off. That's done by the preaching and the Sacraments which brings this Savior to us. When the burning wrath of God's Law is preached, our sinful Old Adam is burned up. Or, if you like better, drowned in the waters of Holy Baptism. The point is, the preaching of God's holy Law is the death of the sinful nature and the preaching of the life-giving forgiveness of sins in Christ is the our life. By the Word we are turned from being among the proud and wicked into those who fear the Lord's name, those who go out like “stall fed calves,” that is, feasting upon the good things of God: His Word, forgiveness, the Body and Blood of Christ. For your Old Adam, every preaching of the Law and the Gospel is Judgment Day. But for you, the new man in Christ, it is a day of healing and triumph, a day to trample the Old Adam and the power of sin underfoot like ashes. In Christ's church, the gifts of Calvary are given to you to rescue you from that fearful day of Judgment and to make you a new person in Christ, humbly trusting in your Savior, doing good as Christ lives in you.

So what about the Last Day then? Because there WILL be a Last Day. A Last Day and an end of this heaven and earth. Well, as we've been hearing in this Advent season, for those who are in Christ, that day is not a day to be feared but to be eagerly longed for. Apart from Christ, that Day will burn like an oven and the judgment that fell on Christ will fall on all those who deny and despise Him and want to hang on to their sins. But for you who are in Christ, that will be the day the Sun of Righteousness rises with eternal healing in His wings, bringing to you eternal life and the wiping away of all sorrow and sadness. Apart from Christ: burning day where the roots and stubble are consumed. In Christ, life and joy everlasting.

So don't root for the proud and wicked to be destroyed! Rather, repent of your own pride and wickedness and cling to Christ in whom we are rescued from sin and death. In this Advent season, let us learn to see in ourselves the pride and wickedness for which the Son of God had to die. But more than that, let us rejoice that He came to do exactly that. Now we are rescued from the threatening peril of our sins and saved by His mighty deliverance and now we can serve Him with cleansed minds. The Sun of Righteousness arises for you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

December 5, 2010 - Populus Zion: The Second Sunday in Advent - St. Luke 21:25-36

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When we were kids, my brother and I had a list of chores to do each day. But we would always put them off as long as possible. That's because we knew when Mom would be home. She was home from work the same time every day so we could quickly run around and get things done with a few minutes to spare. But we don't know when the Lord is coming. We don't know the day and hour of his return. Somewhere as a spoof once I saw a sign that said, “Jesus is coming! Look busy!” Except when our Lord comes back, there won't be time for straightening up, acting right and looking busy. Advent is a reminder that Christ is coming. He came as a baby the first time but the next time we see Him it will be on the clouds with great glory as the heavens and the earth pass away! Frightful! Terrifying! Jesus says not. He says, “When you see those things happening, lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near!” For Christ's people, the Last Day is not a day of fear and terror but of rejoicing! We want this day to come.

Or do we? Our Lord tells us not to be all wrapped up in drunkenness and carousing and the cares of this life. There are really two things that keep our minds OFF of Christ's return and so make us not ready. On the one hand there is carousing and drunkenness, that is, getting so wrapped up in the pursuits of the flesh that we don't care if Christ is coming. We will live how we want. Do what we want. Act how we want. Say what we want. No one will tell us what to do. We'll live for the moment. Whatever makes us happy. Whatever passes the time! We live as if there is no Last Day and no fearful judgment upon sin on that day! On the other hand, we might be weighed down by the cares of this life. Sickness. Sadness. Loneliness. Worries about our health or our loved ones or our money. How will we pay the bills? What if I don't get better? What can I do for my kids? The cares of this life weigh us down and we don't rejoice as we should that there will be an end to all these trials when our Lord appears to save us the final time. Either one is living as if there is no Last Day, no Lord who is returning. No Lord who judges sin. No Lord who saves us from sin and this life. The sadness of getting wrapped up in those things is that we might not be ready when our Lord comes back! So repent! Repent in Advent and be turned in heart and mind to Christ! Turn away from the lusts of the flesh that you love to indulge and be sober and watchful. Turn away from the worry and anxiety that comes because you don't trust the Lord. Turn from all those things in this Advent time, this time of preparation! But don't turn to you!

Christ says, “Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.” Right there, Jesus has given us the answer for our sins. For the Last Day. For eternal life. Everything around us is passing away. Some people live as if this life is it so they party hearty as if there's no tomorrow. Some are so worried about the end of all things, they try to make themselves ready. But Christ gives us the answer: His Word never passes away. It's simple, really: heaven and earth will pass away. Christ's Word does not pass away. What about you? Brothers and sisters in Christ, you have His Word. You cannot pass away. You cannot perish. You cannot be destroyed. The Word of Christ spoken with water at the font means you will outlive the passing away of this earth and heaven. The Word of Absolution spoken to you means you will not pass away with the unrepentant masses who despise Christ and His salvation. The Body and Blood of Christ Himself are your sure promise that since Christ can't pass away, neither can you.

And what is it that Christ's Word gives you to keep you from passing away? It gives you Christ! Remember how we said Palm Sunday starts Advent to remind us that Christ came to die? For Holy Week you have Palm Sunday and then five days later we celebrate Good Friday. In Advent we have Palm Sunday and then a week later the end of the world. Why? To connect in your mind that the Last Day, Judgment Day, can never be separated from Good Friday. That's because on Good Friday, on the cross, Judgment Day hit. It hit Jesus. On that day, the sins of the world were judged and the wrath of God poured out on His Son on the cross. On that day, the sun was darkened and the earth shook and it probably seemed like the end of the world! That's because the End of the World, Judgment Day, happened that day at the cross. There, on Calvary, The Son of Man was there in all His glory, saving sinners. Saving you. When we think of Judgment, the Last Day and the End of the World, I want you to first of all think of Good Friday. Of Christ suffering the judgment against your sins. Only with this Good News that our Savior has shed His blood for us can we truly lift up our heads and rejoice on the Last Day when He does come again.

You see, the connection to Christ's Word is the key. For where His Word is, Christ is. Here, plainly and simply is the truth: In Christ, where His Word is, Judgment Day cannot be frightful. The Last Day cannot be scary to those who know their Savior has already undergone Judgment Day. But APART from Christ, outside of Him, away from His Word, where the world lives in its drunken stupor, there is nothing but terror and perplexity of nations. In Christ, Judgment Day has already come. Outside of Christ, Judgment Day is coming! In Christ, the Day comes expected, longed for. Outside of Christ, it comes unexpectedly, like a snare, like a thief. In Christ, that Day is no surprise. Outside of Christ, they never saw it coming. What then does this mean for our lives? How do we watch and pray? We do that by our life in the church. By coming and confessing your sins and hearing the Good News that the Judgment upon those sins has already landed on Jesus and can't land on you. It means living on the receiving end of the Lord's gracious gifts here in His church so that we are not surprised when that day comes. It means living out these days looking out for others. Warning them. Giving them the example of being ready by being in Christ. It means living not as if Jesus isn't coming and you can do whatever you want. Or living as if He will never come back and you are just stuck with all your sorrows and trials. To watch and be ready is to be in Jesus who has prepared you for His return by giving you His saving Word.

The signs of the Last Days are all around us. All around us the world is going to pieces. Wars, rumors of wars, plagues, famine, disease and pestilence are all around. The nations are going crazy. We are living in the last days before our Lord comes again. But we aren't terrified like the world is terrified. And we aren't worked up about it like those crazy preachers who spew nothing but fear and gloom and doom. No, we lift up our heads because our redemption is near. Right before our Lord comes to us in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood we hear, “Lift up your hearts!” And now we lift up our heads, for He will soon appear on the clouds with great glory. And that will be the day of rejoicing and the end of all misery and woe. Our Lord is coming and He Himself has prepared us by giving us His Word which will never pass away. And that means you won't either. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

December 1, 2010 - Wednesday of Advent 1 - Jeremiah 23:5-8

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If you read the Old Testament, you will see that God's people, the children of Israel, even though they were God's special people, constantly turned away from Him. The Old Testament story reads like the biography of the bad kid. Almost always when the choice was between being faithful to the Lord or tagging along with some other religion, the false god wins out. God's people, who had been given the commandments of love and service to their neighbor, were constantly trampling each other down so they could have advantage; they despised one another and lived for themselves. The children of Israel over their history, showed that they neither loved God nor their neighbor. But the Lord continued to make the promise that He would save them. We're not that different. Now the church is God's Israel and do we love Him above all things? Do we put others ahead of ourselves or do we grumble and complain that we never get what we want. We have the Word of the one true God among us but so easily we let strange notions and false spiritual ideas creep in. The Lord's Word teaches us right from wrong and yet we learn our morals and behavior from the world instead. How we love God and how we love others is the measure of our righteousness. If we love God and others we are righteous. If we don't, then we are not.

There is repentance here. Advent is a season of repentance. It's the season of “throw away your sin” and get ready for the Lord's return. But be careful! Repenting of our sins doesn't mean getting our own righteousness. Our problem is this: We know our sinfulness but we can't fix it. We can't fix ourselves so that we love God and our neighbor perfectly. This is why the Lord preaches this promise through the prophet Jeremiah: There will be a descendant of David, whose name will be “The Lord Our Righteousness.” Think about that for a second. Whatever is meant by that big word “righteousness,” your righteousness isn't you. Your righteousness isn't that you do more good works than sins. It isn't that you try hard to make up for your sins. It isn't that you go to church or say your prayers. It isn't that you have good intentions or try to live a good life. It isn't how much of the Bible you know or how much doctrine you can recite. It's none of these things because your righteousness isn't you. The Branch of David is the One born of Mary, Jesus Christ. And He is called “The Lord our Righteousness.” That means that your righteousness is Jesus. How you stand before God the Father; how you look to Him; what your record looks like: it's all Jesus.

Everything Jesus is and does is for you, for being your righteousness. We are conceived in sin and born sinners so Jesus is conceived by the Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. We are baptized and fall easily into our old sinful ways so Jesus is baptized with sinners and goes to fight the devil in the wilderness and defeat his temptations for you. We are distracted from God's Word by every little think imaginable so for us Jesus makes His whole life about teaching God's Word. We do whatever it takes to make our live comfortable so for us Jesus suffers and endures mocking and pain. We avoid death and do everything we can to put it off and not think about it so for us Jesus goes willingly to His death on the cross. When we die, we would stay dead, condemned to the depths of the grave forever so for us Jesus rises again from the dead. When we are born sinners, He casts His own righteousness upon us by the waters of Baptism. When we sin, He speaks through the mouth of our pastor to declare us not guilty. When we need more righteousness, more Jesus, He gives us Himself by His Body and Blood to live in us and be our righteousness. Everything that Jesus does, He does to be our righteousness.

So repent of your sin. Scan the Ten Commandments and identify every way you've not loved God or your neighbor. See exposed by God's Holy Law your LACK of righteousness. In Advent, prepare the way of the Lord by turning away from all that you do that serves yourself and neither God nor others. But don't repent by turning back to yourself. No false promises, “I”ll do better! I'll try harder!” Rather, cling to Christ who is your righteousness. Believe that when the Father looks at you, He sees you as righteous as can be because He sees His own Son when He looks at you. Repent, above all, of trying to have your own righteousness. You can't do it. Hear again Jeremiah's promise about this branch from David's line: His name is “The Lord Our Righteousness.” And make it your own. Whenever you doubt or question how it is between you and the Lord, confess it: “The Lord is my Righteousness!” Jeremiah says He will execute justice and judgment. That's because Jesus takes God's judgment on Himself and gives you that justice that you are rescued from sin and death.

Finally, the prophet says that by Him, Judah and Israel will dwell safely and securely. Here Jeremiah refers to God's people which is His holy church. That's us. To live safely and securely means to live not trying to find our own righteousness or make it up or anything like that. To live safely and securely is to live in Christ. Baptized into God's name, absolved of your sins, and filled with Christ's Body and Blood. When you sin, don't go for more of you! You need more Jesus. More of His Word. More of His absolution. More Body and Blood. And that's exactly what He has for you here in His church. For here, in His church, The Lord who is our righteousness continues to be our righteousness even unto eternal life. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

November 28, 2010 - Ad Te Levavi (Advent 1) - St. Matthew 21:1-9

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It may seem strange to begin the season of Advent with Palm Sunday. After all, Advent is the waiting-for-Christmas season. But there is a reason that the Church Year starts with Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday means Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem and death. Just as Palm Sunday precedes Holy Week and our celebration of Christ's death on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter. Palm Sunday teaches us that Christ is coming AND that the reason He is coming is to die for our sins. No matter how white or green or red our Christmas gets, we never lose sight of the true reason for the season. Not just “Jesus” but “Jesus coming and being born to die for our sins.” So by beginning the Advent season with the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we are reminded of what sets the Christian faith completely apart from every other religion on earth. It is that God is the One who comes to us to save us.

That is Good News to a world that has no hope in itself. Every year as we like to complain, it gets earlier and earlier. Now Christmas has appeared before Halloween was even over! Once Black Friday hits, Christmas will really be ON! The music. The lights. The sales. The parties. The overeating. The stress. The depression. All of it will come charging together into another whirlwind Christmas season. The fights will break about between the atheists who demand that no nativity scenes be put on the courthouse lawns and the groups that shout “Keep Christ in Christmas!” We know the drill. A mass of holiday “cheer” and then the day after nothing but extra garbage at the curb and standing in line to return the stuff that doesn't work or fit. That's the world's expectation of Christmas. The world seeks to have some sort of holiday something or other completely without Christ. Just consider one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time, “I'm dreaming of a White Christmas,” a song that has not a single reference to the birth of our Lord! That's the world. A world that finds its peace and hope in empty things. A world that doesn't even know it needs a Savior but which desperately does.

And so the Son of God comes. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is born on Christmas. Baptized for sinners, He is tempted in the wilderness. Mocked by evil men, He is sentenced to death. Crucified on Calvary, He blots our our sins. Dead, He rises again on Easter. God did this. Jesus who is the Son of God, true God and true man. Jesus who is Immanuel, “God with us.” Jesus whom the prophets foretold and who fulfilled those promises of God the day He rode into Jerusalem on the way to suffering and death. God did it. God has come to us. He hasn't called us to come to Him, to fix ourselves and our lives and take away our own sins. We could never do it. And He doesn't come to die for what we think. He isn't here because we eat too much or stretch our wallets to buy some presents. He isn't here because we drank too much spiked egg nog or lay too long in front of the TV watching football. He's here because we live as if we have no God. So God comes to save us. He comes because we live as if all of this stuff is it, and we don't think all we have is from God. He comes because we need a Savior from having turned away from God. He comes because His Father sends Him to pay the price for our neither loving Him nor caring about those around us. Christ is lifted up on the tree of the cross because we love to put up trees at Christmas without a second thought for the God who made us. In short, He comes to save us because we need saving. We need forgiveness. We need the Lord to come and do it for us.

Now when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey, the crowds went crazy. They sang “Hosanna!” They threw down their cloaks and their palm branches. But what about five days later? They were shouting “Crucify!” When Jesus is an occasion for a party, even the world will celebrate. Oh, sure, they forget that Jesus was born at Christmas but it doesn't stop them from putting up trees and lights and blaring Christmas music all over the place. But just as soon as Christmas is over, so is the celebration. We are fickle. We like God when He is popular and fun and interesting. Riding into Jerusalem like a king? They love Him! Despised and mocked and wearing thorns? Not so much. But it's the same for us. We get excited and active as we celebrate Christ's birth and then...not so much. Same ol' same ol'. Week in and week out. Here is our repentance, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we live as if the reason Jesus comes is to give us an excuse for a holiday rather than to suffer and die for our sins. Our lives show that we recognize our Lord on holidays, but not so much afterwards. On Sundays, but not so much the rest of the week. And that is why He comes. He comes to us because we would drag our feet and not go to Him.

And He still comes to us. The crowds shouted “Hosanna” when He appeared riding on a donkey into Jerusalem. We still sing that song, “Hosanna!” When? Right before He comes in His Holy Supper. Again, why does He come? To take our sins away. When our Lord comes to us, He comes to us now not on a donkey but by water and the word at the font; by the preaching and teaching of His Word; by the absolution spoken to take away our sins; by His Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. Again, being a Christian isn't somehow about figuring out how to get to God. He has come to us in the flesh. He now comes to us in His church. And He does so in order to give us the forgiveness of sins. To save us. To give us eternal life. Again, this is what sets the Christian faith apart from every other religion. Here, in Christ's church, the message isn't about how to save yourself and get to God. The Good News that we preach is that the Lord Himself has come to us and still comes to us.

This is what Advent points us to. It reminds us that even as we head toward celebrating Jesus' birth, it isn't a birth just so we can have a holiday. It's the Savior's birth who comes to take away our sins by His suffering and death. Advent is the reminder that it is the Lord who comes to us. He came in the flesh. He still comes in His means of grace. And when He comes again, that too will be for our salvation and eternal happiness. So let us sing our “Hosannas!” today. For Christ comes to fulfill all of God's promises. He comes to be born in the flesh and give that flesh into death for our salvation. He comes to us to wash and absolve and feed us by His Word and Sacraments. And He will come again with glory to give us everlasting life. Always when your Lord comes, He comes for you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

November 23, 2010 - Thanksgiving Eve - Philippians 4:6-20

2010-11-29T14:12:00.002-06:00

St. Paul knows what it is to be content in any circumstance. Contentment is not a virtue praised by our society. The world we live in doesn't want you to be content but to always want more. The latest. The greatest. The newest. The next model. Think about it. Every ad we see on TV is aimed to stir up in us the thought that we don't really have everything we need and so there is more we have to get. Whether its more accessories for the Harley, more boardgames for the collection, more channels of football to watch, more minutes on your phone or just more money in the bank, we all know that all we need is “just a little more” than we have right now. Then we'll be content. But that's not true. We'll never be content. We're restless. We save and scrape or buy on credit to get the things we want and then either regret what we spent or look eagerly for the next version coming out. Even our government measures the strength of the economy on how much money we spend and not save. Bad economy. How do you know? People aren't buying things! No contentment here. Only discontent. Wanting more. Wishing for more. Trying to get more. And then, once a year, take a day off to think about all the stuff we have and act thankful!

So what's the answer? What do we do in a world in which we're overloaded with “stuff?” It's simple, isn't it? You stop buying more and you start getting rid of what you have. You try to live a simpler life. Pare down your material goods. Give your junk away to the poor. Cancel the cable, sell the boat, and skip the new flavor of Starbucks when it comes out. Is that it? Just stop trying to get all this stuff and you'll feel better? The truth is, that's not the answer at all. Doing things like that assumes the problem is the stuff. And it's not. Our discontent isn't because we don't have the latest and greatest whatever. Our discontent, our lack of contentment is just a symptom of our greater problem: our unbelief. It's that we don't believe God's promises for us in Christ. And it's not even really that we don't believe He won't provide, though if we did, we'd never WORRY about things. No, what we really don't believe, what we really don't trust in, is that the greatest gifts the Lord gives us are not things but His Son and the forgiveness of sins. The reason we try to find so much fulfillment in so much stuff is that we forget that Jesus Christ and His salvation is a far more important and lasting treasure than what we have in this life. So the answer isn't to stop buying stuff and live in a tent in the woods. It's to repent of not loving and being thankful for the truly greatest blessings we have in our Lord and His gifts!

The first gift is this: the forgiveness of sins. That forgiveness comes because Jesus, when He lived His earthly life, was content. He never complained about what He didn't have. He never worried about how to get more. He never worried about anything like that. He was content to preach and teach, to be provided for by His disciples and to carry out His Father's will of saving sinners. Think about it. Did you ever read in the Gospels about Jesus complaining that there wasn't enough to eat? Or that He needed to stop off at the tailor for the latest robe and pair of sandals? Our Lord taught from borrowed boats and had no home of His own. The last thing on His mind was collecting any treasure on earth! But here's the thing we need to remember: Jesus' contentment is what counts for you. It's not simply that His being content is and example for you to follow. It's that, in the sight of God the Father, Jesus' living contentedly is put to your account. That is, His being content counts for your and covers your discontent so that God doesn't see it. But more than that, Jesus was content even to suffer death for sinners. So not only does Jesus live wit the contentment you should have, He died for your unbelief which breeds discontent. In other words, the answer to our discontent isn't to become hippies on some “let's all share” commune. The answer to the sin of our unbelief and lack of contentment is the Savior who suffered to take away our sins and forgives us and gives us eternal life.

So we learn that true contentment comes in Christ. How so? By your Baptism. What do I mean? Do I mean that now that you're baptized you're never going to worry about money or try to figure out how to get the latest and greatest? No, I mean that because in Baptism you are clothed with Christ so that when the Lord looks at you He doesn't see your discontent but Christ's contentment. He doesn't see your faithlessness but Christ's faithfulness. True contentment is worked in us by the Holy Spirit who teaches us by His Word and gifts that our real problem, our sinfulness has been overcome by our Savior. It is a cross and struggle and battle that the Holy Spirit fights in us to teach us to love and trust in our heavenly Father above all things. This is a battle and struggle for which we need constant forgiveness in Holy Absolution and the constant strengthening of our faith by Jesus' Body and Blood. It is by those very gifts that the Spirit promises to work in you to peel your fingers away from hanging on to the stuff of this world and instead clinging to Christ and His holy gifts. It is the Holy Spirit who works in us a true thankfulness and gratitude to God our Father for all of His gifts. It is the Holy Spirit who works in us a true love of our neighbor by which we learn to pursue the things of this world for the benefit of others instead of always ourselves. That is the power of the forgiveness of sins which Christ won for us and bestows on us by His Word and preaching and Supper in His church. Brothers and sisters in Christ: You have Christ! Forgiveness of sins! Eternal life! And you have all the rest too! For in Christ God Himself gives you true contentment.

And so now we live in the freedom of Christ! That freedoms means we don't have to combat our covetousness with our own willpower but with Christ's cross. It means on the one hand that you don't have to live in a leaky tent in the woods and convince yourself, “This is the life!” But it also means that if you miss that great item at that awesome price on Black Friday it's not the end of the world either. This Thanksgiving, enjoy the gifts your heavenly Father gives you: all of them. Turkey. Football. The opportunity to serve your neighbor and save on your Christmas shopping. Give thanks most of all that Christ has set you free from the guilt of covetousness and that in Him you have true contentment. For the treasures that Christ gives never run out. Forgiveness. Life. Salvation. There is always more. They always get better. And they are always given for free by your Savior who won them for you on GOOD Friday. Happy Thanksgiving in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

November 17, 2010 - Wednesday of the Second-Last Sunday - Daniel 7:9-14

2010-11-29T14:07:00.001-06:00

This vision of God that the prophet Daniel sees is awesome! The Ancient of Days, God the Father seated on His throne with bright splendor and glory and fire coming forth. The Beast and other beasts cast into the fire. The coming of the Son of Man in glory to take His kingdom. It's a reminder to us that there WILL be a Last Day. There will be a Day in which the Lord returns and this world will end. The world is full of preachers who want to use these visions and frighten people into sending them money to tell them how to be saved from these awful events. But you, dear Christians, don't fear. Don't fear as the world should fear. For on the day that the court is seated and the books are opened, the kingdom that is given to Jesus the Son of Man will be given to you too, as Jesus says to His sheep in the Gospel lesson today: “Come, you blessed of my Father and receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!”

So what are these books that are opened? The Book of Revelation tell us that there are two books: One Book has everything you've done in it. The other Book has your name written in it. But here's the thing: you can't be in both books! The Book of Judgment is the Book of those who have rejected Christ. For them there is the fearful expectation of judgment based upon their works. Their unbelief and rejection of Christ means that they are judged on the basis of the Law and Commandments. Did they love God with their whole heart? Did they love their neighbors as themselves? No. They didn't. Not perfectly as the Lord demands. The have lived as if their good works could save them. They have lived as if their piety and religion could save them. They have lived as if their being a name on a church list could save them while never desiring to hear God's Word or confess their sins or feast upon Christ's body and blood. Those who have rejected Christ will share the fate of the devil and his angels, to be cast into the everlasting fire. For apart from Christ, they cannot save themselves and escape the judgment of this Last Day. Frightening indeed!

But the other Book is the Lamb's Book of Life. And your name is written in there with the blood of Christ by Holy Baptism. To be baptized is to be in this Book and to therefore be in Christ. We escape the Judgment of God on the Last Day because of Christ. Because on the cross, the Last Day fell on Jesus. On the cross, the judgment for your sins and the wrath stored up for your iniquities was unloaded on Jesus. There, on Calvary, Judgment Day already happened for you by happening to Jesus. When the Son of Man comes on the clouds in glory, it will not be a day of fear and punishment for you because that has already been done to Christ. When Christ the Son of Man comes in all His glory, that is the Day of your salvation. The day to lift up your head and rejoice. When you see the Son of Man in glory on the clouds, don't think, “Judgment” think “Salvation.” The triumphant Son of Man is the same Savior who died for you on the cross so that your sins are taken away, never to be brought up again, not even on the Last Day. Did you catch that? Judgment Day is not a day in which you have to face all your sins again. It is the Day in which you are declared “not guilty” in Christ through whom all your works are good because of Whom you are welcomed into this eternal kingdom.

So the question is, how do you know which Book you are in? When you sin, the Beast is right there to accuse you that you must be holy and you are not holy and so you are no Christian and have nothing but the everlasting fire to look forward to. But he lies! Your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life by Holy Baptism. That promise of water, Word and Spirit at the font is the promise that the Judgment that fell on Christ for your sins won't fall on you. That promise of Holy Absolution is that the sins the Devil whispers will keep you cut off from God can't. The Body and Blood of Christ are your Savior's promise that death itself cannot have you but you will be raised up on the Last Day and death will be thrown into the lake of fire with all of the rest of God's enemies. If you look at your life, your good works and your sins, you intentions and how hard you try to be religious, there is no hope there. Nothing but despair. Nothing there but the reminder that you deserve that everlasting fire. So don't look at YOU. Look to Christ. Look to the Son of God nailed to the tree, to the empty tomb, to the font, altar and pulpit for the certain promise that you are the Lord's. That your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life. That your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life. His promises are true and cannot be broken for they are the promises of the Son of Man who has been given this kingdom by the Ancient of Days. They are the promises of Jesus who has saved you from the wrath of God and stands you before you heavenly Father.

And since Christ has freed us from hell and judgment, you no longer need live as if you have to keep yourself right with God. It's taken care of in Christ. Now you don't have to worry about YOU. But, rather, you are free to live for the good and benefit of those around you. For after all, Christ didn't save you from judgment and hell just for you, but so that you would be a light in this dark world, living, as St. Peter says, blameless in Christ and in peace with others. The Day IS surely drawing near. But you don't need to fear it as the world. Rather, rejoice for it's coming. Cry out for it's fulfillment. Look forward to it. For that Day is not a Day of Judgment for your, but the Day of your salvation when Christ comes to raise you from the dead and give you everlasting life in a kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

November 21, 2010 - The Last Sunday in The Church Year - St. Matthew 25:1-13

2010-11-29T14:06:00.002-06:00

I want you to think about the words from our Introit this morning. Look at them again in your bulletin. “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days.” Do you know what that's asking? It's saying, “Lord, teach me that I could die at any moment and so don't let me die apart from Jesus Christ.” You parents with older children already know and you parents with young children will know, but it's something I've just found out: When your kids get their drivers licenses, you have a whole new perspective on “Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days.” What parent doesn't worry that something will happen to their children? And I don't have to tell you who are a part of this congregation what a sudden death is all about. It doesn't matter if it comes quickly and unexpectedly, or after a long battle with illness. Our days will end if our Lord does not come back first. Since our days could end at any moment, how then will we be ready? What does it mean to know the measure of your days? Jesus teaches us this with the story of the ten virgins. He can come at any moment. When the cry goes out, do you have oil in your lamp or do you run around trying to find some? Put another way: When the Lord returns, when death takes you, are you ready? Prepared?

It is Jesus who prepares you for death and the Last Day. There isn't some tricky religious thing you need to figure out in order to make yourself ready. It's not a matter of knowing He's coming so getting busy trying to look like you're trying to be ready. Where we like to avoid thinking about death, Jesus knew that's why He had come: to die. To carry your sins to Calvary and be crushed by the weight of judgment and wrath against them. We avoid death. Jesus takes it head on. Did He like it? Did He want to? He did it because He loves His Father and by dying for us He is rescuing His church, His bride. The fact is, we don't number our days. We don't think death is near. We ignore it and we act like the Last Day is just some vague notion that won't every really happen. But Jesus knows. That's why He comes. That's why He suffers. That's why He dies. And that's why He rises from the dead. Jesus goes to die and rise to take death's power away. To make sure that when our time comes, death can't keep us down forever. By defeating sin and death, Jesus makes it OK to die. He makes it safe. He makes sure we are His. By His death and resurrection, Jesus prepares you for death and the day of His coming.

And He prepares you by giving you oil for your lamp. So what's the oil? It's the forgiveness of sins. Faith. The Holy Spirit. All of those things together. The faith that clings to Jesus and knows that because He has died, our sins are forgiven. This is the faith worked by the Holy Spirit which trusts in Jesus and not ourselves to be ready on the Last Day. The faith that trusts His death for us and not in our own attempts to save ourselves by our good works or anything else. The faith that clings to Christ in the confidence that our sins are forgiven for His sake. Jesus dies and rises for your and pours that salvation into your lamp by the gifts which create and nurture our faith: by water and Word in Baptism, by preaching and absolution, by His own Body and Blood. All of these things are the gifts that make us ready to meet Him no matter when He shows up. It may be that you perish tomorrow! It may be that you live a long life before you die. Either way, the Lord has made you ready by giving you the oil of forgiveness and faith in Jesus so that no matter what happens, you will be ready to meet the Bridegroom when He shows up.

So what about the foolish virgins that had no oil? Well the simple fact is this: You can't be ready to meet Jesus with someone else's faith. Those who reject Christ, who despise Him and His gifts are on their own. Some may THINK they are part of the church; they're with the other five virgins, after all. But when it comes to forgiveness and faith, they have none, for they are foolish. The foolish virgins are those who don't want to know the number and measure of their days. They don't care that death will come. And on the Day the Lord returns, they'll be scrambling to find oil. Because what makes us ready to receive Christ isn't some notion of faith or some feeling that we believe something. It is Christ and His gifts. Those who cut themselves off from the church and the means of grace can talk all they want about believing, but they are not where Christ is filling their jars with oil. On the Last Day, when Christ returns, you can't say, “Well Grandma went to church, doesn't that count for me?” or “Well, I got confirmed in that church, even though I stopped going.” When you die, you can't just have your family roll you into church when you haven't been there in fifty years and expect that there is the comfort of a Christian burial waiting. Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is serious stuff! Those foolish virgins were running around trying to find oil and when they finally got back to the wedding feast, the door was already shut and the Lord says, “I don't know you!” This is a warning. It's a warning that on the Last Day, those who have lived without Christ's gifts and faith will be locked out. Those who live trying to find their own oil instead of using the oil Christ has given them will be left in the dark.

So when Jesus says “watch! Because you don't know when,” how do we watch? How do we wait and watch for Christ? You watch by having oil ready to go. But that's not you getting the oil. It's Christ's oil. It's the oil He gives you in His church: Your Baptism, Absolution, the preaching of the Gospel, and the Lord's Supper. Cut yourself off from that and you will NOT be ready on that day. There's repentance there. Repentance for thinking lightly that the things Christ gives us in church aren't really the big deal. And parents, I cannot emphasize this enough—and perhaps it's on my mind as I watch my kids cut more and more apron strings—parents, you are charged with bringing your children to the Lord's house so that He may fill their jars with oil. Don't neglect this duty! Don't let your kids grow up foolish where they don't learn to number their days and live in the gifts of Christ. Don't let your kids cut themselves off or be cut off from their Baptism, from preaching and God's Word, and from the Holy Supper. Teach them, as they grow, that Christ has prepared them and He has given them the oil of His gifts to make them ready. And if they're older, sit down and have an adult talk with them about having the oil of Christ in their lamps! Otherwise, do you want them to be wandering around at Christ's return, trying to find some faith? God forbid! And not just parents but all of us Christians: let us not despise Christ and His gifts but gladly receive the oil of His Word and Sacraments, forgiveness and faith so that when He comes we will be ready!

Lord teach us to know our end and to see the measure of our days. We are asking that the Lord make us ready for death and His return. He has answered that prayer in the sending of His Son to face down death for us and to be the first of those who rise from the dead. He has baptized you, absolved you, preached to you and fed you. Your jar is brimming with His oil so that when He comes again, you will be ready. For the world, Jesus' return is like a thief in the night. Unexpected! But when He comes, we will be ready. For He Himself has made us ready. So come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.

November 14, 2010 - The Installation of The Reverend George F. Borghardt, III at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, McHenry, Illinois - Daniel 7:9-14; Colossians 1:9-14; Matthew 25:31-46

2010-11-15T08:25:00.000-06:00

Wow! The End of the world. The seating of God's court. The earth and heavens burned up with fire. Sheep and goats separated. The Last Day is coming quickly, dear Christians. It will soon be upon us. But don't worry! Don't be frightened by these awful images of judgment. Don't worry. Because the Lord has given you a pastor. And he gives you this pastor for this purpose: that in these Last Days, you may know the comfort of Christ in whom you have escaped God's judgment and instead, as children of God, now have eternal life. Today, your Lord is making sure that you are not caught unprepared for that day. Today He makes sure that you do not fear that day as the world should fear it. Today, by giving you a pastor, the Lord is keeping His promise to preserve you in His Word and faith until the end. That's why George Borghardt, III is here today. So that you will always have that comfort against despair. Pastor Borghardt is given to you this day so that you will have the constant reminder of your Baptism into Christ. So that when your sins trouble you, he may absolve you. To preach Christ crucified and risen to you. To give to you the Body and Blood of Jesus to eat and drink. To remind you, in a world filled with false preachers who get all worked up that the End is near, that Christ is your Savior and that in Him the Last Day is a day to rejoice in.

The prophet Daniel sees the vision of the kingdom given to Christ. Christ, the Son of Man, is given a kingdom which is an everlasting dominion. It shall not pass away. It is a kingdom that shall not be destroyed. He has this kingdom because He has won this kingdom. This is the kingdom of the Son of God who became man for our salvation. The Son of Man who was tempted and was without sin. The Son of Man who nevertheless took on your sin as His own and carried it through suffering and mockery to the cross of Calvary and there disposed of it once for all by the shedding of His holy blood and His innocent death. The Son of Man who was alive on the third day whose empty tomb is the sign that death is done for. This kingdom, Christ's church, is a kingdom into which the Savior Himself has brought you at the font by the washing of water and the Word in Holy Baptism, as Pastor Borghardt will remind you and do for those to come. It is in this kingdom that the Judge and King constantly declares to you the “not guilty” verdict of Holy Absolution, spoken by His man, Pastor Borghardt. It is in this Kingdom that you hear the Son of Man's proclamation proclaimed by His herald, Pastor Borghardt, that declares that while heaven and earth pass away, you cannot pass away because you are in Christ. It is the Kingdom in which the Son of Man gives you Himself as food, faithfully administered by His servant Pastor Borghardt.

And the Good News about this Kingdom is that it is Christ's. And it cannot pass away and it cannot be destroyed. That's Good News! It's Good News for you, Pastor Borghardt. It means when you make a mistake, when you sin against the Lord and against His people, His kingdom does not cease. And because it does not cease, because it exists by His Word, your sins are forgiven in this kingdom. That's right, people of God, your pastor is a sinner who lives in the forgiveness won for Him by Christ. As do you. This is not your kingdom and it's not your church. And know that when you succumb to the temptation to think that it IS yours, that you are forgiven. Pastor Borghardt will remind you of that too. And both of you—pastor and people—when things are difficult and you are tempted to despair over this congregation—remember that this is Christ's kingdom. It cannot pass away and it cannot be destroyed. Pastor Borghardt, carry out your calling: when the saints of God despair because of their sins or their illnesses or their troubles, remind them by Christ's Word and gifts that they have a Savior whose kingdom will not pass away and will not be destroyed. And you, saints of God at Zion, when your pastor despairs, or is troubled by his faults and sins, or worries about anything, comfort him by reminding him of the same thing: He is a servant in a kingdom that will not pass away and will not be destroyed! Because this is Christ's kingdom!

Now St. Peter says the scoffers are going to come. They're going to make fun of you and ask, “Where's the Lord? I thought He was coming back? What's taking Him so long?” In other words, being a Christian in this dying world is not easy. It is hard. You are surrounded by those who mock you and mock your trust in Christ. The world around you hates Jesus and so it hates you. It can be tough to live in such a world. It raises doubts and causes despair. So when it does, then you know what to do: run to the pastor whom the Lord has given you to hear again those promises of God: your Baptism, forgiveness, body and blood, the preaching of Christ crucified. Those promises throw down the doubts and despairs and mockery of a world that doesn't want Jesus and reminds you of what you are in Christ. Those promises are your sure and certain hope against a world of doubt and unbelief. Those promises are why the Lord's pastor is here: to faithfully deliver them to you for your forgiveness and comfort. Peter reminds us that the world which will one day be destroyed is yet preserved by the Word of God. That Word, delivered by your pastor, is the Word that is your life. That Word of Christ crucified and risen for you is your life, your preservation against judgment and death and hell. Your promise of everlasting life. And your pastor will always remind you of that. It's his job.

And here is some more Good News. On the Last Day, Pastor Borghardt and saints of Zion, you will be given the kingdom forever. It's been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. It isn't given to you because you did anything. The Lord prepared it for you because you are His people in Christ. This is Good News, Pastor Borghardt because it means you are rescued from counting, measuring, and any sort of thinking that it is GEORGE BORGHARDT who can fix or preserve this congregation. It's all Christ's kingdom! And you, saints of Zion, you are rescued from thinking that it is what good works you do or don't do that make you true Christians and a true congregation of God. In fact, Pastor Borghardt and saints of Zion, on the Last Day, the Lord will list all of those good works you've done, most of which you don't even have a clue you've done! And you'll say, “What? When did we do all that?” And He will say, “You did it because you are my lambs. And because you are my lambs there's a kingdom waiting for you.” Christ has won this kingdom for you. And that means nothing can tear it down, wreck it or take it away from you!

So, saints of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church of McHenry, Illinois, rejoice today! Rejoice because you have a pastor. I'd love to tell you what a great guy he is, but that won't save you. What I will tell you is that he will give you the one and only thing you need: Jesus. Jesus who was crucified for you and risen from the dead. Jesus who washed you at the font. Jesus who says your sins are forgiven. Jesus whose Body and Blood are a feast that will give forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. And Pastor Borghardt, know this: those same gifts of Jesus that you give to God's people here, are the same gifts—water, word, Body and Blood—that make you fit for this holy Office and will let you stand with these saints on the Last Day, rejoicing together to see your names written in the Book of Life. On this day, saints of Zion, know this: the Lord's giving you a pastor is His unshakable promise to be among you and with you by His Word and gifts. And where He is, you can never pass away even though heaven and earth will pass away. For Christ's kingdom will not pass away and will not be destroyed! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

November 10, 2010 - All Saints Day (observed Wednesday) - Revelation 7:2-17

2010-11-15T08:21:00.000-06:00

St. John's vision of the throne of God and the saints around it is written for our comfort. This world and this life are full of suffering. From illness to sadness to suffering and pain to persecution and hatred by those who hate Christ, Christians suffer in this life. But there is a hope of better things to come. Our hope as Christians is that our Lord has secured for us a blessed and happy eternity with Him. Because Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death, there is the hope and expectation of better things beyond this life. It doesn't mean we give up on this life. It doesn't mean we ignore what needs to be done in the here and now. But it does mean that when the troubles of this life wear heavily upon us, we have the comfort that there are truly better things to come. That's what All Saints Day is about: To celebrate that God has taken His people in the faith from their suffering and yet they are still united with us together in His holy church of all times and places.

But it when it comes to speaking about death and the life to come, we need to be careful. The world is full of ridiculous and wrong notions about the life to come. People turning into angels. People dying because “the Lord needs another angel.” Dead loved ones “being at peace” or “in a better place” because people just want them to be. Loved ones looking down or being there with us or whatever. There are lots of wrong notions about death and the life to come and Christians are not immune from picking them up and saying them too. So All Saints Day is an opportunity for repentance for thinking wrongly about death and instead learning to believe and confess what the Lord's Word teaches us about it. Most of all, All Saints Day is a reminder that if we are going to talk about death and heaven and the resurrection of all flesh and eternal life, we cannot do so rightly without speaking of the Lamb of God. That's where St. John's vision points us. We're anxious to read it and grab some details about what it's like after we die. But it was not revealed and written for that purpose. Rather, it was given to show us that at the center of everything is the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who has taken away the sins of the world and triumphed over our enemies.

From earliest times, when people made sacrifices, they used lambs. Those lambs and the Passover lamb and the lambs of the temple sacrifices all pointed ahead to Jesus, the Lamb of God. They taught that the lamb dies instead of the sinner. When John the Baptist came, he saw Jesus and preached, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus is that Lamb who was sacrificed for our sins on the altar of the cross. Every time a sacrifice of a lamb was offered in faith, the person knew, “This lamb is dying because of my sins. But it is dying instead of me.” So it is with Jesus. When He sheds His blood on the cross, the Lamb of God truly takes away our sins. He dies in our place. He dies because of our sins. He dies instead of us so that our sins don't kill us. This is why the saints in John's vision shout and sing, “Salvation belongs to the Lamb!” Those words are echoed in our song “This is the Feast.” Whatever blessings of eternal life there are, they are ours because the Lamb has paid the price for our sins and rescued us from death and the devil. That's why when we stand in eternal life, we too will sing the praises of the Lamb. And it's why everything until that time is all about that Lamb, all about Jesus who is our salvation.

But it's not just the Lamb back then. The Lamb is still saving us by giving us His blood. The blood of the Passover Lamb was painted on the door frames of the houses to cause the Angel of Death to pass over. We have been given the blood of the Lamb of God too. Who are those people in white robes? Those who have suffered and yet washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That's Baptism language. At the holy font, by water and the Word, the blood of the Lamb washes us clean of our sins. All the guilt we have because of our sins is canceled, removed, wiped out and deleted. That same body and blood of the Lamb of God are given to us in His feast of salvation, the Holy Supper of His body and blood. It is the Lamb's blood that makes a person a saint. A saint is a “holy person.” And anyone who has been washed in Baptism with the Lamb's blood is a holy person in God's sight. That's the Lamb's doing. He not only is sacrificed, but His blood is also put upon us to save us. Just as the Passover Lamb was killed and its blood put on the doors and then it was eaten, so Jesus, the Lamb of God is sacrificed for us and then His blood put upon us in Holy Baptism and drunk along with eating His body in the Sacrament.

And now here is the great joy and hope and comfort of the life to come: that the same Lamb who was sacrificed for us and who washed us, is our light and life for all eternity. I know that when our loved ones pass away, we often think about seeing them again in heaven. There is a comfort in knowing that we will see those who have died in the faith again one day. But that is a small and tiny comfort compared to this one: We shall see the Lamb! When we die, we are at peace in Him. When He comes again and raises us from the dead, we shall be with Him eternally. He will be our sun and light and he will give us everlasting waters. The greatest comfort we ought to have about those who have died in Christ is that they are with Christ. The greatest comfort we have for ourselves is that we shall be with Christ forever. The Lamb who gives life. The Lamb whose salvation we sing. The Lamb whose throne shines with glory because He has thrown down sin, death, hell, Satan and all our enemies. From life to death to life again, it's all about the Lamb and what He has done for us!

On All Saints Day, we remember those who have died in the faith. We give thanks to God for bringing them to faith and keeping them in the faith so that they would be with Him forever. And as we remember them, we hold fast ourselves to the same promise of God: that He will keep us in the true faith unto life everlasting. But that faith and that eternal life are all because of the Lamb. For where our Lamb, Jesus Christ is, there is forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation. So as we gaze with St. John at the saints around the Lamb's throne, we see that Lamb in all His glory, the same Lamb who gave His life for us. He is why we are saints of God now and forever. In the Name of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Happy All Saints. Amen.

November 7, 2010 - All Saints Day (observed) - St. Matthew 5:1-12

2010-11-06T23:02:00.001-05:00

A lot of people throw this accusation at Christians: “You just say there's life after death so you don't have to face reality here and now. You just think about the life to come all the time because you can't deal with life right now.” They accuse Christians of being unrealistic. Escapist. How do we answer that? How do we respond to such a charge? Jesus tells us: “Rejoice when they persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you because of Me, for great is your reward in heaven.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, the hope of better things to come that Jesus gives us is itself the Good News against the mockery we face for trusting in Christ from a world that can't see anything past the next few minutes. The comfort of All Saints Day is that we know the Lord has taken His saints in every time and place out of this veil of tears to Himself in heaven and that He will return on the Last Day and raise us from the dead. Is that clinging to some future hope? You bet it is!

Jesus makes it clear in the Beatitudes we heard in the Gospel Reading that the great blessings which Christians have are not in the here and now. St. John, standing in heaven, sees the saints in white robes who have come through tribulation. Tribulation is suffering. Struggling. Bearing a cross. Being hounded and persecuted as Jesus says His disciples will be. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the world is full of preachers who will tell you all about how God wants you to be happy and have everything your heart desires in this life. One such preacher even wrote a book about it: “Your Best Life Now.” And I guarantee anyone that reads that book, this life will be their best one because the life that comes after such false teaching ain't gonna be better! But there is Good News in the fact that we shall suffer as God's people. That things won't be the way we think they should be. That the world won't be fixed. The Good News is that we have a Savior who has overcome this fallen world and given to us the promise of everlasting life with Him. It's a comfort because as much as we'd like to see things get better in this world, we know they won't. Therefore ask yourself: Who has the delusions and false hope now? Is it the Christians who have the certainty of life everlasting in Christ or is it the world which keeps stupidly thinking things are always going to get better when they never do?

The Son of God did not come into this world to fix it or stop it from getting worse. He came to save sinners. He came to give them a new life as a new creation and to promise them that death has no power over them. He came to achieve for you a salvation which is not just a rescue from your sins but from death and the devil too. His cross and empty tomb are your promise and certainty of a better life to come. They are the promise which makes the loss of our loved ones easier to endure. Of course we mourn and weep and cry at those whom the Lord has taken from us. But Christ, by His resurrection has made sure we don't mourn as those who have no hope but as those who know there will be a resurrection on the Last Day and we will see not only our loved ones who have died in the faith but also our Lord Himself. Oh, wouldn't the Devil like you to believe that this life is it! Better live while the living is good! And don't pin your hopes on what comes next! But Christ destroys those lies by showing us exactly what will happen: Death and then resurrection. Death and then life everlasting. Death and then dying no more. Death defeated. No more sting for death. No more victory for death because Jesus has thrown it down.

And more Good News! We don't have to overcome these things ourselves. We don't have the hope of eternal life because we somehow worked it out. It's been accomplished by our Savior. Look at the saints in heaven: They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. That's Baptism! That's the Lord giving His life for you and washing you to make you holy. It is your Baptism which sets you to stand solid through every trial and tribulation and suffering and persecution you will have in this life. It is your Baptism that is God giving you Christ by which to stand in this life and to stand before Him in glory in the life to come. The Good News about our future hope is that it is sure because Jesus has secured it. Earned it. Achieved it. For us it's a gift, eternal life. This also rescues us, as we remember the saints who have gone before us—it rescues us from that nonsense way of talking about the dearly departed: “He lived a good life. She really was a saint.” And all that. We have joy for our loved ones in Christ because HE has gained them the victory. He has taken them to be with Himself. He will raise us all up on the Last Day. That's what Baptism promises us in Christ.

And so we celebrate All Saints Day to remind us that this life is NOT about ease and lack of suffering. We celebrate All Saints Day to be reminded that our only hope for this life and the life to come is always Jesus Christ. He has given His life for the world. And now He joins us together in the holy communion of His church. I say Holy Communion because that's what we have in Christ. Joined together with the church of the ages, those who have come before and will come after and who are His people now, joined together by His Body and Blood. That is why I say that if you miss your loved ones, if you want to be near them, then don't go to the cemetery where they are sleeping but here to the altar of God where we are joined with them at the rail, with the “angels, and archangels and all the company of heaven.” And the great joy is not that we will see our parents and children and spouses again some day, though that is a happy thought. Our greatest joy is that they are with their Lord. They have been set free from the tribulation of this world. They rest in the true peace of the presence of Christ until He comes again to raise us from the dead. They are saints for Christ has made them so and so we celebrate because of the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.

So let the world laugh at us. Let the world mock us. Let the world speak evil of us and hate us and even persecute and kill us. Our Lord said it would happen. Let the world live as if this life is it. We know better. We have God's promises in Christ. All that Jesus promises—His kingdom, mercy, righteousness, and comfort—all these things are yours in Jesus Christ. As they are the blessing of all the saints who have been and will be in Christ. Rest eternal grant them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them. God grant it also to us for Jesus' sake. Happy All Saints! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

November 3, 2010 - Reformation (Observed/Wednesday) - Romans 3:19-28

2010-11-03T15:56:00.000-05:00

Most people today probably aren't very troubled about how they stand with God. Probably most people don't even give it a second thought. But we ought to think about it. We ought to be concerned that God sets forth the standard by which we should live and we don't even come close to measuring up. As St. Paul says in the epistle, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That should bother us terribly, that we don't measure up in God's sight. It bothered Martin Luther nearly 500 years ago. In fact, his sins bothered him so much, he joined a monastery because he figured if he prayed all the time and did lots of chores and things, he could work off his sins. That is until he began to study the scriptures and learned that you CAN'T work off your sins. You CAN'T do enough good things to overcome the bad. You CAN'T just keep the commandments and everything will be OK. Rather, what Martin Luther learned, as he read the Bible, was that God's Word reveals to us a different way to be holy. We don't get holy, we don't get right with God, we don't get rid of our sins by any means at all. Rather, it is GOD who gets rid of our sins through His Son Jesus Christ. For Martin Luther, and the Lutherans who have come since, it's all about the forgiveness of sins we have in Jesus that makes us right with God and able to stand before Him.

Even though our standing with God may not be on our minds at every minute, we tend, like the world, to drift into a sort of “scorecard” religion. If you do something good, like go to church or give to charity, you get points. If you do something bad, like lose your temper or skip church, you get a penalty that takes off points. Then, on the Last Day, you hope like crazy that your points are on the plus side! That's pretty much how the world thinks. It measures things out in terms of “what do I have to do to pay for what I've done.” Or it just avoids the question altogether. As Christians, we're not immune from these bad ideas creeping into our way of thinking. When we feel bad about something we've done, instead of confessing it and being absolved, we try to hide it or work it off. Instead of admitting how doomed we are because of our sins, we instead try to reason out how we can get away with it. Sometimes, in our deeper, darker, innermost thoughts, we might try to make a deal with the Lord or even begin to despair that we can every truly get rid of our sins. What if, in the end, we have to stand before God and answer for every little thing we've thought or said or done! That though SHOULD terrify us. Apart from Christ.

But St. Paul has told us clearly: There's a way of righteousness that isn't about the Law any more. You can't get holy that way. Instead, the Bible—the Law and the Prophets—reveal a different kind of righteousness, through Jesus Christ. Your standing with God isn't based on YOU. It's on Jesus. Paul says that Christ is our redemption. He's the price paid to bring us back from our sins to being God's children. He's our propitiation. Propitiation! Awesome word! Use that at your next party. A “propitiation” is a mercy place, the place where you go to grab a hold of and then God can't strike you down. The propitiation is the place where the blood gets poured out so that you don't die for your sins. Jesus is our propitiation on the cross. The cross of Christ is where God says our sins don't count against us. Where they are not held against us. Where they are removed and washed away and wiped out. Christ's holy, precious blood and His innocent suffering and death are the price paid for your release from the slavery of sin. His body and blood, crucified and risen for you, are the place to go to be safe from God's judgment against sin. That's a righteousness that doesn't come from what we do but from what Christ has already done for you!

And how do we know about this salvation? Where is this righteousness given? St. Paul tells us it is revealed in the Law and the Prophets, that is, in the Scriptures, in the Word. Jesus doesn't pay this price and then leave it for you to figure out how to get a hold of it! He doesn't set it before you and await your choice! No, He reveals it and gives it out in His Word and gifts. He gives it in Baptism before you even know what's going on. He gives it in Holy Absolution when you can't even remember all your sins. He gives it in His Body and Blood where we know that He is present as our propitiation, our blood-covering, our mercy seat. When we stand in Christ's church, all deal-making and worrying is done for. There is no more keeping score, trying to overcome our sins with our good works or anything else like that. No thinking God is going to pay you back. The water, the Word, the Body and the Blood are declare that you are justified, that you are declared righteous, that your standing with God is a perfect done deal in Christ.

So what to brag about? Nothing! Paul says, “Where is boasting? It's gone. Left out. Because of the Law of faith.” Here's where our salvation matters in our day to day lives. Not because we think about it all the time but because how we are saved affects how we treat our neighbor. If getting right with God is about what you do, and how much you do, then the way you live toward others is just going to always be a display of how holy you are and how godly you are. If being right with God is based on you keeping the commandments, then your life will be a constant effort to show others that's exactly what you are doing. And who does that benefit? No one. But if you have nothing to boast about, if your standing with God is all on Christ, then it doesn't matter what the world says or what others think. You can serve your neighbor with no thought for yourself. No worries about whether doing good is canceling out your sins. No messing with the scorecard. Just loving and serving your neighbor—husbands and wives and parents and children and bosses and employees and friends and family and so on—is all you need to worry about. Not for your sake. You're in with God! But for their sake, because you already in with God and the things you do aren't for Him but for those who need them done. No boasting there. Nobody likes a braggart. It's just those redeemed by Jesus' blood doing what others need done to help them out.

It should matter to you how you stand with God. But it should matter because your standing is on account of Christ. It is on Christ so that you are saved from it being on you. You are saved from it being on you so that you can be something useful for those around you. You don't get squared up with the Lord by what you can try to do. You are already squared up with the Lord by Jesus Christ, His Son whom He sent for that very purpose: to redeem you, be your propitiation, and justify you. All just fancy words that mean that because of the blood of Jesus, you are in. That's what Martin Luther discovered in God's Word. And that Word is for you too. Happy Reformation in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

October 31, 2010 - The Festival of the Reformation - St. John 8:31-36

2010-10-31T12:12:00.003-05:00

Today is the Festival of the Reformation. So what? Why is it important? Why do we celebrate it? Because it's the story of how the Lord brought the Good News of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus' sake back to the center of the church's life and faith. And He did it by a man named Martin Luther. Here's the really, really short version of the story: Martin Luther was a monk. He prayed seven times a day, studied the scriptures and scrubbed the floors of the monastery. He figured that by living that way, he could make up for his sins. He tried and tried but never felt at peace. His sins always troubled him. One day, his father confessor told him, “Martin, just believe that Jesus died for you already!” He then sent Luther to become a college professor and teach on the Psalms As Martin Luther read the Bible, he began to realize that God wasn't out to get him but save him through His Son Jesus. On October 31, 1517, he nailed the 95 Theses or Statements on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany in order to call others to debate the topic. The gist of these these was this: If Jesus died for our sins, you can't buy forgiveness! Well, when the Pope got wind of that and tried to get rid of Luther but the German princes, convinced of the truth of God's Word, defended Luther and confessed that they also believed salvation was only through Jesus Christ. It went on from there and eventually Luther was thrown out of the Roman church by the Pope. (And put under order of execution, too, but it never happened). The thing to remember is this: Luther never LEFT the church. He was in the church because the church is where the Gospel is preached. The Popes and bishops over the years had left the church by their wrong teaching. Luther called them back, but they ignored him.

So what? What's the point? Well, the thing the Reformation taught us, was that the heart and life of the church is Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. And Luther dared to do what no one else usually does. He not only preached repentance for our sins, He preached repentance for our good works! Or to put it another way: The Word of God calls you to turn away from your sins. Your not loving God. Your not loving your neighbor. Repent of it! Be sorry for it! But more than that, the Word of God also calls us to repent of being self-righteous, too! If you think that you are somehow better than someone else because of how you live or act, repent of that too! God's Word teaches us to repent of thinking that we are good enough or can BE good enough to cancel out our sins and overcome God's judgment against us. Martin Luther reminded us from the Scriptures that our whole life as Christians is one of repentance. That is, we are so ruined by sin that we could never get ourselves straightened out, could never get rid of our sins and could never please God and love Him. Only one thing will save us: not our good works, not our efforts, not our intentions, not money spent on indulgences (pieces of paper that said your sins were forgiven because you spent money)--none of that! Martin Luther taught from God's Word that the only thing that can save us is Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our Savior.

Martin Luther taught from the Scriptures that the heart and center of our faith and life as Christians is Jesus Christ. He who is true God and true man is our Savior from sin and death. As Jesus says to the Jews in today's Gospel: You will know the truth and the truth will set you free? What is the truth? Jesus is! The truth is that He has come and lived for us and suffered and died for us and risen again from the dead. His suffering and death paid the price for our sins. Not only that, He paid for our self-righteousness too! The Good News of the Reformation was the Good News that was preached ages before by Jeremiah and fulfilled by Jesus Christ. God says, “I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more!” Did you hear? God doesn't remember your sins! Because Jesus died on the cross, your sins are forgotten! We remember our sins and they trouble us. We like to remember other people's sins to throw them back in their face. But when it comes to the Lord, there is no remembering your sins. Big or small, what you've thought, or said or done, it is forgotten for the sake of the blood of the Lamb of God who gave himself into death for you. Martin Luther was troubled because he kept remembering some other sin he had done. What joy when he discovered in God's Word that God Himself has forgotten all those sins for Jesus' sake.

But Martin Luther also made sure that people knew where they could be certain about this Lord who has forgiven them! He could not say enough to praise and rejoice in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, preaching Christ, and the Holy Supper. He constantly emphasized, as your pastor should, that we are certain that God has forgiven our sins only where His Word is faithfully preached, where Baptism is received as a gift and where His Body and Blood are present in the Sacrament of the Altar. Luther taught that we are saved by grace through faith, but that faith isn't just sort of “out there.” It's faith that lives daily confessing sins and receiving forgiveness. It's faith that daily marks us with the sign of the cross to remember our Baptism. It's faith that takes every opportunity to feast upon Christ's flesh and blood. It's faith that runs to do good works for others as its fruit and result. Luther had not patience for those who learned the Gospel and then stopped coming to church or who never bothered to learn their Catechism or study God's Word because all that says is that such people don't really believe. But Luther saw, as we do today, that we suffer many things in this life: sickness, trouble, anxiety, worry, doubt and fear. Against all these tricks of the devil, Luther and the pastors who preach what he preached, will point you in your tribulations to these gifts of Christ. You are baptized. Absolved. Fed with the Supper of Christ's Body and Blood. All of these gifts are God's promise to you that He has truly and forever forgotten your sins.

Now, Martin Luther didn't accomplish these things all by himself. Do you know who helped him? Godly laymen who stood up for the Gospel! The Reformation wasn't just about the preachers preaching the right thing. It was also about all of God's people learning the Word and supporting and defending it. That's why, as a Christian, God gives you two main tasks in His church. The first is to hear and learn the Word of God. That's for your comfort and salvation. Again, I urge you, that if you know nothing more than what you vaguely remember from Catechism years ago don't fell bad or embarrassed; just repent and begin learning more and growing in God's Word. Come to Bible Study. Come to Catechesis on Wednesdays. Read your Bible every day and your Lutheran Confessions. Take the responsibility the Lord has given you to know what His Word says and to make sure that's what your pastor is preaching! But secondly, the Lord has given you the task of making sure that the Gospel is preached and has a place to be preached. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Gospel and Sacraments are life-giving treasures and the Lord has given to you the duty of making sure they can be given out. What joy it is to have such a treasure here! And such a church with a building and property where this Gospel can be preached! Rejoice, brothers and sisters that the Lord has made you a part of this church and congregation so that you can know the certainty of your salvation and live with many opportunities to bear fruit in caring for each other! Martin Luther couldn't have done what he did without the support of godly laypeople. Your pastor can't preach and teach without your support, either, and that means for our whole life together as God's people!

Repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' Name. That's the message of the Reformation. That was what Martin Luther preached. Because that's what the Scriptures deliver. Repentance for our sins and faith and trust in that forgiveness that is given to us for Jesus' sake. He tells the Jews who believed in Him, “If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” Christ has died and risen for you. He has baptized you. He has forgiven you. He has fed you. And He will keep doing so that you may always know that the Son has set you free indeed! Thanks be to Martin Luther and every other faithful preacher before or since who has delivered Jesus faithfully by preaching and the Sacraments so that God's people would have life. Happy Reformation in the Name of Jesus. Amen.

October 27, 2010 - Wednesday of Trinity 21 - Ephesians 6:10-17

2010-10-27T16:06:00.002-05:00

Unless you have family or close friends deployed with our military, it's easy to forget there's a war going on. Sure, the news has reports of soldier deaths or some action we're fighting in Afghanistan or somewhere else but it is still easy to be so wrapped up in what's going on here at home that we don't really pay attention to what's going on over there and far away. And if it's so easy to pay so little attention to a war that is brought into our living rooms on TV, how much more so a war we cannot see! I'm talking about the spiritual warfare of which we are a part. St. Paul reminds us that our battle is not against flesh and blood. It's against the evil powers in the heavenly places, that is, against Satan and his angels who seek to tear us away from Christ and bring us down to hell. Pay attention, brothers and sisters! This battle is real. And it involves you and those you love and those around you. For the Devil seeks to destroy you any way he can!

Yes, the Evil One is alive and well and has your destruction as his goal. He, along with your sinful flesh and the world around you, work hard to rob you of your faith in Jesus Christ, of salvation and eternal life. They seek to bring you into prideful self-righteousness that no longer needs a Savior or else dark despair in which you think the Savior couldn't possibly save you. The powers of darkness work in any way they can upon you. Perhaps its the temptation to some particular sin: a constant worry after money, a vicious and hurtful temper, lusts that are inflamed by looking at filth when no one else is around. The powers of evil can combine to assault you with sickness, disease, trouble and sadness. Most of all, the devil seeks to stir up in you a complete indifference to your sin, so that you have no need of repentance. Or else such a terror over your sin that you cannot imagine your Savior could take it away. Physically and mentally and spiritually, the evil powers of darkness are working to destroy you and bring you down into eternal death and the judgment of God under which they exist. What we so often attribute to others is really just the devil using others to stir us up to sin!St. Paul is not joking around when he tells us that these are the real source of our battles in this life.

So how do we fight? How do we survive against such enemies. St. Paul tells us: “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” We don't fight with OUR strength and OUR might. We stand in Christ and in His power. And that is the power of the Son of God who has defeated sin, death and the devil. Jesus came and fought the devil and defeated him for us. He was tempted in every way yet without sin. He battled the devil in the wilderness with no weapons other than His Word. On the cross, Jesus knew the despair and forsakenness that comes from the judgment of the Father against sins and He endured it for you. By shedding His blood for your sins, Christ has robbed Satan of his ability to accuse you. By His defeat of the evil one, the Lord has accomplished a victory in which you stand, having power over the evil one. By His triumph over death, Christ has made even the end result of sin a weak and powerless thing. When Paul says to stand in the strength of Christ, this is what he means: all that Christ has done for you to defeat sin, death and devil is yours. It is your strength in Christ.

So put on the armor of God! The armor that He supplies is all the gifts of Christ. Clothed with Christ in Baptism, you have the armor of God on. The Gospel, salvation, righteousness, faith—all of these gifts Christ gives you to defend you against the evil one. When the devil assaults you and tries to tell you that you have no salvation, that your sins aren't forgiven, that you are not a Christian, you have the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness, Christ's righteousness that say otherwise. Your Baptism and Christ's Body and Blood and the Absolution deny the devil his lies. When sickness and death and trouble are sent to harm you, the shield of faith extinguishes those flaming arrows as we trust in Christ and in our heavenly Father. Whatever the devil can throw at us, it cannot truly harm us because we are shielded and protected by Christ's gifts.

But there is offense too. And for that we wield the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. The Roman sword, which St. Paul probably had in mind, was the gladius, a short sword used by the Roman soldiers for up close and personal fighting, using it to deadliest effect by thrusting it up under the enemy's ribcage! Sounds violent! But then so is our battle against the forces of evil in the heavenly places! But the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. To speak God's Word is to drive the devil away. In times of temptation, sickness, trouble and even death, the Word of God not only defends us, it sends the devil and his angels running. “I am Baptized! My sins are forgiven! Christ's Body and Blood is in me!” The Word of God that is preached, that declares your sins forgiven and that has washed and fed you—that Word is what you use to fight off and beat back the attacks of the evil one. Whether they are of the physical type or mental or spiritual, the Word of God drives Satan back and prevents him from truly hurting you, no matter what you suffer. Satan can throw everything he has at you and still you can block and parry and fight back with God's Word, driving him away. God's Word drives off the devil. That is the power of Christ who is the Word made flesh. The Sword of the Spirit is Christ Himself who, through His Word, once again battles and defeats Satan and wins for you.

Our fight is not against the things of this world. The things of this life that we think are the enemy are just the tools and agents of the evil one who wants to overthrow God's kingdom and destroy you. But he has no power. It's been taken from Him by our Lord Jesus Christ. But he thinks we don't know that and so he comes after us, trying to trick us into thinking we are weak and powerless against him. But stand! Stand in the Lord and the power of His might. Stand in blood of the cross. In the empty tomb. In the water of your Baptism. In the words of Absolution. In the Body and Blood of Jesus. In the Holy Scriptures. Stand in those things and you cannot be toppled because the devil cannot topple Christ. And He cannot topple you who are in Christ. Christ's victory is your victory now and forever. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

October 24, 2010 - The 21st Sunday after Trinity - St. John 4:46-54

2010-10-24T07:42:00.002-05:00

God's Word does what it says. Think about that for a second. If the Lord says something, it happens. If the Lord declares something, then it is so. If the Lord speaks, it is accomplished. His Word doesn't wait for our faith. It doesn't come with conditions or strings attached. When the Lord speaks, that is what is so. Parents and kids know what this is like a little bit. A parent says something to a child and the child asks “why?” And the answer? Mom or Dad says, “Because I said so.” Just because Mom or Dad said it, that makes it so. How much more God's Word which speaks creation into existence and which declares our sins forgiven. How much more God's Word doing what it says when it condemns to judgment or pronounces a “not guilty” verdict for Jesus' sake?

Brothers and sisters in Christ: Never think God's Word—either in the Bible or preached and taught—is an idle Word. A Word that doesn't do anything or doesn't matter one way or the other. Everything depends on God's Word doing what it says and being true. You know, there are two ways to look at God's Word. One way, the WRONG way is to think of God's Word as just facts and ideas. Just so much more “information.” Take it or leave it. The choice is up to you. What is the Bible? What is the sermon? Some would say it's presenting some facts for you to learn and say, “Yes, I believe that” or “No, I reject that.” But that's not what God's Word is. Not just facts to learn. God's Word is what He speaks to accomplish what He wants done. Consider the creation. How was it done? God spoke and it was. “Let there be” and it came into existence. When Jesus says, “Your son lives,” then the man's son lives, from the very moment that Word is spoken. And that is the Word that creates faith, for when the man saw that the Word did what it said, he believed. That's how His Word works: He speaks and it happens. St. Paul calls God's Word a sword. It can slash and hack and fight off the enemy: Satan and our sinful flesh.. God's Word isn't just words on a page; it's the power of God by which He does what He does.

God's Word can do something else that facts and ideas can't do. God's Word can become flesh. The eternal Son of God, the Word of God from all eternity, became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ is God's Word. If you want to know what God has to say, pay attention to Jesus. If you want to know what God is up to, pay attention to Jesus. If you want to know what God says about you, pay attention to Jesus. And so we look at Christ and what do we hear the Lord saying? He says He has come to seek and to save the lost. He says He goes to suffer and die and rise again. He says He goes to prepare a place for you. He says that He has come to do the will of the Father which is to save sinners. He says if you eat His Body and drink His Blood, you will live forever. He says that you are saved by what He has done. He says your salvation is finished. He says He will come again. What the Father says is not hidden or difficult but simple: that for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven and you are a child of God.

But His Word doesn't stop there. After Christ's ascension, His apostles and preachers went into all the world, bringing that Word that does stuff. The Word of God says, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That Word doesn't just say something ABOUT you. It actually DOES something in you and to you, namely, forgive your sins and put God's name on you. “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That is not just some fact, “Jesus died for you. Accept that.” No, absolution IS God's Word which actually wipes away your sins and declares you “not guilty” before the Lord. “Take eat; this is my body, given for you. Take drink; this is my blood, shed for you” doesn't just relay some historical facts. Those words actually bring Christ's Body and Blood along with the bread and wine to your mouth so that you can eat and drink the flesh and blood of the One who promises to raise you from the dead on the Last Day. The preaching of Christ isn't just some history lesson. A sermon is the very proclamation by which the King says something to you that is true and happens: you have a Savior. Your sins are forgiven. Just as much as that man's son was healed by Jesus at the very moment He spoke, so your sinful flesh is put to death by the Law of God and so your sins are taken away whenever Christ's Word is spoken to you. Because the Lord's Word does what it says.

Now you know, many people like to say, “If only God would speak today. If only He would give a sign.” Some even listen for God. They think that if they are quiet enough or meditate enough, they will hear God speak. There are churches that have a “quiet time” during church for you to listen for God. There are churches that do signs and miracles so you can know something about God. There are churches where you can learn to listen to God actually whisper in your ear! But these are all looking –and listening—in the wrong place. Jesus says, “You will never believe unless you see signs and wonders.” So what does He do? Does He go and heal the man's son? No, instead, He teaches the man to trust in His Word by speaking His Word and leaving it at that. “Your son lives.” And from that moment, the son was no longer dying. There is a great temptation to wonder about the things in life and how they point to God or not. People are easily persuaded that coincidences must somehow be interpreted as signs from God. I heard of a lady after Hurricane Katrina whose neighbors' houses were both destroyed but hers wasn't because she had prayed. What's the sign? Her faith was strong? I know others, a pastor even, who lost most of what he had. What does that sign mean? Your cancer went away: what does that mean God is doing? Your cancer came back: what does THAT mean. Don't look at the things that happen in your life to see about what God says. Rather, look to the Word and signs that Christ has actually given us. Hurricane or no hurricane; cancer or no cancer; Your Baptism says you are God's child. Money or no money, problems or everything's going great: Christ's Body and Blood say you will be raised up on the Last Day and live forever. Christ's WORD is what is sure and certain because it does what it says. And His Word says you are His, no matter what the world says.

God's Word does what it says. That's Good News. It's Good News because it means that when He gathers us here in His church, it isn't just to learn some facts. It's not just to pump us full of knowledge. Here, in His church, Christ comes to us to actually do stuff. To forgive. To renew. To make us a new creation that glorifies Him and loves and serves our neighbor. Here, the Lord speaks and actually does what He says, bestowing upon us the forgiveness of sins, salvation and everlasting life. We are bombarded every day on TV and radio and in school and our jobs with “information.” But here there is much more than information. Here God's Word speaks and life is given to you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

October 20, 2010 - Wednesday of Trinity 20 - Isaiah 55:1-9

2010-10-20T15:47:00.001-05:00

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and My ways are not your ways,” says the Lord. No kidding! Was there any doubt that the Lord doesn't do things the way we do them? Was there a question that the Lord's thoughts aren't the same as ours? When we see someone who is sick, we want them cured instantly. The Lord may not do that. He may even let them die! We see problems and conflict and we want it straightened out right away. Sometimes it ends happily and other times it doesn't. Something goes wrong and we want God to make it all better, right now, whatever it is and often He doesn't do that at all. We pray and pray—our will be done—but then the Lord does something else! But here's the thing. Do we really want the Lord's thoughts to be our thoughts? Do we want His ways to be our ways? Do we really want God to think and act like we do? Do we want the Lord to pay us back the way we like to pay others back when they do something against us? Do we really want the Lord holding onto our sins the way we hold on to other people's sins, carrying grudges and looking for the right time to give them what they've got coming? What if Jesus put Himself first? What if He only acted as if He were the most important person ever? How could we be saved? What if God only liked us or paid any attention to us when we made Him happy? Thanks be to God His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways or we'd be doomed!

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. Our thoughts and ways are about how we can be like God. How can we be in charge. How can we do and fix everything ourselves. How can we get others to pay more attention to us and give us the attention we deserve. Our thoughts and ways put us first and God last. But the Lord's thoughts and ways put us first for our salvation. The Lord's thoughts are about how He can become one of us to save us. The Father's thoughts and ways are centered on sending His Son to save us. The Son's thoughts and ways are to take on human flesh and to suffer and even die to take away our sins and bring us back to God. Even though He is God, Jesus never considered Himself to be the big deal. Rather, His preaching and teaching and dying and rising are for this purpose: not Himself but us. You. Your forgiveness and salvation. Our Lord's thoughts and ways rescue us from our thoughts and ways for His only thought is to obey His Father and be your Savior.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. Our thoughts and ways are to throw a party and only invite the people we like. Our thoughts and ways are to be glad we're in the church and look with raised eyebrows on others who aren't as faithful as we are. But the Lord's thoughts and ways are all about throwing a wedding feast to which everyone is invited! It is a feast with no cost and no price, a salvation with no strings attached. And where does the Lord invite us? To His feast of salvation. The celebration and delivery of His forgiveness in His church. Our thoughts and ways would make church all about ourselves but the Lord makes worship to be about what He has for your. Water and the word to wash away your thoughts and ways. Absolution to blot out your thoughts and ways of sins. His Holy Supper of Body and Blood to give you a meal you would never have thought of but which gives you forgiveness, life and salvation. Where we would make worship all about what we do for God, He has made life in His church all about what gifts He has for us.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. Our thoughts and ways, soiled by our sinful flesh, turn always to ourselves. But the Holy Spirit, working through the gifts of Christ's Word and Sacraments works in us such a new life that our thoughts and our ways become as the Christ's own thoughts and ways as He lives in us. Here we begin to learn to say and do things we would not have before. Here the Lord teaches us new thoughts and new ways which seek the good of others first. Here we learn to set aside the sins of others so that our thoughts are not corrupted by grudges and revenge and hatred and our ways of anger and payback are replaced with gentleness, forgiveness and love. With the thoughts and the ways of the Christ in us, we learn to seek the good of others before ourselves and to help and support them in whatever ways they need us to. And there is yet one more thought that is the Lord's and not ours, for we so very easily give up and think we cannot do what it takes to live as Christians. Or we mess it up and think there is no way we can still be Christians. And there is the Lord's forgiveness, wiping out our sins and turning us in repentance and faith to Christ.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not My ways,” says the Lord. And thanks be to God for that! The Lord's thoughts are so much higher than ours and His ways so much higher than ours that His thoughts and ways save us. Rescue us. Forgive us. Renew us. Guide us. The thoughts and ways of God can all be seen in Christ in whom God's thoughts of mercy and pardon are made a reality in the forgiveness and life He brings. It enough, as St. Pauls says, to fill our hearts with melody to the Lord and to cause us to give thanks to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

October 17, 2010 - The 20th Sunday after Trinity - St. Matthew 22:1-14

2010-10-17T07:46:00.002-05:00

A King prepares a wedding feast for His Son. The King of course, is God the Father. His Son is Christ. This is the feast of salvation which Jesus celebrates because He has been slaughtered for His Bride and yet He is the Bridegroom! Throughout the Bible, God's kingdom is often pictured as a great feast, a wedding celebration. Christ has come down and given His life for His Bride, the church. He has washed her in His blood which He shed for her on Calvary. He has made her spotless and blameless by His death so that she stands before Him as holy and blameless in His sight. That means that YOU, who are in His church, who are His Bride, stand holy and spotless and blameless before the Lord. Here, in the church, we celebrate the feast of salvation! We are clothed with the wedding garment of Christ in our Baptism and we feast upon the slaughtered Lamb, Christ's own Body and Blood. The Lord has prepared this feast for you. It's the feast of salvation.

But understand that many don't want this feast. The Lord has sent His preachers and prophets out into the world. They have told people: This is the FREE feast of God. This is a celebration and delivery of His salvation. Here is the forgiveness of sins! Here is the Lamb who was slain for you. And some people just don't care. They don't want forgiveness. They don't care about eternal life. The things of this life, their jobs or toys or themselves, are just more important to them than having the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. To put it another way: The reason some people don't come to church and aren't Christians is because they just don't care. They just don't want what the Lord has for them. But some are worse. Not only do they not want Jesus, they hate anyone who does. And so they killed those prophets and apostles. Even today, all around the world they continue to kill Christians who confess God's free forgiveness in Jesus. That's the world. On the one hand, it couldn't care less about Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. On the other hand, it hates an despises Christ's church and seeks to get rid of it!

But the church also has those within it who despise Christ and His forgiveness. In Bible times, when a king threw a wedding, he made sure to provide a wedding garment for everyone. It'd be kinda like the father of the groom providing everyone who RSVPed a tux or dress. But one man didn't want to wear it. He despised the hospitality and generosity of the King and decided he didn't need to follow the dress code. That man represents those who are in the church, at least visibly but who don't want to actually wear Christ and live in His forgiveness. These are the ones who may even have been baptized but have cast off Christ and yet still presume to take part in the feast. These are the ones who want their name on the rolls of the church but don't ever want to come. Or maybe they are the ones who come but learn nothing from God's Word over time. They want a Christians wedding or a Christian funeral but they really despise Christ and don't trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins. They want to claim the name “Christian” and “church member” but don't want to have to actually mess with all that believing and trusting in Jesus stuff.

And here's OUR repentance! We can mention those outside the church who hate it. We can mention those inside who aren't really Christians. But the warning for each of us is this: Don't ever cast off your wedding garment! The Bible tells us that being baptized means being clothed with Christ. To be baptized is to have the robe of Christ's righteousness on you. It is to have the forgiveness of sins and faith in Christ. Dear Christian: the Lord has made this feast for you and He makes sure you are dressed for it too! Just think for a moment about this wedding feast, about the Christian church. It is prepared and made by God. Accomplished by Christ on Calvary who has died and risen for you. It is given to you before you could even accept it, at the font with water and the Word. It is celebrated over and over as Christ's Body and Blood are given you to eat and drink. This is truly the feast of salvation with no strings attached. No requirements. Nothing for you to do to earn it or deserve it. Here, in the church, the Lord has called and gathered the good and the bad. Sinners are brought in and saved. Rejoice in THAT, brothers and sisters, that the Lord has made a feast for you and made sure you are dressed.

So if this feast is so great and so free, how could we ever refuse it to anyone? How could dare to tell someone they may not receive the Sacrament? Here again, the Lord's parable answers us for our comfort. What happens to those who rejected the King's invitation? The King sent His soldiers to burn and destroy them and their city! There will come a day when our Lord comes again and all those who have rejected Him will be destroyed! That's frightening. But more than that, what happens to those who want to party but not wear the wedding garment provided? They will be bound hand and foot and cast out into outer darkness! Brothers and sisters in Christ, we practice closed communion at the feast because we believe there will be a day of judgment! We want to make sure that those who come to the Lord's feast are clothed with Christ and His garment of righteousness. We tell some that they may not yet commune because we don't want ANYONE to be speechless on the Last Day. Rather, we want them to learn Christ's Word, to learn what that wedding garment is and to wear it with joy and thanksgiving. And we DO want them clothed with Christ so that they are welcome guests on the Last Day! And that garment is given by God's Word and so we teach God's Word first to those who desire to receive Christ's body and blood. How awkward would it be if one of the bridesmaids came to a wedding and was wearing a completely different dress than the others because no one told her what to get? Just so, we want no one to celebrate the feast wearing the wrong clothes but rather wearing Christ.

For those who despise the King, the feast is no good news and the consequences of rejecting it are terrible! But for you, who have been clothed with the wedding garment of Christ, there is the promise of an eternal celebration at the Kings feast which has no end. Now, as we celebrate this feast in the church, we rejoice in the forgiveness and life and salvation. We rejoice to be the Bride of Christ who is cherished and loved and treated like royalty by her Bridegroom. And there, in eternity, we will rejoice to be with our heavenly Bridegroom forever! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

October 15, 2010 - Wedding Sermon for Nicholas Fellner and Jennifer Conner - St. Matthew 19:4-6

2010-10-17T07:45:00.001-05:00

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and they will be one flesh. Three times we heard that! We heard it on the day when the Lord brought Eve to Adam and instituted holy marriage. We hear it repeated by St. Paul as he teaches us how holy marriage of a man and woman is a picture of Jesus Christ and His bride, the church. And we heard it from our Lord Jesus Himself who adds these words: “Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate.” Three times we've heard this. Anything three times in the Bible means, “Pay attention! Listen up!” Nick: today you are leaving behind father and mother and being united to Jennifer who will is your bride. Today, Jennifer, you are being united to Nick who is your husband.

Jesus tells us that this is not Nick and Jennifer doing this but the Lord Himself. What God has joined together, let no one separate. This means that your marriage today is a gift. A gift from your heavenly Father. Jennifer, your heavenly Father's gift to Nick. Nick, your heavenly Father's gift to Jennifer. And both of you, a gift to Landon and Taylor and the little one who is yet to be born. That's because marriage is all about the Lord's gifts! To stand here today before the Lord is to acknowledge that what is going on here is the Lord's work, not yours. This is a gift. It is given graciously by your heavenly Father. It is a gift that Christ comes down to make the church His bride by dying for her sins. It is gift when the Lord gives us His Word and the Holy Spirit so that we believe and trust in Jesus. It is a gift when Nick and Jennifer are joined in holy marriage and it is a gift that the Lord has given you children and a gift for those children to have parents to love them and teach them the faith. It's all a gift!

So when Jesus says, “What God has joined together let no one separate,” He's warning us not to despise His gifts. Nick, the Lord is giving you a gift today in Jennifer. Beware of not putting her first, of not treating her like the precious gift she is, of not putting her up on that pedestal and giving her the top place in your life right under the Lord Himself! Nick, the devil, the world and your own sinful nature want nothing more than to tear apart what God is joining here. Beware of this. Watch out for the selfishness that so easily causes hurt and conflict in a marriage. And Jennifer, the Lord is giving you Nick today. Beware of not treating him as a gift but instead taking him for granted and putting yourself first. Watch out for that same selfishness that loves to be the most important without also loving him as the most precious gift you have from your heavenly Father. And both of you, beware of neglecting the gift of your children. They are a precious gift from the Lord. Beware of that same selfishness that is so deadly to marriage that is also so hurtful to our little ones when it doesn't receive them as the treasures and gifts that they are. Beware of anything in your marriage that has the potential to separate what the Lord has joined together. But even more than that. Beware of your inability to fix those things yourselves!

The Lord is giving you to each other as a gift in marriage. But His gift giving does not stop there. Long before you were being married, the Son of God was joined to human flesh and became man to be our Savior. St. Paul tells us all about it, how the Lord Jesus came and gave His life for us. How He died for our sins on the cross. How He has washed us in Holy Baptism to make us pure and spotless and blameless. So that He doesn't see our sins and faults but only our holiness in Him. You need this Savior if you are going to be married. For you need to know, Nick, that every time you treat Jennifer as something less than the Lord's gift to you, you have sinned. But more than that, you need to know that Jesus, our bridegroom, has given His life for you and so forgives you your sins. Jennifer you need to know that when you act as if Nick is no gift but a nuisance, your Savior has answered for that too and forgives you your sins. And together, as you raise your family and bring up your children, you both need to know that the blood of Jesus on that cross was spilled also for every sin you will have against your children. In short, in this marriage, know that Christ is your Savior. He who has come to take a bride for Himself also promises to bless this gift of marriage with the gift of His forgiveness.

And it is that forgiveness that you receive in His church, by your Baptism, by Christ's Body and Blood, by your pastor forgiving you—it is that forgiveness that will be the strength and foundation of your marriage. When you put those rings on each other in just a few minutes, that is what you are pledging. Not your perfection, because we know that's not possible in this life. Rather, you are pledging to deliver to each other the forgiveness that Christ gives to you to each other. Nick, when you place that ring on Jennifer's finger, you are promising that when she is not the perfect wife, when she falls short, when she doesn't at all seem like a gift of God, that you will not leave her or forsake her but love her, forgive her and keep cherishing her as if she has no sins and faults! And Jennifer, the ring that you place on Nick's finger today is your promise to give to him the same forgiveness Jesus gives you. It is your promise that when he is no gift of God but an annoying and sinful husband, you won't bail, but stand with him, forgiving him and loving him and treating him as the gift he is from your heavenly Father. And that same forgiveness is also yours for your children. Teach them too what it means that their sins are forgiven. That you won't hold their mistakes against them but love and cherish them too.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife and they shall be one flesh. So what God has joined together let no one separate. Marriages are separated all the time in this fallen world. That's why you're here in Christ's church today, Nick and Jennifer, because you are acknowledging that the only strength and foundation of marriage is Jesus Christ and His forgiveness. But with that gift, the gift of marriage is truly a holy institution. Today, Nick and Jennifer, you are gifts to each other and to your children. The Lord richly bless you your whole life long as together you live by His grace and His gifts in Jesus Christ. His gifts and promises and blessings are all for you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

October 13, 2010 - Wednesday of Trinity 19 - Ephesians 4:22-28

2010-10-13T13:57:00.001-05:00

Should being a Christian change us? Should it make us a new person? Or is it just business as usual? St. Paul tells us in the Epistle Lesson to throw off the Old Man and put on the New Man. Look at Jacob in the Old Testament reading. He begins as a man who has tricked his brother out of his birthright and then runs away from his vengeful brother. But then He encounters the ladder to heaven, which is Christ, and awakens having heard the promises of God to protect and preserve him and give him the Promise. Consider also the man in the Gospel Reading. He can't even come to Jesus Himself but is carried by His friends. But how does he leave? He leaves walking with his sins forgiven! Here is the thing: contact with Christ changes a person. Heals them. Forgives them. Makes them something they were not. It is as Paul writes, an old man to a new man.

But going from Old Man to New Man is too often laid down as something WE do. If you love God, then you'll change. Give up your old habits, stop making bad choices, start living a godly life. Many preachers will lay that upon you that if you are not changing and do such and such, that is proof you are no Christian. Now let's understand something. As Christians, we are called to act differently, to live differently than the world does. We are called to love others even when they don't love us and to help others even when they don't care or appreciate it. We are called to have nothing to do with the silly philosophies and religions of this world and worship the true and living God. As a Christian, you SHOULD fight against sin. Avoid situations where temptation abounds and tries to pull you down into sin. Battle against your temper, your anger, your gossiping, your coveting. Strive to be in God's Word and learning it and applying it. DO all those things! But repent of thinking that such work is your own. Don't live thinking that putting off the Old Man is your work any more than putting on the New Man is something you can do. To go from Old Man to New Man is Christ's work. It is The Spirit's work in you through the Gospel which delivers the forgiveness of your Savior.

To think we can change ourselves is to think we have to get ourselves to God, that it's on us. In our sinfulness, we could never get to God. So God comes to us. He sends His Son. When Jacob slept at Bethel he saw the ladder connecting heaven and earth. In the Gospel of John, we hear Jesus say that the ladder is Him. HE is the connection between heaven and earth because He is God in the flesh and man who is true God. In Christ, heaven and earth are connected, God and Man are united. The Lord comes to us to save us from our sins. Jesus comes to take away our sins. To suffer for us. To shed His blood for us. To die for us. To rise for us. And He gives us that forgiveness and new life not in some abstract way. Your sins are actually forgiven. Your old way of life is actually crucified with Jesus.

When the Lord washes you with water and the Word and Spirit at the font, you are actually born again, born from above, a new creation. This is not some abstract theoretical religion. This is a real drowning of the Old Man and a rising up of the New Man. That's what our Baptism means. The Catechism says it very clearly; let's take a look: “It indicates that the Old Adam should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” That's God's work. YOU can't do that. The Lord does. And He does it through the forgiveness of sins that He gives to you in Holy Baptism. This is how the Lord changes us. This is how He throws off our Old Adam and puts on us the New Man in Christ. This is where the real and genuine change comes about. When you struggle against sin, the answer is never “try harder.” It's always, “More Jesus. More forgiveness. More living in your Baptism.” How do you do that? How do you “live in your Baptism?” You do it by daily acknowledging yours sins. Reflect on the Ten Commandments to show you where you have not loved God and your neighbor and confess those sins! Be sorry for them. Then hear again your Baptismal promise: Your sins are forgiven. It's what Jesus told the paralytic. It's the most important thing in the church: the forgiveness of sins. You see, the key to conquering your sins isn't overcoming them yourself. Then the devil just has ammunition to prove to you how bad a Christian you really are. Rather, to conquer your sins is to live in your Baptism which says that God has forgiven your sins and the devil has no power over you. To live in your Baptism is what throwing off the Old Man and putting on the New Man is all about. And you can never do that apart from the church where Christ and His forgiveness are being preached and His Body and Blood are being given for that purpose of strengthening the New Man.

Now why does the Lord do that? Why does He change you from Old to New? Why does He throw off your Old Man and put on the New Man in Christ? Not for YOUR sake! He does it so that you will be a blessing to others. Look at what St. Paul says next: “Speak the truth in love; don't let the sun do down on your anger. Don't give place to the devil. Work and labor so you have something for those in need.” Your salvation isn't for YOUR sake. It's for those around you. The Lord rescues you from your old, evil self because your husband or wife and kids and family and coworkers need you to be the New Man, otherwise their lives will be miserable. Repent of wanting a Baptism that just saves YOU! Rather, recognize that in and through Holy Baptism, the Lord is doing something in you for the good of others. The Old Man is all about you. So he dies and drowns at the font every day. The New Man in Christ is all about others. What they need. What helps them. What comforts them and puts a smile on their face. And that is the LORD'S work in you. Try it yourself and you will fail. But live in your Baptism and the forgiveness of sins, and the Lord does it in and through you.

So does being a Christian mean being changed? Absolutely it does! It means that the Old Man who wants to live like the rest of the world dies every day. Hold him under the water of your Baptism until he stops moving! And the New Man is brought forth by the Word of forgiveness. That is the Holy Spirit's work in you. What the Lord does in you He does. You don't. God comes to us. He works in us. He saves and forgives us. He turns us into something good for others. To live in the gifts that God gives is to live in true righteousness and holiness. That is to live in Christ. That is Christ living in you. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

October 10, 2010 - The 19th Sunday after Trinity - St. Matthew 9:1-8

2010-10-08T22:05:00.001-05:00

Let's grab a theme from a few weeks ago when we asked the question, “What do you say at a funeral?” Let's broaden it out and ask: What do you say to someone who's just landed some bad news on you. “My kids are in trouble. My marriage is falling apart. They told me it was cancer. You're being let go. You've lost everything.” What do you say to such a person? You know what I would say? “Your sins are forgiven you!” And you might reply, “But Pastor, that doesn't make any sense! How is that relevant? How can that be of any use to someone in the midst of their trouble?” Well, ask Jesus. They brought Him a paralyzed man and the first words out of our Lord's mouth are “Be happy! Your sins are forgiven!” I'll bet that the man was hoping the first words out of Jesus' mouth would be “Get up and walk.” But that's not what Jesus says first. And that teaches us that no matter what else, the one thing we need the most of all is the forgiveness of sins. If something awful and terrible happens to you: your sins are forgiven. Your despair that such a thing is taking place. Your doubt of God's goodness. Your anger and lashing out at others. It's forgiven. The Lord doesn't count it against you. You have eternal life and a clean slate before God. Because the worse thing is never the tragedies of this life but to die and perish apart from Christ and His forgiveness.

Notice that Jesus doesn't even wait for the man to ask for forgiveness. They bring the guy to Jesus and He just says it. “Your sins are forgiven you.” There's a bad notion that people get into their heads that you can't get forgiveness unless you ask for it. If you do something wrong, you have to ask for forgiveness or else you can't be forgiven. Some churches even teach that if you were to die before you asked for forgiveness, you would go to hell! What horrible, frightening and WRONG teaching! What does Jesus do? He forgives the man before he even asks! That's how the Lord does things, you know. Before we ask. If forgiveness only came when we asked for it, do you think Jesus would ever have come to die for sinners? If forgiveness was only available upon request, would our Lord ever have come into this world? As if the Lord was just sitting up in heaven thinking, “Well, I'd really like to forgive them but not until they ask me nicely!” God forbid! Our Lord doesn't wait on us! He comes because we are dying, perishing, dead in our sins. God the Father sends His Son to go to the cross and save us before we even dreamed we needed it. Before we would ever have asked because we would never have asked. And so our Lord forgives this man's sins because that's what He needs, even more thank being able to walk. Jesus just does it. Understand this, brothers and sisters in Christ: When Christ died on the cross, He wasn't making available the possibility of forgiveness. His death IS the forgiveness of sins. It is a death for you to wipe away your sins, before you even knew to ask for such a thing!

So Jesus tells the paralytic his sins are forgiven. That man can be unable to walk and still have eternal life. But he can't have eternal life if his sins aren't forgiven. He'll perish eternally if he has to stand before the Lord and answer for what he's done. So Jesus forgives him. The religious leaders don't think He can do that. So Jesus heals the man too, to show that He has the power to forgive sins. But why does Jesus have the power to forgive sins? Because He is the One who has forgiven them by His death on the cross. Jesus can throw forgiveness around because He's the One who's going to get that forgiveness by dying for this paralytic and for you and me and everyone. Jesus takes our sins away by His death and so He is the One who can declare to this man that His sins are forgiven. Again, without anyone asking, Jesus was born to do the will of His Father and save sinners. On the cross, Jesus has effected a healing that goes beyond this life. Forgiveness means that nothing we've done against God or others, no thought, word or deed will be held against you. Can you imagine what would happen if you had to answer for every wrong thing you've thought or done? Eternal death! Sin condemns us to death. Jesus gets rid of sin. You can die lame or deaf or even blind or crippled. And in eternal life, you'll run and leap and sing and dance. But without forgiveness, you'll be doomed. So Jesus, by His death on the cross brings such a healing and medicine to take away our worst disease: sin, the one that would keep us from God.

The forgiveness Jesus has for this paralytic is delivered by the words: “Your sins are forgiven you.” So it still is. The Lord calls men to be His preachers to speak those words to you, too: “I forgive you all your sins. Your sins are forgiven.” Your most pressing need is this: the forgiveness of sins. Here in Christ's church, that's what is delivered. When you turn from God, when you abandon your neighbor, repent! Flee to Christ's church where your Baptism is preached, where your pastor is forgiving you, and where Christ's body and blood are. I'll challenge you even further. When you are sick, what do you do? You go to your doctor. When you sin, come see your pastor. When the things you have done trouble you, come and hear from your pastor the Good News that your sins are forgiven you. And yes, I'm talking about private confession and absolution. There you have the chance to unload all that truly burdens you, for God alone to hear and forgive. In that way, by the absolution and care of your pastor, by the pronouncement of forgiveness and the application of the salve of God's Word, you will be healed, just as this paralytic was.

And there's more! This forgiveness that is given by Christ, is given for you to give out and give away! You, Christian, have been given authority by Christ to forgive others. And here is how we repent and learn to live as Christians. Don't wait for someone to ask you for forgiveness. Give them forgiveness. When those around you sin, be ready to dish out this gift of Christ: forgiveness of sins. Don't say, “I'll forgive them as soon as they're sorry. As soon as they get their act together. Just as soon as they apologize and realize what they did!” No, forgive like Christ does: without being asked, without being prodded, without expecting anything in return. The world teaches us to put conditions on everything, to pay what is owed and give back what you got. But Christ is teaching us to give freely that one gift that the world can't figure out: forgiveness. And such forgiveness isn't just SAYING “I forgive you.” True forgiveness is as the Lord does it, not actually treating you like your sins deserve. When you tell someone you forgive them, don't just say it. Act as if they have not sinned against you. Treat them as one who has not wronged you. That is to forgive as the Lord does for remember: it's not YOUR forgiveness to give out. It's Christ's. Just as Christ's Word made the paralytic well, so His Word also truly forgave sins. When you speak the forgiveness of Christ to someone, who knows what that Word will do because it's the saving Word of Christ by which the Holy Spirit works in hearts.

So what do you tell someone who's got terrible news? Who has heard bad news? What is there to say to someone whose family is a mess or job is in danger or life is at an end? Tell them their sins are forgiven for Jesus' sake! What do you say to someone who has wronged you? Tell them their sins are forgiven for Jesus' sake! When you are troubled by your own sins, what should you do? Come and hear your pastor tell you your sins are forgiven for Jesus' sake. It doesn't matter what the situation is. What we need more than anything else in the world is forgiveness for our sins, the promise that God does not hold against us what we have done. And that forgiveness is yours. Jesus said to the paralytic and he says to you: Be happy! Your sins are forgiven you! So arise and walk away today as one whose sins are forgiven, because they are! In the Name of Jesus. Amen.