Weekly sermons

January 8, 2012- Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 29, Romans :1-11, Mark 1:4-11

2012-01-09T09:55:00.000-06:00

“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
The Apostle Paul today in Romans hit upon the bottom line understanding which we all need to know. For, instead of using moralistic, therapeutic religious speech that so often fills our lives, churches and pulpits these days, Paul goes right for the jugular in exposing the problem with us. So he says that it is not that we just aren’t good enough or that we don’t try hard enough or even that we need to realize that all we just need is to be a bit better-but that our ultimate dilemma is that we are finally nothing but dead men and women!
And less you try to believe Paul is only using hyperbole and speaking of this “death” as a state of mind or inability to rise above our situations, you are wrong. No, when Paul says that we in our sin we are dead, he means just what he says-that our sin has literally killed us as we are and in our place. That in fact, this present, physical life is like a movie preview-that what we see here today is simply a waiting game for the final shoe to drop when with our physical death will reveal to us our spiritual situation. That our actual state is such that, as we are within ourselves, we are truly in bondage to sin and thus dead to God.
And what this means then, is that there is nothing inside of yourself that actually holds any worth toward God. Now, to be sure, God’s creation is still good, as He described it in Genesis this morning. But we are no longer living in that state of perfection-ever since sin enter the equation, there is nothing, finally, that is good about us-we are evil, corrupt and fallen in our natures. And we see this working out in all of which we do. We lie, cheat and steal; we gossip, complain and backbite; we neglect, ignore and forget because we think only of ourselves and our desires. So Paul warns that the grace of God does not lead to license to sin because he knew that sinners will seek at anything to justify their actions.
And this, of course, then changes the very reason Christ Jesus was given unto this old world. That He wasn’t given to be a religious guru, offering for you to embark on the next great spiritual journey; He wasn’t given to be a new Moses, giving you some law in which for you to work out your own salvation; He wasn’t even given to be a Saturday night buddy, being the designated driver so that you can indulge the pleasures of your flesh.
No, when Christ was crucified under the letter of the law, Paul says that He was being condemned and made to be the sinner of all sinners in this world and so died to everything that defined Him, and us, as human. That He died to sin, Paul says, once and for all-that His death was a true and final death because one who dies cannot die again in this life. But in the same line then, as He was raised over death and the grave on the third day so He was raised forever over that which holds this old world in bondage: sin, death and the power of the devil. That a new existence was opened for all mankind; and no more would we be held forever in the grips of a slavery with no hope in finding release.
Which means that what your baptism did for you, wasn’t some simple, pious and sentimental event, around which we oodle and coo over the sweetness of it, but was finally your very resurrection over your death! That we actually were killed in our sin because we were baptized into Christ’s very death. That we were placed into the very hell Christ descended into for three days, because we are united to and with Him in all things. But on the other side of that, so you have also been raised over hell and the grave because Christ Jesus was raised over the same on Easter Sunday. That you have been brought back to your God because you were placed into Christ’s eternal and glorious victory.
And so now, in baptism you have been redeemed and restored to your God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For that was the entire reason surrounding Christ’s own Baptism by John in the Jordan we heard from St. Mark. Note, Jesus does not come, like the others, confessing their sins for the forgiveness of baptism-but He arrived so to fulfill all righteousness and to hallow, make holy, all water as being the place where heaven, again, is opened for all who place themselves under its flow in God’s very Name. That as He so deeply entered into our world that He took our flesh upon Himself, so His divine nature so completely has opened for us the way for forgiveness, life and salvation.
Thus it is time to realize that, that same Spirit which hovered like a dove over the creation at the beginning, which descended on Christ in the Jordan, now hovers over those who have been made anew in Christ and His baptism. That just as those heavenly beings, as David sung, are adorned with a splendor of holiness, so it is that you have been clothed with the glories of Christ’s death and resurrection at your baptism. That now, as in Christ you have been completely forgiven and restored back to the Father, so His grace is not to be a means for indulgence, but for faith-to now live a life of repentance over your sin and a life of absolute trust that only what is good, true and holy will be found in God and Him alone.
Therefore, as we find the waters of the Jordan flowing over the head of our Lord Jesus, so we find God speaking His Word over His creation once again. That now, the old is over and the rough skin of animals which once covered our sin and rebellion to God has been replaced with the soft covering of the Lamb of God which clothes you with the mercies and grace of redemption. That the food of the wilderness, the food of meagerness and scarcity, has been replaced with the bread and wine of the eternal wedding feast. That now, even the chaotic waters of sin and the grave have been finally calmed in the peace of eternal life that flows over the heads of all who are God’s own beloved. Amen.

January 1, 2012- Numbers 6:22-27, Psalm 8, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 2:21

2012-01-06T15:49:00.000-06:00

“And at the end of 8 days, when He was circumcised, He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

What does it mean that we find Christ Jesus being named and circumcised in the Jerusalem temple 8 days after His birth, as we do today in Luke? For circumcision and the law was given only, as Paul said, to be the guardian over God’s chosen people. That Abraham and his descendants were circumcised as the sign that they, though separated and condemned because of sin, had been chosen by grace to be the people of God. And the law came to Moses, not to be a means of salvation, but to be the custodian over God’s people to keep them from running after the gods of their own choosing.
But Christ had no need to be placed under such. For Christ Jesus was actually born outside of the law, because the law is only for the lawbreakers. For, as He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, in His birth to the Virgin Mary He was not bound to the working and penalty of the law since He was sinless. The law had no accusations on Him even at His birth and so had no reason in which to subscribe and live under it, for He was finally beyond it.
Which means that as He was found here in Luke, Christ was being placed in the same situation and condition of all humanity. Even though this birth and child was indeed something greater than anything else which had been, yet He would not be found outside of His humanity, outside of the very people He was born unto. That though He was outside of the law-and in fact, was the very author of the law itself-He placed Himself under its letter and power, so to be accused and condemned by it as are all mankind.
Thus, as Christ received His name the day He was circumcised under the letter of the law, so He united Himself fully with the people He had been incarnated of. That now, the law was His law and its accusations and condemnations would attack Him as it does for the rest of creation. He would be found in the exact same place as the people He came for; that He would be now placed under a law that found its fulfillment in condemning the world under the curse of death. That with this event today in Luke today, we find Christ begining His work that would find its completion as He entered death on the cross of Calvary.
And that, of course, is the very nature of that Aaronic blessing given to us in Numbers today. For where is the creation of this blessing, but in the God alone who blesses and keeps; who makes His face shine and is gracious; who lifts up His countenance and gives His peace? But just how does this blessing come to people who have been separated from God’s graciousness because of their sin and death except by One who entered into our life and overcame its final outcome? Just how can those who are condemned to hell and the grave be kept and find peace apart from the One who was circumcised into the same law that was destined to hold all under a guardian until faith arrived?
Therefore, you see, your only hope in the life must lie on this One we find given unto the temple 8 days after His quiet birth in the lowly cattle stable. For God in Christ was given unto this old, fallen, dark world to become man, absolute man, with all our flesh and blood and ills and problems and sickness and death. He was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in order to enter into our situation and bondage to the law, sin, death and the devil so that when He would be raised to life, real life, on the third day, even the law with all its accusatory conviction would be done away with for those who are baptized into Christ Jesus.
Which means that now for you, as you believe in this Jesus Christ alone for your only forgiveness, life and salvation, you are no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, even male or female, for you are now Abraham’s offspring, according to the promise. Not that you are changed in your personhood-you are who you are in your creation-but as Christ placed Himself to the entirety of the law, so now all who live in Him, by faith alone Paul reminds, are a new creation, raised anew in the glories of Christ’s victory over sin, death and the devil. That in your faith in this One you find given to you in the manger at Bethlehem and on the cross at Jerusalem, you are now given that new name which David declares is more majestic than anything else-the name of God’s own blessed children.
And now, as Christ received the name given to Him by the angel when He was still in the womb, the sinlessness of this Jesus now rests upon the forgiveness of all who are repentant over their sin. That His divine eternalness is given to you in the promise that death itself will be forced to give you up in a resurrection on the last day. That now the salvation of the One whose name means, “The Lord saves,” Jesus, is bestowed upon you as He gives of Himself in His very Body and Blood in the Supper He died to give to His own blessed people. Amen.

December 25, 2011- Isaiah 52:7-10, Psalm 98, Hebrews 1:1-12, John 1:1-14

2012-01-06T15:48:00.000-06:00

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises!” Grace and peace to you God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

If last night was a silent night, with the breaking of the dawn on this Christmas Day, let us break forth into this song of joy the Psalmist set forth today. For as the light, not only of the physical sun, but finally of the very Son of God, has broken upon us, is there anything else we can do other than to proclaim our joy, to the world, of the giving of our salvation?
For as the Apostle John began his gospel with speaking of Christ Jesus, not in His infant birth, but in His eternal glorious Godhead-he places us in the proper place where our Christmas celebrations must lie. For beyond the sentimentality of the Santa Claus-Peanuts-candy cane season this has become (and I am not saying any of those things are wrong), the true Word that should be on our lips is the one that reminds the world that with this birth, the Word became flesh and dwelt, lived, among us and in whom we have now seen the very glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
That it was He through whom the world was made and without Him nothing that we see today would and does exist. That He was the true light of the world-a Light that shines into the darkest of all things-death itself-and overcame it with the brilliant light of His resurrected glory. That He was given into this world, so to be rejected and reviled by all so that He might make satisfaction for our sins, reconciling you and me to the Father for our justification, redemption and salvation.
Which is why to truly understand the joyous sounds of Christmas, one must not forget just what truly was given that day long ago. For beyond the silent night, the entire heavens were repeating with sounds of joy-for in Christ Jesus, the separation between God and man was erased and the sin of Eden was being overturned with the birth of this Child. That in Him, the radiance of the of glory of God shown upon this old, dark world and the One who is greater than the angels who announced His birth to the shepherds was given so to make purification, Hebrews attests today, for our sins.
Thus, as the feet are beautiful, Isaiah tells us, of those who take this glad tidings of good news to the world, let us again, sing to this world in all we do, this new joyous song of our Lord’s birth. Let us not be afraid to make a little noise, today, tomorrow and forever, and speak of the fact that in Christ, the Lord has indeed comforted His people by redeeming them in this One who was given to be our freedom. Let us ring loud and clear of this beloved hope we have received, again, this day-that our God loves us so much, that He refuses to remain in heaven, but comes to us as a Child; comes to us in the body and blood of His Supper.
Let us, open our big mouths this Christmas morn and go tell it on the mountain what the glories of this birth does finally mean to the world. Amen.

December 24, 2011: Isaiah 9:2-7, Psalm 96, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-20

2012-01-06T15:47:00.000-06:00

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

While the night described in Luke this evening was certainly a holy night, it was hardly a silent one. We have the din of the crowds that filled the streets of Bethlehem-so many that Joseph and Mary were resigned to the barn because no rooms were available. There are the shouts and sounds from heaven as the angels burst onto the scene to proclaim the birth of the very Savior of the world. The shepherds certainly was a noisy lot that evening-not only amongst themselves at the sight they saw, but also in their telling and retelling of the event to those they met in the streets after what had been declared to them was found to be true. And add onto that the actual birth of the Baby Jesus-the crying and screaming that accompanies childbirth certainly filled not only the stable, but finally to all within earshot.
And doesn’t this still happen among us, as we meet with shouts of joy, of acclamation, of glory, praise and elation of this holy night? Are we not often as excited and wigglely as a child is on Christmas morning with a tree brimming over with gifts? And is this night, perhaps all the year, where we suddenly stop behaving like stoic Lutherans and are so unable to sustain ourselves any longer, that we actually fill our lives and our homes and our churches singing and exaltation?
So why has this evening become so associated with silence? Well we know that it isn’t because we are not excited, not overjoyed, not ecstatic over the birth of the One who, as the Apostle Paul preached in Titus, gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness. Hardly. Instead, I think we so often meet this night with the silence of our hymns under the light of our candles precisely because of what this birth does mean for us. For beyond all the joy and excitement and exaltation we know we hold because of this night-in the awe of what this actually says, does and means for us, we are left utterly speechless.
For the announcements by the angels that night is nothing less that earth-shattering. To know that on this day, a Savior, Christ the Lord, was born unto us, is absolutely amazing. For we are hardly a people to be mentioned in this life, let alone for someone to be born for. With the sinful desires we hold; the acts of selfishness we commit each day; the backbiting and gossiping we partake in with and about others, would seem to be a state in which would preclude us from having anyone, let alone the Son of God, to come to and for us. With all the ways in which we fight and worry and place our faith on all that which is NOT God, it is very surprising news that God would come to save this, to save us.
Yet, that is exactly what did happen; that is exactly what God did do for you and me. That it was because of people precisely like you that a child was born, that a Son was given. For what we find with this birth is a God who does not regard sin to be unworthy to come and die for. We find that with the giving of this Child a God who believes that mankind is actually worthy to die for and so to save. We find that with coming of the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, this is a Savior who loves people just like those lowly shepherds; people just like you.
For the miracle of Christmas is that God-my God, your God, our God-reveals His love and mercy for us in the giving of the Son to the world so to save it through His death and resurrection. That His work was for people exactly like us-that His birth in a lowly cattle stall declared that God came for those who have nothing, are nothing, know nothing within themselves. That as the shepherds once found the promised signed lying, wrapped in a manger, so they found the One who was given so to save and redeem all those who hold no hope or comfort within themselves-that this message of good news of great joy, that leads the world to receive it in majesty, awe and thanksgiving, is the most amazing news one could ever receive.
And I suppose then, that because of that, this holy night certainly does becomes a silent night. Amen.

December 18, 2011: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16, Psalm 89:1-5, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-38

2011-12-18T13:29:00.002-06:00

“And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

As we have now lit all four of the Advent candles; as we have begun to sing the “O” antiphons of Advent (that is the 7 stanza’s of O Come, O Come, Emanuel); as we have prepared our house and life for the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord-we are reminded, one final time, by the Virgin Mary this morning of just how we are to receive His coming into the world.
For just as the Annunciation of Mary was the start of the fulfillment of the promise made to David in 2 Samuel this morning, so the promise made to Mary by the angel Gabriel is something than we are still waiting for to be finally seen. For on the one hand, we do live and know that in Christ Jesus, the Word of God has been fulfilled. He was the “house” promised to be a kingdom that stretches forever; His cross was the throne that reaches to all generations, as our Psalm sung, the house that established God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to all who have been called to faith.
But yet, we are also waiting for that throne to come to complete sight in the world. For the forgiveness, life and salvation given in Christ is received only by faith today; we live under His eternal victory only by a Word, some water and a bit of bread and sip of wine. That we confess in the Creed each week that we are waiting for the Lord’s 2nd Advent to come to us, to bring about the end of sin, death and the devil and to establish, by sight, the Kingdom of everlasting blessing.
And just in the same way, Mary found herself having to wait for the promised coming of Christ. For nine long months, she sat in the expectation of what it might be for her to hold the very Son of God in her arms. For over 38 weeks she waited, watching and anticipated the coming of her salvation. For the majority of a year, she held bated breath for the outcome of her faith in the angel’s words.
And yet she did it, even against all hardship that this pregnancy brought to her, living upon these simple words recorded by Luke that, “I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” That she received this word with utter faith, holding to only the belief that God’s will, will be done; that God would bring His Word to completion. That any wonder she held-even the wonder, she stated in verse 34, of how one who had never been with a man could conceive-was replaced with a trust that God is able to do what He desires; that with God, nothing is impossible.
And so, as we now sit and wait, trusting not with our eyes, but with our ears that God’s Word will do what it has promised too. For we live under a weight and judgment because of the sin and rebellion that all who are born hold. That we are born under the curse of the Father who is angry that our sinful natures, which lead us to seeking our wills, our wants, our ways over that of Him and our neighbor. That we are burdened with the fact that we will wind up gaining a cold grave for a lifetime of work; that no matter how hard we try to get ahead in this life, all it takes is one accident, one mistake, one phone call and our world as we know it will come crashing down around us.
But yet, we also live with the news that our God is so gracious and concerned over us that He gave His only Son to be wasted and destroyed under our sin so that in His resurrection we might be forgiven. We live with a Word have a God who hates the facts of our bondage to sin, death and the devil, and so fell under their power in order to overcome them in the power of Christ’s triumph over death. And we live we a belief that still have a God who has not forgotten us, that He continues to send His Holy Spirit so to give us Christ and His victory in the Word and Sacraments that we are surrounded by in our worship.
Thus, like Mary, we must learn to live to let nothing is that is found today, came yesterday or arrives tomorrow to gain our vision or receive our attention, for whatever is of this world is here one moment and gone the next. We must learn to trust that this world is not all there in; that the gifts we buy today are nothing in comparison to the gifts God will bestow upon the one who holds onto Christ Jesus alone. That we must not believe in the promise this world offers to those who live for it; we must not trust the hope if we compromise on our core beliefs we will get easy tomorrow; we must not even begin to follow the demands the sin in your life and so give them attention and love.
Instead, let us learn from Mary today and remember just where our true love, hope and faith lie. Let us strive to know and live alone upon the promises God made and makes in the coming, in the Advent, of the Son of the Most High, yesterday, today and forever. Let us not be deterred from laying hold to God’s promise of life and freedom in the power of the Spirit who works in your life because of the victory of your Lord and Savior. Let us receive the promises which await all who wait upon the second glorious revelation of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ,
And we are wrap up another time of Advent, let us not ever lose the sight, lose the hope, to lose the trust that this world is not all there is, but that we are finally waiting for the world which is to come, when our Lord Jesus comes again and brings about His justice for us and we will receive the grace, peace and mercy that will never end. Amen.

December 11, 2011: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, Psalm 126, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24, John 1:6-8, 19-28

2011-12-13T14:24:00.001-06:00

“He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,” as the prophet Isaiah said.’” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

John the Baptist was not the one, he declared to a nation waiting for the expected Messiah-that he was not the One in whom they waited; that he was not the outcome of their faith. That they had not found the One in whom their hope would be realized, the One in whom they would be given what they had prayed for and needed. That they would need to continue to wait, to look, to pray for God to give the One in whom would fulfill Isaiah’s promise to heal, to bind, to bring a good word of grace, peace and mercy.
And so he told them that the Light of the world had not yet been revealed to those living in the darkness of sin and death. That the One who would overcome the power of the devil which holds all people in bondage to a sin which tempts and condemns them and to a death that kills and separates them from all they love-had not yet been given to this world so His work might overcome such things. That the One whose sandals he was not worthy even to untie-the job fit for a servant-had not yet taken the stage to draw all who desire life and forgiveness to Him.
Instead, John did everything he could to draw people to look not at him, but to wait, to look for this One who was coming. That everything he did was to point away from himself, so to direct people to look for the One coming into the world to save it. Thus, he dressed in camel hair and ate nothing but locusts and wild honey to show that he was just as under the condemnation of sin as all mankind is. His only word was for the world to repent of their sins and wait for God to act so to save them. That his baptism was nothing but to prepare the world to receive the One who would baptize with fire and salvation.
Thus, John’s entire life was to do nothing but, as the Apostle says today, “to bear witness about the light.” His was a life spent, not in drawing and gaining what he wanted unto himself, but to call the world to look away and onto the One who gives what is really and truly needed. That he desired to know nothing, to do nothing, to have nothing other the Christ who was being given to save, redeem and give to him what would be forever and everlasting.
And this speaks of our life as well. In our dash and cash world, we are people who fall for the counterfeit often. That we are quick to grasp onto any and everything that promises us the fulfillment of our dreams and desires. That we are always ready to tie our truck to that which seems good and glorious. Thus, we are a bandwagon people-cheering for the winners, following that which offers us a promise today.
Yet, as Isaiah points out, what so often seem to be forever today, can become ruins and devastation tomorrow. John asked the Pharisee’s who had they come out looking for, knowing that they had only ran out to the Jordan because they were looking for a Messiah that captured their imaginations of greatness and glory. Therefore, he point out, that which promises peace and security, happiness and bounty today will leave you broken and tossed aside when it all comes down to it. That at the end of it all, all we can receive in the things of this world is a cold grave to be placed in.
Thus, what John called from those who came to him, was to look not to the things of today but to wait, to long, to look for the One who comes with something real, something solid, something true with Himself. That he called for people to turn away from what asks for your attention and cheering and instead wait for the Lord to come and give you what cannot be ever taken away. And he calls for you to leave behind whatever it is that gets in your way-and only you can know that which has even taken your attention off of the promise of Christ this Advent-so to place nothing higher than living a life worthy of your Savior.
For as we take this time in Advent, we do it to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Savior and Redeemer-both in celebration of His first in Bethlehem and finally His second at the end of all time. That Paul’s admonition in Thessalonians is an extension of the Baptist’s call in John-that nothing, not our comforts, not our desires, not even our sport teams-are to come before our preparing ourselves to receive our God, today and forever. So, we abstain from every form of evil, conform ourselves by the law; we do not despise the prophecies, the preaching of God’s Word, both law and gospel; we do not quench the Spirit, the giving of the sacraments-because what is more important in life-the pleasures of the flesh and this world or the peace, grace and mercy of our God?
Thus, we are to prepare our eyes and hearts and minds by laying aside everything that takes away our focus on what the coming of the Light of Christ means and does for us. That we must lay nothing before our eyes that will distract us from forever remembering that our Lord Jesus was given to the world so to die under the penalty of our sin in order to give us the hope and victory that the darkness of this world will be forever replaced. We must trust nothing in our hearts that does not place foremost the promise of forgiveness and life that the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus gives to those who believe unto Him. And we must think of nothing in our minds other than the truth that we are also waiting for the coming of our Savior in glory to redeem unto Him those whom He gives His very Body and Blood for eternal salvation.
So let us, again, hear the cry of the one in the wilderness-to make way in the path of the Lord-in all that we do and say and believe. Amen.

November 27, 2011: Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 11:1-10

2011-11-28T16:59:00.001-06:00

“And those who went before and those who followed where shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

As we find this scene from Palm Sunday today in Mark, we find the promise once given to King David by God in 2 Samuel 7-the long cherished hope of the Messiah which would come from his family-being fulfilled here, and which is a perfect place in which to begin the Advent preparation for our celebration the coming of our Redeemer and Savior at Christmas.
For as the crowds, before and after, shouted out at that the One who comes in the name of Lord is certainly blessed and brings with Him salvation and deliverance (the meaning of the word Hosanna)-they acknowledged the hope and faith of all who came before and who followed the coming of Christ into His glory during that Passion week. That they were receiving their King, who came riding in on the donkey prophesied in Zechariah, and were shouting to the world just what was happening with Christ’s triumphantful entry.
And they did this because what more do people who are in need of salvation and deliverance from their bondage to sin, death and the power of the devil, need other than to have their salvation and deliverance rend open the heavens, as Isaiah preached, and to come down and accomplish such? For Christ had been given to the world for this very moment in Mark-this was His “victory” lap, per se-this was His declaration to the world that its King was coming to sit upon His throne. And when He was lifted high upon the cross that Friday, He announced that this King ruled out of weakness and death; that He reigned as He gave Himself over to sin and death for His subjects.
So, as they cried out that this was their “Hosanna;” that this One was the blessed One of God; that this was the One in whom they had been waiting for to arrive to bring down God’s grace, love and mercy upon a world in waiting-they were preparing the world so to look for God nowhere else other than in this Man, Jesus Christ. They were singing the song that only those who, by faith, as Luther noted, can sing-for they were singing of the fact that only in Christ’s death and resurrection does one find forgiveness from their sin, life from the death and salvation from their damnation. They were proclaiming that if you are to find any bit of hope from a life and world that does nothing but seeks your pain, sorrow and destruction, it will be found only in this One who came to die and rise so to defeat and overcome all of this old, fallen world.
And thus, as we begin this new church year with the season of Advent, we do it remembering and heeding the words of that crowd and to look upon this One alone to prepare our hearts, ears and mind not simply for the celebration of His first Advent in the lowliness of the a manger, but finally of His coming again in all glory, honor and power at the end of all time.
For we, too, are in need of One to come to take away our sufferings-both today and forever. That we are in the place where Isaiah prophesied Israel would be-alone and in exile from our God because of our bondage to sin and death. That we are unclean because our wills are in love with the filth and destruction we surround ourselves with each day. That we have denied our God as we fill our lives with the false gods of this world-whatever you place your love and trust in as it take precedent over God and His Word, His Church, His Will. And because of that, we are doomed to fade like a leaf and our iniquities take us away to our graves.
And yet, we join with that crowd long go, seeing our Hosanna, our salvation and deliverance, heading into Jerusalem on that Sunday in order to do nothing but to be rejected, condemned, denied, crucified and buried. We do know of the One who suffered under all the sin, hatred and evil of the world so that when He was raised to life again on the third day, He would become the only way for those who have nothing left of themselves to hope upon. That we are witness, again, to the image of Christ Jesus willingly and boldly heading toward the day of His death-riding on the back of a lowly colt-so that His humiliation would lead to the exaltation of all who repent, believe and are baptized unto Him.
And because of this, then, we are mindful not to forget the mercies our God has had on us, and to so leave behind the cares of this world. This is Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians today-that as we are being sustained in the grace of the Father in the death and resurrection of the Son, we are not lacking in any spiritual gift and so are not able to resist the temptations of the devil, the world and our sinful flesh. Thus, our season of Advent becomes an occasion not to indulge on the festivities, but to begin, again, anew in the grace and peace of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, we take note of the Psalmist and ask that once again, our Lord might have us use this Advent in preparing ourselves in prayer, praise and repentance so that He might shine His face upon us again and so we be saved. We use this season, as we get ready for the joy and festivities of Christmas, to remember that we are sinners who have been forgiven, not by the works of our hands, but solely by the grace and love of God the Father by the sacrifice of the Son, in which we trust through the work of the Holy Spirit in the Word and Sacraments. And because of it, we are able to give thanks always for the fact that this One, will return again at the end so to bring to sight this hope we hold by faith alone today-all the while being sustained until that day by keeping before our ears these words that “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!” Amen.

November 20, 2011: Isaiah 65:17-25, Psalm 70, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Matthew 25:1-13

2011-11-28T16:58:00.000-06:00

“Then the Kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in this parable from St. Matthew this morning, bids us all to stay alert, to remain awake, to keep the watch for His second coming unto glory. He bids us not to lose sight of our confession in the creed, that He will come again to judge the living and the dead. He bids us not to fall asleep in the darkness of this world, as Paul echoed in 1 Thessalonians today. He bids us not to forget that the time and hour will be like a thief in the night, coming at a time when we least expect it.
And so, this parable is speaking not to two separate peoples, but to the church catholic, that is, the entire Christian Church on earth. For the distinction between the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom, is not a distinction between believers and unbelievers, but is the difference between those who already believe. All 10 do go out with their lamps, waiting to meet the bridegroom coming to his wedding banquet and so to enter into this joyous occasion. All 10 know and are known by the groom and all 10 have been invited to the feast
But yet, what separates them is that, even though they fell asleep because of the late hour and long wait, is when the shout was given, only 5 had prepared themselves for such a delay and were ready to trim their lamps with the extra oil, all the while the other 5 had to leave to seek out the oil sellers and so were shut out of the wedding hall and missed the banquet feast. The 5 foolish virgins, as Christ called them, lost their chance at entering into the marriage supper because they had not anticipated the long wait and were not prepared and finally were shut out when the groom did come.
Which makes this parable to be a direct warning to those who are still of Christ’s church today. For as a parable speaking to and about the end of all time, Christ would have you finally know and focus on one thing here today-and that is to be found within the camp of the 5 wise virgins, awake, prepared and alert for His coming; to be sober as Paul exclaims, even though the wait for His return has been so very long.
For the Bridegroom of the parable is none other than Christ Jesus Himself and He will return at the end of all time to be united to His Holy Bride, the Church. His Church, pure and virginal in their baptism into His death and resurrection, are at wait for their Groom to come and take them into the banquet hall so to celebrate their wedding into the victory over sin, death and the devil He gives as a wedding gift to His beloved. And when He does arrive, His bride will be gathered to Him, whether they await in life or in the grave, so to enter into His rest and forever receive the glories of forgiveness, life and salvation Isaiah spoke of today.
And until that day happens, you must be found waiting and prepared, with oil at the ready so to trim your lamps when it does arrive. And what does that mean? Well, what are lamps for but to lighten the darkness; to replace the shadows of the night with the brightness of the day? And oil is the means in which the light is given and fed and the way it is continued when the wick burns down and dries up. So to be prepared with enough oil to last the time until Christ, our Groom, returns to bring about what we hope in, is to be found always alert, always at watch, always awake with a faith that will not succumb to the rigors of the wait.
This is why Paul exhorts us to keep awake and stay sober today-for the difference between those who trust in the Lord rather than trust in the world is the difference between night and day. That those who live in the night, seek and revel in the things of the dark, Paul says, and they preach “peace and security,” believing that everything will forever stay the same. And there even in the church are such people, as Peter reminded last week, saying that because He hasn’t returned in 2,000 years, the promise of His 2nd coming cannot be understood as real, but simply spiritual-and so everything will remain the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
However, as Paul countered, those who have been redeemed from the darkness of sin and death by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ do not belong to the night. And so we do not look to and live for this life, but we are sober and alert, always bearing in our minds and bodies the marks of our crucified Savior, and so ever mindful to never let the light of our hope be dimmed with a lack of faith. We do not become drowsy under the passions and pleasures of this world, but we stay vigilant, adorning ourselves with the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet of hope, crying out with David in the Psalm, for the Lord not to delay any longer, but come again, and to come quickly.
And if we hold in our faith to the end, we will not be left out nor denied by the Groom as the 5 foolish were, because we waited and did not deny Him to the world, as Jesus said in Matthew 10, that “whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” That if we hold to this faith, we will not be left dead in our trespasses, but are and will be raised to eternal life because of His death and resurrection. That if we wait in the hope and patience that Christ will return, we will ushered into the hall when our Bridegroom arrives and we will forever sit down at the heavenly feast, even as we are given a foretaste of this feast to come, in the Body and Blood of our Lord’s Supper today. Amen.

November 13, 2011: Daniel 7:9-14, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 3:1-14, Matthew 25:31-46

2011-11-28T16:57:00.000-06:00

“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Frightening thought and consideration given today by Jesus in Matthew. That, Christ tells us, there are truly only two divisions and distinctions to be made in this old world-that one is either a sheep or a goat, and nothing other is measured against one in the end. No wonder the end of the world is such a worrisome and upsetting proposition to read and hear. Is that why we relegate texts such as these today to only a couple of Sunday’s at the end of the church year?
So, what DOES it mean, as Jesus makes this distinction, to be a sheep, and given the blessings of the Father in eternal life, rather than a goat, earning the wrath of the Father unto destruction? Well on the one hand, it is not located in the works that one does. For the works Jesus mentions the sheep doing versus which the goats do not are not any special, extraordinary works that someone may do-they are the common, everyday aspect of what it means to live in society. That to feed those who are hungry and visit those who are alone is not rare, but takes place every day.
And besides, one doesn’t even need to be a Christian to do such works. Anyone, at any one time, can and do such things in their daily walk. That, Christians are not the only ones who do these things, even if they become extra works of mercy to those in need. Thus, it is not the type of work done that qualifies-for if it were, then Jesus would not be the only way to the Father, as He declares in John, but salvation would be given to whoever and whomever did such work unto the least of these, whether or not they believed in Jesus Christ as Savior.
Which leads into the other reason why it is not the works, themselves, that earns one the kingdom. For, as the Psalmist states today, God sits in His heaven and laughs at the work and counsel of the kings of the earth. That is, God considers the works of our hands, if they are being done in the expectation and belief that they earn or merit God’s approval and grace, to be a laughing matter because there is nothing mankind can do to gain anything from Him. Peter proves this today by reminding the world what God will expose concerning the works done on earth at the end. And those who scoff at what He truly desires, will receive God’s judgment of fire that has been prepared and is being held in waiting.
So, what counts before the Father to whether one is separated to the right or the left; to be called a sheep or a goat, is to understand what it means to be a sheep in the first place. For what did Christ say in the John 10? “I am the good shepherd,” He declares, “The sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.” That to be a sheep of Christ, isn’t according to anything you might or might not have done. It isn’t considered and reckoned by your own works or worthiness. But to be a sheep, and so to be separated to enter in to the Father’s rest at the end of all time, is nothing more than to believe in Christ the Son; it means to do nothing other than to trust and follow the Savior wherever He leads and gives Himself-to follow His voice, and His voice alone, in this world; to follow that where He leads, it will be for your good and benefit.
One can see why, then, the sheep in the parable didn’t even know they were doing these works-they were not concerned about what they were doing, but in their faith they were simply doing what they found needed to be done. In their faith, they weren’t looking or counting their works, but simply had loved their neighbors because they has already loved their God. The goats, however, were very concerned about which and what were the “right” works needed-they lived focused only and seeking their own status according to their self-worth. They had no regard for what God had said nor were they concerned that those of God’s were cared for through their service.
So, we see that it is by faith, and faith alone, that one is separated as a sheep or as a goat. For faith is such that one knows they have and hold nothing good in themselves; they look not to what they can do or achieve but simply hold to the mercy of God the Father in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus the Son. They know that it is in Him that the sin which has condemned them to that eternal fire created for the devil and his angels, was taken by the One who allowed Himself to be placed on the cross and descended into hell for their sake, all so that, as they were baptized, they would be united into Christ’s resurrection which overcame all things. They know that all they can do is to cling to the promise of forgiveness, life and salvation that is given to them in the Body and Blood that was broken and shed by the One who took death and the grave willingly, all so to give His own a new life and future in their redemption.
And as sheep of faith, they, you, now await, in longsuffering patience, for the Son of Man, as Daniel saw, to return in His glory, honor and dominion on that Last Day, so to raise the dead and gather all the redeemed and elect into their reward that has been prepared, as Jesus promises, from the foundation of the world. We do not turn aside when the goats of this world seek you to lose your hope by trying to convince you that God and His promises are simply but fairy tales, but you go forth knowing that your Savior will return one day to gather His beloved to Him. And we continue along in our lives, living by faith, love, holiness and godliness, serving those who have been given to us-from our children, our spouses, our family, friends and neighbor-loving them as Christ has first loved us; giving unto them what they need, even as we have been supplied by Christ’s victory over sin, death and the devil, of what we need from now and into eternity. Amen.

November 6, 2011-All Saint's Sunday: Sermon based on meditation of Rev. Burnell Eckhardt. Revelation 7:2-17, Psalm 149, 1 John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12

2011-11-10T09:30:00.001-06:00

“And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Blessed is Christ, the One poor in spirit, who so earned for His own the kingdom of heaven. He is the One who mourned, unto Calvary’s cross, for He was comforted when He arose and ascended on high, having conquered sin and death by His deep humility. He was also the meek One, for He inherited the earth for His own, and promises them a new world without end. He also hungered and thirsted for righteousness, until He was satisfied that He had earned all righteousness by His atoning sacrifice. And He is the merciful One, for He obtained mercy for His own. He is the One pure in heart, for by His purity He earned for His own the promise that they shall see God. He is the Peacemaker, who made peace between God and man, for He shall evermore be called the Son of God. And He was the One persecuted, who suffered and was buried, in order that His gift of righteousness might rest now upon His own redeemed. –Rev. Burnell Eckhardt, Jr, from “Every Day Will I Bless Thee-Meditations for the Daily Office, 2nd Ed.” (Sussex: Concordia Catechetical Academy, 2002)

So, blessed, now, are you His saints, when you follow this Blessed One through the many trials and tribulations that this world reviles, persecutes and utters all kind of evil against you. For what greater enemies can one have, because there is never a time you are safe from the tests and temptations that the devil, the world and even your sinful flesh seek to afflict upon you with. That because of them, sickness, sorrow and death is forever creeping at our door, seeking you to lose hope, to lose trust, to lose faith. That you are forever under the temptation to begin to believe that because of the tribulations we encounter and endure in this life, there is truly nothing beyond this life; that you are tempted to believe that this, with all of the trials and tears it brings, is all one receive for a life lived.
Thus-even though one is greatly enticed to believe that there is nothing beyond this life-those who have been sealed, as John heard in his vision, by the blood of the Lamb, are not left with seeking answers for our prayers or searching for a glimmer of hope in the midst of the darkness of our sickness and sorrows. For the 144,000 John witnessed was representative of all the people of God yesterday, today and forever; all those who know that hope will not be found here-in this world or in us-but only in the Blessed One who overcame this old world. That the multitude from every nation, tribes, peoples and languages are the very saints of God-those who know that there is nothing or no one that gives you life, mercy and grace other than which the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ gives to those who believe Him for salvation.
And we, with those saints of Christ who have already fallen asleep in their Savior, now sing forth with them the mystery of our faith-singing that new song of the Psalmist, knowing that we have been redeemed and wash our sinful robes white in the blood of the Blessed who blesses the people of His pleasure. We go forth, knowing in faith even as those who have died now know by sight, that our enemies have already been defeated and we are now pure as He Himself is pure. And we live forth, trusting not in what we can see or hold or feel in our bodies, but clinging solely upon the Word of the Savior who blesses those of His own salvation with the same blessedness He holds today in and with His victory over sin, death and the grave. Amen.

October 30, 2011-Reformation Sunday: A Sermon on John 4:46-54 by Martin Luther, 1533

2011-10-25T11:30:00.001-05:00

St. John tells us that this was the second miraculous sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. He performed the first miracle soon after His baptism, when He changed water in to wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Now then, in this second miracle He restored the health of the royal officer's son at Capernaum. All of this took place in the first year of His public ministry. After our Lord’s Baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist, He immediately began His ministry, preaching and performing miracles, and among these wondrous signs, the aforementioned two where the very first.
The Evangelist has recorded these marvelous works to show what kind of person this preacher really was, and to indicate also how He was to be heard, namely, with the confidence that everything He taught was “Yea” and “Amen!” We do not know whether this royal official was a Jew or Gentile, nor does that really matter. He was some sort of provincial ruler or magistrate serving King Herod. It’s more important that we discover the reason why the Evangelist has reported this miraculous healing, so that we may all realize how very important it is for us to respond to God’s Word with the proper sort of faith.
This royal official had a young son, lying sick in Capernaum with a dangerously high fever. It was the kind of illness we label pestilence, very life threatening. The officer had heard that a new prophet had arisen whose powerful teaching was being backed up by mighty deeds. It’s even possible that he had personally heard Christ preach, since the Lord had begun His Galilean ministry at Capernaum, as St. Mathew reports. Or that he may have heard how Jesus made water into wine at the Cana wedding feast. All of this may have so moved him, that he had become a believer, and now, in the desperate situation of his boy’s illness, he hurries to Christ and pleads for help.
What a receptive heart! After just one sermon and one miracle he had faith enough to go immediately to Christ in his time of need. Here surely the king’s officer becomes a wonderful example for us. What ought we learn? First, that we have God’s Word in richest measure, yes, the Holy Scripture itself, and that it was written before for our learning and comfort. In addition, of course, God’s Word is preached to us every day. And yet, how slow we are to believe! Now look at this royal official: one sermon and one miracle, he believes, and comes to Jesus begging help for his dying boy!
Yes, here we surely have an exemplary faith! It’s true, of course, the Evangelist does indicate what might be considered a weakness in the faith of the king’s officer, namely, that he asks Christ “to come down and heal his son,” a weakness which led Christ to reply, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe!” In spite of this, however, it was nevertheless a great thing on His part after just one comparatively easy miracle, He nourishes the hope for a much greater one. Precisely, here is where the king’s officer is way ahead of us. We’ve heard so many sermons and seen so many wonderful signs and yet we do not have his strong faith in Christ, On the contrary, we often are so evil and stubborn that we not only despise the Word, but even persecute those who proclaim His gospel.
And so the Evangelist presents the example of this royal officer’s faith both to make us blush with shame and then to stimulate our faith. Indeed, on the Last Day the king’s official will step before all unbelievers and judge them as follows: Shame on you despicable people! I heard only one sermon and saw only one solitary sign, namely, that the Lord made wine out of water, and yet I learned enough, so that I believed He had power to do all things. You, however, you have heard the gospel for many years and have seen many mighty acts of His, and yet your life does not show it and you make little progress in spiritual growth.
This, then, is the faith which the Evangelist now praises: “The man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way.” Or, putting it another way, the officer possessed a very wonderful, excellent faith, trusting Christ so completely at His word, never doubting that when he got home he would find his son alert and well. The hope in his heart was as certain as if he had already experienced the reality. And so, as he clung to the mere word in true faith, the miraculous work took place-his boy became well, and soon his servants came running with the great news: “Your son lives.”
It follows, then that we are to have a highest regard for God’s Word, never doubting any part of it, but steadfastly believing that what God promises is most certainly true and cannot possibly fail. That’s why St. Paul had such high praise for Abraham, “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised.” So also the king’s official is here praised because he simply depended on the Word of Christ, without debate or wavering.
And that’s why the Evangelist also presents him to us as an example, so that we too may learn to value the Word very highly, and confidently believe that God will bring to pass what He promised After all, God cannot lie! The same applies also to what God will say on the Last Day to us who lie in our graves: “Arise all you dead!” And immediately we will arise from the ground and come forth-no grave, worm or rock can prevent it!
Christ’s gospel and Christian teaching are powerful and capable of great wonders, for it is a power of God unto salvation for all who believe it. God’s Word is an entirely different word than man’s word. When a mortal man gives a command, a lot of things have to happen before that word becomes effective and accomplishes what is intended: walking and running, riding and journeying, toil and labor, expenses and living costs-all are necessary to activate a human word or command. The Word of God, on the other hand, executes everything immediately. It brings you forgiveness of sin, offers eternal life, and costs you nothing more than that you hear and believe the Word. Believe it and you have it-without a lot of toil, cost, delay or hardship.
It is thus that the gospel of Christ and Christian doctrine accomplish their purpose with a minimum of words. Because it is God’s Word, it has an almighty power, before which nothing is impossible-as we see here in the case of the royal officer’s son. There was neither cost nor toil nor hardship; one little word from Christ and it was done! Just so, God also rules His Christian Church-yes, so rules the entire world without laborious effort. He accomplishes it all by one word.
How necessary, then, that we always have the highest regard for the Word, accepting it in simple faith. We have that came Word today in the gospel message, in baptism, in the Holy Sacrament, in absolution. Never should we think lightly of any of these but, instead, value and treasure them highly. By so trusting His Word, we shall always receive what the Word has promises, as the case in the story of the king’s officer. Amen.

October 23, 2011: Micah 6:6-8, Psalm 130, Philippians 1:1-11, Matthew 18:21-35

2011-10-25T11:29:00.001-05:00

“Therefore the Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

There are two things that we learn about this king from the parable Jesus tells us this morning. That on the one hand, he is a very compassionate and loving ruler in that he forgave this outrageous debt the servant owed him. For to owe a single talent would require one to forfeit 20 years of wages-10,000 talents would be an unimaginable and unmanageable balance to repay. Thus this servant was the beneficiary of the most benevolent sovereign ever beheld in this world.
However, we also find this king justly and rightly condemning and punishing the pure evil of this servant, as he accused and abused his fellow worker over a debt which could have been repaid within the year. That the king correctly saw that his own graciousness was simply the cause for the man’s own sinfulness at seeking his gain even after he had been mercilessly redeemed. And so, his sending him to the jailor, where he finally would have no way in order to pay off his debt, was an act of supreme justice.
Thus this king in today’s parable is the image of absolute righteousness-he gives grace to those he desires and executes equity to those who prove to be wicked. He had no right to first forgive the tremendous debt of the servant-his was an act of utter charity, for he sought to restore the man to a place of favor back in the household. At the same time, he also had no obligation not to punish the man for his greater offense-his judgment was blameless as the servant proved his unworthiness to have received mercy in the first place. His two reactions prove that his righteousness was that of perfection-he understood what goodness, love and mercy actually are and so did them to the final outcome.
And so, as Jesus tells us that this parable is compared to the kingdom of heaven, it is clear that our Heavenly Father is none other than this absolute righteous king; the One who holds the power of forgiveness and condemnation in His hands. It is He who holds all honor and power in the Kingdom and to whom all glory and worship is due to His Name. However, and as that is true, then that picture of this despicable servant-the one who could not understand the depths of the king’s mercy to forgive his own debts in the way in which he sought to collect what was owed to him-is none other than you and me-a picture in which, then, we fall under His righteous grace and judgment.
For is not the sin which we hold and have and do in our own lives perfectly reflected in the 10,000 talents the servant owed? Because there is no way in which we can repay the depths of our own transgressions to the Father-in fact, before Him, the Psalmist tells us today, those with iniquities cannot stand. That because of our bondage to our sin, we are forever and eternally separated from our God, born already dead in our trespasses and so having not simply the means to repay, but having the inability to finally unable to atone for our sin, because in our birth we are in captivity to sin, death and the power of the devil and in jail like the wicked servant of the parable.
Yet, like this servant, we have been, not simply forgiven, but finally redeemed from our eternal death and damnation purely out of the grace and mercy of our Father the King. It is He that gave unto this world the Son, Jesus Christ, so to be rejected, wasted and destroyed under our wickedness and rebellion to Him. That the fact that the Son of God was crucified, died and was buried, was for no other reason than to take the wrath of the Father upon Himself, so that the curse of our sin might no longer lay on us, but on Him alone. And as He was raised from the grave by the love of the Father on the third day, so He announces that all who believe in Him alone for truth and life, receive the Holy Spirit and are forgiven by the grace and mercy of the Father.
Thus now, you have been freed, not to indulge your own flesh and desires, but to go and do likewise to those who have sinned against you, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. That as no longer does the Father hold your own sin against you, so you are to hold not the wrong your neighbor has done unto you. For that is what the prophet Micah was proclaiming today-that your forgiveness by Christ, built upon not your works nor your pennies, but solely on your faith in His death and resurrection, has now set you free to walk humbly with the Father in forgiving and showing mercy to those you come in contact around you.
And what does the end of the parable say to us then? For because we do not earn the Father’s grace through even our good works, so if we don’t show mercy as we have been shown mercy, it declares that we really haven’t believed in Christ Jesus at all. Because what else is faith than to no longer look and listen and live for yourself in order to then place all your hope and love upon another? That faith in Christ means that you no longer trust your own deeds and desires, but now cling to every word that falls from the lips of the One who bore the thorns, nails and spear for your very sake. It means that you no longer seek your own will and way in this world because you know of another Kingdom in which you have been given forgiveness, life and salvation. And it means that now, you forgive those who have done you wrong, all because your Father has forgiven you of all the wrong you have done unto Him-and the forgiveness of your debt is as different as 10,000 talents is to 100 denarius.
And so, the Kingdom of heaven, Jesus tells you, can be compared to a King who wished to settle His accounts-and as you have so been forgiven of the greatness of your sin by the love and mercy of the Son, so now you have been set free to take that forgiveness out these doors so to give to the world around you. For, as Jesus told Peter today, the grace of God is such that forgiveness knows no bound or numeric accounting, but that it goes forth not in sevens, but in seventy times seven. That now, the good work, Paul tells us, that Christ began in you, will grow out in the way you proclaim the depths of the love of your God to a world that needs to know of something more than what the world, their flesh and the devil seeks to convince them of. Amen.

September 25, 2011: Proverbs 4:10-27, Psalm 199:9-16, Galatians 5:16-25, Luke 17:11-19

2011-09-26T08:44:00.001-05:00

“Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

It was faith, Jesus tells us, that made this one man, an ex-leprous Samaritan no less, to return to the One who gave him his new life. It was faith that made him lose sight of everything else around him-to lose the sight of heading to the priests to be properly and fully restored to society-so to fall at the feet of this One who had just given him back his life. It was faith that drove this man to forget all of what he needed to do next-what he needed to do to get his life back in order, to be reunited to his family, to get back to his hometown-so to seek nothing other than the only One whom had created him anew. And it is faith that made this man to find salvation and deliverance (as the Greek text tells us) in the only place and Person he knew it to be possible.

It was faith that the Psalmist sought to express in his grand and glorious song to the life found in God’s Word. It was faith that gives the one, he states time and time again, the insight to see the enjoyment of living according to what God has willed and desired for His people. It was faith that made him realize that only when one stored in their heart God’s holy Word, will one find a shield capable to resist sin. And it is faith that drove him to confess that one finds delight and happiness in this life, only when God and His will and ways are before your eyes.

It was faith that the Apostle Paul set forth in his call to seek, walk and live by the Holy Spirit rather than the desires of the flesh. It was faith that made Paul see the dangers of the works of the flesh because if one so lives according to it, so one ends up living only and for themselves. It was faith that made Paul understand that the power of Christ in one’s baptism is that it brings a complete end to one’s old life according to this world, so to now live in the power of His resurrection over sin, death and the power of the devil. And it is faith, Paul confessed, by which one now lives in the Kingdom of God, where the Holy Spirit will grow many glorious fruits in and through you.

It was faith that made Solomon correctly see that the word of instruction from the Lord to be the wisdom of all the ages. It was faith that he understood to be the difference between the light which enlightens the righteous and the darkness that causes the wicked to stumble. It was faith in which he advised to be mindful of what one hears, read and do, because there is a stark difference between what is good and what is not for you. And it is faith, he sung, that will direct your feet onto the paths that are sure and right and good.

And so it is faith that you, today, can and must live your entire life upon still. For it is faith alone that gives you the certainty that the leprosy of your own soul-a soul wilting and rotting under the disease of an original sin which holds you captive-is cleansed and redeemed by Christ Jesus who was given unto this world to save and deliver you with the simply word of “You are forgiven.” It is faith alone that bestows upon you the assurance that you are saved, forgiven and redeemed from your sin, death and hell-because you have been given the very Son of God, who suffered death, descended into hell and was buried, so to usher in a new life in His resurrection to all who believe and are baptized. It is faith alone that sustains you whenever the works and ways of the flesh seek to gain your attention, ideals and desires-because you are given and fed upon the Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior who was crucified and raised for you. And it is faith alone in which you can know, believe and trust God’s Word to be worthy unto the very end-for it, alone, gives you the right instruction and path of life, because it is the thing, the only thing, that comes from Your God who is, who was, and who is to come. Amen.

September 18, 2011: Leviticus 18:1-5; 19:9-18, Psalm 32, Galatians 3:15-22, Luke 10:23-37

2011-09-18T06:57:00.000-05:00

“And behold, lawyer stood up to put Him to the test saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Seems like a rather easy proposition to tackle, this “go and do likewise” of Jesus this morning. For it is rather clear what the Samaritan did for the beaten and robbed man on the road to Jerusalem-the man was helped, sustained and cared for only because the Samaritan did such to him. It is pretty simple of an idea that to love your neighbor as yourself, quoted from our Leviticus text this morning, is to do unto them as you would have done unto you.
But, as any Lutheran should know, the Bible will interpret itself all over the place; that the Bible will interpret the Bible and so, we are also enlightened a bit more about this law in which we, like the lawyer from Luke today, seek to do and so live. And what we find out is that, as the Apostle Paul declares, while the law is certainly good and godly and laudable, there is, finally, no power within it so to do it as God demands it to be done! Luther will later say about this that “the law will say do this, but it is never done;” that is, all the law can do, when one seeks to live and be justified by it, is to convict you of your lack of success-echoing Paul’s statement today that “if the law had been given to give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.”
This truth is seen especially in the priest and Levite that passed by on the other side of the road today. For their problem wasn’t that they broke the law by passing by-they were actually seeking to stay pure according to the law. For, even though Leviticus today reminded Israel to keep and show mercy to others, the Law also demanded ritual purity in order to worship in the Temple. The priest and the Levite, rather than being heartless cynics, were on their way up to Jerusalem, up to the Temple, up to the worship center of Israel and so we’re seeking to keep themselves undefiled so they could rightly give God His worship according to the Law.
Thus, the law ended up working against itself here in Luke-it demanded two separate things that caused both to pass by while leaving the other bleeding on the other side of the road. And that is what Jesus was trying to get across to the lawyer. If one seeks to make themselves right and holy to God on the basis of their works of the Law, they had to do so completely and absolutely-a possibility that was finally unable to be achieved, because the law ends up contradicting itself when one seeks to live accordingly and perfectly to it all.
So what was it, if it wasn’t in order to obey the law that requires one to both love God and neighbor in a completely contradictory way, which made the Samaritan stop to help the man? Well, Jesus tells us, “When he saw him, he had compassion”-that he didn’t stop because he had to, but simply because he saw the need to. He stopped and helped simply out of grace-the man was rescued and saved solely upon the undeserved mercy of one who was passing by. The Samaritan gave mercy instead of law when he came upon this man, broken, bleeding and left for dead.
Which means that eternal life-that which the lawyer was seeking when he came to Jesus today-is found in something more than our working of the law, even if we are a neighbor to our neighbor as the Samaritan was in Jesus’ parable. It means that what one truly needs, isn’t a job to do or a command to follow in order to find a hope in the midst of a hopelessness, but for one to be given a compassion that is so desperately needed. It means that what you need to find, if you are to inherit eternal life, is to have One come and so do and give this to you completely outside of any of your work. It means that, in the end, you finally need someone like Christ Jesus, your Good Samaritan.
Because, as our other texts remind us, before our God, we end up looking and acting much like the priest and Levite in our lives. For regardless of how law abiding we might generally be; regardless of how often we might help out a neighbor in need; regardless of how many works we do, charities we support or even how many times we walk and sit between these walls-we are still guilty of sin because we cannot and will not live completely by the law. Jesus told the lawyer today, that he would only live if he did those works of the law he dutifully recited. But, as God told Moses, this is done only if we do them perfectly and completely, which is something we most certainly have not. So this is why, Paul tells us, God has imprisoned all things by the word of Scripture because all have sinned and fallen short of His glory.
But yet, even in spite of this, your Father in heaven has given the Son to this world so that He might be crucified and raised to give and show compassion to you. That Christ Jesus was given unto this world so to not only clean you up from your sinned-given bloody wounds, but for Him to be stripped and beaten and actually left for dead by the robbers of this world-sin, death and the devil. That Christ Jesus, who once found no room in the inn for Him, laid down in the tomb of your death simply because He cares for you.
And it is there where eternal life-that life which the lawyer long ago once came to Jesus seeking assurance for-is actually found; given unto you and all who believe unto God and His death and resurrection for salvation alone. It is there that the works of the law have been fulfilled-for the promise was given to Abraham that there would be One who would live and die completely in faith. And it is there where now all who follow in such a faith, is given a redemption and salvation that now frees you to actually be a neighbor to your neighbor and help them in all their physical needs, as the Catechism says in the 5th Commandment.
Because certainly blessed is the one, David sang in our Psalm today, whose transgression, whose sin is covered, redeemed and forgiven-for it is there where the true Good Samaritan gives Himself unto you, all for you. Blessed is the one, you, who seeks God’s righteousness in His Word-trusting that in your faith, you are given a new life and a new world, built upon the death and resurrection of your Savior. Blessed is you when you trust in the One who went up to Jerusalem so to die and rise for your sin and death, you trust in Him for all things. Blessed are you because you finally have found THE thing in which you, finally, by faith, can so “do and you will live.” Amen.

September 11, 2011: Isaiah 29:17-24, Psalm 146, 2 Corinthians 3:1-11, Mark 7:31-37

2011-09-12T09:32:00.001-05:00

“For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

There is a great difference, a great chasm between that which is of man and the world and that which is of God and His heaven. That there is a grand split between what that is of our age-of our understandings, thoughts and faith-and that what is God’s and of God-of His declarations, proclamations and divine will. And it is of such a gulf, that the Apostle Paul today calls it that difference between the letter that kills, from the spirit which gives life.
For isn’t that is what kept the man in our Gospel lesson today deaf and mute his entire life? Reading between the lines, we can say with assurance that the man had been completely forsaken by the limits of this world’s power-that nothing was found to be done to cure the man of his disability. That we can honestly say that this world had completely failed him in finding some relief-he had been and was doomed to live a life of complete and utter silence.
Thus it took an act of God-and even God Himself-to come and actually bring about the change which he needed for a new life. For unlike the world, when he was brought to Christ Jesus, he wasn’t left with some pious platitude about how it will get better in the future, but Christ actually gave and did to him a better future. And so, the man who was brought to Jesus in verse 32 was a very different one when he left in verse 35, because, as we are told, “the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released and he went away speaking plainly.”
So thus we see this great difference and distance between what this world and this God can give and do. For no matter how great the things that this world can bestow-as the Apostle Paul attests in 2 Corinthians this morning-it does not compare that which is given by God. The prophet Isaiah reminded the people that it is only when God works for you, will you actually begin to find something worthwhile-for it is the poor which will exult in the Lord while the scoffer shall cease. Because while, the Psalmist said, the princes of this age will one day wither away, it is the power of God which indeed lasts forever.
For what can this world offer to you, except that in the end, the letter of the law will be fulfilled and death will reign over you? Because the fact is that there is nothing that you can do, in yourself, to free you from the curse of God over the sin you commit and revel in. That, as the world even suffers under this weight, so all who live bears the pangs and perils of condemnation. The deaf and mute man in Mark today is a living illustration of this-he was bound forever in himself and was condemned under the letter of the law which declares that the deaf may not hear and the mute will not talk.
But when Jesus, bringing with Him the power of the Holy Spirit, happened upon that him, life sprung up where there once was only death-and suddenly, as God promised in Isaiah, on that day, the deaf did hear and the meek obtained fresh joy in the Lord. Thus, the deaf and mute man found this in his newly given ability to hear and speak. Paul found this when his life went from one of persecution to seeing the greatest commendation was that of the Corinthian’s saving faith. And you find this out in the fact that even again today, you have been given a Word and a promise that your sins of this world have been forgiven and your death in this world will one day come to an end.
Which means that the only hope you have to find a life from the death you are all headed toward, is to have this same Jesus, bringing with Him the same Spirit, to place His healing finger over you and open the gate of heaven-opening the assurance that in Him alone, will you find forgiveness from your sins and a life from your death. The only assurance you must cling to is this one Word of life coming from the lips of the One who promises to open the lips of even the dead.
Because Jesus is the very Son of God, given to die for the sins of the world. His life, lived in unity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, was poured out on the cross, suffering under the wrath and becoming the curse of God, so that it might be forever taken off of mankind. He entered the dark tomb of death and descended into hell in order to “Ephphatha,” to open their bonds on all who are forever bound in sin and death. He was raised on the third day and ascended into heaven so to give the hope and promise of life everlasting to those who cling to Him alone for salvation.
And as Jesus draws near you today, tune your ears to this Word which He is speaking-for it is the Word of God, profitable for salvation to all who hears and so believe. Hear Him as He brings in Him your redemption from sin, death and the power of the devil-for faith in His name opens the gates of heaven. For there is none other, the Psalmist says, who is able to save you after your breath departs, because He alone has risen triumphant over death and the grave-and now nothing, nothing of this world, can overcome the glories which is given in your saving Lord and God. Amen.

September 4, 2011: Genesis 4:1-15, Psalm 50:7-23, Ephesians 2:1-10, Luke 18:8-14

2011-09-04T11:45:00.000-05:00

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

The reason, the only reason, one of the men in Jesus’ parable this morning, goes away justified, made right to God, is because he knew nothing else than faith and faith alone. That what separated the tax collector, who could not even raise his head before the altar in the temple, and the Pharisee, who sought to be honored on the basis of his holy, just and pious life, was because the one rightly knew and confessed he had no right to stand before a holy God. Thus, while the Pharisee went home still bound in his sin, the tax collector went away with his sins forgiven and his life justified.
Which means that the only way one can be saved, the Apostle Paul set forth in Ephesians this morning, is to be made low, to make yourself nothing before God, and so wait unto Him, alone, to forgive, save and redeem. For what more is true than to realize that you are drop-dead lost in the midst of the sin in which you were born? Because it really doesn’t matter who you are, or how many good works and pious living you have done-at the end of it all, all of what you own lasts no longer than you are alive. And even beyond that, where can you find atonement for your life, since as the Psalmist reminds today, there is nothing one can offer to God that He already does not have and hold?
Which means that, like the Pharisee in Luke today, there is no hope for you, in yourself. For who can offer God anything for salvation when nothing that you hold accounts for anything before Him? Cain found this out in God’s rejection-since the book of Hebrews tells us that Abel was regarded because he had faith, it would go to say that Cain did not. And so, it doesn’t matter how good you have raised your children; it doesn’t matter how long you have been married; it doesn’t matter if you are an honest worker, good citizen and strong patriot-before God, nothing but perfection built upon faith alone can stand. And, sorry to say, this is something that no one-not you, not me-have or ever could achieve.
But if you, like Abel, like the tax collector, like the Apostle Paul confess of your complete and utter unworthiness, of your total and absolute sinfulness in yourself-you will surely, Jesus declares, go down to your home justified today, tomorrow and forever. For what more does God want than to forgive, to save, to redeem you from the captivity of your sin, death and damnation? What more does He desire than to see you restored back to Him from your condemnation? Did He not seek Cain to be wary at the sin crouching at his door and did He not save him from death with the mark on his head, after Cain began to realize his sin?
Because your God does not desire the death of the sinner, but for all to repent of their sin and return back to Him for their life. In fact, this was the true reason Jesus was given to this world. That it was in God’s mercy, Paul sings, that delivered the Son over to sin, death and the devil-delivered Him over to be scorned, wasted and destroyed under the worst they could do all so that you might be forgiven of your sin, because now it is His sin; so that you might be saved from your death, because now it is His death; so that you might be redeem from hell, because He entered it for you. That Christ Jesus, in the giving of His Body and Blood for sinners to eat and drink, did it for nothing other than to bring about your salvation.
Thus, all there is left for you is to believe in Christ and trust in the death He died and the resurrection He rose, for you. All there is left is for you to be finished to yourself, to beat your breast and to cry out to the Savior who died and rose for you. For it is by grace in which you are and have been saved, by your faith, all for and by the death and resurrection of your Savior Jesus Christ. And now hope, your only hope, to find forgiveness from your sins and life from your death is to lower your head in prayer and cry out in faith to the Lord your God, who died, who rose and who is coming again to save and redeem you unto eternal salvation. Amen.

August 28, 2011: Jeremiah 8:4-12, Psalm 92, Romans 9:30-10:4, Luke 19:41-48

2011-08-29T09:10:00.000-05:00

“And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!’” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Christ Jesus, Luther says, uses two ways to preach of those who neglect and abuse the Word of God. That on the one hand, Christ uses threats and warnings, such as He did to the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites and brood of vipers and other such terms. But on the other, as He does here today in Luke, Christ preaches to a world through His weeping over them, showing His sympathy in their blindness of missing God’s Word of what He was doing in the world over their own ideas of what God should be doing according to their understanding.
But don’t let the weeping of Jesus today wash away the fact that His are tears are still of a righteous indignation here-He is sorrowful in the most gravest of terms. For He knows that Jerusalem, and finally Israel’s, destruction at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD (roughly 40 years from his speaking), would result from the refusal to truly hear and receive the Word of God-the Word which declared that He, Jesus, was the very Son of God, given to take away the sins of the world. He is regretful that the people of God, those whom Paul spoke of having stumbled over the Stone laid in Zion, would not receive Him as their salvation; that they would not recognize the time of their visitation by God to bring them His peace.
And this then also explains Jesus’ next move to the Temple-the locus of worship for the Jewish people-and to cleanse it, to clear it out of everything which distracts one from the true desire of God. For in their turning it into a “den of robbers,” as Jesus calls it today, they had taken what their sacrifices to God were to mean, and turned it into nothing more than a common street meat market. That they had forgotten why they were offering up to God their animals by focusing on the buying and selling of the animals themselves. They had, in the words of the Psalmist, exchanged the wisdom of God for a foolishness of their own thoughts and desires.
Thus, as Jesus so wept and work over and in Jerusalem, He reminded them just what the wrath and anger of God, spoke of in Jeremiah, finally looks like. That just as Israel had once forgotten their first love for the allurement of idols and so were exiled to Babylon during Jeremiah’s life, so once again, Jesus said, would Israel and finally all the world, suffer the result of rejecting God, and the One He gives, for their eternal salvation. And Paul succinctly summarizes this lament over the fact that the Gentiles were being saved because of their faith in Christ, while his Jews were still lost in their sins over their rejection of God’s righteousness.
Which is why it is so crucial for even you to hear this Word of God and so believe it with everything you have. For what does one receive who seek and follow their own thoughts, ideas and desires? God says in Jeremiah that when one says, “Peace, peace,” where there is no peace, they are placing themselves outside of God’s Truth and Word. For it is arrogance to believe that God still no longer acts as He has in the past. Do you not believe that the trial and travails that we suffer from are not the judgment of God upon a world lost in itself? Do you not understand that, as Paul wrote previously in Romans 8, the creation groans with storms and earthquakes under the tribulation of God toward sin? And do you not see that the death we all fear and will undergo, is because God’s wrath is poured out toward sin in that His beloved creation is doomed to destruction at the hands of our rebellion?
But yet, Paul attests, Christ Jesus is the end of the law which always accuses and the beginning of a righteousness which forgives, saves and redeems. Thus, if you take leave of yourself, turn to God and hold onto His Word as your life, so you will find the very heart of the Father given in Christ Jesus the Son for the redemption of your body, life and soul. That it is here-where God’s Word is preached and taught in it’s truth and purity; where God comes and makes you His very child in the waters of baptism; where your Savior gives of His very body and blood in the bread and wine of the Supper-in which you find the very reason for the tears Christ once shed over Jerusalem.
For, Christ wept over Jerusalem and cleansed the Temple because this was the very week in which the Father’s will would be revealed as He would be hung between the two thieves on Calvary. His lament came precisely because He knew that His death and resurrection would bring an end to Israel’s, and all people’s, captivity to the eternal exile-the exile to the slavery to sin, death and the power of the devil. His indignation over the corruption of His people’s worship was simply built upon His Word that only by faith in Him and His crucifixion, could the world be saved from death, hell and damnation.
And so, Jesus did and still does call a world to repentance to bring about the forgiveness of sins-and the sign of such a thing will soon fill your ears and your mouth with the Body and Blood that was broken and given for you. That He gave up of His life so that you no longer must follow the understandings of this world, but to now live planted and rooted, as the Psalmist sung, in the house of the Lord, flourishing in His courts of righteousness. That He was given to suffer the very wrath and curse of the Father, all so that you might know that regardless of what you and this world might suffer under, there is a time to come, and it is happening even this day, in which all will be created anew for the glory of God the Father.
Thus, learn to hang upon every word which falls from your Redeemer’s mouth this day, and so be forgiven of your sins and be given the promise that you will one day rise triumphant over your death. Know that in Christ, the visitation of God’s eternal grace, love and mercy has come near and now peace-true, heavenly peace-is found only where Christ and all His glory abide. Believe that in this One, given and destroyed upon the cross, was there killing and redeeming you from your sin, all so that you might be brought close to Him and the Father, all in the power of the Holy Spirit, both now and forever. Amen.

August 21, 2011: Isaiah 51:1-6, Psalm 138, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20

2011-08-21T06:55:00.000-05:00

“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

This has been the key question the world has faced from the time it was asked. It is the question that separated Peter as he was apocalypsed from his former life to a life of faith today. It is the question that separated the apostles from those who began holy week calling for Jesus to be made king, but ended with calls for him to be crucified. It is the question that separated 120 to be gathered in a room on that first Pentecost and it is the question that ended with 3000 being added to the church by the end of that day.
For just who is this Jesus? Is He one of the prophets of old, coming to call one to a more devoted religious life, as was thought by the people the disciples encountered? Is He a wise rabbi, a wise teacher that offered practical advice on how to live a more ethical life, as was believed by many just two to three hundred years ago? Or is He an advocate for social justice, calling for equity in the world, as is believed by so many in our own day?
Yet, if we look past the very description of what Christ gives to the 12 on what this Church that He would build upon Peter’s confession today does, one actually ends up missing the true answer to this question. For while Jesus does speak to all those various aspects of belief, this church is finally nothing more, Jesus says, than the fulfillment of what we call the “Office of the Keys”-the place where the binding and loosing of sins is preached, proclaimed and delivered upon this earth. That beyond any sort of thought or idea of Jesus becoming a great, wise, human sage, He reveals today that He is first and foremost, the forgiver, the propitiator, the Redeemer of mankind’s great and eternal captivity to sin, death and damnation.
And so, this Jesus is only rightly understood when it is seen that His entire life was given to be crucified and destroyed upon the cross on that Good Friday. He is only grasped when it is seen that He was given to be condemned and cursed under the wrath of God all the way to death. He is only truly comprehended when it is seen that He was wasted, not for His own, but for the sin which hold you captive all the way to your death, both physical and eternal-that He entered the very depths of hell, being separated from the Father Himself, all so that you might not be lost to Him forever yourself.
Thus is it only the Father, Jesus told Peter, which reveals, which apocalypse’s this to you-then it is only through the wisdom of God Himself that one can gain a true understanding of both Christ and yourself. For it doesn’t take God to offer life-style improvements, nor does it take an act of God for one to see the needs of the world around. But to know and see that one needs to find a forgiveness of their sins, a life from their death and a salvation from their damnation cannot be known or seen or experienced from the world around you, but is only when a Word from God, concerning such things, reaches your ears.
So, “who do you say that I am,” Jesus asked and asks. One must not and finally cannot go anywhere else than to this same confession which fell from Peter’s lips long ago-that Christ Jesus is the very Son of the Living God, the Son which was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified by Pontus Pilate so to suffer sin, death and hell in order to raised from the dead on the third day. That He is the very heart of the Father, given so to forgive you of your sins, raise you from your death and redeem you from hell. He is the righteousness and the salvation Isaiah spoke of, which has gone out from the Father so to now draw you and all the world to Him through the power and work of the Holy Spirit.
And so you must believe unto Him for salvation. Paul described it as the transformation of the renewal of your mind-to be inwardly changed in your complete and utter renunciation of who you are and who you think you might be. It is to no longer look to and in yourself for understanding, but to see and know that salvation is found only when you are not conformed to the things of this world-conformed in the attempts to think that you have any power to redeem yourself. It is to confess that the most you can do in your life is to sin yourself all the way to condemnation; to know that you are a sinner deserving damnation because you have been born under the wrath and penalty of an original sin; to know that, as God said in Isaiah, the earth and all who dwell in it will vanish and wear out like a garment.
But it is also to know, trust and believe that in Christ, and in Christ’s church alone, will you find a Word that declares that yes, you are a sinner and yes, you deserve your death-yet Christ Jesus died and rose to forgive you of those sins and now, you no longer need to be conformed, but have been freed in your salvation for a new life in this world and the next. That it is here that I, a called and ordained minister, have been given the office of the keys to loose the sins of you who are repentant and tired of your captivity, as well as to bind the unrepentant in the desire that they might believe and so be saved. It is here, in Christ’s own church built upon His own death and resurrection, in which the gates of heaven and hell are opened and closed for you as you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for all things.
So, just who is this Jesus? He is the One who bore the wrath of the cross, and who gave up of His very body and blood so that you might be restored and redeemed from sin, death and the power of the devil. He is the One who brings in and gives you your faith, your very forgiveness, life and salvation. He is the One, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who died, who rose and who is coming again soon, so to give to you the very glories of the Father and the Holy Spirit in your eternal life. Amen.

August 14, 2011: Jeremiah 23:16-29, Psalm 26, Romans 8:12-17. Matthew 7:15-27

2011-08-17T10:42:00.001-05:00

“Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

What is it about words, that our Lord Christ Jesus is so emphatic about today? What is it that makes His words, He says, is like a consuming fire; like a hammer that breaks rock at their sounding? What is it that only the one who hears the words coming from His lips and does them that will be able to enter eternal rest and freedom? What makes Him say that only those who are holding firmly to the truth given in Him-the truth of who He is, what He has done and what He desires-will be assured that on the final day that they are a good tree, producing good fruit?
And we ask this because we live in a world where many words come our way each day. That we have words from the TV, from the radio, from our homes and work and all the other people that fill our lives every day. In fact, it seems like words are so common that we now must reduce them to mere letters-we text our days away L-O-Ling and T-N-Xing one another. (That means, laugh out loud and thanks, btw).
But for Jesus, He says that His words, as He illustrates in Jeremiah, are as different as wheat is from straw. His Words actually have power to effect a change in your world; His Words actually fills the soul with sustenance and strength instead of filler and fodder. That when God speaks, it’s like when you say to someone that you love them-God’s Word comes a power in and behind them; they are genuinely doing and giving what they are saying. Thus God said, “let those who dream speak of their dream, but the one who has My Word, speak it faithfully.”
So why is is so critical for the right word be said and heard and believed? That is what God warned the people of Judah, the southern kingdom of the Israelites, today. For even though there were “prophets” announcing that everything was fine and dandy; just because someone comes speaking a words that sounds religious, to be right and true and pious in this world-doesn’t mean it is what God Himself is declaring. Judah found this out when they were sent into exile because of their sin of idolatry and faithlessness.
Hence, only the Word which comes from God and speaks of His will and ways, is profitably unto salvation. For what does it matter-and this is what is was being preached by the false prophets in Jeremiah today-if one follows a word that says that you are okay, that you are good and fit and righteous in following your own heart and desires, if that is not what God actually says over you? What does it matter how much one might LIKE to think they are holy and righteous in who they are, that if God says something different, then what He says is true and you are not?
So one can see why having the right and true of Word is so important, not only for Israel, but also for you as well. For what good does talking and knowing about God, when your problem, isn’t that you’re not well informed, but like Judah, you have built upon the wrong foundation. This is what Saint Paul does today in Romans-that you, being a debtor to your flesh means that you are held in a bondage to your own sinful self and so shackled to suffer death and damnation in yourself. That you are doomed to live by the flesh and are so cursed to suffer the wrath of God over your sin in and by yourself. And not even your good works, thoughts or intentions will free you from this fate-for a bad tree cannot produce good fruit in itself, but will always and forever yield fruit fit for destruction.
Yet, Paul also continues, and gives the Word that Christ Jesus was given, not to help one sell their rotten fruit at the county fair (and we all produce rotten fruit because we are rotten trees fit for damnation), but to come and create you anew as a good tree, able to produce blue ribbon produce. That He was given so to be wasted and cursed by the Father by being hung on a tree so to take onto Himself the wrath and curse that hangs on you. That He was crucified and destroyed unto death and the tomb in order to take the sufferings and condemnation of your own physical and eternal death.
Thus, only where the right and true Word of God fills your ears and lives, are you able to build a house of salvation upon the rock that will not crumble and fall when the wind and waves of death and hell come beating upon you. That only when the Word of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins is preached for you, are you be saved and delivered from the condemnation that your flesh has earned and deserves-because no longer is it you that strives for salvation, but is one found by faith in His victory for you. That only when Christ Jesus, killed and raised for the redemption of your life and soul from sin, death and the devil, is proclaimed in your ears as your only means and hope for life and salvation-then you can truly and forever believe that your God is close at hand and fills your entire life.
So now, close your ears to all the words of this old world, and place them solely upon the solid Rock of ages, the level ground David sang today, of the One who overcame sin, death and the grave in order to forgive, save and redeem you from them. For here is where the Word come from the outstretched arms of your Savior is found; and here is where your forgiveness, life and salvation is given as well-for this is the Word which gives the very heart of the Father in the baptism and holy Supper you rest in. And as you bend and so tune your ear to your One Savior and this one Word of justification and so seek no other way of truth and salvation than of your Lord Jesus Christ-so here alone, are you being saved, redeemed and resurrected to a life of salvation as the very child and heir of God. Amen.

August 7, 2011: Genesis 2:7-17, Psalm 33, Romans 6:19-23, Mark 8:1-9

2011-08-08T12:58:00.000-05:00

“And He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and having given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

If we take another look at what was the very first thing that God does after He creates Adam and a garden in which for him to live, we find God creating for Adam the church, the place in which he was to gather so to worship God. That before He creates the other estates in which mankind lives, the family and the government, God locates where Adam’s worship of his Creator must be placed. And so, God so set forth that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to be the place in which Adam was to set his attention to God in his prayer, praise and thanksgiving.
Now this may be a strange understanding of this tree. Moses tells us that God decreed that eating from it results in death and we know the outcome of Adam and Eve’s sin in chapter 3. We know that this tree ultimately becomes a place of death; the place where God’s wrath at our rebellion to His Word is revealed in its entirety. But finally what more is worship other than the place in which we gather to receive God’s Word by which we respond in our words, prayers and songs? That worship isn’t what we can offer up to God, but is simply giving back our words of thanksgiving for all the things that God has already done for us.
As a result, in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Adam received God’s desire concerning his life in the Garden of Eden. The tree would be where God directed all of Adam’s worship-he would now be at the place where God’s Word was heard and discerned. And if Adam had ultimately not have disobeyed God by eating of the tree, for eternity he would have gathered his procreation there and continue to preach to them that they were not to eat, lest they would die.
Therefore, Luther says that with this tree, God created for Adam an altar in which he was to give to his obedience and recognition to God’s Word and will; that this was the place where he could give thanks and call upon Him for aid against temptation. That Adam did not need to wonder what God’s will was for him, for he could draw to the tree so to see and remember God’s Word already given. And even though God promised that death would be given only if he ate of what God had forbidden, Adam could worship God because he found that with this tree, life was being given to Him by faith alone.
And, you see, these facts are true for you still. For what more does Jesus do in Mark today than what He first did in the Garden? That it was also compassion that God gave Adam the tree as He did to feed the 4000 that had been gathered hearing Jesus for those three days. For one must understand that without a Word from God, we are left in sin. Paul describes this as being a slave to lawlessness; as being held to seek life within one’s own works, ideas and efforts. However, he says, the wages of this sin is death-that what you earn through your own labors is the same as eating from the forbidden tree.
But looks at what happens in Mark. Jesus gave His compassion to the people by giving them somewhere to worship. It was His taking of the bread and fish, giving thanks, breaking and giving them to the people that ends up filling seven baskets worth of leftovers. It was His speaking a word into the midst of their lives that fills them with food in abundance. And so He finally becomes their salvation because they are fed by His gracious will and desire to not see them faint on the way home.
Thus, compassion is found wherever God directs His Word of life toward you-whether it was in a tree in the Garden, a bit of bread and fish in the wilderness or here in this place today. That it is found, not in any effort or decision you can make toward Him-believing that your works, your holiness or even your honest desires earn God’s favor toward you-but only when God looks upon you in His mercy and so forgives your actual, historical, concrete sins which you commit in all your thoughts, words and deeds. That only when you actually find a Word from God that is done to and for you, because as slaves of lawlessness all you can do is evil, will you finally find God’s compassion over you.
So, it is God’s creating a place of worship, creating an altar in which He gives out His word of life that your God gives, that you are directed to draw your hope and faith so receive the life you so desperately need. That wherever you find this Word of God being preached; wherever you the Word is washing you clean from Adam’s sin in the waters of your baptism; wherever you taste the Body and Blood that was given up for you on Calvary in the bread and wine of the Supper-so there you must place all your faith, all your hope, all your sin, death and damnation upon this God who has made you His own, forgiven, saved and redeemed you, in the death and resurrection of the Son, Jesus Christ.
For the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus your Lord. His is a compassion that your sins became His sins and your death, His death-all so that you might be given the forgiveness, life and salvation that He holds as God. He took the wrath of the Father that is given from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that you now might forever eat of the tree of life in His body and blood of the Sacrament. For He endured the death of the wages you earned, so that you might be forever be sustained in the life He holds as the Son. Amen.

July 31, 2011: Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, Romans 6:1-11, Matthew 5:17-26

2011-08-04T10:35:00.000-05:00

“For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Unlike what is and has been taught and preached in the last few decades and years, our Lord Jesus Christ makes it perfectly remembered and noted that the law, expressed so pointedly in the Ten Commandments from Exodus today, is still around and binding upon the world, and particularly, on the people of God. Christ reminds us that He came not to abolish, to get rid of the law of God-the law that, David extolled in the Psalm today, is perfect and sure, right and pure, clean and true and something to be desired more than even fine gold-but that He came to fulfill it, to complete them. That not even an iota or a dot-the smallest aspects of the Hebrew alphabet-will pass from the Law, He says, until all is accomplished.
And He does this in His explanation of the fifth commandment today and continue the same with more of the law further in chapter 5. That, instead of leaving it simply as it had been interpreted over the centuries since God first set them down in stone on Mt. Sinai, Jesus today actually increases the demands of that law-for now even our hatred, our insult, our anger toward another is considered to be murder and a breaking of the 5th commandment by God. That, instead of making the law easier to fulfill, Jesus makes the burden of the law even greater-creating absolutely no wiggle room for anyone to lift up their accomplishments before God.
Moreover, in case we ultimately misses the reason He is here, right after preaching the Beatitudes, ramping up the words and affects of the law, Jesus also finally leaves us with this one admonition to follow-that unless our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. That we must not have anything lying around, unresolved, according the working of the law-lest we be turned over by our accuser to the judge, and the judge to the jailer and the jailer to the prison. And this is something picked up by Paul today as well-that if in baptism our old self has been crucified, then we are not to be enslaved to sin any longer-enslaved to obey its passions, desires and understandings.
So, what are we to do? Because even in the midst of all these great and wonderful words and support concerning the value, efficacy and establishment of the law in God’s world, our Gospel lesson finally points out that we are utterly lacking in our keeping of it. We know that, even though the law should be like honey on our tongues and in keeping them there is great reward, our words and deeds are hardly often the least of our desires. We know that, even if Paul says we are on the other side of the power of sin in our lives, our sin is deeply exposed to be there whenever the law is preached in our ears.
So what does it mean when the reality of our lives, sinful and sinfilled from the moment of conception to the instance of our death, comes up against the word of Christ today that unless our righteousness exceeds, we will never enter the Father’s eternal rest? That unless we pay every penny of our penalty, Jesus tells us, we will never get out of prison-and since the debt we owe to God over the sin we commit, the sin of thought, word and deed, the sin of what we have done and what we have left undone, requires a complete holiness that we are forever unable to hold in ourselves-then are we not left with the conclusion that Jesus’ demands here in Matthew are not only improbably but finally impossible for us?
And yet, it is right there, when you finally look at yourself in the mirror of the law and realize that you can’t walk, run or hide from its work and ways; when you can’t simply dismiss it as though the law no longer is in affect over you anymore-that you begin to find God in all His goodness and mercy toward you. For why does Jesus amplify the law here? Well, what is the essence of the law in the first place? It is finally to condemn you unto yourself. So David tells us that law are true and righteous, bringing out a proper fear of the Lord-a fear that rightly understands that while the law of God are ethical and moral codes to be obeyed, it is also honoring and loving God as our God; to know that He alone holds all that is good and right in Himself.
Thus, as Luther says today, “it is faith that stands next to the fear of God correctly”-that is, only when one turns from themselves and to God for all things, knowing that we need God because we are doomed in ourselves, not only the law but finally the Gospel come to a right understanding. For while Jesus closes the door on any attempt for you to either believe that you can earn God’s favor through your own works or that the law is absent in this life, He is also saying that if you want to find grace, you must learn to look to someone else to give it to you. That, just as the first commandment declares to us that God is our Lord, so it in Christ Jesus as the very Son of God, that you find the law, not being abolished, but actually being fulfilled, done for you and for your forgiveness, life and salvation.
For it was your sins which the law reveals and increases in which Christ Jesus died on the cross, not simply for, but with. That He took the penalty of the Father that you deserve upon Himself-letting it kill and consume Him with the entirety of the Father’s wrath over the sin of His creation. He entered your grave and went into your hell all so that when He was raised over them on the third day, you might be set free from their condemnation so to now live in God’s salvation. And it is your baptism into Him which unites you to His saving work-bestowing to you the Jealous God who shows His steadfast love to those of His own making.
And now, as you have died to the sin that Christ died under, so now, Christ is telling you today, you must no longer be held under the dominion and sway of sin, death and the devil, but that you now live to God-knowing that in Christ, now you can actually begin to enjoy using the law for the goodness of your neighbor. That the demands of the law, while hard and binding on you, can be done in the faith-knowing that while you do not earn God’s favor, through them you express the desire of God for you to live and love one another. That now, as the law was now accomplished for you in the victory of Christ Jesus, you can now respond in the total surrender of yourself to your Redeemer by living only upon a faith that gives itself completely to your neighbor.
Thus the law of the Lord is good and right and holy-for as Christ died under it to fulfill it in you, now by faith you live to God and love to the one sitting next to you. For Christ relocates the law-now as the means of salvation, but as your means of grace and mercy to the world you find around you, filled with all sorts of people. And as the Lord your God, is the Lord YOUR God, so you are now freed to go and love them with all your heart, soul, mind and faith. Amen.

July 24, 2011: 1 Kings 19:9-21, Psalm 16, 1 Peter 3:8-18, Luke 5:1-11

2011-08-04T10:34:00.000-05:00

“And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.’” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

So, what is it that has you afraid? I mean, as you have been called by our Lord Jesus Christ; as you have been brought to faith in the message of the cross delivered to you by one standing in the line of the apostle’s; as faith has been created in you by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word you have heard preached and the sacraments that have washed and fed you-what is it about this Jesus and His Word that has you still living in fear? Was it is about this Jesus and His call unto your life that is so fearsome that you are afraid to take it outside these doors?
Sure, when Christ comes upon and barges into your life like He did to those first disciples we find in Luke today, it can be a rather frightening thing-especially when you begin to examine your life in the contrast of the holiness of God. That is what happened to Peter today-he certainly found the sinfulness of his own nature exposed to the noon-day sun when that miracle catch of fish landed in his boats. He immediately realized that this wasn’t any ordinary preacher that had entered his life-and he knew that sin doesn’t have a leg to stand upon before God and His law.
And, at the same time, it can be rather worrisome to have to stand before a world that despises this God and preach Him unto it. Elijah crumpled under that fear-running away to Horeb all because evil queen Jezebel threatened his life. He even went as far as trying to convince God, twice, that he was the only one left in the world-even after God assured him that he was not alone and that he would be sustained in the midst of wind and lightening and earthquake.
Yet, the one thing that remains the same in all our encounters today, is that God still comes and calls-even in the midst of the sin and fear one might hold in their life. That God doesn’t sit around and wait for you to clean up your life; to get your things in order. He doesn’t wait for you to make the first move; He doesn’t care if you are too young or old or strong or weak. Instead, the opposite is the truth-God’s call to stand up in this world and preach His message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins comes to the most unlikely, unworthy, unremarkable people that might be found-people exactly like Elijah and David; people exactly like Peter and James and John; people exactly like you.
So what it is that you are afraid of today? For you have been called and set apart for salvation by this message of Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of your sins. You have been washed clean of the guilt of your sin in the waters of your baptism and have been fed upon the heavenly banquet in the Body and Blood of the Lord’s Supper. You have redeemed from the original sin that has enslaved and bound you to death and the devil by the work of Christ Jesus dying for sinners, Peter says today in his epistle, the righteous for the unrighteous. You have been justified, made right to the Father all through the grace and peace given in the victory of your Savior over hell and the grave.
And even more than that, you have already walked out into the unknown, surrounded by a world that is hostile to the hope that is in your heart. You have refused to be lured by the promises of this world and have instead confessed your faith to the Word of God that you received and were taught in your youth. You have stood before the powers that be and declared that the desires of this world are not your desires; that the belief’s of this age is not your beliefs.
Thus, Christ’s call to you today is to not be afraid, but to come forth now, and follow Him to the ends of the world. That you are to fear not the bitterness and distain you will encounter-but know that even if there is only 7,000 of God left in this world, the victory has already been won and in the end, nothing will stop God’s will from being done. You are to worry not what other’s might say, but always be prepared to offer up a defense for the Truth you confess, in all gentleness and respect, trusting that God will accomplish all things in and for you. Instead, you are to go forth in joy and confidence, knowing that the very power of God lies in the Word you believe and the faith you have been called to. You are to go forth in this Christ, for, as David once confessed, He is your very portion and cup and in Him, you will not be shaken-for not even the gates of hell can now prevail against Him and His Word.
For the glory of the Father lies in the message of His Son-to know, trust and believe that your sin and your death no longer lies on you to convict us to damnation; and now, as it has been removed from, one can live only in His Word and will. It is to walk along the path of Christ Jesus, even though all the power of hell and the world will attempt to blow you down. That the glory of the Father is to know of no other way, truth or life than that given in the death and resurrection of the Son, the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Amen.

July 17, 2011: Genesis 50:15-21, Psalm 138, Romans 8:18-25, Luke 6:36-42

2011-07-17T09:43:00.001-05:00

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Some rather poignant words from Jesus today. “Judge not,” He says, “lest you be judged.” “Condemn not,” He commands, “and you will not be condemned.” And these are true and right things to hear, know, understand and do, for they are the essence of what it means to live with neighbors close at hand. These are honest words that truly reflect God’s desire for how He wants His creation to live with one another. Thus He exhorts to each of us, to “Be merciful and forgive, because your heavenly Father is merciful and so forgives you.”
And so, as we live in a world where we will be touching elbows with the person next to us, we must learn, sometimes, to bear with the world around us. We must understand ourselves being put in a position where we are to be forgiving and merciful to others, and so “help and support them,” as Luther said in the catechism, “in every physical need.” We are not to outright judge and condemn for what they might do, but “defend them, speak well of them and explain everything in the kindest, most possible way,” Luther continues.
But yet, Jesus also makes an important and proper distinction in this today. For what more does the parable, “can a blind man lead the blind,” mean other than what it exactly says? The blind cannot lead the blind because neither one of them can see, accurately, ahead of them. And the same in found in the parable about the speck and the log-only once one removes the log from their own eye, will they be able to rightly see and remove the speck from the brother’s.
And so, what Jesus also does here, is to refine, exactly, what this life of mercy and forgiveness looks like. And He does this with an interesting word choice in verse 42. For in the Greek, the word hypocrite was also used for an actor wearing a mask, speaking of one who was pretending to be who they were not. It referred to those who were not being honest with who they truly are-that a hypocrite is one that is hiding behind a façade of their true nature.
Therefore when He calls those a hypocrite when they complain about the speck in their brother’s eye, while ignoring the log in their own, Jesus is pointing out that before any of us can make any sort of judgment (whether right or wrongful) of their neighbor, one must remove their own mask; you must lay bare exactly who you are. That the hypocrite isn’t the one who points out the speck in the other’s eye-the speck is certainly there and needs to be removed. But the hypocrite is the one who doesn’t first rightly admit their own circumstances before they confront their brother.
Which makes it true, that while we are absolutely to love one another as ourselves, there is something that we first need to recognize about ourselves. The Apostle Paul rightly points this out-the entire creation, he says, is still groaning under the futilities-the sin, the death, the power and work of the devil-it was subjected to because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve. And even we, he says, are still eagerly waiting for our own redemption, for we are finally waiting for the complete and utter end of our sinful sufferings to be replaced with a glorious resurrected body.
Thus, the forgiveness and mercy Jesus has us do can only be tempered with the right acknowledgement of our own deserving of the judgment and condemnation of God. For how can we rightly see our brother and sister clearly when a log of sin lie in our own eyes? How can we actually give a good measure if we cannot see the emptiness of our own containers? Instead we must we confess of our own failings-removing the mask from our own thoughts of holiness, piety and goodness in ourselves-before we can truly have mercy and forgiveness upon our neighbor.
And what is that true mercy and forgiveness then? Is it to turn a blind eye to the sins of one we love and so endanger their soul before God? If that is true, then Christ died for us to remain in our same situation as we were before we believed. Instead, true mercy is the desire to rightly warn others of their own dangerous sins, not because you are any better, but because you know that Christ died to forgive sinners such as yourself. That the only kind of sinner that can truly forgive another, is one who, like Joseph in Genesis today, realize that because God has shown them mercy already, so then they are able to show mercy as well.
David wrote in the Psalm today, “Though the Lord is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar.” In the midst of confessing our own sin-confessing that we are by nature sinful and unclean, deserving nothing but judgment and condemnation in hell-so are we brought to the right understanding that in Christ’s death and resurrection for sinners, is what true mercy looks like. When you can believe that you don’t deserve forgiveness, but are given it solely by the grace and love of the Father by the shedding of the blood of the Son, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you might know of your salvation-then you are in the place of truly mercifully forgiving your neighbor all because you know that you have already received the same.
And so, do not judge nor condemn one another, because your heavenly Father has placed the judgment of hell on the body of the Son, who was killed under the wrath of our condemnation, so that in His victory over the grave, you are given life eternal. Be merciful, because your heavenly Father has been merciful to you in the giving of His Son for your redemption from the devil. Be forgiving, because your heavenly Father has forgiven you all your sins in and by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Give, for your heavenly Father has given you the very glories of heaven in the Word, in the water of your baptism and in the Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior in the Holy Supper. Amen.

June 19, 2011: Isaiah 6:1-7, Psalm 29, Romans 11:33-36, John 3:1-17

2011-06-22T09:53:00.000-05:00

Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born anew.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

In order for you to be born anew, as Jesus says today, there is only one thing you must do-and that is to have faith, and faith alone. That the only thing that saves you from sin and death is the simple faith that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose for the salvation of sinners-that He was given for the sake of those bound in sin, dead in death and captive to the despair of the devil. That the faith that makes you a new creation is the faith that in this One Man, Christ Jesus, you are and will be forgiven, raised and saved unto eternal life.
And this is important for you to know because at the center of the distinction between that life in the flesh and in the spirit that Jesus spoke of in John today, is the distinction between death and life. For as this distinction is as far apart as the east is from the west, it is a distinction that needs to fully realized. For what is at the heart of the world’s problem isn’t a misspent life, Jesus explains, but a misspent faith. That is what we find with Nicodemus today-it wasn’t that he didn’t believe Jesus was some sort of good religious teacher; he attested that Jesus must be from God because of the signs He performed. But Nicodemus didn’t have faith-he didn’t understand that Jesus’ coming wasn’t merely to perform a few good deeds, but that He was given for something much more. And because of that, he was dead in the spirit because he was living in the flesh.
That is why Jesus told Nicodemus that the story of the bronze snake was a foreshadow of His own work. In Numbers 21, where this story is found, the snakes were the punishment not merely for the Israelite’s sins, but for the sin of refusing to trust in God above all things-to trust that He would see to both their physical and eternal needs during the 40 year trek in the wilderness. And their salvation was found in the giving of God’s grace in the bronze snake-that when they looked to it according to God’s promise, they were healed by faith alone.
And in the same way, Jesus declares today, He was given to the world, not merely to show a new way to live, but to give us a new life. For to be born of the flesh is to be born living and trusting the things of this world. But such a life is marked by our inability to believe beyond that which we can see or experience. For the problem of the flesh is that it can only trust in itself for life-that we are bound to trust in ourselves above all things. And it is from that idolatry that we then end up running to the things of this world, both good and the bad. But that ultimately does no good, for sin, death and the devil still reign over us.
Which is why Jesus told Nicodemus what we really need isn’t merely a reformed life, but to be born completely new. For all the flesh, all this life, can give, Paul says, is destruction-that there is no other word we receive than what is found in the sign of your death. We are in a bondage to sin, death and the devil and cannot escape regardless how good we live. And so, Jesus continued, what needs to be understood is that He wasn’t given to the world to offer a new program or purpose to follow, but He was given to be lifted up like that old bronze snake in the wilderness-calling to all who are perishing from the poison of sin to gaze upon Him for life. That He was given to the world, not to continue it along the same old lines, but to begin something brand new in His death and resurrection.
This is why, Jesus declares, the Father gave the Son in order to be lifted up on the cross for the world. For He was given, not to be a new Moses, giving you a new law to follow so to improve your life, but to take upon Himself sin that was not His and to be killed in a death that is not His-so that in His resurrection He would give His forgiveness, life and salvation to all who believe. That He was given to be wasted by the world, so that in His resurrection this old kingdom would be destroyed and the something new would break onto all those who live by faith alone.
For to be born anew is nothing more than to fall upon the grace of your Triune God-placing your faith in the Son whom the Spirit bears witness to the glory of the Father. That the work of the Trinity is to know that the Father’s only desire is to not see you lost eternally, but to be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. It is to know that the Son was given, not to condemn the world, but to save it; to redeem you back from death and the devil. It is to know that the Holy Spirit is making you clean as Isaiah was with a live coal from the throne of God-bearing witness, in another Word and sign, that in your baptism, in the preached Word, in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, you are born anew by the body and blood of the Savior-born anew to live in faith to your God and now love to your neighbor.
So you are drawn to place our ears, heads and tongues upon the Father who sends the Holy Spirit so that you might hear and so believe that the Son was given to die and rise for your redemption. No more are you left to seek the God whom you can love, for He ensures that He gives Himself to you in the Word and a sign so to that you can believe that in Him, you shall not perish, but have eternal life. And as the Holy Spirit bears witness in you, you can finally look away from yourself and no longer believe what the devil, the world and your sinful self tries to convince of-for you now have a new Word and sign which gives you salvation itself, all built upon the death and resurrection of your Beautiful Savior. Amen.

June 12, 2011: Genesis 11:1-9, Psalm 143, Acts 2:1-24, John 14:22-31

2011-06-12T06:32:00.000-05:00

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

On this Pentecost Day, it needs to be known that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a preacher, and that is wonderful news for you. That the Holy Spirit is a preacher whose sole and only work is to take what He hears, Jesus says, and proclaim it to you. That the work of the Third Person of the Trinity is to take all that which is Christ’s and give it, hand it, over to you that which was won for you.
And this is desparately needed to be known because the facts lies before you that, on your own, you are unable to truly realize and know, not only who God is, but also what He thinks about you. For the truth be told, you can garner very little knowledge about God in yourselves and from this world. For regardless of how grand the Grand Canyon is or how great is the Great Barrier Reef, they are only but signs that there is a Creator, but they tell you nothing about Him.
And beyond that, there is nothing in ourselves that reveals what God is thinking over us because the God we find in the world is, as Luther called Him, an unpreached God. That He is a God who may indeed give many glorious wonders in creation, but He, at times, is also a God that comes across very cruel and seemingly uncaring. That He is the God who allows death, disease and storms ravage and destroy yourself and those whom you love. That He is the God who doesn’t play fairly-the good seem to die young and the criminals live on forever. And so the problem with looking for God in nature and in yourself is that the God that is revealed becomes hardly a God one can place trust in. For who can love with all your heart, soul, mind and strength a God who doesn’t seem able, or more awful, unwilling to do something, anything about the sin and death and pain and destruction in this world?
But of course, in reality, your God is nothing like that. He doesn’t relish, but hates the fact that sin, death and the devil spend all their time, energy and effort convicting and condemning us into despair, pain and sorrow. He is furious that the devil, the world and your sinful self constantly works against you, trying to get you to lose hope, lose love, lose the faith that this is not all there is; that there actaully is forgiveness from sin and life from death.
And so, the only way to find an answer to the unpreached God, is to have the preached God-to be told, directly, that yes indeed, not only does God exist, but He cares for you so much that He refuses to leave you alone to the powers of the world. And so, even though Christ returned to sit at the right hand of the Father, He does not leave you alone to search for Him, but He, as He said in John today, promises then and still now to send you a preacher to take all what is His-His death, His righteousness, His victory-and declare it so that you can believe that He has overcome all the filth of the world for your very sake. Which is why, Jesus tells you today, that He and the Father sends you the Holy Spirit.
For the Holy Spirit’s work since that first Pentecost has been nothing other than to reveal to you just who your God is and what He desires. And He does that by, as Jesus says, bringing to your remembrance all that He has said to you. That His work is to preach the sermon of Christ Jesus-preaching that He, though true God was born of the Virgin Mary, and so suffered under the penalty of sin, was destroyed under the weight of death, and took the condemnation of the devil, so that in His resurrection, “Everyone,” as Peter quoted Joel, “who now calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
And as you hear such a truth, the Holy Spirit succeeds in proving the world wrong by that creating faith in your heart-creating the simple trust in you that can believe, however slightly it is at times, that in Christ’s death and resurrection your sin and all that it does to convict and torment you, has been swallowed up and now you don’t need to look inside yourself for forgiveness. He succeeds by overturning the curse of Babel-causing, through His preaching, for you to learn to look to Christ Jesus alone for your heavenly righteousness, knowing that your death has been abolished because Christ died, rose and ascended into heaven. And He succeeds by and giving and leaving you Christ’s peace, for as you lift your eyes to your Crucified Lord, you can know that the reign and power and destruction of this world’s king is over and done and he has no future.
And so the work of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit is nothing more than that of a Preacher-to give you another Word, another hope, another love to trust in than what this world tries to say and give you. It is to tell you that do not believe that God is remote and uncaring, but is the One whose love for you is so great, He cannot bear to have you lost forever within yourself, so He gave the Son unto your sin and death, so that you might be free and free indeed. It is to guide you into the truth that is Jesus Christ-to place you before the One whose death and resurrection has destroyed the powers of this old world, so moving you from the unpreached God to the preached God-moving you to faith in the One whose work on the cross, as David said in the Psalm, preserves your life and brings your soul out of trouble, for His very sake and salvation. Amen.

June 5, 2011- Ezekiel 36:22-28, Psalm 51, 1 Peter 4:7-14, John 15:26-16:11

2011-06-05T07:03:00.000-05:00

“And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

So what can we say about this promise of the work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus would send upon the world after He would ascend back to the Father? For no doubt, to hear and know that the Holy Spirit was given to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment is a rather frightening proposition. I suppose that is why the end of the world is such a hot topic again these days-sinners certainly wonder and are highly nervous when judgment is spoken about because we know, in our hearts, that on our own, we will not come out on top when it comes down to it.
Thus, when Jesus here promises that the Holy Spirit will function as the Spirit of Truth-convicting the world of just what sin and righteousness is and the nature of the judgment that God will place upon His fallen creation, our palms suddenly start to sweat. For we know that we don’t have a leg to stand upon before the Father. We know that we are not self-controlled and sober-minded, as Peter exhorted us to be today. We know that, as David confessed in the Psalm, that we have done evil in the sight of God; that our bones deserve to be broken because we were brought forth from our mothers in iniquity.
Which, of course, is just our problem when we come right down to it. We are sinners-all of us-and we love and relish and wallow in the filth of our sin as a pig does the mud of his pen. In fact, we are unable not to sin, because we are conceived in the original sin of hating and not wanting God to be our God. We fall prey the very first time the devil ever whispers in our ear the temptation to believe that we will not die, but can be god unto ourselves, knowing what is good and what is evil on our own. And because of this, we are finally born already dead-working our way to our physical death all the while spiritually dead to God in our trespasses and transgressions.
So to fear this conviction of the Holy Spirit is a natural anxiety to hold-for as we know we are sinners, then we must wonder if there is any hope for us in the end. For it is really the death of us to have to say, with David, that it is “against you alone, O God, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” It is our death because as soon as we confess and acknowledge that we are not god and so must simply receive all and everything, we begin to realize that we are as frail and fragile as the next illness, accident or disaster that comes our way.
But yet, you can still take heart, since it is not for your sake, God says today in Ezekiel, that He sends the Holy Spirit to convict the world, but for the sake of His holy name. That is, the Spirit wasn’t sent simply to condemn the world to damnation because of their, because of our, sin, but was given to declare to the world just who is its God, and as thus, just what He desires and has done for His creation. That the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, is sent, even to you still this day, to finally give you a new heart by bearing witness to the work of Jesus Christ so that you can believe it was for you and so be saved unto righteousness
For, as the Holy Spirit convicts the world, the difference between what is judged sin and righteousness, isn’t your good or evil works, isn’t what you have or have not done, but solely is of faith. For the one who falls under the judgment of the Spirit is the ruler of this world-it is the devil who has rejected God in favor of worshipping himself. And sin is that which follows the devil’s path-it is that which refuse to confess Christ Jesus as Lord and thus ends up loving themselves and this world all the way to the grave.
But for you, you who have, as God said in Ezekiel, been elected unto faith by Christ Jesus Himself, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in which to fear-for He has come, not to destroy, but to save all who believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior. That Christ promised to send the Helper for your sake and salvation-for it is He who leads you into all the truth-about you and Christ. And so, as you can finally confess the fact that you, in yourself, are nothing but a sinner unto death and so hate this fact, this reveals that the Holy Spirit has Himself already taken you to the place where you can actually receive Christ as He truly gives Himself-receiving Him as the One who became that sin, who became your sin, so that your death might be destroyed when He rose triumphant over the grave.
And so the Holy Spirit comes in no other way than to witness of Christ Jesus-to make Him, Luther says, your only picture in the heart. He was given by the Father and the Son so to take the Word and convict you of salvation-He places Himself in the Word you hear preached, in the Word you feel run over your head, in the Word you taste on your tongue-so to create you as a redeemed sinner; to place you into the forgiveness, life and salvation of Christ’s death and resurrection. He comes so to convict you of a righteousness that is not your own, but that which is done unto you by the One who was nailed to the cross for your very sake.
So what is there to fear as you witness to the Teacher, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth coming in upon you to convict you this morning? It is God Himself who is at work in making His name to be known as the One who comes so to redeem His people. It is He who is saving you by creating in you a new heart by renewing His steadfast Spirit within you. And it is He, who is convicting you of righteousness, so that you can begin to believe that not sin, not the world, not even death, will be able to overcome the work done for you in your precious Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

May 29, 2011- Isaiah 41:8-14, Psam 116, 2 Timothy 4:1-8, John 16:23-33

2011-06-05T07:02:00.001-05:00

“I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the word you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

So what has been scratching your ears these days? And before you sit and try to defend yourself and seek to convince me and you that you are not falling for what Paul warned Timothy over today, let me tell you, that you are most certainly guilty of letting someone in this world scratch the itching that you have. You have most surely been allowing your ears to be tickled by someone offering to convince you of a truth about who you are or what you might be.
For the truth is that these teachers Paul speaks of, most often come as wolves in sheep clothing-coming in a form that appears to be right and good; in a way that is often missed despite the danger they bring. Because what those teachers seek to do is to lead one astray from the clear and definite Word you have received from God. They attempt to get you to wonder if God has actually said something, over you, about you. They search for a way in which to plant a seed of doubt in your heart of if God is truly faithful, truly caring, truly concerned for you.
Which means that one must understand that it just isn’t false and heretical teaching these teachers might be giving-and which is why even you have allowed such false truths to seep into your ears. For your enemies will often use much more subtle, but no less deadly, attempts to get you to wander off into myths, as Paul calls it. Because it is just as dangerous to begin to believe that your sin is much too great for God to forgive it as it is to doubt the fact that the Bible has nothing to say over moral issues. It is just as fatal to doubt Christ’s victory over the grave as it is to deny His divinity.
So, as a result, the false teachers who have scratched your ears often have sought to find that itch of uncertainty and despair that plagues you this day. For it is very easy to begin to wonder just who you are when all you can see is the ravages and raging of sin in your life. It is so simple to wonder what will become of you when all you feel is the darkness of death inching closer in the sickness, pain and disease you find in your body. It is often very effortless to wonder if you will ever feel and find happiness again because you seem to losing all what you love and care about; because you find yourself all alone in the midst of the crowds.
And so, as Christ promised today, in this world you will have tribulation-you will be under the attack of the devil, the world and your sinful self to tune your ears only to what they are saying. For the hardest thing to believe is what you cannot see or feel for yourself, and your enemies will seek to get you to close your ears to what you hear so to focus on what you find within your members. They will scratch your ears to focus on the fact that, as the Psalmist cried out, all you get out of this life is to be ensnared by death; to be encompassed by the darkness of the grave. They will seek that you will avail your attention to them because when you feel the weight and fear of sin and death in your body, it will become hard to believe any other thing than what you see or feel today.
“But take heart,” Christ Jesus says-for you are not left to your own devices, nor are you responsible for your own future-but He was given, unto this old, fallen, sinful world so that you might overcome it in His death and resurrection. He came from and went back to the Father all in order to give you another Word, another life than that what you find and are given by the world. That, as He promises today, He has overcome the powers of this world so that all, even you, might have another Word whispered in their ear than what you are tempted to believe today.
For why else did Paul warned Timothy to watch out for those false teachers and preachers in the world? For if they held what was best for you, then they wouldn’t be seeking your attention, but would point you to the One who has overcome this world. If they were actually giving you the truth of God, then they would finally point and give you your God. Yet, whenever the teachers of this world speak, they always end up singing the same tune-convincing you that you is all there is; that you might as well live for yourself because there is nothing else beyond your life.
But, as Paul said to Timothy, as for you, you must attune yourself to always hold fast to this Word you have been given from God, EVEN when all other words in the world are speaking a contradictory message. You cannot allow any other word-any word that seeks to convince you that you are too sinful or too fragile or that God’s Word and promise are too weak and ineffective to overcome the power of this world-to get in your way in clinging to the Word of Christ that He has indeed overcome and will win the victory of this old world. That you must not allow the sin that you cannot seem to resist, the sickness that is taking away your health or, especially the philosophy to believe that this is all there is-to take away your hope and faith that believes this sin, death and the devil has no final say over you and that you will be raised on that last day because in Christ Jesus, you already have received the forgiveness, life and salvation of the Father.
For as Christ has surely overcome the world by rising over death, sin and hell, so now you must believe no other Word that what comes from the lips of your Savior. For in no other place, no other Person and no other Word, will you find One who is your Redeemer-it is only, as Isaiah wrote, the Lord your God who holds your right hand; it is only He who has chosen you from the farthest corners to make you His own beloved. And as you are precious in His sight, so now even in the midst of any sin and hell you might be tempted to believe, you can even go to your grave, like Paul could, trusting that your race has already been run and your fight has already been won, because all who live and die in Christ Jesus will receive His crown of righteousness on the day He returns to bring to sight what you must only live, by faith, until that glorious day. Amen.

May 15, 2011- Isaiah 40:25-31, Psalm 147, 1 Peter 2:11-20, John 16:16-22

2011-06-05T07:01:00.004-05:00

"They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

It is a wonder that the disciples fled and hid as they did on Good Friday. It is a wonder that they abandoned and sought their own safety when the Romans and Jews came seeking to crucify the Lord Jesus. It is a wonder that even on Easter Sunday, they still couldn't believe or understand what Christ's work was all about.
For, as John tells us this morning, Jesus had already in fact prepared them for exactly what was about to take place. That He had told them, just hours before He would finally be laid in a grave, that they could be certain that, even though they would no longer see Him, for He would be dead, yet in just a short time, three days in fact, their sorrow would be turned to joy because He would be raised up over and above the tomb. That here in the Upper Room, after He had fed them with His very Body and Blood in the Supper, He prepared them for the fact that His entire work would be fulfilled and revealed as He would be handed over to death in order to rise triumphantly over it.
And so, He tells them that the next three days would be like a woman in labor. That they will be like a woman who is in the midst of giving birth. They will be forced to endure a pain and suffering like that which comes in the mechanics of having a child. But yet, just as parents so intimately know and understand, that at the end of the ordeal, any pain, any suffering, any tribulation that they endured is quickly and immediately forgotten in the midst of the joy of receiving the outcome of their hope and faith.
And so thus, even though they will weep and lament, even while the world would rejoice, He prepared them to understand that when they realized that His death under the curse of sin will bring about forgiveness, life and salvation in His resurrection, their sorrow would be turned to a joy that no one will be able to take away. That when they realized that His death wasn't a mistake, wasn't an act of injustice, but was the means in which the sin of mankind would be destroyed and forgiven, then any of the sadness or hardships they might have to bear, would be forgotten when the grave would be emptied of its prize.
And this isn't so different from your situation these days. For while you most certainly know and believe that Christ Jesus died under the curse of your sins so that they might no longer hang on you, convicting and condemning you that your work in this life has simply earned you eternal damnation in hell. You trust that in your faith, in your baptism into Christ, those sins have already been taken away when they killed Him long ago on Calvary. And you have the hope that when Christ returns on that last day, you will be resurrected to a new life with all who believe eternally.
Yet, just like Jesus promised the disciples on Maundy Thursday, you live upon those truths and promises within a tension. For, like a woman in labor, no matter how great is your hope, in the midst of your life, you live amongst pain, suffering and tribulations. That is what Saint Peter reminds us today, that in the moment you are baptized, you have been killed to this old world and you now reside here as sojourners, as exiles-that you now live in this world as aliens who are not at home. And because of this, you live in a world that seeks only your destruction-you are assured of having to live today, simply by faith alone.
For you have the certainty that no matter how hard you may try, you will grow old and suffer from the ravages of sickness and disease; you will lose to the grave those whom you hold most dear; you will be hated by this world just as much as it hated Him-all because you are in bondage to the sin that will give you death in the end. You have the certainty that the devil, the world and your sinful self will seek to lead you astray by believing that this is all there is; to believe the most you can get out of life is to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die. You have the certainty of being convinced that because you are hopeless, you might as well live to and for and only what you can get or do in this world.
Instead, Jesus calls, you must remember the foundation of your faith-you must hold fast to the fact that He died and rose for your very sake; He conquered sin, death and the devil so free you for His freedom. That while you live waiting for your faith to be fulfilled, you must live refusing to let the world convince you of anything other than what your Savior has promised. You must live in this world as though you do not-you must turn your back on their mores and morals and cling to the fact that nothing of who you are today is who Christ will finally raise to be. You must live with that day of visitation, as Peter calls it, in your heart-living in the holiness of God in the middle of the evil's that are condemned to destruction-knowing that you give witness to the hope of a life beyond the tears and travails of today in the eternal rest Christ died and rose to give to you.
For upon, and only upon, the death and resurrection of your Lord Jesus will you overcome the struggles and sorrows of this old, fallen, dying world-for He alone can and will lift you up, Isaiah sang, upon eagle's wings; only He can give you the strength and stamina to run the race of life all the way to the end of the age. You must live, like Christ prepared His disciples, upon the knowledge that this life and world is not eternal, but that you have the promise that on that last day, you will certainly see the final victory of Christ being given to you in the resurrection of your body and the restoration of paradise. That until that day, when Christ will return to sweep you up unto Him, you must live and die remembering the words of the Psalmist, that it is good to sing praises to our, to your God-all because, Jesus gently reminds, that while "you have sorrow now, I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you." Amen.

May 22, 2011- Isaiah 12:1-6, Psalm 86, Philippians 1:3-11, John 16:1-15

2011-06-05T07:01:00.003-05:00

"I Am the Way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

If Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life which saves and redeems you unto eternal life, then, as Martin Luther said, everything else must be obviously false, can only be a lie and is nothing but death. And if that is true, Luther continues, you must "stay on this road all the way, even though nothing but devil, death and hell where under and before me, it is firmer and safer than any stone or iron structure. Heaven and earth would have to collapse before this road would ever deceive or lead one astray."
And Jesus wants you to know this because you live in a world that is competing for your attention. That you live in an environment in which you are pulled to and fro, each seeking your interest, each offering you everything if only you would give it your worship and devotion. And in this process, you are tempted to begin to believe there is something to be found here; that there is actually something you can achieve and accomplish according to your own strength, reason and desire.
And since it is only in, by and through Christ Jesus that we are given to the Father, then, as Jesus reminded Thomas, apart from Him one can know absolutely nothing about this God. For why else do you think Christ was given to the world? If we could have anyway in which to know, to believe, to reach up to God on our own power, there would be no reason for the Son to become incarnate, be born, suffer and die.
Which means our condition is much worse than we might imagine. When we speak of the sin we have and hold, we aren't simply talking about our minor peccadilloes, but it is the complete and utter rejection of God as our God. Isaiah spoke of this today when he spoke of God being angry at him-angry in the fact that our original sin consists of our refusal to have a God that is above us; to have a God that declares His ways are not ours and His thoughts are not our thoughts. That we are in bondage to ourselves, forever seeking our own way; believing ourselves to be god and so end up trusting our understandings between good and evil; between right and wrong.
But, Jesus says, do not let your hearts be troubled and believe in Him. For He was given to this because of who you are-a sinner condemned to damnation within yourself. He was given to the world so to be nailed by your sins to the cross so to destroy them in His resurrection. And now, as He sings to you the promise that He is the way, truth and life for you to come to the Father, then you are not responsible for trying to find or work or earn your way to Him (not as though you actually can).
Thus, you can and only give yourself over to faith alone to your salvation-it is God Himself who can and does and will save all who confesses Him alone. For it is the Father, as the Psalmist says, who saves and heals and redeems all whom He chooses-and as Paul wrote in Philippians, He who began a good work in you, that is faith, will be certain to complete it on that final day when Christ returns to raise and redeem all who believe unto eternal life in the Father's house. And on that day, you will ask Him for what you need-forgiveness, life and salvation-and it will not be denied to you.
And now, what I say to you all, I will say most earnestly to our young confirmand today. For if there is one last thing I might be able to say to you as your teacher and pastor, I pray that you will not forget what you have learned within these walls. For as you will soon walk out those doors you will walk into a world that will compete for your love, giving you another word than what you have heard here. But you must be your guard and hold fast to this Word of Christ alone and know nothing else-for this Word alone will give you the very heart of God. You must look nowhere else because will find your salvation in no one else other than the One who died and rose for your redemption. He is your only Way, your only Truth and your only Life, and in Him and by Him and because of Him you will be given life and it eternal and abundant. You must avail yourself only here in this place, because only here you will be fed upon the very Body and Blood of the One, your Savior, who suffered death and hell for three short days, all so that you might be saved today and for eternity. Amen.

May 8, 2011: Ezekiel 34:11-16, Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:21-25, John 10:11-18

2011-06-05T06:59:00.000-05:00

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cups overflows." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

There are two things, our Holy and inspired Scriptures tell us this morning, in which you are to be certain of in this life. For on the one hand, you can be sure that you will sit at a table, like David poetically sings in the Psalm, at which your enemies are present. That you will be forced to eat a meal with a world that is not out for your welfare; with a world that does not seek your benefit or cares for your best. But yet, even in the midst of that, the other truth is that you have been sought and claimed and redeemed by a Shepherd who loves you to death. That you are fortified with the promise that nothing-not sin, not death, not the devil-will be able to forever destroy you because Christ, Saint Peter tells us, bore your sins in His body so that in His wounds, you will be returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
And so we are told today in John's Gospel, that the reality of life is that you have been beset by a wolf, the devil, who seeks to destroy you unto eternity. That the wolf is someone who cares nothing for you and nothing for your well-being. And added onto that fact, there are hirelings, who are supposed to be keeping watch and protecting the sheep, who, in fact, care nothing for you, fleeing and abandoning you alone at the first sign of trouble and struggle-leaving you to fend for yourself in the midst of the darkness of the valley.
And as this happens, you so find yourself in a precarious situation. For if you are left with trying to protect yourself from the wolf's lying seductions al alone, then you will be at his complete mercy-for a sinner cannot defend the sin that befalls them. In other words, when you are left alone, fighting the devil's fang yourself, you are not secured against the temptations and the suggestions that you are helpless and hopeless and because you keep messing it all up, then God can't surely love or forgive you. That if not even the hirelings will seek to protect you from these attacks, then what chance do you have since your sinful self works against you in every which way and every such day?
Thus it is true that you will spend your entire life sitting at the table with your enemies close at hand. And no amount of wishing, hoping or good cheer can change this-in fact, the older you become, the more you will learn to know your enemies who seek for you to lose hope and to lose the belief that there will or can be anything good or healthy or happy in your world. The more time you spend at the table, the more you will be tempted to judge the darkness of the valley is the only and final result and condition of your life.
And so, to be protected and to overcome the attacks of this wolf, what you need isn't some life principals to apply, some pious platitudes to do, and especially not some watered-down, do easy, gospel to hear-but to be given the only Shepherd who actually laid down His life so to save His sheep from the mouth of the devil. What you need isn't to try to make it easier to overcome your own faults and failures; to make give you a "chipper" view of the matter at hand-but to be given the news that Christ Jesus, crucified and raised, and in your living in Him by faith alone, is the only manner in which you will be saved.
Because Christ Jesus was given unto this world for such a thing and for such a person as you. Even though He held no sin in Himself, He was yet given so to be found with your sin in His body, letting it kill Him all the way to the grave. That He, as the Good Shepherd, cannot and will not leave you to fend for yourself in the midst of the wilderness, for His only concern is that of His sheep. And so, as He said in John, He did nothing else than to lay down His life, for you, all of His own accord-He went the way of hell so to redeem those who are of His fold.
Which is why, St. Peter exhorts, for you to follow the example of your Lord Jesus. You cannot let the devil, the world or even your sinful self play their old, broken record in your conscience, getting you to believe that God's Word and love doesn't matter for you and so you should give into what might sound to be right, true and good. But, looking to Christ as the Overseer of your soul, you must learn to trust no other Word than what you have received from Him. You must know that your Shepherd has not sought and saved you simply in order for you to be lost in the same, old valley of sin and death, but to be brought forth to feed upon the rich and good pastures of life, holiness and salvation.
So now, listen to the voice of your true Shepherd and live in His call alone-leaving everything behind and placing your faith, hope and love on the One who died and rose to snatch you from the jaws of the wolf who comes only to kill and maim. Know this Lord, Jesus Christ, alone has won for you the victory in which you will be redeemed and restored to the glory of the Father. Follow only this One, who let Himself be devoured by the enemies at your table, so to destroy them as He was raised three days later from the dead. Walk after your Shepherd who leads you to the sweet waters and lush hills of the true and righteous Word that will give you eternal life. Amen.

May 1, 2011: "Grave Breath"; Acts 5:29-42, Psalm 148, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

2011-04-28T15:39:00.001-05:00

"And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

There must be nothing more sweet in the world than grave breath. You know what I mean. We all have smelled and experienced morning breath-we have all been on the giving and receiving side of nearly knocking someone over with what comes from our mouth when we wake up. But here, on the very night in which Christ Jesus was raised from the dead, as He bestows "peace," the absolution of sin upon those who betrayed, denied and forsook Him in His hour of need-Jesus, we are told, breathes on the disciples, gathered in fear behind locked doors, with the sweet scent of His grave breath.
How do we know it must have been a sweet scent? Well, what did He give as He breathed on them? "Receive the Holy Spirit," Jesus said, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." And not even the unbelief of Thomas a week later could take away the sweetness of Jesus' grave breath. The same "Peace" that flowed from His lips a week before, also met this one who would not believe the dead could rise from the grave.
Thus, as He breathed on those men who, just days before fled as fast and far from Him as they could, Jesus declared to them that they had nothing to fear, for He had returned, not to exact vengeance, but to bestow the forgiveness of their sins upon them. That His resurrection from the grave wasn't in order to get back at those, and a world, who had rejected and killed Him, but so to bring about the end of sin and death and the beginning of forgiveness, life and salvation. That, as the One who had been raised triumphantly over the devil and hell gave them His peace, Christ was giving them the sweet breath of the Holy Spirit-the sweet declaration and assurance that in and through Him and with His death, so now all creation is restored under the banner of faith.
And so it is with everyone who has been met with the sweet grave breath of the Lord Jesus. For, as Saint Peter wrote in his epistle, Christ's death and resurrection was so to give us a living hope; an inheritance unto eternal life, imperishable, undefiled and unfading. That the word of "Peace" which Jesus spoke to His frightened disciples are still spoken and still given to drive out all fear of sin, death and the devil from the hearts of all beset by worry, doubt and sin.
Which means now you, you who are neck deep in the bondage of a life that you want to get out of, but which have not the power to do so-the moment of Christ's resurrection was the moment that you have been given freedom. You've been given freedom from a life that no longer needs to be held captive to a sin you've battled for years. You've been given freedom from your death in the news that the grave cannot hold those who now live in Christ. You've been delivered from your damnation because the devil's hold on your life was destroyed on that third day.
For, just as Gamaliel advised, as Jesus breathed out upon His disciples the Holy Spirit, so now nothing will be able to stop Him from saving and redeeming all those, and that means you, whom He was crucified and raised for. It was your sin in which He was killed with and it was your death in which He was raised from-and they now have no place in which to convict and condemn you in your conscience. That even in the midst of the sin, death and temptations you still struggle under and over with, you must learn to know that the wounds of Christ, the Body and Blood which He broke and gives, has already and will indeed overcome them all.
So, inhale deeply the breath of your Lord Jesus this morning; inhale the Holy Spirit as He is given in this Word you have heard preached and in the Supper you are to eat. Inhale the sweet news that your Lord Jesus has went the way of death and hell so that you might know and be given the glories of the heavenly realms. Inhale the sweet grave breath of your Savior, and know that now nothing, in heaven or on earth, is able to separate you from His victory on Easter Day. Amen.

April 24, 2011: Job 19:23-27, Psalm 118, 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Mark 16:1-8

2011-04-26T15:53:00.001-05:00

"And he said to them, 'Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here.'" Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

If, if, as this young man told the women in the dim light of sunrise, the Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified is no longer in the tomb where He was laid; if this Jesus who was placed in that grave as dead as any other person whose life was snuffed out; if this One who was shut up in crypt with a stone rolled in front of the entrance is no longer there, no longer dead, no longer captive-then it means that everything has been overthrown and now nothing, nothing in heaven or on earth, can stay or be or remain the same.
And since that is true, one can understand why the women at the tomb that first Easter morning were trembling and astonished and why they ran, Mark tells us, and said nothing to anyone. One can appreciate the utter fear and confusion coming across from these women. For before they were met with the reality of the empty grave, they only knew one way of life-that when it ends, it remains that way. And while that is not a joyous event; even though death brings with it sorrow and tears, at least death is a constant; at least it is reliable and expected and one can prepare for it.
However, as they were informed that first Easter morn, they began to realize that if the grave no longer held what it received three days before, then nothing ever could be same. They began to understand that their entire world-everything they had every said, done or believed; everything they had ever understood or comprehended-had been turned upside down. They began to realize if the dead do not remain dead; if the grave no longer has the final word over the matter of life-then this world has no voice over the matter as well; that death does not have the final world any longer.
Thus, when it comes to you, everything too has changed. For as you only receive death and hell from this old world, so in the new Kingdom Christ began in His resurrection, you too are left with a completely new reality and life in which to live. No more are you left to your own immortality project; in your trying to preserve and defend your legacy so that you are not forgotten when death knocks at your door. But you are left with, if you are to know true life, only holding fast to the words of that angel at the tomb and so know that He is risen and is far gone from the grave. Paul described this today in 1 Corinthians as tossing out the leaven of your former life.
But it also means there is finally no eternal truth to be found in the old world. For if life is no longer predictable; if death and taxes are not the only constants-then everything we have put into this life is no longer eternal either. It means that everything we have tried to make of this world and life-from the toys we fill our lives with, to the excuses we give for our faults and failures, to the sin we either try to cover up or seek to condemn ourselves with-are not the only and last things of life. However, if death and the grave are no longer the final word over what we make of our lives, then you are no longer bound forever to them-but their hold on you have been defeated.
Because, as the resurrection of Christ Jesus is the complete end of the old and the utter beginning of something new, so it is the end of the world as you know it and the start of the very Kingdom of God. For as the wages of sin, St. Paul writes in Romans, is death-so when Christ walked out of that tomb (for remember, the angel told the women that He was not there), sin and death have been defeated and the power of the devil has been broken because now the plague of mankind has been destroyed. This means that sin can no longer be the only life you know, for you are given the Spirit of the One who has already swallowed it in His resurrection. That the devil's control over your life has been removed because a Stronger Man has come into your house, your life, and has freed you from his tyranny. That even the grave will be unable to contain its bounty, you, forever, because it's stone has been rolled away in Christ's victory over it.
So the time of fear and foreboding is indeed over-Christ has gone before and on ahead of you and all that is before you, is the life He gives for you to live in faith, mercy and grace. No more can you let sin and sorrow grow, for in your baptism you have been filled with a new leaven-for your sin that placed Christ in that grave, now has no place to condemn and use you since He walked out and left it behind. And as your Redeemer now lives, so now the gate of the Lord is open for all who live by faith in Christ Jesus alone. For as the stone has been rolled away, so you can now see that there is nothing of this old, fallen and damned world that matters anymore and all there is left is to give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and His steadfast love will endure now forever. Amen.

April 17, 2011-Palm Sunday: Zechariah 9:9-12, Psalm 31, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 21:1-9, Matthew 27:27-44

2011-04-19T08:34:00.002-05:00

"And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand. And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Quite a strange King this is. King's are supposed to be high and mighty; to be exalted and lifted up; to be honored and revered, respected and venerated. A king is one of power; ushered in upon the world in glory and majesty. A king is to be feared and adulated; treated with utter adoration lest one falls under his wrath.
But what a strange King this is. We find Him riding into His kingdom, carried not in a carriage or riding a white horse, but coming in the most obscure, humble and plain way-through a mother who laid Him in a manger; on the back of a donkey, with a colt by His side. We find His path being strewn, not with roses and silks, but with coats and braches. We find Him, not hailed as a conquering hero and adored monarch, but being mocked and whipped and spit upon; we find Him receiving thorns for a crown and a cross for a throne. And we find Him doing and receiving all these things without a word of complaint; without a word of refusal.
So what a strange King this is. This is a King who went the way of shame, of disgrace, of rejection, rebellion and renunciation, and who did it all willingly, even knowingly. This is a King who bore the nails of the cross and the taunts of the crowd and did not raise His objection. This is the King who even cried out the fact of the Father's forsaking Him, yet who did not flinch at the thought as He was placed in hell. This is the King who, for the first time in His life, took the exaltation of His rule as He was lifted high upon Golgotha.
Therefore, receive Him, this your strange King. For He is the King who went the narrow road, not for His sake, but yours. He is the King who, as Paul sung in Philippians today, refused being the Son as something to be exploited, to be used for His gain, but finally to use it for you-to use it so that when the devil convicted Him with sin, death itself would not be able to hold Him longer than He allowed, for death had no real power over the One who held no sin of His own. He is the King who has taken you out the net of hell that ensnared you, so that you might be given the golden city of heaven. He is the King, He is your King, who gave up of His body and blood upon Calvary so that you might be set free, now and forever, from the pit of sin and death in the death He died and the resurrection He rose.
Quite a strange King this is. Amen.

April 13, 2011: Psalm 130, Mark 15:33-47

2011-04-19T08:33:00.000-05:00

"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice!" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Out of the depths. Revealing phrase by our Psalmist this evening. It is indeed revealing, considering that this Psalm, the Bible tells us, is a "song of Ascents"-a song of one who is looking, heading, desiring to be up, to go up, to rise up out of their current position. It is a phrase that denotes a need; an earnest necessity to be saved, to be recovered, to be redeemed from an abyss that is too great for you to overcome; too great to climb out of alone.
And so, it is a phrase that admits complete and utter helplessness on one's account. It is an admission that there is nothing on your own that you can do to relieve yourself from your current situation. Thus, as the psalmist confesses tonight, if the Lord would mark, would count our iniquities, our sins and transgressions against us, we would be unable to stand, unable to even take to our knees, because then we would actually see the depths to which our sins have sunk us into. That if the full extent to the vile and putridness of our sin was laid bare before us, we would actually know just how lost, condemned and deep we truly are.
So, we are left, as we confessed tonight, to wait-to wait for someone else, someone greater, someone stronger to rescue us from the depths of the pit we are captive in and to. We are left waiting like a watchman for the morning-waiting for the first light of the dawn of our redemption to break over the horizon; waiting so to be able to see, not only the depths of our helplessness, but also for the hope, for the One in which we can actually wait in faithful expectation. We are left waiting, neck deep in the mire of our own sin and death, to hear the coming of our Savior, coming to raise us up out of our eternal tomb.
Which is why, as our 40 days of Lent is wrapping up on us, we are finally and constantly drawn this familiar story from Mark again. For as we find Christ Jesus being betrayed, denied, beaten, cursed and deserted upon the cross of Calvary, we find the One who also died being forsaken and abandoned by God the Father Himself; One who has actually experienced the eternal darkness of hell. Yet beyond just the sadness and horror of this scene, we are also drawn to Christ and Him crucified for the simply reason because here we find our eternal salvation.
For as Christ cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" so we hear the words of the One who was thrust down into our depths, so that, even as He was attested to be dead 3 times tonight, He might be raised for our redemption. That death didn't catch Christ unexpectantly-but, as Mark tells us in verse 37, He gave up His breath at the end; He gave of Himself to be plunged into the darkness of the sealed tomb all for you.
Thus, it is in Christ, alone, that you must wait and hope upon-for as you believe upon Him, so the depths of your death are shattered, freeing you from your prison to live in the light of His resurrection. No longer does sin, death and the devil have possession of you, for as Christ Jesus truly was dead, so now are they wrapped up into the One in whom no sin, but your own, was found. And now, all those who are baptized into Him, have been baptized in His victory over the grave and hell and have been lifted out of the depth of darkness and placed onto the solid rock of forgiveness, life and salvation. Amen.

April 6, 2011: Psalm 102, Luke 23:32-49

2011-04-19T08:32:00.000-05:00

"I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse." Grace and peace to you From God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

The Psalm we read tonight has a superscription attached to it in the Bible. It says that this Psalm, written anonymously, is "A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord." And as we read of Christ Jesus being nailed, hung and dying between 2 thieves and before a condemning world, so the words of this Psalm were fulfilled in Him-and thus giving us a bit of hope in the midst of our sin.
For there is no contrary truth-the only reason we all will one day enter in our graves is because death is the wrath, the penalty of God at sin. And our Psalm of penitence tonight speaks to that only too well. For why else, does he confess, that he needs mercy, needs God to incline His ear to him, other than the fact that he knows he is wasting away because his sin has turned him into who one is a alone, like an owl in the wilderness? Why else does he confess in verse 26, that the fate of man is that we perish; that we all wear out like a garment, because he knows our body of sin is unable to withstand the sands of time?
Thus we are met with the barest of all truths this evening. We are those whose days, the Psalmist cries, are like an evening shadow and we wither away like grass simply because our bodies of sin are in bondage to a death that the devil wields so vicious and unrelentingly. We are those who have our fill of the bread of ashes and drink of tears over knowledge of seeing how our sins have separated us from our Creator. That we are exactly, regardless of how old we might be or how nice we are or how many good works we have done, what that second thieve on the cross called himself-deserving of our death because in it, we receive the just rewards of a life spent.
Yet, as we find Him in Luke tonight, it is for such a person and reason as you that Christ Jesus was hung between two thieves and before a world that taunted and derided Him. For as that sparrow the Psalmist spoke of tonight, so He was placed high above the world so that all who might look, could see the One who-though abandoned by all, though rejected by all-refused to do nothing but to forgive the world of their sin, even though it was the world's sin that placed Him on that cross in the first place.
And as Christ Jesus committed His life unto the Father, so He committed to Him the work of this death. For His life was simply for your sake-His death was your death; it was your sin which became His sin in which the Father poured out His wrath upon. As He hung there, mocked and scoffed over by a world, Jew and Gentile, that would not receive Him, He had you on His heart-for He knew that this is the only way, as He fulfilled the Psalm, that you would dwell secure and be established forever into life eternal. For only as He, not deserving death, would die, so His resurrection would prepare the way for those not deserving life.
And now, even in the midst of the sorrow over your sin; even in the fear of the grave that is held over your head; even in the midst of your confessing that you have earned and do deserve nothing but the wrath of God and terrors of hell because of your idolatrous rebellion-you can also know that another Word has been spoken over you; a Word that speaks of a mercy, grace and love given to you solely on account of your Savior. For in Him, so you find the One who looked down upon His throne, so to reach out with His pierced hands to those who live in a repentance that desires to know nothing but His mercy. Amen.

April 3, 2011: Exodus 16:2-21, Psalm 132:8-12, 1 Corinthians 10:1-5, 14-17, John 6:1-15

2011-04-19T08:31:00.001-05:00

“Jesus then took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Not much to go upon, is there? I mean, there was no flash of lightening; no thunderous voice from heaven; no grand entrance of the divine. There is no yellow brick road to follow, no grand adventure to embark upon, no treasure map where X marks the spot. And there will be no mountain to climb, no river to cross, no secret of life you must learn from the wizard of oz.
No-you are left with nothing but a Word spoken, a bit of water poured over the head and a morsel of bread and a sip of wine on the tongue. That’s all you’re given; that’s all you will have to go on. There is no other way that heaven is opened for you; there is no other means to gain paradise. For your God comes to you in the weakest, most benign means possible-coming to you where you are not looking for Him, where you least expect Him.
And He must come this way because your problem isn’t that you just haven’t done or applied yourself enough, as though the law was the means in which you are saved. No, your problem is the one described by Moses today-that even though you have heard and seen the work of God all these years, yet like those in the wilderness, it takes very little before doubt and worry fills your eyes and heart.
That is what it means when John said Jesus knew exactly what He was going to do with this crowd. For Jesus knew that the food they needed couldn't be found or bought. He understood that the food of this food, while satisfying the belly, does not last forever, but perishes. Thus, our problem isn’t that we haven’t eaten enough, but that there is nothing we can truly prepare-for the food we can eat cannot save us from our death-and the dead have no means to find their way out of the grave.
Which is why, God told Moses to gather the people together-for they needed to be shown it is His work alone to save, sustain and redeem those of His own choosing. That the only way for you to be fed is for God to come to you, to give Himself to you-He must come and do salvation, to do forgiveness unto you. He must come outside of you so to liberate you from your eternal wandering in the wilderness of your sin and death. That He must come, like He did the Israelites in Exodus, so to give you the food that does not simply fills your belly but which actually fulfills your hunger.
And so He comes to you where you are not looking for Him so that you might learn to know God as your Redeemer-to know Him as the One who has done all things for your redemption-going the way of the cross and grave so to take you back from sin, death and the devil. That He comes as Jesus came today in John, refusing to leave you to yourself to perish, but has chosen you like He did Zion, as the Psalmist sung-so to bless and satisfy you with provisions and bread.
Thus your Savior comes to you today as a Word spoken and preached-a Word that reveals your sin of adultery and idolatry to the things of this world so that you might finally hear the power of the Gospel-that God acted in Christ so to save you from death and damnation. He comes in the water of your baptism, killing you dead in your sin so to raise you to life by taking and placing you in Christ. And He comes as He once did to over 5,000 people in a deserted place, feeding you on the bread and the wine, giving you the body and blood which satisfies your eternal hunger.
And even if reason tells you differently; even if your life is threatened; even if the world tries to give you another food-you must pay no heed, for you have a Lord who has given His very Supper. And as you feast upon Him today, you must taste, grasp, and believe that the promises of God is still yours by faith. For you have heard this Word, His Word and now no devil, no world, even no death can tear you from Christ your Savior. You are the reason and purpose of why He came to be born of the Virgin Mary, to suffer, to die, to be buried and then to be raised on the third day. For He is your true Bread of Life, given in order that you may have the strength to journey these 40 days and 40 nights of your life.
Let us pray then, in the words of Luther, “This bread is our Lord Jesus Christ, who feeds and comforts the soul. Therefore, O heavenly Father, grant grace that the life, words, deeds and suffering of Christ be preached, made known, and preserved for us and all the world. Help that we may find in His words and deeds an effective example and mirror of all virtues for every phase of life. Help that we may be strengthened and comforted in suffering and adversity in and through His suffering and cross. Help us through His death to overcome our own death with a firm faith and thus boldly follow our beloved Guide into the life beyond this one.” Amen.

March 30, 2011: Psalm 32, John 19;1-16

2011-04-18T18:12:00.000-05:00

"He said to Jesus, 'Where are you from?' But Jesus gave him no answer." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

What finally, as David confessed tonight, can one say before the Lord? What can anyone offer in the end, for an excuse to God? For no one is blessed before God, David said, unless they have their sins and transgressions forgiven them. That there is none who can stand before their God and offer up a life of complete love and faith. That there is no one who can claim to have no iniquity or deceit that has separated them from their Creator.
Which means at the end of the day, there is no one, not you, not me, not even David, who can stand before God and declare we have nothing in which to atone over. David confessed his bones wasted away and strength dried up because he had nothing to defend himself with for his lack of faith toward God. He admitted he deserved nothing from his God because, regardless of any goodness and compassion he might have done, he realized that his sin, that all sin, is nothing less than a refusal to have this God as your God.
Therefore, left to ourselves, we are in a quandary-in need of forgiveness, yet without a leg to stand upon. We are at a place where wisdom and counsel is needed, yet are led around like a horse or mule by the bit and bridle of slavery to sin, death and the devil. Which makes our situation so very critical-for as the sands of time slip through our fingers faster every day, so we all know that the reality of our sin will soon catch us in a grave that will hold us captive forever.
But yet, even as David knew something more about His God other than His wrath, so even you are not ultimately left without hope. For as "This One," an old Lutheran theologian once remarked, "who spoke enough to fill up the 66 books of Scripture, refused to speak a word toward His defense," so He remained silent to endure the suffering that the cry of your sins inflicts upon you.
And so David at last was able to cry out to the God whom he had transgressed against so grievously. For even in the midst of knowing just how great his sin was, he also knew that this God had promised to forgive those who do repent. Not that David knew God had to do such-but he understood that God would finally go the very way of death and the grave in order to redeem back His beloved creation. He understood, as he had been told by God Himself, that the One who would come from his own flesh, would be given up for his, and your, sake.
Which is why Christ refused to defend Himself before Pilate-the authority to offer Him up, Jesus said, was given only because the death of the Son would finally be the death of sin and hell itself. He remained silent because He knew that the silence of your graves was what He had been given to break. That the cross He was soon to bear wasn't a mistake in His life-but was the very center of all of what God had been doing from the moment mankind fell dead under sin in the Garden.
And as you find yourself burdened under the weight of your sins and transgressions; under the fear and sorrow of death; under the arrows of temptations to despair from the devil, so you must not keep silent but must confess to the God who was crucified with your sin and who rose over the grave of your death. For in Christ's death and resurrection, the wrath of sin and death has been removed-removed all because the Son bore the curse for you, so that you might be given His life and salvation. He was delivered over to this world so that you might no longer be lost and condemned to hell-ensuring that you may know, as David could finally sing, of the steadfast love that surrounds all those who trust in the Lord. Amen.

March 27, 2011: Exodus 8:16-21, Psalm 136:1-16, 1 John 3, Luke 11:14-28

2011-04-18T18:11:00.000-05:00

"But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

What are we to make of this miracle of Jesus we find in Luke today? I mean, what are we to make of the fact that this exorcism was met with such scorn and doubt?
Well, for one thing, we are told by Jesus that this act in Luke wasn't simply preserved to acknowledge that He had some miraculous power as He abided upon this earth. If that was so, then the error that John was speaking about in his epistle today would have been true. And those who accused Jesus of driving out the devil by the devil's own hand would be affirmed.
For if Jesus was merely a miracle worker, then His work ultimately would have counted and amounted to nothing at all. Since, as we find in Exodus and attested in Luke, miracles were, during this time, a dime a dozen-Moses and Jesus weren't the only show in town during their time. And, as John stated and Jesus pointed out, just as a kingdom cannot stand divided against itself, so the exorcism Jesus accomplished had to have been something much more than a neat trick. Which means, that something else was taking place?
And we begin to see this with this illustration Jesus used about the strong man. If, He says, one meets in a battle, one who is an equal, then the task of defeating them becomes much more difficult. And even if that is successful, freedom isn't ultimately secure, because the deposed will return with seven more and the last state will be worse, Jesus says, than the first.
However, if the one guarding the door meets one who is greater, then he is defeated and not able to enter back in. And even if one returns, if the door is stoutly defended and secured, not even the powers of hell will be able to prevail. For that reason then, the power that Jesus was yielding wasn't from or even on par with that of this world, but, as He declared, was actually the finger of God ushering in His Kingdom of forgiveness, life and salvation. And so, as God declared He would now separate the Israelites in Goshen from the Egyptians starting with the plague of flies, so too, when Jesus delivered this man from the demon which made him mute, it was nothing less than the Kingdom of God coming near to him.
And now, as those who have been freed by the finger of God, the kingdom of God has come near"-so even as you today acknowledge that this same God who choose Israel over Egypt, also frees all from the captivity of the strong man, then you too find yourself caught up in this Kingdom of God which, not simply gives you an encouraging word, but actually delivers you, releases you from your slavery to sin, death and the devil.
Because salvation, as John proclaimed, will be found only in the One you find coming to you today in the body and blood which He gave up on the night He was betrayed. For on your own, in yourself, you are and have nothing solid to stand upon. That you are unable to defeat the man at your door, because in your sin, you have become weak unto death-and in death, does the devil reign in victory. That no matter how well you might believe you are on your way to a greater life, when death comes to your door, your final state will be worse than anything you ever experienced in this life.
But if God, in Christ Jesus, has been seeking and saving His people from the moment they fell in the Garden, then His coming is for a greater freedom than what you can find here on earth. Because Jesus was handed over to the world and bore the nails and spear of the cross, all for the sins, not only those of old, but for even yours today. He took to the tomb, all so that He might bring you through them in His resurrection and triumph on that third day. And as the wrath of God at the sin of His creation was consumed in His body and blood, so now He has overcome all things and calls you to find your hope only in Him.
Thus, "Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it"-blessed are those who now take their place firmly in the house of the One who is holier than sin and stronger than death. That Christ Jesus is that stronger man who has come upon you and delivered you from your captivity. And all God is seeking from you alone is faith-calling you to a repentance of falling to your knees and confessing that you are lost and alone, without a hope in the world. It is a call to be done to and with yourself-to stop seeking to live according to who you are, but to start living by faith. It is a call to live by hearing what His death and resurrection says over you-to know that as all this world has is a worse state at the end, so only a life turned away from it and onto God's Word, will you find yourself not against and scattered, but gathered to and with the Lord, whose steadfast love does indeed endure forever. Amen.

March 20, 2011: Genesis 32:22-32, Psalm 121, Romans 5:1-11, Matthew 15:21-28

2011-04-18T18:09:00.002-05:00

"She said, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

What a way Jesus responded and treated this woman today. I mean, here was this woman, an outcast living on the fringes of society, seeking out the only One she believed could save her daughter. However, Matthew tells us, He spends most of the time blowing her off-ignoring her for the longest time, until finally the disciples get tired and try to get Him to be rid of her. But even then, Jesus is still rather nasty. “I was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel,” He said, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
Yet still, this woman wouldn't be deterred. She heard and knew that He wasn’t just a healer, but something more. If her faith in Him were only on that level, she would have left already. But no, she knew. She knew there was more to Jesus than He was letting on. And so, she wouldn’t stop, she wouldn’t be put-off by His remark. She continues fighting, calling, demanding that He give her what she believed He would. And so refusing to not stop until she received what she needed, she answered Jesus’ rebuff with this a bold, even brazen statement that “Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the crumbs that fall.”
And there it is. In the midst of her struggle, of her trouble, of her denial from every aspect of society, the faith that had already captured her breaks forth and she lets it burst out all over the place. Luther says that here she "catches Christ with His own words and so wins not only the right of a dog, but ultimately also that of the children." For she knows that she doesn’t deserve anything from this Him; she knows her daughter had no right to demand something of Him. Yet she still knew and believed that even gentiles need a God, and this One had come claiming to bring the Kingdom of God. And so she catches Jesus in His own words, and what we find is that He is so happy to be caught, and so gives to her the healing she needed for her daughter.
And so it is for you. For I know why there is only one reason why you have come here today. For you know who are you-there is no need to extol too much. As Paul points out in Romans, you know that the ungodly deserve nothing in return for their actions. You know the sin in which consumes your life and have left you forfeiting any right to be of God. Like the woman in Matthew today, you have been separated and cast off from your God because of the sin you were born in, live in and will finally die in. And you know this, even better than I can describe.
Which is why you have come here today, for you heard that One who even died for the ungodly comes with a word of forgiveness on His lips. You have come searching for a Word to be spoken over the hopeless and helplessness of your impending death. You come, not relying upon yourself, your holiness, your piety, or even your own free will-you know that gets you nowhere with this God-not even Jacob went away in Genesis without a limp for his struggles.
But you also come, ready to push, to prod, to wring a word of Good News to be spoken over your grave-both now and in the future. You have come ready to even take the crumbs that have fallen from the table set the Master of the feast. You have come, not to hear nice, pious platitudes about how God is with you in your pain, indentifying with your suffering-you know that will do no good. For what you need, isn't a renewed life, but a new one. So you come here looking to hear a new Word, a saving Word that brings the promise of a new life with it. And like this woman from Matthew today, you are here and won’t leave until you receive a Word that you need, a Word that gives what it says and says what it gives.
So here it is once again. For I have sent by our Lord Jesus to give to you what He has to says. And that is to give you the Word that says your sins, which are many, copious and sordid, which have separated you from your God, which have left you dead in the midst of life; all those sins are forgiven by the mercy of your Father in heaven through the gift of His Son, Christ Jesus. That He suffered, died and was buried because of your sins-for all your sins-past, present and future. That even though it was you that placed Him in the grave, God, loving you more than you could ever know, raised Christ from the dead, to defeat your eternal enemies-sin, death and the devil-all in order to raise and give you a new life, a life built, finally, upon the faith of Christ Jesus, a faith given to you by the Holy Spirit in the Words spoken over your ears yesterday, today and forever.
For you are the reason Christ died and rose-you are His children and He refused to let you lie smoldering in your graves. He is the One who is your watch and keeper, as the Psalmist sang-His death and resurrection have taken the wrath of the Father in order to reconcile you to Him. And God is calling you, Luther wrote, to pursue Him like a hunter, driving Him until He is flushed out like a pheasant so that He can give you all that He died and rose to give. That Christ desires you to pester Him like this woman did today-to refuse to leave His presence without receiving what you know He was sent to bestow in grace-to forgive your sin through the promise of your resurrection from the dead.
And so you are and have been made righteous through the blood of Christ Jesus-your God, your Redeemer, your Savior. And faith alone captures Jesus at His Word and refuses to let Him go until He gives you a blessing like He gave Jacob-no matter how long, how hard, or even how much you have to suffer in this life. For Christ Jesus has come to make a believer out of you; to take your sins upon Himself joyfully, freely, so much that you won’t get them back again; to enter your grave so deep that it has nothing in which to hold you anymore. Amen.

March 16, 2011-Psalm 6, Matthew 26:36-46

2011-04-18T18:09:00.001-05:00

"Again, He went away and prayed, 'My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

It was indeed the Father's will, as we well know and which is why we gather during these 40 day's of Lent, that Christ should drink the cup of Good Friday. For there is one reason why Christ drank in the midst of sorrow-and that was because you, like these disciples in Matthew, are unable to stay awake during the dark of the night. That our eyelids are heavy, not because of the late hour, but because we know who we are.
That is what King David was confessing tonight in this penitential psalm we spoke. Those verses that speak of him growing weary, flooding his bed with tears are quite understandable for anyone who has looked at themselves in the mirror. For the truth about him, says David, was that he knew had absolutely nothing in which to stand upon when it came to his God. In the sins he committed, and we are told of nothing specific here as in Psalm 51, David confesses that he deserves nothing but death-he declares that God would be right in rebuking and disciplining him.
And this is so because of, as he rightly points out, God's anger and wrath at our sin. For death, unlike what this world might like to think, is not natural-it is not the logical outcome of a life well spent. For God did not create life for it to end-it was not His intention that the dust should receive back what He once made it give up. Instead, the death we die is the outcome of Adam and Eve's sin in the garden-it is the wrath of God toward a creation that refuses to abide by His Word alone for His will and desire.
And so we are condemned to death because we are unable to escape our sin. For no matter how much we would like to think, like to wish, like to try-we are in bondage to a force greater than us and we are unable to change our situation because no matter how hard or long we might try, we eventually run out of time to solve it all. Thus in our sin, we end up captive to our own captivity-chasing our tail like a dog in the fact that the moment we are able to stop sinning, is the moment we breath our last and thus have nothing to show for it.
Yet, even though our eyes are heavily burdened by the weight and sorrow of our sin, we are able to confess our helplessness during this time of Lent. For in the face of the betrayal of mankind; in the bitterness the cup of sin in which He drank-we are drawn, finally, to the fact that in the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord Jesus refused to pass any other way, than the way of death. For as He prayed to the Father-praying as the weight of humanity's sin crashed down around Him-He prayed, not for His sake, but for yours; He prayed that He might be given the strength to endure your condemnation for your justification.
Which is why this Psalm speaks so well to our time during Lent. For what more can we come before our Lord with, other than these words of David, to "Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing?" Because the facts of our true nature lies in remembering of those ashes which was placed upon our forehead last week. For, from "dust we are and to dust we shall return"-we know that we have no hope within us because we know that the most we can get out of this life is our death at the end.
But at the same time, we also do know that the Lord has indeed heard our pleas and accepts our prayer, not on our account but solely because Christ pleaded for our sins not be counted against us and He prayed for us in the Garden. That we find the strength to raise our heads off our chests, not as though we have earned such a right, but because as Christ was wasted under our sin and raised over our death, so His spirit and flesh was strong enough to turn our enemies back and put them to shame. And we can rise and go on the way, not as though we have the alertness, but simply for the fact that Christ has walked our road of death already, making a way to life, even through our wilderness of sorrows. Amen.

March 13, 2011: Genesis 3:1-21, Psalm 118, 2 Corinthians 6:1-10, Matthew 4:1-11

2011-04-18T18:07:00.001-05:00

"Then Jesus said to him, 'Be gone, Satan, for it is written "You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Just as the very first place Jesus was led after His baptism, and just as the first text we are entered into at Lent-so we must always be mindful to keep the Word of God before our eyes, in our ears and on our lips, if we hope to be able to defeat the work of the great deceiver.
For what Satan attempted to do with Jesus in the wilderness was the very same thing he had succeeded with Adam and Eve in the garden. "If you," he tempted Jesus with all three times today in Matthew-"If you" was the temptation to make God "prove" that He was holding back some sort of divine gift and promise. For Adam and Eve, it was with the idea that God wasn't completely honest with them, and that they had the chance to become something greater than they already were. For Jesus, it was in trying to get Him to test whether He was the "beloved Son" that he heard at His baptism.
And so in both, the devil tried to get them to doubt who they were by getting them to doubt whether God had been truthful to them. So, as he tempted Eve to desire after divine knowledge or for Jesus to seek after earthly riches, the devil did it the same way-seeking them to trust in their own ideas, thoughts and reasoning, over and above what they had already received from God. Satan used the "soft-sell" approach-tempting them by twisting the questions to make them seem as though their actions was simply to gain information. But in the end, his real desire was to get them to walk away from the Word of God in order to seek their own; to get them from seeking God's will to desiring to be a god unto themselves.
And just like with Adam and Eve, the devil could have been successful with Jesus; He could have be eased and He foot indeed would not have struck the rock if He so desired-He is God after all. However while the devil was successful that first time in the garden, he forgot one thing when it came to his attempts at Jesus in the wilderness-he forgot what God had spoken to him long ago in the aftermath of the fall. For while he, Moses tells us in Genesis, shall bruise the heel of Eve's offspring, the devil's head would be crushed in the outcome. And so, even as the devil tried his best, even using Scripture itself in his attempt, Christ yet refused to use His Sonship for His gain.
For He knew, Matthew tells us, that it had been the Holy Spirit who had led Him into the wilderness for this temptation. He knew this was the Father's will for Him to have the allurement of bread, of safety, and of power placed before Him after those 40 days. And He also knew that if He refused to know any other word than that spoken by the Father, sin, death and the devil's hold on mankind would finally be broken.
So, as He met the devil with the right use of God's Word, Christ defeated him by faith-He would know no other word than the desire of the Father for Him to suffer under the same bondage those He came to redeem. So Christ refused to use God's Word for His own glory or rights. Thus, as He responded each time with "It is written," Christ declared that God is God and His will is better than anything of man's; that His wisdom is greater than anything man could imagine. For Christ knew that the will of God was, finally, not to seek one's freedom, but to succumb to the penalty that was earned in the garden because of the first sin-so that, as He might be raised from the dead, sin and death would no longer hold the creation in bondage, but that paradise would be restored and life would reign once again.
Hence, God's steadfast love does endure forever, for Christ's defeat of the devil's temptation is your simple hope still today. For the temptations of the devil are still around you-regardless of what the modern world might think, he is still active and at work. And he is still seeking for you to do what your ancestors did in the garden-to doubt that God's Word is true and trustworthy; to doubt that God has indeed spoken over and for the best for you. So, whether he tempts you to give into a pleasure of the flesh, to wonder if God could indeed forgive someone such as yourself or to doubt that the grave is not the end of all things for you-you are under an attack from one whose entire desire is for you to give up and so die under hopelessness.
And, just as by faith was Christ victorious, so by faith alone you will be able to defeat the wiles of the deceiver. For it is faith alone that is able to overcome-faith to know that only in Christ Jesus is the will of God found; faith to know that everything that is not of God is of the devil and good for nothing but sin, death and destruction. Which is why you must take, as Paul advised, the weapons of righteousness in your hands; arming yourself against whatever the devil might whisper in your ear. For in the Word and the Sacraments, you are given the entire desire of the Triune God. Here you are given the power to overcome all manner of sin and wickedness-here you are not left to yourself for wisdom, but are given the very power of God to defeat all evil.
So, one must hold fast to this Word you have received-the Word which declares that even in the midst of all struggles, sorrows and temptations, you are given the victory in the One who endured everything sin, death and the devil could do. One must look and listen for God nowhere else, for He will be found nowhere else than where He gives Himself crucified and raised to redeem sinners from hell and to raise the dead from the grave. You must look and listen for Him only where He gives Himself in Body and Blood-seeking the One who gave Himself to you wholly, fully and completely so that now even the devil must flee at the sound of His voice.
And as you hold onto by faith of the Son who bore all things, the words of Paul will ring loudly in your ears. For regardless of how hard the devil might try to tempt you now to lose sight and hope in the promises of your God, you will find in the Word, the One who took the slings and arrows of your temptations so that He might overcome them for you, in Him. That in Him, even though we might be "treated as imposters, yet we are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything." Amen.

March 9, 2011-Ash Wednesday: Psalm 51

2011-04-18T18:06:00.000-05:00

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

It is fitting that, starting tonight, we will not hear the "Alleluia" between these four walls until we open our Easter celebrations 40 days from now. For from Ash Wednesday to the terrible Friday we call good, we remove that hymn of praise from our lips because we know that we have no right, within ourselves, to say it. That for these days of Lent, we refuse to sing our praises to God, not because He doesn't deserve them, but precisely because we know we don't deserve to sing them.
For that is the reality of what will soon mark your foreheads and flow over your ears, "From dust you are and to dust you shall return." Because if there is anything you can expect in this life, beyond taxes of course, is your death. There is nothing else in your life that you can be more sure of obtaining and achieving-the grave awaits us all in the, at our, end. And we know this because, as David confessed in this Psalm tonight, that God is completely justified in His judgments over us-for we are sinners from the moment of conception; our entire life is a life spent in iniquity.
And so we put away our "Alleluia's" for these days because, when we take a good look and are honest about ourselves, we know we have absolutely no right to praise our God because we know we have no rights to come before Him because of our sin. We bear the ashes prepared from last year's palms because we confess that no matter how hard we try; no matter how much we dream; no matter how we might desire-we declare that these ashes are finally who we are. That, even as we are raised from the dust so we are doomed to return to it.
Which is why all there is left, when it comes down to it, is to toss away all ideals of pretension and any idea of worthiness, as Jesus said in Matthew, and call out to the Father who sees in secret, to give unto you what we truly need-forgiveness, life and salvation. For what more, David declares, does your God actually want from you? Does He need your sacrifices; does He require your offerings? The answer is No-He needs nothing from you because you ultimately have nothing to offer Him.
Instead, what your God-the God whom you have been in rebellion for all your life-desires, is your faith-to come before Him, admit your worthlessness and confess that your only hope, both now and forever, is for Him to shower you with His grace, mercy and love alone. So, the sacrifice which is pleasing to God is a broken spirit, David says; a broken and repentant heart God will not despise. That what God wants is for you to be His creation-to look for, nor to claim any sort of holiness and righteousness within yourself, but to be completely dependant upon Him for salvation.
And when that takes place-when you look at nothing inside and thus die completely to yourself-your God will be found, right here, with a Word of mercy upon His lips-for He is the God, Joel preached, who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. For the God who desires nothing but your entire self is the very God who gave up of the Son to be crucified with your sin so to be buried with your death-all in order that by faith you may live, now and forever, within the resurrection He rose on the third day.
Thus tonight, directly after you will receive the very sign of your death on your head, so you will be given the very Sacrament of your life on your tongue-for Christ broke His body and shed His blood all for you, so that you might not be captive to your death for eternity, but so be redeemed from death and the devil in order to give you an entrance into His eternal kingdom. And in your faith-in your faith that the bread and wine you eat is indeed the very Body and Blood of Lord Jesus-you are given the treasure that is laid up in heaven, where nothing-not rust nor thieves nor sin nor death-will be able to take away your "Alleluia's" forever, even as we set them aside for this time. Amen.

March 6, 2011: Exodus 34:29-35, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Matthew 17:1-9

2011-04-18T18:02:00.001-05:00

"As for Me, I have set My King on Zion, My holy hill." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Coming from Peter's confession of faith, that Jesus is "The Christ, the Son of the Living God," in chapter 16, we are given a glimpse today into just what that confession declares. However, before we focus too much on Jesus' transfiguration-in the details of Jesus' transformation into His divine presence on top of this mountain-we cannot forget to hear what the Father spoke to the disciples from the cloud. For to truly, rightly and ultimately understand just what it means that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, so the Father tells that we must direct our ears to hear on what His Son has to say.
For the problem we encounter, if we keep wishing to gaze upon the transfigured Jesus, is that we end up missing God completely. One sees that when Peter didn't really know what to say to this sight-like the Israelites in Exodus today, a sinner cannot truly behold the presence of the Almighty God without being afraid, bewildered and overwhelmed. The Apostle Paul applied that for us in 2 Corinthians, saying that Moses' veil is still needed whenever the naked majesty of God is heard, for one cannot bear the heat of God's holiness upon our flesh which is hostile to Him.
Thus, the problem with setting our eyes upon the transfigured Christ alone is that, finally, we are left with nothing but fear. For if this God is not veiled for us, we are left with nothing to shield us from the God who declares sinners guilty and whose wrath sends us to our eternal graves. We are left, if we don't want the penalty of hell, with the attempt to atone for our own sins without anything to stand upon-for a holy God demands a holy heart. That we are left, in the end, captive to a grave that will not give up what it is given.
Which is why we are directed by the Father to behold the Son in whom He is well pleased, and so listen to His every word. For it is He, as He said in the Psalm, who He has set upon His holy hill; it is He who is given possession the every ends of the earth. So, the only way to deal with God, outside of His terrifying and consuming fury, is in the One in whom the Father loves. For it is He alone, as Peter wrote in his epistle, who received honor and glory from the Father. It is He alone whom is begotten of the Father from all eternity.
But even beyond this-it is finally only Christ Jesus in whom the Father was pleased enough to raise from the dead. And this is not a light matter. If this Jesus is the Beloved Son, then the death He died was not His own-it was not His sin that condemned Him and it was not His grave that He entered. Which means that as He was raised on the third day, the sin, death and devil He destroyed was someone else's. The victory He won by being unable to stay in the grave, was not finally for Himself, but for those whom He was given for.
And as you place your ears on every word that falls from Christ's lips, so you begin to hear is that He did this all for you. For as He was raised from the tomb, the veil of the Father's wrath at sin is torn and you are able to gaze upon the One who took what was not His own so to take it from those who have no hope. Because as your sin became His sin and your death, His death, you are given the words Christ spoke to the three on the mountain. For only when you can hear that Christ was wasted and tossed away so that you might be restored to the Father, then you can truly, "Rise, and have no fear"-for these words declare that you, now, are the beloved of the Father, all for the sake of the Son.
So while Christ transfigured asserts that this Savior whom we have come to believe in is not simply a man, but God Himself, so we must always be mindful that whenever we look for any hope over this world; whenever we need any freedom from our temptations; whenever we cry out in any sorrow and despair-we must place our ears upon this One who bore the cross and our eyes solely on the body which was broken and the blood that was shed-bore, broken and shed for you. That in Him alone, St. Peter confesses, will we only find the eternal grace and mercy of God-for in the Word you hear preached comes the power of the Holy Spirit to create faith in your heart, so that you might have a hope that not even the gates of hell can overcome.
Therefore, "Listen to Him," we are directed by the Father-listen to the One who declares you to be forgiven, saved and redeemed through the wounds He received upon the cross. Listen to the Son who laid aside His glory for a time, in order to give to you the glories of the love of Triune God. Listen to the Son who gives to all who believe unto Him, the assurance that death will not be able to contain all whom He will to gather at the end. Listen to your Savior, true God and true Man, who bore the accursed load in His body so that you might be freed to receive the hope of your faith in the transfiguration of His glory. Amen.

February 27, 2011: 1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 146, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, Luke 18:31-43

2011-02-27T11:37:00.000-06:00

"So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love, the Apostle Paul says today in 1 Corinthians, is the greatest of what will abide-because love will be the only thing that will abide forever. For as we see only in a mirror dimly; while we now know only in part-so when the end finally does come upon us, love alone will abide because then we will see and know fully, because love reveals the full extent of Christ's death and resurrection.
So says our Gospel lesson this morning. Take a look at that blind beggar sitting on the road outside of Jericho-he refused to be put off by anything or anybody. Not the crowds, not the disciples, not even his own blindness could stop him calling out to the only One he had come to believe could actually do something to heal him. Which is why he called out in the way he did. "Have mercy of me, Jesus, Son of David," was the cry of one who knew that faith and hope are fulfilled only by love.
And the healing he received was simply the outcome of Jesus' previous words to His disciples. For what more was He given to this world, than for what He said in verse 32? Everything that was written about the Son of Man by the prophets was accomplished in His death and resurrection. That He came not to save Himself; He came not to appease God-but He was handed over to be crucified and buried so to redeem those who are lost in the darkness of sin, disease and death in His resurrection. That God didn't need to be bought off to forgive; but in the death of the Son, the world would be revealed to the depths of a divine love that will never end.
So the beggar cried out and received the outcome of his faith and hope. That, just like David in 1 Samuel today, he did nothing to deserve; did nothing to earn; did nothing to prepare himself for the anointing that took place-but was created so according to God's will and desire. Faith alone received the blessings of God-he could do nothing but cry out what was revealed to Him by the God who looks not at the outward, but at the heart. It was according to the divine love of Christ that God's will and the man's need, was achieved.
Thus, the love that will abide; the love that bears all, believes all, hopes all and endures all; the love that overcomes all things-is simply the love of God in Christ Jesus your Lord-and faith and hope alone can know of it. For, the Psalmist said, one cannot put their trust in men, since there is none who is righteous-and hence all will succumb to the darkness of the grave. That is the problem with this world-there is none who can truly have mercy, in whom you can love, because all are condemned under the law and so no one is eternal, as love is eternal as Paul said. So, if none are able to escape the penalty of sin and wrath of God, then what faith or hope can you have, since there is none who has the love which overcomes all things?
However, since in Christ Jesus do you find One who has defeated the grave, then in Him you find One in whom you can hope and trust will give you the love that will never end. For in Him you have the One who, though was not deserving the punishment of death, yet entered into it on account for the salvation of those whom He loves. Though He is the One who made the heavens and the earth, yet He took on your sinful flesh, so that you might be freed in His resurrection. Though He is the One in whom all things are held together and fulfilled, yet He redeemed your condemned soul by entering hell in your place.
Thus all there is left for you is faith alone-so fall upon Him and receive the love that is greater than hell itself. Refuse to be stopped by a devil, world and sinful self that tempts you to believe that you can save yourself according to your good works, good thoughts and good intentions. Call out to the One who took you in your baptism so to give you the very love of God-so that as the Father now looks upon your heart, He finds only the Son who gave of His very body and blood for your forgiveness, life and salvation. Live in the One who has come near to you today, so to give you a new life built solely upon the love of God that will never end, but lives forever in the One who rose from the dead for those whom He fully knows. Amen.

February 20, 2011: Isaiah 55:10-13, Psalm 84, 2 Corinthians 11:16-12:10, Luke 8: 4-15

2011-02-27T11:36:00.000-06:00

"Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

The thing of first importance to discover from this parable, is that you have nothing whatsoever to do with the entire matter. For, as Jesus said, "he who has ears, let him hear," so to be of the good soil in which the seed yields 100-fold harvest, is to simply hear, receive and believe that Christ Jesus is your only way, truth and life.
For what is the fault of the other three types of soil? It's not the seed that is defective. That is revealed in what it does when it falls on the good soil. But where the seed ends up being consumed, it is birds or rocks or thorns that end up destroying the possibilities of the seed. So the problem isn't the soil, but what is surrounding it. That is what Jesus revealed in His explanation-when the seed falls on those with hard hearts, weak hearts or straying hearts, there it doesn't produce, but withers and dies. But those who hear the word, hold fast to and in it-there, Jesus declares, a miracle takes place and the abundance is beyond measure.
So then, what are these things that choke out the seed? Well, Jesus says, it is mankind's oldest enemies-the devil, the world and our sinful selves. For the hard packed soil is that which the seed is given no chance to grow because the devil comes and snatches the word away by getting one to doubt the truth of Christ Jesus. The rocks are those things in life which causes one to lose hope-to doubt that the promises of Christ are able to overcome the pain and sorrows and sufferings we experience. And the thorns are those things that chokes out the victory we have won in Christ-tempting us to believe that the glories of the flesh are greater than the glories of the Savior.
Thus, it is only those who "have ears to hear," who can understand and see the secrets of the Kingdom. For the devil, the world and your sinful self is always attacking-one is never beyond the reach of their temptations; you will never be immune from their attempts to get you to lose this hope. Paul attested to that today-once he was called by Christ on that road to Damascus, he was never far from the sufferings brought on by his faith. And even in his darkest hour, he was given no concrete proof that he would be spared from this fallen world.
Which is why he would only say his boast was simply in his weaknesses-he knew that all he suffered for the sake of Christ, was because he no longer sought life, comfort and acceptance from this world. That it mattered not that he suffered the most, was deprived of the most or even, in his account of his own experience in the third heaven, he was revealed the most-all that mattered, once he knew that it was in Christ Jesus alone, that his sins were forgiven and his life was secured; for now all that mattered was that his Redeemer had planted Himself in so deeply, that it wasn't Paul who mattered anymore, but Christ who was his redemption.
So, to be of the good soil is to know nothing, anymore, except Christ and Him crucified-and so having ears for your Savior alone. For be certain, the devil will seek to eat the seed before it has a chance to planted. You will know what it is to have the heat of pain and sorrow take away what you love-whether it is your health or family. And you will certainly be surrounded by a society and a heart that lusts to have what is promised to satisfy.
But what more, now you know that Christ Jesus died with your sin, was buried in your grave and entered hell for your sake, can you find in the things of this world that is greater than Him? What more could you want, once you know that the Word of God will certainly, as Isaiah promised, not return empty to the God who speaks His grace and mercy to those whom He loves? What more could you have from a world that is passing away, than what you have been given by the God who makes even the valley of Baca, the valley of tears, into the highway of salvation, as the Psalmist sung?
And so, as the Psalmist continued, it is better to spend "just one day in the courts of the Lord than a thousand elsewhere"-that even when one is traveling through the darkest valley, with this God, one can travel knowing that not even hell is able to contain those who abide in Christ Jesus. For you have been saved and redeemed in the death and resurrection of your Lord-He was destroyed so that your sins might no longer condemn you and He was raised so that your death forever be defeated. Thus your only hope for salvation is found in this Man Jesus Christ; He alone is your means to be saved, redeemed and forgiven.
Therefore learn from this parable-as this Word has been sowed into your heart with the sound of my voice, know, trust and believe that now nothing, nothing whatsoever, is able to separate you from the love of your God in Christ Jesus your Lord. Learn to close your eyes, ears and heart to the alluring of this world-for as all it hold is death and destruction, so it not greater than the life and salvation Christ died and rose to win for you. Learn, finally, to simply hear and see, that Christ Jesus is your only way, truth and life-and He will reap in you a harvest a hundredfold greater than you can ever receive from this world. Amen.

February 13, 2011: Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95:1-9, 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5, Matthew 20:1-16

2011-02-13T17:08:00.000-06:00

"Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first, and the first last." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

The most amazing part of this parable from Jesus today is that all received what they truly did not deserve. For those who were laboring were simply day workers-they had no permanent employment and were completely dependant upon someone needing a job done and so hiring them for the task. They would arrive in the marketplace each morning, hoping to be hired so they could feed their families for the day. And sometimes, as the hiring went on throughout the day in the parable, this didn't happen regularly. So the denarius they all earned, came about not because they were the best of the best, but simply because this master needed his vineyard to be harvested.
Which is why the master replied to the complaints as he did. Their income, he reminded them, came only because he had decided to hire them for the day. They did nothing to be chosen, except to be found by the master. So what right did they have to complain if those who worked for one hour earned as much as those who worked for 12? Was it not his decision to give out as much as he desired? Were not each of them completely dependant upon his generosity? Did not each of them receive their life from his call?
Instead, he was saying, they should begin to view their lives and world differently than they were. Instead of seeing what they might or want to have, they should begin to realize that they were going to go to bed that night with a full stomach all because of the master's grace. They should begin to begin to realize that it was because of his mercy toward them that they ended the day wealthier than they began. They should begin to realize that it was a love from another who bestowed upon them their life.
And so we do pray also. For the grace, mercy and love of our Master is shown in the fact that we, too, are given the wage we really do not deserve; that we are provided and sustained simply because He has come before us and called us in His generosity. That in this kingdom of heaven the parable illustrates today, declares that God work's world works not like ours and that is beautiful news to our ears.
For we are all like, as Moses tells us in Exodus, those same Israelites whose testing and quarreling ended up remembering the place of Massah and Meribah. Because it must be remembered that none, save Joshua and Caleb, entered the Promised Land after the 40 years of wandering-no one, not even Moses, was able to be received into the Lord's rest. And even though, as Paul interprets for us in 1 Corinthians, they were all under the same Spiritual Rock, which was Christ, they still were overthrown because they refused to hold in faith to their God.
So we too, have failed and fallen in our attempt at faith. For sin is never absent from our lives-in thought, word and deed constantly and consistently we fall short of the glory of God. So we have been deceived to believe that we are own masters; that we are given the freedom to choose our desires, to make our decisions, to be who we want to be. That we end up, like these laborers in the parable today, looking beyond ourselves; believing that we deserve more than who we are, that we achieve more than we receive.
But yet, even as we ultimately have earned nothing but death and damnation for our lack of faith and abundance of pride, you have still been gathered here in this place today and have received the Word of Absolution from your Savior. You have, in the death Christ suffered and the resurrection He rose, been declared to be just and right and forgiven through my sinful lips. You have, in the fact that Christ Jesus died and rose for the salvation of all whom He calls in baptism and feeds in the Supper, the final promise that not even the grave, which you rightly deserve, will be able to contain you when He returns on the last day.
So come now, as the Psalmist exhorted, come, sing and make a joyful noise to the Lord, the Rock of your salvation. He has called you to enter into His rest and gives to you the wage of forgiveness even though we deserve it not. He cares not how much you have worked-for it is His pure grace and love that He bestows upon you the redemption that He earned as He shed His blood and broke His body on Calvary. He gives to you generously-taking your sin to be His sin, allowing your death to be His death-all so that you might be sustained unto eternal life-so forever finding a place now in the Master's vineyard-the very Kingdom of heaven. Amen.

February 6, 2011: Genesis 18:22-33, Psalm 80:1-7, Colossians 3:12-17, Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

2011-02-06T12:03:00.001-06:00

"He who has ears, let him hear." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Frightening thought. Frightening thought about which one we might be, wheat or a tare. Frightening thought whenever one begins to sit and wonder whether or not you have been sown by the Son or the devil. And anyone who does not spend a moment or two thinking about such a thing is truly lying to themselves.
For there isn't a moment in our life, once we become aware of our surroundings, that we don't spend time in the mirror and begin to see the ravages our lives. The Psalmist today correctly define us-we seem to be forced to feed upon and drink in full measure, the tears of hardship and heartache. That it seems we spend our entire life going from one disaster to another-hoping, in the end, that we might have had a few good times thrown in for good measure.
For who of us hasn't experienced the fear of death and disease in life? Who of us haven't known what it is to see those whom we love, young and old, be taken out of our world much too soon than we desired? Who of us haven't cried ourselves to sleep at a world that is seemingly turning darker and darker each passing day? Who of us haven't seen everything that we know and trust to be ripped away in a mere moment?
And at the same time, we also must deal with our own faults and failings and frailties. For no matter how well we might think we are doing, all we need to do is to take a glance at the commandments and see exactly where we have come up short. That we all have done wrong to our neighbors; we all have forgotten to fear, love and trust in God above all things. We all know that we seek our will and wants above that of everyone else-justifying our actions and desires so to make sure to always be in the right, whether it is with our neighbor or with God.
So it is easy to see why one would wonder if we are wheat or a tare-for there is little in our life that makes us feel rather "wheaty" and instead the weeds in our lives seem to grow taller and stronger with each passing day. For the problem with faith is that it is just that-it is always faith-needing to be believed but not seen; always hidden and never seemingly found. Which means that regardless of how many goosebumps you might feel every time you hear your favorite hymn, at the back of your heart, you can't help but wonder if it is all true, at least for yourself, because your life hardly seems to match what you are singing.
Which makes our problem that of love-that we have placed it in and on the wrong things. Abraham found that out Genesis today. "Suppose ten are found there," he pleaded, "would God not spare the righteous for his wrath toward the wicked?" For the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is that their love was in the wrong place-upon themselves and not God. As we find out in the rest of the story, this is illustrated in the fact that the men of Sodom sought to love what was exactly like them-exchanging, as Paul would say in Romans 1, their worship onto image of man than that of God.
Thus, just as not even 10 righteous were found in Genesis today, so all who have sinned, have fallen short of the glory of God and deserve nothing but death and damnation. So you have no rights to hold before the Righteous Judge-you need to be told to put on, as Paul said today, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience because your heart is turned away from such things because the nature of sin is self-worship. That you are, within yourselves, tares in the field-weeds that seek their own advantage by choking off all others so to have what you can get.
However, Jesus says, just as the harvest is not today, so you are not left to your own resources to seek God's mercy. Instead, everything must be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul said-since in Him you find One who deserved not hell or the grave, yet entered them freely so that as He was raised triumphant, so now all who believe onto Him alone, find themselves safely in the Master's barns at the end. For as He is the Son whose face shines upon all who are saved, so those to whom He gives Himself, can now know that they have been most certainly redeemed from sin, death and the devil.
Which is why the Master in the parable tells His servants not to pluck out the tares before the harvest is ready-for only in the face of the Son (and that is S-O-N), are we saved, so says the Psalmist. For God leaves it not up to our hearts that determine our status in the fields, but makes our ears the organ of salvation-for faith find its beginning, middle and end in what you hear being declared to you.
Thus, "he who has ears, let him hear," declares that your salvation is given unto you by the work of Christ Jesus and all there is left for you is to hear and so believe. For to be righteous in the sight of God is to trust not your "believing-heart," but your "hearing-ears," tuned to what your God has done for you in Christ Jesus. It is to trust that in Him, you find the One who was thrown into the fiery furnace, in the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, so that its penalty might not lay on you. It is to believe that in Christ alone you will, at the end of time, reflect the Son of the Kingdom-saved and redeemed for eternity by the Body that was broken and Blood which was shed on the cross.
And now, as you live upon faith alone, you can hold forth knowing that you have been made into the good wheat by the work of your Savior. And to do so is to always have your ears tuned to your Master and so tune out whatever the devil, the world and your sinful self might try to tempt you to believe, seek or trust. It is to have patience of the Master in Matthew-letting the word and peace of Christ rule and dwell in you richly-refusing to allow the things of this world-sinful acts, suffering or seduction-convince you that you are nothing other than God's good harvest of wheat, all because of your Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

January 30, 2011: Jonah 1:1-17, Psalm 96, Romans 13:8-14, Matthew 8:23-27

2011-01-30T06:48:00.000-06:00

"And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but He was asleep." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

If there is anything a Christian can count on, Luther remarked on this text from Matthew today, is that temptation and persecution will surely follow wherever the pure Gospel of Christ Jesus, crucified and raised for sinful humanity, is preached, heard and believed.
Which is exactly what happened to those disciples who entered the boat with Jesus today. Now, this must have been some sort of storm-remember, at least 4 of the disciples were experienced fishermen; they would have certainly experienced Galilean Sea storms in the past. Which says that this storm must have been especially severe-for in fact, much like those sailors with Jonah today, they were frightened beyond measure by the wind and waves that beat upon the boat.
And that makes Jesus' question to them biting on two levels. For why were they afraid-had they, not simply been fishing on the Sea most of their lives, but in fact been fishing for men with Him for some time now? Had they not witnessed the changing of water into wine; had they not been part of a miraculous catch of fish; had they not just witnessed the healing of a leper and the centurion's servant? So why now such little faith, Jesus asks-did they not know, just simply how to ride out a storm at sea, but also that not even the wind and waves could thwart His plan of salvation?
So as He rebuked the storm, did the disciples began to be rebuked for their unbelief. They had been unable to see beyond their own noses-their unbelief saw nothing but what it experienced. And as the wind and waves calmed as immediately it did after Jonah was thrown into the sea, so a new truth was thrust upon these intrepid followers. For if this Jesus was indeed God, then the words of the Psalmist this morning become of key importance. That all other gods are to be rejected, for all that is left for a believer is to take and trust this Jesus wherever He leads.
And so, Jesus was saying, it was time for them to actually believe what they were hearing about Him. That the promise and power of God were not to remain simply abstractions-ideas to be thought about and debated. But if God is truly the Lord over all things, then His will and work must solely abide in the end-and nothing of this world, being that it is fallen and in rebellion to its Creator, can take prominence above and over the Word He has given to it.
Thus, as the Apostle Paul said today in Romans, as today we are closer to salvation than when we first began, so you too, are called not to lose hope in the midst of the temptations and persecutions. For indeed, all who hold to Christ Jesus alone for the way, truth and life, will be hated by this world. The fact that we are tempted by the works of darkness, as Paul called them, is proof enough. But even beyond what seeks after our flesh, so the darkness of the ravings of this world is also around, desiring us to lose all hope and faith that God indeed is in control-seeking to disrupt and mislead by getting one to doubt that God's Word does stand forever.
But just as with Jonah, so God's will is supreme-He is such that would appoint a storm to arise, so to ensure that Jonah would be taken back to Nineveh-even if in the belly of a fish. That there are times that, Luther said, "as soon you commit yourself and come with Him in the ship, wind, storm and buffeting will sure ensue." So there is no running away after God has called you for Himself-one must be prepared to suffer when you bend your knee to a Lord that the world rejects.
Which means that faith is such that one learns the art of closing your eyes to the world around you so to be led with your ears tuned to the voice of your Savior. For indeed, the darkness has been broken by the light of the day of salvation in the glory of the resurrection of Christ Jesus. And if His resurrection is true, then to put on the Lord Jesus Christ means to no longer live according and for this world, but to live in and upon the grace, love and mercy that Christ died and rose to give. For faith knows that whatever can be held, done or experienced in this life is transient-something that is here today and gone tomorrow. So what worth is it to glory and revel and excel in one's flesh when the grave is the final outcome of everything that is of the old? Why would we place our hopes on a world that is passing away; why would we seek after that which is not God?
Thus, why are you afraid-do you not know that this One, Jesus Christ, is the Lord of all-the First and the Last; the Firstborn of all the dead? So then, refuse to let the wind and waves of the fallen world take away your hope, strength and resolve, but look and hold onto the One who was crucified with your very sin so to enter into your own death-all in order to deliver you into a new world and life in His resurrection. Refuse to love anything of this world-refuse to let it tempt you into sin; refuse to let it persecute you into despair.
For you now know that even the winds and waves must obey His call-that nothing of this world and kingdom is greater than His Word. That there is no other God than this Man, Jesus Christ-and if every thing is under His power and rule, then whoever holds onto Him will be brought through to the end. And as sin, death and the devil have no control over Him, so now all who live upon faith alone, will conqueror anything which might comes your way. But let this world rage, as Luther finally said, "for it is ordained that the wind and sea obey His will. The persecutions will not continue longer than is His pleasure and although they overwhelm us, yet they must be subject to Him; He is Lord over all, therefore nothing will harm us." Amen.

January 23, 2011: 2 Kings 5:1-15, Psalm 110, Romans 12:16-21, Matthew 8:1-13

2011-01-23T11:48:00.000-06:00

"And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Well now, how does it feel to be chosen? I mean, it is a pleasure getting to stand before a bunch of people that are different now than when you entered this place. For the facts lie before you that in your hearing of this Gospel text today, like this leprous man, like this Gentile servant, you have been chosen by Christ Jesus, the One who was given unto the world to claim people exactly like you in order to make you His own forever.
For there is little difference between you and these men from Matthew. For while you may not suffer directly from a disease, you suffer the ravages just the same. For both those with leprosy and who were Gentiles were separated from the rest of society-either having to live in colonies out in the wilderness or having no contact with the rest of Judaism. Lepers even had to yell, “Unclean. Unclean.” if anyone dared to approach them. And like Naaman from 2 Kings today, in many ways a Gentile with leprosy was a double outcast in Jesus’ day-both from the world and God.
And because of this, you have many similarities with these men in Matthew today. For in the same way, you have been separated from both God and the world-separated by the sin that will lead to your death and separated by your consistent and wanton desire to assert your will over that of God’s and your neighbors. That like the disease, there is no way for you to be healed from your affliction on your own strength, power and will. You are at the mercies of a cruel world that seeks only to kill you-to leave you forever seeking and searching for a little bit of hope, but never truly giving you what you ultimately need-forgiveness from your sins, life from your death, freedom from your bondage And that is where you fall under today’s Gospel text-in your own self, you are much in the chains of affliction and separation-having no hope for life in yourself.
And it is because of this that Christ Jesus was given to the world-choosing you in the midst of your death by giving you life and it abundant. And there is nothing that you can do to receive such-like Naaman, God isn’t interested in your silver or gold to buy His mercy, but bestows it upon you as a sheer and utter gift. For He has come to you again today, and has announced that He does choose you-chose to take you and everything you bring-sin, death, rebellion, pain, suffering, sickness-and in return gives you all that He has-life, salvation, mercy, righteousness. And He asks nothing in return but to now go like the leper and proclaim to a world still lost in the darkness of the Light who has illumined the glory of God. He asks for nothing but for you to place your complete trust in Him, as He said to the centurion-believing that in His death and resurrection Christ became sin so to defeat it and entered death so to kill it for you, all in order to usher in a new Kingdom of peace, love and righteousness.
So, my people, know that you have been chosen in the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross. Know that God the Father does not want you to doubt His mercy because of the sin in your life, the sickness in your body, the hopelessness you feel-but that He wants you to place all your hopes, cares and desires upon this Man Jesus Christ, believing that in His wounds you have seen and been given the work and will of God to save you from eternal death. Know that, as David confessed in the Psalm, your Lord has made your enemies His footstool, ensuring now, that sin, death or the devil have nothing to prevent you from grasping onto that promise forever. For now your mind and body have nowhere else to look for hope than in the One who gives His very body and blood in the Supper so to give you all the lavish gifts of the Kingdom of God. So go forth, you who have been chosen by Christ Jesus-go as those who have been chosen to receive the glories of the Kingdom to come. Amen.

December 26, 2010: Isaiah 11:1-5, Galatians 4:1-7, Luke 2:22-40

2010-12-26T11:33:00.001-06:00

"And Simeon bless them and said to Mary His mother, 'Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel.'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Such ominous words. Such ominous words were these spoken by Simeon. Such ominous words to be said of a child. Such ominous words to hear the very first time the very God of very God entered into His earthly Temple. Such ominous words.
Yet, never have there been truer words ever spoken concerning this Child. All four Gospels attest to the fact that this One would bring the end of the old and beginning of the new to this world. So, Matthew tells of Herod's swords seeking this One who was sought by the Magi and Mark reminds us that the demon's were forced out at His command. Luke finds the evils of this world being overcome with the Christ's advent and in John, the Baptist pointed that this was the Lamb who would bear the sin of the world. So indeed, this Child whom was given unto the world was given for the falling and rising of many, not simply in Israel, but throughout. For His arrival declares that nothing was or will ever be the same-for He demands nothing less than your entire self. Because Christ has been given to apocalypse you-to fall you to the old so to raise you into the new.
For this Child is the Son who, as Paul wrote to the Galatians, was born to and in this old world-He was born of woman, born under to the law, to redeem those under the law. That He was given unto this world, so to suffer under and be crucified by the weight and condemnation that the Law gives to all who fail to live by it. That He was given unto you, so to take the penalty and guilt of your sin unto Himself. That He was given so to be cursed and damned under sin, death and the power of the devil; given to such so to be destroyed under the same destruction all mankind must suffer.
However, He came not to receive such things simply for Himself, but He was given unto the world for the world itself. Christ came to be the Light so to draw all who lay dead and condemned in their sin to Him-where all who trust in Him alone, will find everything of the old, dead and swallowed up in His resurrection. For as He fell dead in the grave that Good Friday, He became the eternal Sabbath rest for all who believe unto Him, in order to raise a new day of creation when He walked out triumphantly Easter Sunday. And as He left death behind, so He also sin and the devil found no more place to abide in this new Kingdom.
So thus, as this apocalypse befalls you, as it sweeps you up into its wings, so you now find that the wickedness and sin of this world that is destroyed, as Isaiah said, by the breath of His lips. Yet, only those who wait, like Simeon and Anna, to have their redemption draw near to them, are raised from the falling that He brings. For those who refuse to know anything of themselves; those who refuse to seek their own desires according to the elementary principles of the world, will actually find the coming of this Child to be for their rising-for those who hold to nothing of this world know they will truly lose nothing, if for the sake of knowing Him alone for everything.
And as He once came in the form of this Babe, He comes to you today where the world least expects Him, so to still be received simply by faith alone. That as you eat and drink the bread and wine of the Supper, so you must know that here your redemption has drawn near to you again-and so you find yourself, even though deserving the fall of death because of your sin, being raised to the glories of the Father. And as you eat and drink of His very Body and Blood, so you will find yourself being torn between the old and the new-torn between whether your heart and your hope is set upon what this world might give to and think about you, or whether you are prepared to know nothing but the will and desires of the Father. Amen.

December 12, 2010: Isaiah 40:1--8, Psalm 85, 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, Matthew 11:2-11

2010-12-19T19:27:00.000-06:00

"And blessed in the one who is not offended by Me." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

It's easy to get confused about Jesus sometimes, much like John the Baptist in our Gospel reading from Matthew this morning. For the truth is that sometimes, He just doesn't meet our expectations, our idealizations, our opinion of what a Messiah could or should be. For we all have our own visions of a redeemer, like sugar plums, dancing around in our heads; we all imagine just what a savior should look like, act like, speak like.
So it is no wonder that even John the Baptist could have begun to have doubts. For certain, he knew something about Jesus-not simply was He his cousin, but he had baptized and heard the voice of the Father speak about Jesus; he had said, through the Holy Spirit, that this Jesus was the very Lamb of God, whose coming was to take away the sin of the world. And he was now sitting in Herod's prison because he had been preaching the whole counsel of God-preaching both Law and Gospel; preaching both of God's anger over and deliverance from the sin that afflicts and condemns us all.
Which is why he had sent his disciples to Jesus with this question in verse 3. For John knew he had been sent, as Isaiah prophesied today, to prepare, to make straight the way for the Lord. But here we find him beginning to wonder, not because he didn't trust in God's Word, but because Jesus just didn't seem to be doing what he had been preaching. Jesus, it seemed, wasn't laying the axe at the foot of the tree; He didn't seem to be baptizing with both water and fire. And now that he was captive, he begins to ask, if Jesus was whom he had preached about, why was he not seeing what he been promised. Waiting to see his preparations to be fulfilled, John's question reveals that doubt is most close whenever faith is present.
But look at how Jesus answers. He doesn't give them a "Yes or No" answer-Jesus says elsewhere that many false Messiah's would come in His name, so this would not be an accurate way of knowing. But He points John and his disciples to His works-that with Him, He says, the blind see, the lame walk and the poor have the good news preached to them. What He does was to remind them that faith lies, not in what you can know, what you might expect, what you perhaps even think-but in what is being given. And most times, this will not end up like what you presume. So while John was waiting to see the glory of God, Jesus tells him that His work achieves what truly is needed, even if it doesn't look like it.
So Jesus reminds them just what the Psalmist said He would do. That the Son of God came to restore and revive those lost in the darkness of their sin and death. He came to make steadfast love and faithfulness meet; to bring together righteousness and peace in an embrace. That He came, finally, to lead the way through the wilderness of this world, so to take all who follow Him in faith to the very gates of the heavenly realms. So, Jesus says, blessed is the one who is not offended by Him-for when you can look past your own thoughts and desires, so you actually can see your salvation drawing near and wrapping you up in His mercy.
And so, as we still wait this Advent, for Christ's second Advent, we find ourselves like John-sitting in the prison of our own sinful flesh, which holds us captive by directing our thoughts and desires onto what we can have, what we can be, what we can do. We sit in the shackles of temptations we can't seem to resist; in the fetters of our own weaknesses; in the chains of the pain and sorrow that rack our lives. In times like these, one can sympathize with the Baptist-for if Christ Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world-then why do we still see sins affects seemingly running rampant? Why are we still left having to suffer under the attacks of a death and devil who seeks to destroy us, our hope, our love?
Yet, we now do wait knowing something more about this Jesus that John got too. For we know that not even the dark and darkness of Good Friday is able to overshadow the light of Easter; we know that sin, death and the devil have already met their end in Christ's triumphant victory over them. We know that the worst this world could do to our Savior-going so far as even rejecting its own Creator-has been destroyed and defeated in the fact that the grave was not able to contain Christ Jesus, but was forced to give Him up at His command.
Thus like John and all the saints who have gone before us, we must gather under the mysteries of our faith-holding onto the Word as trustworthy servants even as our bodies and thoughts betray us. For only by faith alone can we know that our Savior has come, not only once but even each time we gather to receive His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sins and resurrection from our death. That we must keep gathering, knowing that at times we must close our eyes and simply trust that regardless of what is around us, we know that in the end, just as the world was not able to be rid of Christ, so there is still nothing in this world or the next that is able to overcome the work He wrought on Calvary.
And so we must continue to hold like John, even though the grass withers and the flowers of our youth fades, only because we know that the Word of our God does stand forever. That as we hear, time and again, of this Good News, so we refuse to allow this world to judge us unto condemnation-because we know that we have been crucified to this world and it to us. For we know that whatever riches and pleasures, pain and sorrow it might offer and give, it is nothing compared of knowing that our sin, death and damnation has been indeed swallowed up in the death and resurrection of our Savior; the place where all the blind and lame, sick and deaf, dead and poor receive the joy of the Father's heart. Amen.

November 28, 2010: Jeremiah 23:5-8, Psalm 24, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 21:1-11

2010-11-28T11:46:00.000-06:00

"And the crowds that went before Him and that followed Him were shouting, 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed in He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

As we begin another church year, so we begin it with Christ entering Jerusalem for the very reason of His first Advent into the world. For there is no other reason Christ was given unto the world than for His entrance into the holy city on this particular Passover we read about in Mathew today. That His entire incarnation was centered upon this specific moment in time; this was the very place upon which His life centered.
Because as He came riding in upon these 2 prophetic beast of burdens, Christ came entering to the song of the heavenly realms, albeit unbeknown to those who were shouting these "Hosannas." That the Hosanna's the crowd were shouting and the cloaks and palm leaves they were strewing the road with, were the physical declarations of just who this Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee, was. For the word "hosanna" is a cry for help, a cry for someone to save you. Thus, the cry of "Hosanna" to Jesus, as He rode fulfilling the prophet Zechariah, was actually the cry of a creation out for its Creator.
For what more does this old world need than to be delivered, as Paul wrote to the church in Rome, from the darkness of sin and death? Because, if we are truthful, we know that we live not in a world we would like it to be. No one enjoys the sights and sounds of war; no one wants to see the effects of cancer on the body; no one desires to have a life filled with sorrow and suffering. And add onto that the effects of sin and death we see upon our own lives-all the faults and disappointments and failures we have and are-we suddenly begin to witness just what these "Hosanna's" cried out today entail.
Because, as Jeremiah said today, the Righteous Branch that God was going to raise up, was being given unto the world to execute justice and righteousness in the land. That it would be in this King of Glory, David prophesied in the Psalm, in which all the sins, all the destruction, all the condemnation of the world would be removed so to bestow the blessing of righteousness and salvation to the faithful. And so, as Christ rode into Jerusalem that Palm Sunday amid the cheers and cries from those going before and following after Him, He was riding toward the very place in which all those cries, all our cries, would finally find their answer.
For as He rode under these cries, Christ knew He was heading to take the throne of His cross in just 5 days. He knew He would be lifted up high above, so to look out upon the world He was been given to save and redeem from death and the devil. He knew that His was a victory to be won by the giving of His Body and Blood so to reconcile us to the Father. So, as He rode into Jerusalem, He entered into His Kingdom in the same humility and unexpectedness as He began-Bethlehem in a manger and Jerusalem on a donkey-entering like this, so to save us where the world would not expect.
Which is why "Hosanna" is still the cry of all who so need to receive their Redeemer. For we enter into Advent with remembering Palm Sunday because be know that Christ was given unto this world to be wasted and destroyed; that He was born in a manger so to be hung upon a cross. But because He came into a world that did not know it was lost, His glory is that He came where we were not looking for Him. For what King is born in a barn and crowned on a cross? But as it is here where the world was redeemed from its damnation, so only those now, who can see with eyes of faith, will walk in the light of this day of grace.
For it is here, in our faith that Christ Jesus was given for our justification, that we are closer to our salvation than when we began. For as we believe that in Christ, God is with us-His Body and Blood given to us even as we eat and drink the bread and wine-so we find ourselves wrapped up into the One who was born so to die; who was given to the world so to give Himself for the world. Which means that you can do nothing else but loose yourself in this King-refusing so to live according to your desires and wants; thus dying to yourself in order to now live in the new life Christ gives to His beloved. That all there is left is for you to put on your King by refusing to look anywhere else in which to live your life.
And as you put on Him, as Paul said, so you are clothed with the glories He was born and died to give. For as you now know that as Christ was given to this world so to die under its worst, so you can know that He was given to raise us in the glory of His own Kingdom-a Kingdom where the penalty of our sins, the conviction of our death and the bait of the devil is taken in His death and a freedom of righteousness and holiness is given to those who trust in Him alone. That now knowing the best of this world has nothing permanent to give, so you can truly live because in Christ, you have a promise of receiving what you forever need-your forgiveness, your life, your salvation. Amen.

November 21, 2010: Malachi 3:13-18, Psalm 46, Colossians 1:11-23, Luke 23:27-43

2010-11-21T06:50:00.001-06:00

"And he said, 'Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Well, unlike other opinions that have currently been proposed, as this thief hung, condemned upon the cross, he found and was given a life and forgiveness that was not his own-and so received the Kingdom in which Christ Jesus was given to die and rise to give. For, as this thief's kingdom was slowly slipping away, all he could do was to deny himself and so fall into the Kingdom of the One in whom and for whom all things had been created.
For what else, this thief began to learn, could he truly do, now that his life was no longer his own and he was nailed securely to his own death? The kingdom he had tried to build could no longer be defended because he had met a force stronger than he. He had sought to live and rule autonomously-to live and rule as a law unto himself; to live and rule according to his own desires, wants and ways. But, as he suddenly realized on that Friday, no matter how much he so chose, his kingdom could last only until it was ruled upon by another.
And so, as he hung there, with his life slowly being taken away from him, he faced a dilemma. He could continue, like his compatriot on the other side of Jesus, to seek to hold onto his kingdom. But, as the nails bit through his flesh, it suddenly began to dawn on him that this was it-that there was nothing more he could do. And as the darkness began to draw across his eyes, he suddenly realized that he was powerless and everything he had worked for, fought for, adored over, had nothing really to offer.
However, as he heard and saw the mocking and derision of the crowd to this stranger beside him, he heard above it all Jesus' own words of absolution to his accusers, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do." One wonders if the words of Malachi entered his mind at that moment-recalling the promise of God to remember those who fear Him; who heeds His words and will over their own. For as the words of mercy flowed from Jesus' lips, this criminal, who knew he deserved his sentence of death to the world and condemnation to God, suddenly found for himself another Kingdom; a Kingdom not earned, but given to those who serve the Lord by faith alone.
Thus, as he stopped trying to defend himself, he found what he had forever been searching for. For as he walked away from his doomed kingdom, he was received into the Kingdom of God-the Kingdom in which Christ was dying so to give. That as he began to realize that this Jesus was indeed what the inscription said, so this criminal found his sins forgiven by this King of mercy. As he abandoned his attempt to justify himself, he found a justification given unto him by grace.
And this goes for each of you still today. For regardless of how much and hard you have fought for your will be done; for your kingdom to come-at the end you are in the same situation as these thieves that Christ hung between. That there is no amount of work, piety or love within your bones to overcome the fact that we are all sinners unto damnation-we are all alienated and hostile in mind, as Paul said today, doing evil deeds. And since, even in our best we earn our death, there is finally no hope for any of us or the advancement of our kingdoms.
But, as God reminds in Malachi and shows in Luke, those who fear Him, who forsake their own ambitions to trust in Christ alone, are not rejected and are His treasured possession unto eternal life. Because the distinction between the righteous and wicked isn't in what you can do, but in who you trust. For to fear God is to serve Him and not yourself-to give up your notions of right and wrong, of good and evil-to be done to your ideas and desires so to be filled with God's alone. And since God cannot reject Himself, so all those who abide in Him will receive the glories of the forgiveness of their sins, the promise of life from their death and the strength to overcome all temptations of the devil.
Because Christ's Kingdom, as Paul wrote to the Colossians, is the Kingdom of the forgiveness of sin-the return to paradise where sin and death are no more and the devil has nothing in which to convict us. That since He made peace through the blood of His cross, so the dominion of darkness is broken so to enlighten all who turn away from false kingdoms to the true Kingdom of heaven. That as in Him all the fullness of God so dwells, so now all who cling to Him alone for salvation is reconciled to the Father.
For Christ Jesus suffered under the penalty of your sin and died under the wrath of your death so to destroy your kingdoms to deliver you into His own-that He alone, the Psalmist says, is the One who makes your wars to cease. He is your only hope to be delivered from the sin and death that is destroying you both in this world and the next. And so you must learn, as Luther said, to let all other images that hold you captive-your thoughts, your dreams, your wants, your urges-to slip away from you to where they wish or care to go, so to now let Christ's image alone abide in you. For what more can be found in your heart and mind other as the One in whom paradise is found? Amen.

November 14, 2010: Malachi 4, Psalm 98, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-16, Luke 21:5-19

2010-11-14T11:50:00.000-06:00

"You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Well, that's not much of a mission statement, now is it? I mean, if Jesus is trying to attract passionate followers for this enterprise, He sure doesn't try to build our self-confidence and present this walk in the best of lights? He surely doesn't seem to be trying to highlight the highs and sneak around the lows? In fact, if we could say anything at all, it is that Jesus seems to need to take Marketing 101 so to boost the potential for a return.
For it is hardly an attractive picture Jesus paints today in Luke. Buildings collapsing; nations and kingdoms rising and falling; earthquakes, famines and pestilences running rampant. Add onto that the promise of persecutions and hatred from friend and foe alike-this is hardly something that one would dive head first into? For what person actively seeks out situations for their pain and suffering? Isn't the hope of life is to have it as easy as possible; to have as few as inconveniences come our way?
So why would anyone be willing to risk all of this for the sake of this one Man? Well, what exactly is it that Jesus says will pass away in the end? Malachi said, that when the day comes, everything that is not sheltered by the Sun of righteousness, will be burnt to a stubble. That the sea will roar and the rivers and hills will start clapping and singing, the Psalmist says. Which means, that the end will be the end of all this. The end of everything we see around us. That the end will be the end of everything that we know to be real and true and solid and consistent in this world; in our world.
And at first glance, that is a mighty frightening thought. Isn't the reason we have 401k's, orderly elections and insurance is to protect ourselves from such events? But if we look right down to it, we all do know that we don't receive even a half return of what we give to this world. For regardless of what we see to do in the time we're given, we all know that what awaits us in the end is our grave. That no matter how hard we try to avoid and protect ourselves, pain and sorrow, sickness and death catch us in the end.
For indeed, even the warmth and life of summer gives way to the cold and death of winter. So the question must be raised-if all we get from the world is nothing in the end, how come we are so fearful to think about such things? How come we seek to insist on our own ways and wills when we know that we are not eternal; that we are at the mercy of other forces?
Which means if we already know that nothing of this world will finally last, then it is time, right here and now, to take our faith, our hope, our love off of it, and onto the only thing that will last. And since it is in the Lord will we find judgment coming with righteousness and equity, then it is only in the Lord will be find something that will last beyond this world.
And so, Jesus says today, even though you will be hated by all for His name's sake, yet by your endurance you will gain your lives. For as Christ Jesus hung upon that cross, He was ultimately judging the world for its sins. And the world was found to be guilty, for even though the grave accepted Christ on Good Friday, it received what it did not deserve and so it met its own death when He rose to life on the third day. And since the world could not destroy the worst it might give to Christ, then all those who are found in Him, now have the assurance that not even a hair on their heads can finally be in peril.
For all those, Paul says, who are baptized into Christ Jesus are crucified to this world and this world to them. Since only Christ Jesus has been raised from the dead by the Father, so only those who live under the wings of the Son, living upon a faith and hope and strength that is not their own, will be protected from the end. Because as this world has no further claim on Christ Jesus anymore, so those who live in Him can already live today as though the world has nothing good to offer-for what can be more wonderful and beautiful than forgiveness from our sins, the promise of life from our death and the knowledge that the temptations of the devil no longer must be followed.
Which is why, as Paul says today in 2 Thessalonians, we cannot grow weary in doing good. For even though we have this promise of Christ today, we are told and we know, that the end will not be at once. So just as Christ suffered, so we must still suffer from the wrath of this world until the end does arrive. We must strive and resist whatever the world might seek to convince us of; we must seek the heart of the Father, lest He, as Malachi says, strike the land with utter destruction. But as we have been given this Word from the Lord, we must speed ahead and honor it by listening, repenting and shaping our lives according to His desires.
So let us learn to turn our backs and forsake whatever we might be offered today, for we know that the treasures of tomorrow are worth more than life itself. Let us run this race that our Savior ran before us, following the voice of the only true Redeemer, following the voice of the One who broke His body and spilt His blood so that we might be saved and redeemed from sin, death and the devil. Let us turn neither to the left or the right, but hold onto the straight and narrow way-for it is only here, at the foot of the Cross, is the true God is at hand, giving salvation to those who hold onto His name to the very end. Amen.

October 24, 2010: Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22, Psalm 5, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18, Luke 18:9-17

2010-10-31T12:00:00.001-05:00

"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

God is looking for a few good sinners. Now, before you get all worked up; before you start getting visions of vice and debauchery dancing in your head; before you throw all caution to the wind and prepare for a week of living dangerously, let me be clear-the fact that God is looking for a few good sinners does not mean He is needing you to prove your excellence in this matter.
Because the facts are, that when God says He is looking for a few good sinners, He knows He doesn't to have a "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" event to consider you-for you are just the kind of sinner God is looking for, just as you are, without one plea. Look at what today's parable from Luke says. For who went away justified, redeemed, forgiven of their sins? Jesus says it wasn't the Pharisee, who actually did many good and religious things, who was exactly the type of neighbor we would all love to live next to-but it was that old tax collector, who was in the back because he wasn't even allowed to sit in the front pews on account of the way he lived his life. It was the one who was too ashamed to even lift his head off of his chest for he knew he was unworthy to receive anything good from the grace of God.
And what made him, to whom mercy was given that day, qualified wasn't for anything that he was, but for the simple fact that he knew exactly who he was. So we find him refusing to acknowledge anything good within himself-refusing to justify himself by seeking to explain away his failures and futilities of the week. He refused to hold up before God anything he did or could do-refusing to hold his head high over a self-made satisfaction. But the only thing he could find the strength or the power to do was to blurt out this prayer of desperation, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" All he would do was to deny himself completely so to throw himself upon the mercy of Another.
Which is why the tax collector, Jesus says, went down to his house justified, rather than the Pharisee-he refused to define himself anything more than a sinner. He was confessing that there was, as David said in the Psalm, no truth in his mouth; that within himself there was nothing but destruction. He placed himself above no one else-rejecting any attempt to offer anything of himself-but solely fell upon the grace of his God, laying hold to the work of his Savior to save him alone.
Which is why God is looking for a few good sinners. Not that one should seek out opportunities to revel in decadence-this is a God who, David says, does not delight in wickedness. But neither shall the boastful stand before Him. So to be a sinner acceptable to God is to know that you are a sinner and hate it to your core. It is to hold out nothing in your hand; to hold nothing in yourself; to hold nothing before your God, accept than to beat your breast, fall upon your face and confess that you have absolutely nothing and no hope, outside of a mercy shown and given to you by a Savior.
For to receive the Kingdom of God like a child is to know yourself completely and totally dependant upon it to be given to you as a gift. It is to actually take our confession, that you are in bondage to sin and cannot free yourself, and place it in your heart-to take all our delusions of goodness and piety and wholeness in who we are, what we can do, what we might believe, and replace them with the acknowledgment that we truly have and are nothing good in and of ourselves. It is to know that if you are left to yourself-left to your own power and will and identity-you have as much time to live until the grave beckons you to enter it, without any hope of escape.
But, "everyone who humbles himself," Jesus says, "will be exalted." All God is looking for from you is yourself-to hand over everything you try to be, think you are, want to achieve-and to fall hopelessly in faith upon Him. For Christ Jesus was nailed to that cross for your very sake-it was your sin that He was cursed under and it was your death that He suffered the wrath of God-and He did it for the sole reason so to redeem your condemned life from death and hell so to give you the glories of His heavenly home.
Thus, to be the sinner God is looking for is to give to Him everything you have-all the failures, all the thoughts, all the actions that seeks to have your will done over both God and neighbor-laying before Him nothing but yourself, pleading that He gives you the forgiveness, life and salvation you know you so desperately need. It is to be poured out, like Paul, all for the sake of knowing Christ and Him crucified-giving up everything, including your very life, for the sake of holding onto One who entered the depths of hell so to defeat it for the redemption of all who believe.
So know, as Luther wrote, that God "does not want to reject but to love true sinners;" true sinners who refuse to define and defend themselves according to their own goodness or desires, but who confess that all that they are, if it is to have any hope and future beyond on our graves, must be found solely in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus alone. For God has promised to have mercy on those who are sinners-a mercy given in the One who broke His body and shed His blood for sinners in need of salvation. He gives mercy by washing you under the waters of your baptism, killing and raising you to a brand new life. He gives you His mercy by refusing to leave you as you are-a sinner condemned to death and the devil-by bestowing upon you a life won, for you, in His victory over your grave. Amen.

October 31, 2010: Revelation 14:6-7, Psalm 46, Romans 3:19-31, John 8:31-38

2010-10-31T11:59:00.001-05:00

And St. Paul wrote in Romans, chapter 3, "But now." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

And at that, so now all voices and all peoples must fall silent-God has spoken and there is nothing left for anyone of us to say. That there is nothing to be said that can add to or subtract from-for God is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. That there can no other word, in heaven or on earth or under the earth, that can finally override the Word of the Almighty God. "But now" that God has spoken His judgment over you, even again this day, all there is left for you to do is to abide and live under it.
For if it is only the truth that will set you free, then it is the truth of who you are that you need to start to hear. And so, as Paul said, the truth is that you stand today convicted of being a sinner unto condemnation. All distinctions have come to an end-there is no one, outside of God Himself, who is holy and just and able to stand above all accusations before the law. And since that is true, then you must know that you have no righteousness within yourself-that it doesn't matter who you are, how nice you may be, how much you so think-you have sinned by trying to seek your will over that of God's and have ended up, while searching for your freedom, in bondage to sin, death and the devil, thus falling short of the glory of God.
And as hard as that might be to hear, still you are given no breathing room, just as Jesus didn't for the Jews in John today. For Jesus knows that what you need to hear isn't want you want to hear. He knows that you might get mad and offended at a word that declares you to be a slave to sin; declares you to have the devil as a father, as He does in verse 38 today. He knows that you will be all upset to know that no matter who you might think you are-He alone is God, as He said in the Psalm; He alone is exalted above heaven and earth.
But He also knows that if He doesn't tell you such things, you will be lost forever-condemned by and under the original sin of rebellion and idolatry. He knows that unless, as He says in verse 36, the Son sets you free, you cannot be freed from the eternal damnation all iniquity must suffer. He knows that if He leaves you to yourself-to define and defend who you think you are according to your felt needs-He will fail to be the Savior you direly need and will lose you to the unquenchable fire. And so, for your sake, He must stop your endless chatter so to get your full and rapt attention.
So having sent me to be His preacher of salvation, what I have to say today is what Christ Jesus wants you to hear. For as the angel said in John's apocalypse, there is one eternal Gospel to know and believe and hold onto; that all one can do is to "Fear God and give Him the glory, for the hour of judgment has come." Which means, that if you are to have any hope whatsoever, it must be found outside of yourself, outside of your own strength or power or piety. Because as redemption is given solely in blood of Christ Jesus, so to be made righteous to God is to have your old life of slavery done away with, so that true freedom might now be had.
And in that, we finally uphold the law, as Paul said in Romans. For as we despair over ourselves-seeing that the law convicts us that everything we have is sin-our mouths must be stopped because as we hear of our salvation in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus alone, we now know that there is nothing within ourselves to be sought. And when we end any attempt to be defined according to ourselves, we begin to live by faith alone-for we end any attempt to be justified, to be made right to God, outside of the wrath that Christ was crucified and died under and the curse which He defeated when He was raised on the third day.
Which, then, places our boasting outside of ourselves and in Christ alone-for we can only speak of a forgiveness, life and salvation being given unto us as a gift. That, as we are made free and brought into the house in the sacrifice of the Son, so we are given a Word that speaks of a victory, not in any achievement or righteousness of our own, but of a work the Lord has done to end all wars between God and man, between man and devil-creating in its place a fortress that not even the gates of hell will prevail against. For as we no longer are speaking, we are able, for the first time since the Garden, begin to hear Christ boasting in His defeat over our eternal enemies as He stands victorious over death and hell.
Which mean this, "But now," is our single phrase of jubilation, not simply on this Reformation Day, but every day we stand justified, redeemed and forgiven all on account of the body Christ broke and the blood He shed on Calvary. What more can we say; what more can we do than to receive all of what Christ Jesus has said and done for, over and to us in the death He died and the resurrection He rose-the death and resurrection that delivered us from eternal condemnation so to place us in the glories of the Father's home? For silence is golden-as golden as the heavenly home bestowed upon us; as golden as the Truth which saves, forgives and redeems all who believe unto the Son. Amen.

October 17, 2010: Luke 18:1-8, 2 Timothy 3:10-4:5, Genesis 32:22-30, Psalm 121

2010-10-18T08:37:00.000-05:00

"And the Lord said, 'Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night?'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

In an age of instant gratification; in an age where we can receive movies-on-demand over our satellite dishes; in an age where we can facebook and twitter and youtube our every thought, idea and exploit around the world-the fact we must all become a persistent widow, knocking, crying, seeking our needs continuously, is hardly a word of good news. That as we have become a people of convenience-wanting, seeking, demanding to be satisfied-we have forgotten just what it means to people of faith, waiting upon the action of Another-for, as we so dearly believe, the customer is always right.
Which is why Paul's warning to Timothy in chapter 4 hits so pointedly these days. For where the ears that itch are being scratched today is in this desire to have what we want, when we want. That we have, in essence, secularized the sacred-turning the way we live in the world into the way God must deal with us. So, whether it is the idea that because our prayers aren't answered the way we want or the objection that God might have some say over our thoughts, words and actions-we begin to exchange teachers so to suit our desires.
And whenever one seeks to do such, they are finally saying that, if what we are receiving, isn't what we might want, then God must surely be doing something different and it is up to us, now, to "discover" the hidden things of God. Yet, when we embark on that endeavor, what we get isn't much more than a god who looks awfully a lot like ourselves-approving what we approve, dismissing what we dismiss. That we end up refusing to neither listen nor wait for what God might actually be saying over us by placing our own words in His mouth, declaring the will of God according, not to what He actually has said, but finally to our own rationalities.
However, as Paul continued along, it doesn't really matter what we might think, but only what God has actually said. For as long as we live in this fallen world, we will face being deceived to wander off into myths. Which is why he reminded Timothy to hold onto the Word he had learned and received and not get caught up into mindless and instant speculation. For as it is inspired, breathed out by God, so the Holy Scriptures are the only means in which we are given what God desires for us to know. It is the only place, as Paul says, that is profitable for training in righteousness.
And so, what this Word does tells us, is exactly what is found in this parable from Luke. For if this unrighteous judge finally would relent because of the persistence of this widow, how much more will our righteous God deliver to us what we truly need? Which means faith isn't simply receiving what we might want, what we might desire, but is the unrelenting pounding upon God for His will to be done on earth as in heaven-even if it goes against ours. It is, as Luther comments on Genesis 32, "being strong and holding firmly to the Word, even though you feel great infirmity, even if you feel that the hip socket is moved from its place."
This means, then, what your God seeks from you is your perseverance, your persistence and not your personality. It means that you can't fall into the temptation of seeking to have your ears scratched. It means that, in the midst of the battles of life, you cannot succumb to the idea that if you don't receive what you want to hear, then it is your task to speak for Him. For your God is not beholden to you, nor is He up for suggestions. But because He finally knows what is best for you-something He has already shown and given to you in Christ Jesus-then faith can only be lived out in your ears, waiting for something you might hear and not your heart.
And when that begins, nothing again can be the same. For just as Jacob, whose name meant, "he cheats," is now Israel, "God's prince and fighter," so when your faith refuses to let go of the Word of God, you will find a blessing, not according to what you might think is needed in this world, but one built upon God Himself. When you refuse to let the world, the devil, and even your sinful selves to have their say, then you will begin to actually hear the blessings that God died in order to give you.
Therefore, just because you haven't seen the end of sins that continue to accuse you before the law, doesn't mean God isn't hearing your pleas and giving you the forgiveness you so yearn. Just because you continue to see the ravages of age and disease take your body and your family away from you, doesn't mean that God is impotent over the grave and will not leave your body to wade away into the sands of time. And just because your flesh seems powerless to resist the temptation of desires, doesn't mean that God's promise to shield you from more than you can handle has failed to sustain you.
But you can lay hold of this promise because Christ Jesus defeated your enemies already as He was raised from the dead on the third day. You can lay hold like Jacob and refuse to let go until He gives you the blessing He died and was raised to give. For as Paul reminded, all that he suffered was because Christ suffered first for him-and now there was nothing, in this world or the next, that could offer or threaten anything more than what he had already received in his Lord and Savior. And now, even in the midst of the darkest valley, he could lift up his ears because he knew, as the Psalmist sung, just where his help came.
So let's set aside our cell phones, quit twittering our lives away and stop our forever searching for answers within ourselves. Instead, fall under the shadow of the Cross which protects you from every evil to your body and soul. You cannot lose hope, even when everything or everybody tries to convince you different-for your God cannot fail to redeem you for His promises are forever pure. For the faith the Son of Man is looking for is found when you lose yourself upon the mercy of your Savior; your Savior who broke His body and shed His blood so to give you all your eternal needs. Amen.

October 10, 2010: Luke 17:11-19, 2 Timothy 2:1-15, Ruth 1:1-19, Psalm 111

2010-10-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

"And He said to him, 'Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well; your faith has saved you." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

And as this one cleansed leper, and a Samaritan no less, returned back to the very source of his restoration, so he received what he truly and eternally needed-forgiveness, life and salvation. For as he returned to Jesus, falling at His feet in the ultimate gesture of faith, it was announced that so received much more than simply the end of his leprosy, but was indeed given the approval of God Himself, all on account of his trust in his Deliverer.
For while indeed, all 10 lepers were cleansed-Luke says so explicitly. But while the other 9, presumably Jews, continued on to present themselves to the priests, thus fulfilling the requirement of the Levitical law, only this one foreigner, knew exactly where his praise and thanksgiving needed to be upon. That instead of focusing on his new life-a life restored both in his body and society-he knew all he could do was to take his eyes off of his gift and onto the Giver of his gift.
Because as he fell to his face at Jesus' feet, he began to find the wisdom the Psalmist today spoke of. For here he placed his worship upon Jesus alone-laying hold, as Luther says, on the heart of God, standing in awe and honored Him in all things. That he laid aside everything else-his healing, his future, his Samaritanism-because nothing of who he were, was and would be mattered now when confronted with the One who had now called him to a new existence.
And what separated this one leper from the 10, was that after his healing, his attention was not on the hope of his new freedom, but upon the One in whom his freedom lied. For without the work of Christ, giving him the cure he needed, this man would have gone to his grave, even as his flesh failed him in his life. And so he staked everything he had, even after he was restored and thus refused to stand in awe, looking at himself in the mirror, he could only fall on his face at the feet of the only hope and life he now knew.
Which, of course, is what faith is all about. Because faith isn't like the other 9 lepers, concerned with only living out of the freedom they are given, but forgetting from just whom it came. It isn't the ability to do whatever we want, thinking only about what we can do, what we can have, what we might be. And it surely isn't being freed from any other authority than yourself-living as though we are gods onto ourselves, defining what is good and evil in our own eyes.
But faith is denying yourself as Ruth did-forsaking and forgetting everything that you are, everything that you know, everything that is known, and instead staking your future upon another, even though you might be considered as an outsider by those who live in the land. So this one leper, forgetting that he was a Samaritan, having no rights, yet still closed his eyes and ears to everything and everyone around him, for he knew that nothing of this world could give him more than he had received from Christ Jesus. Leaving behind what the world might think, he left behind the world so to be saved by his Savior.
So then, which direction you are going? Are you taking the declaration I proclaimed earlier from God, that you are forgiven of the sins you confessed in the quiet of the moment, but then go about your merry way as though nothing really happened? Are you going to walk out those doors, trying to play nice to the world; seeking to win their approval even though you know of another way, another Word? Are you going to take the new life you have been given by the death and resurrection of the Lamb who laid down His life for your sake and keep walking like the nine in Luke?
Or will you take your absolution, the announcement that your sins, which are many and sordid and accusing you day and night, and fall hopelessly upon the fact that they are and have been forgiven by the absolute mercy of your heavenly Father all on account for the sake of Christ? Will you take the declaration that the death you have forever feared, which has been chasing you the moment you were born, and trust that it has been eaten and swallowed up by the resurrection of your Savior on that Easter morning? Will you take this proclamation that your bondage to the temptations of the devil, the temptation of having to give into the desires of your flesh, and know that he no longer has control over you, for you have a Lord took the nails of the cross and the thorns of your pain, so to deliver and set you free now and forever?
But, of course, there is truly nothing left and nowhere to go but to fall on your face at the pierced feet of your Deliverer and believe that here, and here alone, you are given a brand new life-healed from your diseases and restored from your iniquities. All there is left for you is to fall before the One who, even in the midst of your faithlessness, still remains faithful, forgiving you in your repentance, redeeming you with the Body He broke and the Blood He shed. All there is left for you is to fall upon the Word of your Redeemer, who speaks of your salvation in the waters of your baptism, as it created you anew in the death and resurrection of the Crucified Son. Amen.

October 3, 2010: Luke 17:1-10, Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4, Psalm 62, 2 Timothy 1:1-14

2010-10-04T08:36:00.001-05:00

"So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

As your Lord and Savior hung upon that tree on that Friday we call good, He was found as this unworthy servant, simply doing His duty-and He was doing it for you.
For why else was He hung between two thieves, being crucified for sins He did not commit? Why else was He buried in a borrowed tomb, laid asunder unto a ground that had no right over Him? Why else was He wasted and done away with other than to serve you until the end; to serve you until He had nothing else to give; to serve you even after He gave the good confession of His love for you?
Well, He did this all because He knew that without Him, you would be at the bottom of the sea because you lack the faith of even a mustard seed. He knew that our eternal, our predestined problem is that we are sinners beyond compare. That because, as Habakkuk so rightly attested, we are nothing but violence and destruction-that we are a life spent chasing after a freedom we can never find for we are bound too tightly to the sin we detest and to a death we fear.
So it is no wonder, as Jesus warned in Luke, that we need to be afraid of temptation to sin-it is sin that does and indeed has separated us from our heavenly Father. And to be separated is a death sentence-for as forgiveness, life and salvation is found only in God, then all outside of Him leaves us holding nothing when it is all over with and done. That those who live in the wallows of a life of sin, a life spent in wrong to both God and neighbor, find a millstone dragging them down when they breathe their last.
Thus it would be our woe if we would be left to redeem ourselves from our sins, for there is nothing we can do about it-we stand condemned to death and hell before we ever even get a chance. However, we must remember, the righteous doesn't live by their worth nor do they look for strength or sound footing to be found within the self. For because, as Habakkuk says, the righteous live only by their faith, so the only hope you have is to take leave of yourself, repent and live now upon the righteousness of Another, of your Servant of all Servants, Christ Jesus.
For now, because of Him, because He took your place under the wrath of the Father, you can come and recline at the banquet-for the feast has been prepared and the table is now set. You can come to eat the bread of salvation and drink the wine of redemption-eating and drinking the victory of the One who refused to remain in your death, so to give you a share of His eternal life. That His death is your life and He was given to do the will of the Father so to deliver you from the depths of hell to the glories of righteousness.
Therefore learn to cry out with the apostle's, "Increase our faith!" Learn to place in your ear the good deposit of the Holy Spirit; to place over your head and upon your tongue the work of the Slave who does only what He was given to do, even until the very end of His life. For your fortress can be found only in this One who became your temptation, who took your millstone, in order to abolish your death-for it is Christ Jesus alone who destroyed the work of the devil when He entered your tomb in your stead and tore it open as He was raise on the third day. Amen.

September 26, 2010-Luke 16:19-31, Amos 6:1-7, Psalm 146, 1 Timothy 6:6-19

2010-09-26T06:40:00.000-05:00

"He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

That pretty much sums it all up, does it not? I mean, in the midst of the life we attempt to portray-in our homes, on the streets, at our work or even here in worship-it finally comes down to just who it is we will place our total and eternal fear, love and trust in.
Because if our lives are not built around, in and upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, then our lives are futile. Now, that is not to say we can't do anything good and important outside of Christ-even the rich man in Luke today was chastised for refusing to use his wealth to help poor Lazarus at his gate. So, there is plenty that one can and should be doing in our daily lives with what we hold in our hands.
But, as this story from Jesus continues to point out, the real and ultimate problem of this man, wasn't simply that he misused the wealth he had, but that it had become his god; it had become what Jesus earlier in Luke called "mammon," the root word of which means, "what one puts their trust in." That is why he ended up in the torments of hell-not because he was rich, but because that was the reward given by his god. He had fallen into that snare Paul warned Timothy of today-that while seeking the God who dwells in unapproachable light, he plunged into the eternal darkness, for he put his trust that which is not God, as the Psalmist declared.
So what good, Abraham replied, would it be for the man's five brother's if Lazarus had gone back to warn them-they had already been given a Word from God demanding their faith. They had the word of warning from the prophet Amos-that those at ease and feel secure, but not grieved over the ruin of Joseph, are doomed for destruction. Besides, if not even the death of their brother could call them to repentance, there was nothing from heaven or hell that could call them back.
However, someone has already risen from the dead. The very thing the rich man in hell desired to warn his brothers has indeed happened. Which mean there is now no excuses left and there is nothing left for you to do but to believe. For the end of the world has arrived and nothing, not in heaven or on earth, can and will be the same.
Because, you have been told, the affects of placing one's faith in the things-the riches, the ideas, the philosophies-of this world-Jesus' parable today speak to these facts. You know that there is no life outside of the one you've got-and once that is spent, as the Psalmist says, your plans perish that very day. You know there is no way out of that fact-that sooner or later, our mortality catches up with us and all that is left is a cold, stone memorial to our life.
So what good is it if we receive what we want in this world; what good is it if are able to define and be defined according to our own desires? The rich man had everything he could ever want-it says that every day, he had the fill of his belly and fulfillment of his flesh. But all the gods of this world could give him was eternal thirst. Yet Lazarus, the one who only found relief in this world was when the dogs licked his wounds, was received into the rest of eternal glory-not because of who he was, but because he had stored up his treasure in a faith that laid not in the things of this life.
Which is why the sum of everything we are and everything you've got, must be found in Christ Jesus, risen from the dead. For the facts are that we are already dead in our trespasses; there is no future in anyone of us as we currently are. For there is nothing that can approach the God who lives in unapproachable light. However, refusing to leave you this way, your God, Jesus Christ, has come to you, come so to be wasted under the guilt of your sin and the condemnation of your death, in order to draw you to His side. For as life can only be found outside of the grave, then it can only be found in the One who rose triumphant over it.
So learn then, from this One who is risen from the dead and who has come before you once again this morning. Learn from Amos and begin to grieve over the ruin of Joseph; begin to grieve over the facts of your life and your need-your dire, your critical need-and so repent over a life spent in wasteful chasing after the wind and fall hopelessly in faith upon the good and solid confession that Christ Jesus is your way, your only way, to receive forgiveness of your sins, resurrection from your death, redemption from your damnation.
And as you sit here like Lazarus, close your eyes to the world around you, and so receive the soothing salve of your baptism flowing over your sores of sin and death. For Christ is the only way to the Father-for here you find God stooping down to you; giving Himself unto you for the salvation of your body and soul; handing Himself over to you, His body and blood given and shed for you and your redemption. He comes to you to gather you up into Him; to draw you near to His side, so to dwell there safely until the judgment arrives and your body is raised from the tomb and you so receive the glory of your faith. Amen.

September 19, 2010: Amos 8:4-12, Psalm 113, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, Luke 16:1-17

2010-09-19T07:05:00.002-05:00

"And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

So what is it that we might learn from this dishonest steward from Luke today? What is it that Jesus actually commends and exhorts us to follow his example; to learn from his practices? What is it that we, as the children of light, those who have been enlightened by the work of the Holy Spirit to create faith in Christ Jesus as our Lord, are to take from this parable and so live accordingly?
Well, if we listen to Jesus carefully, we learn that what the steward ends up being commended, wasn't his wastefulness of his master's resources, but in the way he sought to ensure his future after his dismissal. That he understood very well, just what he was capable of-and it ends up that it wasn't much. He admits that he is really only able to work for another-farming was not in the cards and he was too proud to beg.
So, he realized his only hope was to take what he had and use it for his advantage. And so, he deals even more dishonestly with his master's wealth, in order to gain friends by offering them a deal they couldn't refuse. By cutting down their debts, the dishonest manager sought to gain the admiration of the debtors; making sure, that when his current life was ended, he had some place to land; some place to call home. That, even though he had squandered his time with his present existence, he knew it was better to give up with what wasn't his in the first place, so to gain the favor of another.
And it is in that, which comes this word from Jesus to make friends for ourselves so to be received in the future. For indeed, the children of this world are more shrewd with dealing than are the children of light, Jesus says. And what He means is that those who have placed their eternal hopes in this world know that one has to make the most with the time they've got. Just like what Amos described this morning, if there is one thing the world is good at, it is putting all its eggs in one basket-for the children of the world are those who have placed all their hopes, dreams and faith upon this world and themselves, so that they can get out of and do something in it before the grave claims them. That just like the steward from Luke, so the children of this world must try to make a legacy for themselves today, if their memory is to continue after their bones have turned to dust.
And that is what can be learned from this dishonest steward today. As Amos warned, the days are coming, and in fact are already here, when there is a famine of the Word in the land. For God has already judged this world, when the sky became dark on that Friday Christ hung upon His cross-and the world stands condemned because we have turned our faith into our own desires and thoughts. But yet, since this condemnation ends up being the one way of salvation for this same world-for Christ Jesus, as Paul says today, is the One Mediator for the forgiveness of our sins-then to make friends by means of unrighteous wealth, as Jesus says, is to learn to fall hopelessly in faith upon the death and resurrection of your Lord and Savior.
And so, just like the dishonest steward, so you must become dishonest with this world. It doesn't matter what it will think of you, if you seek to forget what it allures you with. This world is such that it will be rid of you as soon as you outlive your usefulness. However, what does it matter if it hates you-remember, the steward was commended for casting all he had upon the hope that even after he had lost everything, there might be someone to receive him. And Christ Jesus entered the debt of sin and death, just for that-that you might have a friend who will invite you in when the world casts you out.
For as those who have placed their faith, not in the things of this world or in being known by whom they are, so do not be concerned whether the world thinks you are right or loving or inclusive-for your identity is not wrapped up in what is passing away. For no one can serve two masters-you will love the one and hate the other. So where will your devotion be-on seeking to find yourself in this world, a world held captive by the forces of sin, death and the devil and is passing away or on the One who gave away everything He had, giving away His very life, so that you will be welcomed when your life is taken away and you will be cast out into the grave? Will you hold onto your pride and still seek to justify yourself according to your actions, wants and beliefs, or will you admit that there is no future lying within yourself and so start living upon the only One who holds the power to raise the dead triumphant over the grave?
So know that indeed, the Good News of God is being preached into your ears this morning-and now there is no other way than the Way of Christ. You can find your salvation-your forgiveness, your life, your redemption-in no One else than in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He alone, and not your strength, not your power, not even your self, is able to provide a future in the midst of your end-for He is the only ransom given by God for you. " Therefore," as Luther says, "Deny and refuse yourself, lest He deny and refuses you." But in that, then, you will be making yourself friends with the One who redeemed your debt and paid your debtor, so that, no matter how this world will forsake you, you will be received into the eternal dwellings. Amen.

September 12, 2010: Deut. 30:15-20, Psalm 1, 1 Timothy 1:12-17, Luke 14:25-35

2010-09-12T06:55:00.000-05:00

"So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

I would imagine, that if these words came from anyone else, they could hardly be called "gospel." For this call from Jesus today, the call that for Him, one must be willing to suffer all, including your own life, is scarcely one of good news-let alone a call that invokes warm and fuzzy feelings, as is the general portrayal of Christ. In fact, this is a call that might lead you to seriously consider, as He tells in the illustrations of the builder and king, if following Him is worth the price you will have to pay.
And one might ask that question because we hardly live in a world where suffering is sought after. Sure, one might "suffer" for their art, as the saying goes; or we might "suffer" from a tooth ache, might even have to "suffer" through a miserable Packer season. But most of the time, we are a people who try to avoid "suffering" at any cost. We don't like pain; we don't enjoy having our lives interrupted and our joys diminished. For we are those who like our conveniences; we are those who enjoy our comforts; we are those who want to be at ease.
So, the idea that we must be, not simply prepared, but expect to suffer all things, even our lives, for the sake of Christ, comes as a rather shocking and antithetical statement to our modern sensibilities. And this is so, because we all are, as Luther defined, theologians of glory at the core-people who like to look for God in the "bright and shiny" places. That we are people who like to sooth our consciences by creating our own demands and regulations. And as we do that, we create a Christianity where there is no sin or law, right or wrong, true or false; a Christianity where everyone is floating on puffy clouds in heaven; where God is a kindly old grandfather who looks the other way at our peccadillos.
Which makes the thought of having to suffer for the sake of Christ; of having to forsake all that is known, safe and secure-objectionable on our part. For like the Israelites in Deuteronomy today, we don't want to be reminded that there are only two paths to travel in this life-one that leads to life and one that leads to death. And so we seek to create our own salvation by making sure we are in the right, even when confronted with an uncompromising Word. But, yet even that gets us nowhere in the end, for all but Moses and Joshua, after wandering for 40 years in the desert, perished when they sought to run back to the easy life of slavery at the hands of the Egyptians, even after the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had demanded their lives.
And so, we are forced to deal, whether we like it not, with this demand from Jesus-a demand made upon and for your entire self; your entire faith, hope and love. However, we must remember that it is Jesus speaking these words. And so, even in the midst of this call to forsake everything, it must be remembered it is JESUS speaking these words. For, you must know, He is the One who, Paul preached to Timothy, "came into the world to save sinners." That He sat perched atop His cross, forsaken by His Father, hated by His own people, abandoned by His very disciples, so that you might be given a mercy that is greater than anything this old world might offer. He went the way of the cross so that you might actually know the true glory of God-the glory of a promised resurrection even when your bones have turned back into the dust from which they came.
Which means, the reason you can rest easy in the fact that you can give up of all things in this world, even your life, is because He has gone this way already before you. For the sin that condemns and separates us from God, took Him becoming man so to die like us under the curse. So, while as heaven and earth still testifies, there are two paths, but there is only one way, to travel in this old world. Because it is only with God and His Word, will life be found and given-He alone is Immortal and mighty, since it only those who have been raised from the grave is triumph over it. And if, as the Psalmist declares, the righteous are those who refuse to walk, stand or sit in the way of the wicked, so there is no future to be found, except in this one Lord.
And so, your only chance for a future of life beyond the confines of your tomb, is to find your past, present and future in Christ Jesus alone. That is why He calls for you to hate everything, friend and family alike, if you are to be His disciple-for when it comes to finding forgiveness from your sins, life from your death and salvation from your condemnation, you can and will find it only in this One given for you by the Father so to be your sin, your death, your condemnation. So what is it to each of us if, by giving up all our eternal hopes and faith in the things of this world, we end up suffering for it? Paul sums it up pointedly, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance,"-if Christ and His Word is the only truth in this world, then nothing else is even deserving of our breath.
So it really is "gospel," "good news," that Jesus confronts us with-for what can this world do to us that it hasn't already done to the One who enter hell so to redeem us from it? If He alone is our way, truth and life, then He is the single way, truth and life, and everything else is not. No other word or person or idea can have any sway over us-how can we be salt to the world if there is no seasoning outside of Christ? But, if in Him, not even the gates of hell will prevail, then the cost has been paid and the opposing army has been defeated-and now all there is left for you to do is to throw yourself, with all you've got, onto the One whose arms was outstretched on the beams of His cross, so that you might see just where your redemption resides. Let he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Amen.

September 5, 2010: John 6:53-58, Isaiah 55:1-13, Psalm 65, Hebrews 10:19-25

2010-09-03T08:34:00.000-05:00

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen

Christ Jesus is being rather exclusive today. I mean, He has set, rather exclusively, the boundary, located the limits and confined the means. For He has today, with this declaration in verse 53, defined the one and only means of your forgiveness, of your salvation, of your very life. And, believe it or not, this is a very good thing.
For if your life depends on anything other than eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ Jesus, it means that you are responsible, within yourselves, to find your own life. And this may be fine and dandy on a day such as this-when the weather is nice and we are enjoying a labor day rest. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that for most of our lives, we live as though we are in complete control of it. We go about our business, concerned about ending our day a bit better than when we began.
However, at the bottom of it all, you are in a heap of trouble if your life is in your hands. For a problem develops when you come up against something greater than yourself-you suddenly find yourself in a situation in which all your free will, all your earnest wishing, all your sincere desires count for absolutely nothing at all. Because no matter how great or grand or mighty you are, at the end of it all, all we receive in this life is our death. We have spent our money, as God spoke in Isaiah, on that which is not bread and have labored for that which does not satisfy. And so, from the moment we are conceived, we are forever bound chasing the grave. For we are finite creatures-at the mercy of a life cycle that no matter what we try, we are unable to continue it eternally.
Which makes Jesus’ statement today even more poignant. For what Jesus is finally talking about in verse 53 is not merely the absence of our physical life, but of our spiritual life as well. And that creates a bigger problem for us. For if we finally have no power over our life in itself, what power do we have with life when it comes to God? Because if, as our Psalm said today, apart from God we have no good, it means that on our own, there is as much possibility for a life with God as there is for us to escape the grave-in other words, none.
For the facts of our lives is that we are sinners-willful and willing in rebellion toward our God. And the most heinous aspect of sin isn’t that it merely tempts us to choose the bad over the good, but that it eternally separates us from our heavenly Father. For, as nothing unholy can stand in His presence, we are forever bound to be on the outside, condemned in a life that might will the good, but having nothing within ourselves to accomplish even the most basic practices of hope, faith and love.
One can see, then, why Jesus has and had to set the boundary, the limit, the means in which you can actually find life. For if on your own, you only have life until you reach the grave, then you are in need of someone else to give you a life that is not your own. You need to be given a new hope and future that is outside of yourself; that is outside of your power, strength and ability. And that life, Jesus says, is to and can be found only in your feasting upon His flesh and blood in the placing your faith, hope and love on your Crucified Savior.
For Christ Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, not for Himself, but for you-He suffered under the condemnation of your sin and in the wrath of your death, so that as He was raised on the third day from the grave, the power of sin, death and the devil would be broken and a new creation would be ushered in. He was wasted by the filth of your life so that you would be given His beauty-He was crushed under the eternal weight of all your sin and hatred, death and rebellion, so that a new and living way, Hebrews says, might be opened for us-the way opened through the curtain of His crucified and risen body and blood.
Which is why Jesus says all you can do to be given the life you lack, is to feast upon Him-to know nothing except, as Paul says, Christ and Him crucified. That to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ Jesus is to look upon this crucified One and believe that in Him, you are given a new life, a new hope, a new future than the bleak one waiting for you in yourself, so that finally, as Luther says, “His blood, shed on the cross, is what Christ declares to be the true food.”
This is why this exclusivity of Christ today is truly your only good news. For although in yourself you have no life, in His death and resurrection, you are given life and now it abundantly. That in Him, you receive, as a pure gift of the Father, all that you lack on your own-forgiveness from your many sins, salvation from your eternal damnation, life from your everlasting death-and He gives it to you in the faith the Holy Spirit has created in your hearts in the Word you’ve heard preached, in the waters of your baptism and in the body and blood of the Lord’s Supper.
So, if you are to have life-a life outside of your death-you have no other confession to make, than the of the One who have sprinkled clean your hearts and have washed you bodies with the stream of pure water that flowed from His side; that flowed over your head at your baptism. That because you have no life in yourself, you need to turn, to look, to go to another in order to be given another word than your grave to be spoken at your death. You need to turn away from your life that has no future and place your heart upon One who has already conquered the grave you are heading for.
And, so Jesus says, come to Me and feast-take this broken body and shed blood into your ears and mouth and simply believe it was all for you. That all you can do is to know, in your faith and trust, the good news that Christ Jesus was crucified and raised for you-crucified and raised to give you the hope and promise that even when your bones have turned to dust, you will be raised, in the body, when Christ returns on the last day to raise the dead and gather His own unto Him forever. Amen.

August 29, 2010: Ecclesiastes 1:1-14; 12:11-14, Psalm 16, 1 Cor. 15:12-22, Luke 22:39-46

2010-08-30T09:15:00.001-05:00

"Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Not much to go on with this verse, is there? I mean, at the end of it all, all the Teacher, King Solomon himself, can give a person is the futility of life, the meaninglessness of life. In fact, he goes so far to say that even after using his immense wisdom, all he can find that what is under heaven is vanity and a chasing after wind. That sure, for everything, he famously says in chapter 3, there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven. But at the end of it, all things come to an end and the dust receives back what it gave and life is over. And so, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
But beyond just being a fairly depressing view of life, the Teacher has hit upon something important here. For it has to be remembered that this is Solomon-the one who was called in Scripture to be the wisest, most wealth king in Israel’s history. His kingdom was envied by his neighbors even. So this is not the view of someone who is down and out. This is not someone who feels unduly oppressed, unduly cheated, unduly rejected by the world; someone who feels that they just can’t win, that they will always be on the outside looking in. No, this is the view of the most powerful man in Israel at the time-this is what the one who had everything they could want, in the end, found.
For what Solomon began to understanding-and one wonders if he discovered this after his royal excesses led to his downfall in both political and religious life-is that when a person places all their hopes, all their dreams, all their futures on this world, all you will have at the end of it is are those hopes, dreams and future. That it is vanity to seek after only the things of this world because all this world can finally give is death-that at the end of it all, the grave alone is our residence. He began to see that no amount of wealth or power or comfort or ease ultimately matters-for, as he confesses in chapter 12, that everything is for nothing when one dies.
That is why, after talking through the vanity of running after this life and this world, the Teacher can finally only advise to, “Fear God, and keep His commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone.” That regardless of who you are, what you have or what you’ve become, what truly matters is to have something, to have someone who is not bound by the elements of this world. That after everything is destroyed, what you need is One who, as the Psalmist says today, is not given to Sheol, one does not see the Pit, who is not overcome by the grave.
For when you are left at the end of your life with nothing, what you need, isn’t any more goods or power, but more life-that what is most needed when you are stripped of your breath, isn’t a new idea, but a new existence. And so Solomon finally understood that all glory of this world offers is nothing compared to knowing God Himself. That nothing what you can hold in your hands matters more than holding onto God alone-for all this world has is the vanity of vanities, things that are here today and most certainly gone tomorrow.
Which is why it is God alone who is the opposite of vanity of vanities-for He is not contingent upon this world for validation, importance and power. He is not at the whims of the winds of the world-He is not moved, not changed, not acted upon by history-but is the One doing the moving, changing and acting of history. That He, as David said in the Psalm, is the One who sets the boundary lines for mankind; He is the portion and cup in which we are able to eat and drink upon. That it is God alone who can be trusted to remain when your life has been destroyed-not merely because He is above all things, but finally because in the work of Christ Jesus, God entered into our midst and accomplished what we cannot-defeat the grave.
And this is why the work of Christ on the cross is the end of such vanity-for it gives you the absolute certainty of the power and promise of the Triune God. For in His death and resurrection, you are able to see and know that this world is not in control; that it is not forever. That as you are given a glimpse of the power of God over this world, you are given something to grab a hold of by faith alone. For in Christ, you are given the glimpse of the final judgment-He is the final Word that God speak over a world held in bondage by sin, death and the devil. That as Christ defeated those enemies, with His sweat in the Garden forshadowing the blood that would soon spill from His hands, feet and side, you are witness to the final victory which will certainly be revealed on the last day.
And as now you hear and see and believe that in Christ’s death and resurrection, this old fallen and rebellious world, full of sinners such as you and me, has found its end-you also begin to see a new kingdom breaking in, a kingdom where forgiveness, life and salvation ends all your caprice and speculation. For in Christ, you are actually given something beyond this world to place your hopes, dreams and futures upon. That in His death and resurrection you have an assurance that death is not the end, as Paul reminded the Corinthians; that this is not all there is or will be. For in Christ alone, the vanity that this life ends with can be believed to be over-if only by faith today-for as you see Him raise from the dead, you are witnessing the end of sin and death and the beginning of an eternal future full of grace, mercy and love. Amen.

August 22, 2010: Luke 15;1-10, Genesis 3:1-9, Psalm 130, Romans 1:18-23

2010-08-22T11:44:00.000-05:00

"But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

This verse is perhaps the most frightening of all the verses in the entire Scripture. Coming straight from the fall of Adam and Eve, it is the first moment in the history of the cosmos where the Almighty and righteous God meets sinful man and woman-a meeting that could only result in a bad outcome for humanity.
For a major thing had happened to lead to this moment where God, descending to spend the cool of the evening walking in the Garden of Eden, encountered His glorious creation cowering and hiding in fear. For they knew the command of God unto faith-they were given free reign over all of creation, except over the fruit of that tree that stood in the middle of the Garden. Of that, their faith laid in the fact that they would trust God’s Word over that of their desires and decisions.
But you know the rest of the story-the action between Adam and Eve, a serpent and an apple proved deadly-not merely of the introduction of pain, hardship and a physical death because of their sin, but finally an eternal death and separation between the Creator and His creation. As Paul said in Romans today, in that first bite, claiming to be wise, they ended up as fools, having replaced the true God with one of their own making. And when God came walking this day He finds them as they were-knowing just what the Psalmist knew-hiding under the weight of their own iniquity and shame, unable to stand over their fear of God’s wrath over their sin.
Which is why this verse was and is so frightening. God surely knew where they were-He knew that they had failed to live by faith alone in His Word and ate of the tree. He knew that they had sought their will above His; that they had indeed decided to be god over and against the God who had created them. And Adam and Eve knew that as well-for when God started calling, that their sin was exposed and revealed. And so these three words are frightening because they are words of death-they are words that declared God knew their sin was no longer kept in the dark-that their fig leaves were unable to cover their shame, their rebellion, their refusal to live in the faith God had created them for. And at that, when they heard those few words, they were done for-for they knew, as God had warned, all they deserved and now would receive was death and damnation for their sin.
But yet, while at the same time these words are frightening, they also become the most comforting as well. For while they were words of law that exposed their sin, they are also the indication that God was looking for them-not to simply find them, but to finally save them. For yes, death did enter into the world with that first bite. Adam, Eve and all others who fall into the sin of rebellion and unbelief to their God end up under the penalty and in bondage to sin, death and the power of the devil. Yet, when God came walking in the Garden that day, He came because He knew His beloved creation had been separated Him forever and He couldn’t stand that fact.
And so He came calling, “Where are you?” And when He came calling that night, while exposing their sin and rebellion to His word, He came finally to give them a Promise-and that was of Christ Jesus. For the moment they fell, God gave the news that their sin, their death, their bondage, which is great and terrible and complete, will be done away with, not by themselves and their repentance and piety, but in the One who would come to crush the head of the serpent who would have His heel struck. That this sentence was the beginning of the promise of Christ Jesus-who would be given to die under and in the sin of Adam and Eve and all their descendants, so that in His resurrection, the filth of sin, death and the devil would be done away with.
And this says something about your God. For while He will not stand by, watching His creations go about their way, acting as though He doesn’t matter these days; that perhaps God needs to be thought of as a supreme ideal-He finally will not leave His creation to eternally die in their rebellion and sin. And so, while His Word does expose and kill us under our sin-exposing us as those who refuse to live by His desire-His Word is not ultimately a word of death, but of life.
That is why He came that evening and comes to you this morning asking, “Where are you?” Knowing that sinners spend their time hiding from His righteous wrath, God refuses to leave you dead in sin and so comes seeking you, calling to you, giving to you His promise of forgiveness, life and salvation. For your Savior is like that shepherd, who leaves the 99 to go in search for the one, you, who is lost. He is like that woman, who left behind all work just so to find that one lost coin, hiding in the corner. And when this God comes after us, He isn’t coming merely to kill us in our sins-we are already dead because of them. But He comes to you, in the midst of your sin and death, so to give you a new life-a life won for you by Christ Jesus, the One who crushed the head of the serpent when He rose again to life eternal on the day of resurrection.
And that is nothing but good news for you. For while knowing that our sin has placed us into our graves and into the torments of hell, your God sought you in such a place, having been killed, He descended into hell, so that in His resurrection, you might be brought out with Him in your baptism. He continues to seek you out in the preached Word-seeking to tell you that you are His because of the death He died and the resurrection He rose. And He continues calling to you again today in the Supper-feeding you upon the true fruit of knowledge-the knowledge of your salvation given to you by the body and blood that was shed in the cross all for your sakes. Amen.

August 15, 2010: Colossians 4, Psalm 116, Luke 12:4-12

2010-08-14T14:49:00.000-05:00

“I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.” Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

“Remember my chains.” “Remember my chains.” Interesting, is it not, that Paul would mention the reality of his situation as he ends this letter to the church in Colossae. That, as he concludes this epistle in which he reminded the Colossians to hold onto the faith they had been taught from the beginning; the letter in which he adamantly exhorted them not to mix or add anything according to their rationality to their understanding of Christ’s work of salvation for them-so Paul ends with this declaration of just where he is as he writes this letter to a congregation he had not met.
For history tells us that Paul wrote this letter while a prisoner, for the first time, in Rome-the situation we find Paul in at the end of the book of Acts. That, as Luke tells us in Acts 28, Paul spent 2 years under house arrest while waiting for his case to heard before Caesar. And in those two years, after which tradition has Paul being released and preaching for a few more years before finally being beheaded by the Roman emperor Nero in AD 65, Paul spent his time preaching and teaching those that came to him and writing letters of correction and encouragement to churches he both founded and those whom he hadn’t.
And so, Paul is writing this letter, knowing vividly and firsthand, just what holding onto this uncompromised word of salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, can and might just give. For Paul knew, as we heard in Galatians 5, that he could have avoided all the pain, hurt, persecution, hate and imprisonment he suffered-all he had to do was to go along with the world and preach what people wanted to hear, both to the Jews and the Greeks. He realized that the only reason he was in chains was because he refused to know, trust and believe in anything else than Christ Jesus, crucified and raised for the justification of mankind.
But yet, as he sends greetings from Aristarchus, Mark, Justus, Epaphras, Luke and Demas here today, the only word upon his lips is that very same one in which he would finally lose his head for. Not even the chains of prison or the thought of the loss of life, could stop Paul from holding on and unashamedly preaching the message that we are saved, redeemed and forgiven from sin, death and the devil only by our faith in the work of Christ Jesus, crucified and raised. That Paul would know nothing else, nor would he add or subtract to this message, in whatever he did-even though it made him hated by all-Jews and Gentiles alike.
And that is a very strange thing to understand, and not merely amongst us today. Even the Demas he mentions in verse 14, fell in love with this world and deserted Paul by the time he writes 2 Timothy, 5 years later. In fact, the message of Christ Jesus is a foolish message in this world-for it is a message that calls one to look completely away from your own desires, strength or experience, so to set your mind, heart and faith onto a truth that does away with the old you, so to raise you completely new. It is a Word that calls you onto a new way of life and living-one not bent toward your pleasures, but upon the way into a future paved upon the blood of the crucified Son of God.
However, as Jesus so clearly put it today, Paul could close his letter, writing about his chains, because he understood that whatever this life and world might have, it was nothing compared to what God does give. For, as our Psalm said today, in a world of snares and pangs and distress and anguish, the glories of what our God gives to all who hold onto Him in faith alone is worth more than even life itself. So we are to fear, not merely what can take our livelihood, but in whom we can only find eternal life-changing from a hollow fear of men with a true fear, awe and respect for God.
So Paul would sing of his chains, not for the sake of suffering, but for the sake of the One in whose Name he was bound. For he knew that, as nothing of this world will last because it all, including you and me, are dead in the sin of our rebellion and hatred toward God-so what could this world offer or threaten that is stronger than the One who overcame it all in His resurrection from the dead? So Paul calls this small group of the redeemed to hold onto their one and only sure foundation-the salvation found and given in the message of Jesus Christ, crucified and raised for them, for it was and is and will be the only thing that will not be defeated or pass away, even when everything else is falling down.
And that, finally, is the promise that Christ has to give to you, as well. Amen.

August 8, 2010-Colossians 3, Luke 11:29-36, Psalm 51

2010-08-08T16:35:00.000-05:00

"Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

As we move into chapter three today, Paul reveals just why, as he insisted in chapter 2, the Colossians could not yield to the demands being made upon them by outsiders. He reveals here just why they were to hold onto that truth of Christ Jesus they were taught from the beginning; why they were to add nothing according to their ideals. For what he reveals, in fact, was that they were already dead-their life, as they knew it, was over and done with and as they no longer belonged to themselves, so they now had no self-identity anymore.
Now this wasn't some turn of phrase Paul was using; this isn't a clever metaphor meant to get their attention. Paul meant just what he said-as they were baptized into Christ Jesus, so they were taken from themselves and grafted into Him-and thus was ended to the old so to raised into the new. Who they were could even be defined into BC and AD-who they were before Christ, was completely changed now they lived within the year of the Lord. Paul describes this by telling them to "put to death" the things that are of this world so to then "put on" what is of Him-that their entire existence needed to be seen, understood and lived in a completely new way.
And this was needed because, as David learned today in the psalm, there is truly no life outside of God-that everything is born into a sin that is destined to die. Which is why, as David confessed, what God wants is our hearts-because He understands that our problem isn't that we haven't done enough, but essentially, have tried to do too much. For original sin is the attempt to replace our desires above that of God's. One can see why God does not delight in our burnt offerings-for what can we offer that would have any worth?
And so, as Paul says in verse 5, at the bottom of it all, our problem is idolatry-for we enjoy to set our minds on the things of this world over that of God. That we end up replacing our faith in a Creator for a god fashioned in our own image. For when we orient our desires on what we can do or what might feels good to us, then we show that we trust in our desires and opinions, regardless what God might have to say over the matter. That explains the differences in the lists in chapter 3. For when you look at what they were to put to death-everything from sexual immorality to anger to even obscene talk-one sees that everything was revolving around them-everything was focused on what they could do or be or have.
And so, Paul declares today, the only way for the Colossians, was to know, believe and confess they are dead, so then to be alive now, in Christ Jesus. That is what Jesus was saying in Luke today-it isn't who you are or think you might be that matters, but that you hear and trust in the Word of God. For if the gentile Queen of Sheba and people of Nineveh can rise up in judgment over Israel, it wasn't because of anything they did within themselves, but that they turned away from their own logic and wisdom so to seek which comes from above. That they weren't always looking for a sign that affirmed their sensibilities and desires, as what Jesus found in Israel and what He had been always dealing with humanity, but were content on placing everything upon what came from Another; that came from the outside and did itself to them.
Because that is the folly, yet wonder, of the message of Christ Jesus. That we are forced here, at the Cross, to look not at the things of this world, but are called to take our eyes, hearts and ears off of what might seem right and natural and to place our entire hope and life upon what is small and insignificant-a Word, some water, a bit of bread and wine-and yet trust that it is the very power of the Almighty God. So it is no wonder Paul reminds us that we are dead-for the only life we might find in this old world isn't found here, in us, but is given by the One who entered the stink of our sin and the wretchedness of our death so to take their eternal condemnation off us, in order to give us a life which is not our own; a forgiveness and salvation that comes from above.
For the light of the knowledge of the salvation Christ gives is not to be hidden under a basket, but to shine into the ears of a world, including ourselves, who need to heed the call to repent of the sins we commit, so to be raised into a forgiveness that Christ bestows. It is a light that calls us take our minds off of the things of this world-of what we might want or be or do-and so set our hearts upon a world and truth that will not pass away; upon a hope that your Savior took nails and a spear for you, so that you might be given the sign that hell itself has been defeated in His resurrection from the dead.
And so, as you have died and your life is now hidden in Christ Jesus, so put on, as Paul sung, this robe of a new life, purchased and won for you by the blood of the Cross, which adorns all who place their faith in God alone. For His life is the only life-for He has taken the beatings of sin, death and the devil and has overcome them in His triumphant victory on the 3rd day. So now, in Him, everything is new; nothing is the same-for when the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, we will no longer look for our own answers and desires, but will seek the desires of God alone-giving up of yourself so that husband or wife, child or parent, slave or master, might know and give thanks to God the Father for the hope in your life. Amen.

August 1, 2010-Colossians 2, Psalm 5, Luke 11:14-28

2010-08-01T18:31:00.001-05:00

"Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

If, as we began last Sunday, the Apostle Paul had subtitled his first chapter to the church of Colossians, he could have said, "This is who Christ Jesus is," then today in chapter two would have begun with the words, "And this is what that means." For as he began with the defense of the apostolic faith, his intention in chapter one was to proclaim to them just what they had been taught in the beginning, so that now in chapter 2, they might be reminded just what it means to worship this One whom they had come to believe was the very Son of God.
And so, as he begins in verse 2, of reminding them that all wisdom and knowledge of God's mysteries is only revealed in Christ Jesus, so it is only in Him then, that they are to place their entire desires, worship and self upon and in. And this is needed because Paul expressly understood that as this world never got God or Christ right, so any devotion based upon human thoughts, feelings and experience would also end up in the wrong place. "So see to it," he says in verse 8, "that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition"-and from there he mentioned several things that had been made known to him-judgments being based upon food and drink, visions and worship of angels.
And what for Paul was the problem with all these is that they ended up making Christ irrelevant. For each of the things the Colossians were being told they needed to subscribe, was saying that Christ's death and resurrection wasn't sufficient for salvation-that they still needed to complete the process by working according to the flesh; by living according to who they were and what they could do. But if that was necessary, Paul understood then there was still a strong man guarding the door of the house, as Jesus illustrated today in Luke, and there was still something that separates man from God.
So what Paul is doing here is to say that any attempt, outside of the sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ for your salvation, is met with futility. For it Christ's death and resurrection was not the complete triumph and defeat of sin, death and the devil for a humanity in bondage to them, then what might the Colossians think they could offer, if the things of this world and our ability to do them, are merely a shadow, as he says, of the things to come? If, as Jesus said, freedom only comes from having one who is stronger than the strong man at the door open the way, then what hope might the Colossians be able to place in what they might do or be or become through themselves, when seven more evil spirits will enter if they find an empty house? For as there is nothing of this that will last, then there is no complete freedom in ourselves-either Christ or the strong man will be in residence.
Now, while very few of us have the problems of the Colossians, the essence of Paul's letter still hits at home today. For while we might not seek our salvation in the trust over a new moon practice, the human precepts and teachings that are in vogue today still seek you to place your trust in your own justifications. So whether it is the idea that our good works gain points with God or that we should get to self-identify ourselves-if we seek to find meaning and acceptance within what we can be or do, we end up, as Jesus says, in a worse state than before because not only are we trusting in the wrong one, our sins continue to convict us because we will continue to go about thinking that God is somehow pleased with our actions for who we are.
However it isn't who we are, as Jesus reminded that woman in the crowd, that makes us blessed, but that we hear and believe in the Word that God is speaking. And this is so because, as David spoke in the Psalm, within sinful man, there is nothing but destruction-our throat is an open grave. So if even Mary is not blessed because she bore Christ, then it is not who you are or what you are able to do that matters. And so, Paul says that we are dead in our trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh-that there's nothing of ourselves, which has any future beyond our grave-our death is the end of who we are. So why do you still go on as if you were still alive in the world, seeking to come before God on your own strength or worth or being?
Instead, as Paul began in chapter one and now emphasizes in chapter two, it must only be remembered that salvation comes through, in and by faith alone in Christ Jesus alone. For as He is true God, so only those who are baptized into His very death and resurrection can be saved-for if only God is eternal and triumphant over the grave, so only those who are caught up into Him will live. So it is only in Christ Jesus that you actually find the stronger man able to free you-for He entered the sin and death of your destruction so that it might lie on Him and not you, thus giving you a forgiveness, life and salvation, that is not your own, that you did not deserved, but that which you simply received.
Thus, it is only the firmness of our faith in Christ that actually has any hope-for it is a faith not in yourself or who you are or what you might be able to do, but it is a trust that is finds its center in One who is not controlled by the elementary spirits of the world, but is over and above all things. Christ's death was for you-He took upon Himself your guilt, your wrath, your condemnation so that you might receive the glories of His resurrection-life, love, mercy. So how could we turn and look to ourselves since we now know that salvation is found nowhere else than in your crucified Savior?
For you are blessed as you receive and hold onto this Word of Christ Jesus-for it is only here you are declared forgiven and righteous as you are declared to be God's very own. There is nowhere else-not in this world, not in your holiness, not in your identity-that freedom is found from the strong man, because only in the One who gave His life to the grave, will you feast upon the body and blood of salvation. And for that reason, Luther says, you are directed to "cling to Christ and take nothing to yourselves except what is in Christ, because apart from Him we do nothing and are nothing but heaps of sin. Here, however, He gives us the Treasure, who embraces all things, which the heavens and earth and demons must tremble." Amen.

July 25, 2010-Colossians 1, Luke 10:21-24, Psalm 138

2010-07-25T12:03:00.000-05:00

"We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Before the Apostle Paul gets to the heart of the matter with this congregation he had not founded, nor had visited in Colossae, we find him in chapter one setting forth what is of first importance. For no matter what the problem might be, and we will find in chapter 2 that it was a matter of wrong understanding of the worship of God, Paul understands that all false teaching and belief stems from getting God wrong; from not seeing, knowing or trusting just who God is and what He does, rightly.
And so, as Paul begins his epistle to the Colossians, he leads them to understand that the only way to refute, rebut and rebuke all false teachings and understandings is to hold onto the one spiritual wisdom and understanding they had received-the message of salvation of grace alone by faith alone in Christ Jesus alone. For the problem the world has with Jesus is that they get Him wrong. He wasn't merely just another in a long line of spiritual gurus or teachers-offering their wares of better living and more success for a price-but was and is God Himself, crucified and raised for mankind. That, as he says, through and for Him are all things created; creating even the reconciliation of sinful humanity and the Holy Father through the shedding of His very blood upon the cross of Calvary.
But when it comes to our own reasoning, the wisdom of this world places great emphasis on our own importance. That if something is to be believed or sought after, it must be agreeable to our proclivities; to our sensibilities, ethics and desires. It seems that everything becomes contextualized and self-centered-that truth begins and end with ourselves, and any rules must be allowed and acceptable to us before we will submit to their authority.
Of course, that is nothing more than a classic definition of sin-setting our own ways and standards according to our reasoning. That we set the limits, so to be justified in ourselves; trying to add and subtract from what we think God desires or not. And that is what Paul finds happening at Colossae and why he reminds them just what Christ meant in Luke today. For God hasn't left it up to us to "find" out who He is, according to our own works.
But God, Jesus says, has only revealed Himself, as He truly is, to the little children of the world-not according to age, but to faith. So blessed are also the ones who do not hear and see and yet believe what the disciples heard and saw-for when one lives upon the Word of God by faith alone, so one receives exactly what is given. That spiritual wisdom and understanding is much different from the world-it is a wisdom and understanding that believe not simply in what they see or feel, but in what is spoken. It is a wisdom and understanding that looks away and out of one's self, and places its gaze, hope and love upon what is given to them by God. For, as Jesus said in verse 22, what you receive from Him, you receive as from the Father Himself.
Which is why, as Paul begins in verse 15, they must continue in that one faith alone-for it is the only truth in which they could both live and die upon in an assurance that was not their own; that was not dependant upon their own work or effort. That when questions surrounding what it means to have placed their hope in Christ, one must learn the art of looking away from yourself-looking away from their own desires, thoughts and perception. For since Christ Jesus is God Himself, then whatever comes and is given from Him, brings with it all that God has to give to all who believe unto Him.
This means, then, that when the Word is preached, as one hears that in myself, I am a sinner deserving damnation, I must finally believe that I have been given the One who entered my sin and death to defeat them for me in His resurrection on the third day. It means that when I see the waters of baptism flow over a head, I must know that all that is old and has separated me from my God, is now destroyed in the reception of the very name of the Triune God-the Name that delivers us from the domain of darkness, as Paul said, by transferring us into the kingdom of the beloved Son, in whim we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. It means that even when I hear and taste the bread and wine of the Supper upon my ears and tongue, I must turn from all reason and know that I am eating and drinking, not simply bread and wine, but the very Body and Blood of my crucified Savior; eating and drinking of my salvation unto eternal life.
For the Lord will not forsake the work of His hands-those whom He has reconciled, to those has He made peace by the blood of His cross. Let us, then, not loose the hope that is laid for us in heaven and the hope in which we are being saved-instead let us loose ourselves according to this world, so to be found into Christ Himself. For it is only the grace of God in truth that saves and the only thing, in heaven and earth, that will remain forever-for it is the story of your God working to save and redeem you for your very salvation. And it is this story, alone, that has the power to overcome whatever comes our way, as we will find Paul addressing next week in chapter two. Amen.

July 18, 2010-Galatians 6, Psalm 66, Luke 10:1-20

2010-07-18T13:20:00.000-05:00

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen"

And so we end today right where we began-and of course, that is the only place we could be found. For as Paul wrapped up his epistle to these congregations that he had established, nurtured and cared for, he ends by placing them on the only thing he knew would actually overcome any and all false teaching and belief that had infiltrated among them. And just as he began to call them back into the only true Gospel with a harshness to his voice, so he ends, albeit a bit softer here, with that came clarion call to remember just what it is about Jesus Christ, that salvation is built upon.
So while, Paul begins, we are to receive back into the true faith those who repent of their false words with a spirit of gentleness, he is still careful to remind the Galatians that what is of first importance. For, as he says in verse 7, God is not mocked and so we do reap what we do sow. Which is why it was important whether one sowed to the flesh or the Spirit-for it is only that which is of and from the Holy Spirit that actually has a message of salvation attached to it. And this is so because, as we saw in chapter 5, the works of the flesh concern themselves with our desires while the Spirit works to take our eyes off ourselves and onto Another.
Which is why, Paul says, one must learn to see the world crucified to you and you to the world. That since you now know you are forgiven, saved and redeemed by your faith alone in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a new question now arises-what more does this world really has to offer you? What more can you get out of this world, when you now know that your eternal future lies solely with and in God and not in what you can have or what you might do? So to crucify and to be crucified is to no longer seek, view and define yourself, your identity and your freedom according to what this world might deem important, acceptable and relevant, but to be completely focused on the fact that Christ Jesus died and rose for my redemption and justification.
That is why circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything-for when it comes to what Christ did and does for you, nothing that you can make or be of this world matters, since your forgiveness, life and salvation comes completely outside of yourself. That faith requires you to look away from yourself; to know nothing about yourself; to trust nothing in yourself, because there is nothing of yourself and this world that can survive-for the creation is just that, a creation and not the Creator. And no matter what, all this, including yourself, will come to an end.
And so Paul reminds just what Christ told the 72 whom He sent out in Luke today, is of true importance. That it isn't what you might be able to do, but the fact that your name is written in the book of life is what matters. For as what is of this world will come to nothing, so it doesn't matter if even demons shutter with the sound of your voice, when what is, is knowing just where your salvation is found?
For that is why, Jesus said, it will be more bearable for Sodom than wherever the Gospel about Him is rejected. Because what will we find if we persist in refusing to hear and abide in what Christ has to say to and about us? Instead, Jesus sends us out as lambs in the midst of wolves-giving us nothing but His Word of peace to protect us from the slings and arrows of this world. We are sent out, being called to place our entire faith upon that the Word of Christ which we preach is the only true Word to be found.
And it was for that, Paul boasted not in himself, but bore the marks in his body, even though it cost him his life in this world. And which is why, even though the world will reject you; even though you may be hated by your own family, your own community-what Christ might cost you in this life, is nothing to the reward of the Father. For Christ died and rose, not to save you for yourself, but to redeem you for Himself-He became your sin, He was wasted in your own death, so that you might be found with a life and a love that is not your own; a life and love that is not of your own.
So let us turn away and aside from ourselves so to cling to the only Way, Truth and Life that there is. For as we have been redeemed from sin, death and the devil by the blood of Christ, so now let us no longer be controlled by ourselves and such things so to live in and to God. If you do have regrets; if you are tormented by fear; if you are in bondage to forces and desires that are detestable-do know that you have a Savior who died for such things and calls you, as the Psalmist reminds, to walk across the depths of the sea on dry land, for He has paved your way by His mercy. For no matter who you are or what you have done, as Jesus said today, forgiveness is awaiting for all who repent and turn toward Him and the One who sent Him. And to all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy is upon them. Amen.

July 11, 2010 (Outdoor Service)- Mark 6:30-44, Psalm 34

2010-07-11T08:34:00.001-05:00

"And he said to them, 'How many loaves do you have? Go and see.'" Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

As we have assembled to worship on this beautiful Wisconsin July Sunday, there is one, overarching factor that unites all of who have assembled this morning. For as we gather, coming from different denominations, different families, even different communities, we gather this morning, not simply to celebrate our coming together in a spirit of unity, but finally with the thought and expectation of the potluck dinner that is about to follow.
Now, now, now-before you pooh-pooh my assessment of your motivations on coming out on a nice day like this, let me clear something up-I really expected no less of you all anyway. I mean, it is a well known fact that if you want a crowd to gather, you send out the promise of a free meal. For if there is anything that people like, it is something that is free. I don't know why that is true-perhaps we feel we are beating the system and we hope we can get away with it before anyone finds out? But why ever it is, you have to admit something-you didn't stay away because you knew there was a meal to be had.
But unlike the disciples from our Gospel reading in Mark today, I will not be trying to send you away to find your own lunch (although there would then just be more food for me). For a meal is exactly what you need-and I'm not talking about the jello salads that are awaiting up the hill. Because, just as Mark remarked in verse 34 today, so there isn't much different between the crowd that gathered on the banks of the Sea of Galilee and here on the banks of the Embarrass River. For even though two millennia separates you from them, yet still you, too, are sheep without a shepherd, when it comes to this old world; you are still in need of some compassion be given unto you.
And no matter how much you might fill your belly today-you will be hungry again in a few hours. For we know that everything of this world is temporal-what is here today will be quickly gone tomorrow. And that is the reality of us all-we are like the lions David spoke in the psalm, suffering want and hunger in the deepest recesses of our souls, for when we are honest with ourselves, we all know that a grave awaits us all in the end; we all know that we will be lowered into a tomb that does not give up of its bounty-no matter how hard we might wish and try.
Which is why it is a good thing you came here today looking for a meal-for you also have found a meal that will always fill your hunger. For you have gathered here today around the Word of the One who could take a bit of bread and a couple of fish and feed, not merely 5,000 men, not even a hundred Wisconsinites, but all who hunger and thirst for salvation. For this One also feeds you today is the very Bread of Life-the One who offered Himself up upon a cross for your sins, was laid in a borrowed tomb with your death, and was raised to glory on the third day for your forgiveness, life and salvation.
For it is in Christ Jesus alone, that you will find the longing, the desire, the hunger you have, satisfied and fulfilled like never before. It is in Him alone, that the guilt of a sin that ever haunts and convicts you, is forgiven by the sight of Him nailed to a tree, becoming the curse so it is removed from you. It is in Him alone, that the terrors of a despair and loneliness that envelops you like the darkness does a forest, is enlightened by the rays of love shining forth from a grave that was not able to contain Him longer than three days. It is in Him, and Him alone, that the stalking and accusations of a devil that seeks to rob you of your hope, is defeated and destroyed by the One who crushed the head of the snake in His triumph over this old world.
So now, come all of you who are hungry, who are in need, who desire to be filled and "taste and see that the Lord is good!" Come and feast at the table which has been set in the midst of your enemies and yet is overflowing with a bounty that was bought with the blood of the Lamb who was crucified and raised for your very sake. You need to bring nothing; you need to do nothing to be fed-but just come and eat for it is given unto you as a gift from a Father who loves you to the extent that He did not even spare the Son, but gave and still gives Him as the Meat and Drink that satisfies every longing heart now and forever. And if that isn't a reason to gather for a potluck, I don't know what is. Amen.

July 4, 2010- Galatians 5, Psalm 16, Luke 9:51-62

2010-07-04T06:30:00.001-05:00

"And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

As we celebrate the fact of the earthly freedom we have been given in the sacrifice of so many over so many years today, in our Galatians text, we are finally confronted with the question of just what our justification by faith alone means, not merely for our eternal life, but even for our life still today-our life on this side of eternity.
And so we find Paul today reminding us, just as what Independence Day represents, so the freedom we have been given in Christ Jesus has freed us from a yoke of tyranny, but we must be mindful not to fall under another yoke of slavery. For it is certain: in our faith in Christ Jesus, we are given the benefits of His death and resurrection-that we are freed from the guilt and control of sin, death and the devil-and are given the promise that in the forgiveness of our sins, we will surely receive the gift of eternal life and salvation. And there is nothing that we can do in order to receive such a gift-for, as Paul said in chapter 2, we have been justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. The freedom we have been given is the knowledge that we have the assurance that there is nothing in this world or the next, where we will find the love of the Father expressed more deeply than in the Son.
Yet, Paul notes, this freedom we receive comes with a cost-in fact, the freedom of Christ results in a death, not only His, but ours as well, as he said in verse 24. In fact, as Jesus showed today in Luke, His freedom means a radical reordering of values and priorities in one's life. For, as He said in verse 62, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God"-that is, once one begins to hear, know and believe that in Christ, the old is over and the new has begun, then one must forget the past and set your face firmly into the future, just as Luke described Jesus' own walk toward Jerusalem and the cross. That this freedom bestows a harsh reality-even the dead must be left to bury themselves-meaning that, just as the Son of Man has no place to lay His head in this world, so those called to faith must begin to see that this world offers nothing anymore of worth and value.
And the freedom we have in Christ is like the freedom we celebrate today. Because while we are free for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, so we are not free to do whatever we want. That there are limits to what we can do in our lives-that we receive the benefits of our freedom only if we live within the bounds of the law. And this is similar to how Paul defines our freedom we have in Christ-not that we earn salvation from doing these works, but that our salvation now redefines the way we begin to live in this world. For if Christ died under the curse of sin for the sins of the world, then how can we, in our new freedom, want to run back to the sins of this world? If Christ's resurrection defeated the reign of death and the devil, then what more does this world offer to those who have been delivered?
Which means, as Paul sets forth today, the freedom we have been given by faith, isn't a freedom for, but from ourselves. That faith in Christ entails an entirely new orientation in our thoughts, ways and thinking. For, Paul declares, the desires of the flesh and the Spirit are at odds-that there is a difference between the kingdom of man and of God. So how could we, if we know that we have been set free from the control of sin, death and the devil, run back to living according this world and our sinful flesh, when we know we have been freed from them, and to fall back is to fall back into our own bondage and separation? How can we, as David sang in the Psalm, want to take even the names of the idols of this world on our lips, when we know that they give nothing but the grave at the end?
For it has been for freedom that Christ has set us free-so let us stand firm and not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Let us walk by the Spirit-walk in the way of faith in God and love for our neighbor-walk in the way in which we seek, not our will, not our kingdoms, but solely the will and kingdom of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven. For why would we, now that we know that this old world has nothing to offer compared to the blessings we have in the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, want to run back to the works of the flesh when we know that they are filled with nothing but sin and filth and destruction? Why would we, now that we know of a new and better Way (the Way of faith, hope and love), want to fall back into the pit of our desires when they are completely set against the desires of our God?
For freedom in Christ means that we have been freed for love-freed to serve our neighbor, and against such things, Paul says, there is no law. As we now live in the Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, so we live knowing that it isn't what we can do or have that matters, but that we have a God whose mercy toward us needs to be handed over to a world lost in the midst of the darkness of sin and despair. That we have been freed, not to serve our own freedom, but give up of ourselves to
those around us-to give to a world lost in and to itself.
So let us leave behind the things of ourselves and this world-for they, as Paul said today, have nothing to do with us any longer. For we have been forgiven, saved and redeemed, not to serve ourselves and desires, but to set our face onto a new way-onto the way of the One who entered death and hell for our sake, so to, as David said, make known to us the path of life; the path in which we will see the very resurrection of our flesh when Christ returns to gather His own to Himself. For we have been forgiven, set free and fed upon the very Body and Blood of Life, not to use our freedom for indulgence, but to hold on and look to Christ alone for all things-yesterday, today and forever. Amen.

June 27, 2010: Galatians 4, Luke 10:38-42, Psalm 111

2010-06-27T06:37:00.000-05:00

"So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

We reach a culmination in chapter 4 of Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia today. As he chided, admonished, rebuked and reproved them over their falling away of trusting that they were saved from sin, death and the devil, not by their works of the law, but solely by their faith in Christ Jesus, crucified and raised-he closes his thought by going to the only place he knows where to go-and that is into the Holy Scriptures.
And so, he reminds them of the story we find in the 16th chapter of Genesis, the story of Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac. If you remember, Abraham and Sarah had received the promise of a son from the Lord, a promise that had yet, even after many years, been fulfilled. So Sarah, seeing that as she had gone past child bearing years, proposed that Abraham fulfill the need for a son through her Egyptian slave Hagar, which ended up producing his son Ishmael. However, this was not God's desire, and so, even after many more years of waiting, the promise was accomplished when Sarah, at the age of 90, gave birth to Isaac.
And beyond the historicity, Paul uses this event to point something out to the Galatians. Because just like in the case of Isaac and Ishmael, so, he said, we find God working in the same way with them. For Ishmael was, as Paul called him, a son born according to the flesh-born according to the belief that God's promise needed to be helped along, since they hadn't seen it realized in those many years. But God proved them all wrong by bringing about the promise according to His work even through a husband and wife that were, according to this world, well beyond the facts of life. Isaac proved was that God didn't need their help to bring about His promise, but simply was calling on them to believe that He was able to do as He said.
What that meant for the Galatians, was that when it came to their own salvation, to be born of the Spirit and not of the flesh, is to be born as Isaac was- through the sole work of God in Christ Jesus. That God didn't need their help whatsoever when it came to their redemption-they can only find forgiveness, life and salvation through their simple trust that Christ died and rose for such things. That just like Sarah, so there was nothing that they could add to their salvation; that they could not will their own justification by taking measures into their own hands.
Which means, that when Paul reminded that they were like Isaac, children of promise, he was calling them to leave behind, as he called it, the elementary principals of the world-to understand that no amount of laws, works or effort could make God do anymore than He already had done for them in Christ Jesus. He was calling them to begin to understand that to be justified, to be made right to God, by faith alone means that just that-to trust that time was fulfilled, as Paul said in verse 4, when the Son was given unto the world to fall under the curse of the law, so to remove and redeem a humanity who are enslaved under it.
So how, as Paul winds up his argument in chapter 4, could anyone, who is already an heir to the gift of eternal life in the blood of the Son, want to fall back into living upon the ways of this world? He couldn't believe that the Galatians were like a dog who goes back to his own vomit-for how could they suddenly believe that they were adding to their salvation when Christ's resurrection had completely destroyed the reign of sin, death and the devil? That they needed to see they were children according to Sarah and not Hagar-they had been adopted not according to their efforts or worth, but by the grace of God given to them in Christ Jesus. Why then, could anyone want to run back to trying to earn their right to salvation, when it can only be received by believing in the work of the Son on the cross?
For the truth of Jesus' words to Mary and Martha is the truth for the Church-past, present and future. Mary indeed chose the good portion because she realized that when your Savior is speaking, the only thing to do is to sit, hear and receive-to fall upon every Word that falls from His lips, for His Word is the only thing in the universe that will not be taken away. It wasn't that Martha did anything wrong-just as the law is good, right and holy and to live by it is salutary, when it is used by its proper function, as we have seen earlier in Galatians. But Mary had chosen the good portion because she refused to be swayed by anything that might take her gaze away from the One she had placed her entire future upon.
For when Christ comes into your life, all work must cease-the fear of the Lord, as the Psalmist says, is the beginning of wisdom-and one fears God when one loves and trusts in Him above all things, as Luther's explanation goes. That the grace of God is received as a pure gift-given and done to you, not through your efforts or worth, but because the Lord has chosen to give to you the promise that in Christ, your sins, which are many and sordid, are forgiven; your death, which has you captured from the beginning, is already defeated; the devil, who seeks to rob you of your faith, has had his teeth broken-and now nothing, not the world, not the law, not even yourself, can make your Redeemer love you more than He did on His cross.
So now, Paul beckons you today to come, shut your eyes and open your ears, so to receive the grace and mercy of your God. To come and hear the Word of the One who bore the cross and suffered the grave for your very sake. To come and feast upon the Body which was broken and the blood that was shed so to take the curse of sin, death and hell from you, so to open a new future and freedom for all those who cling to the cross for your eternity. And it is that freedom, that Paul will address to us next week. Amen.

June 20, 2010- Galatians 3:1-29, Luke 9:18-27, Psalm 25

2010-06-20T07:09:00.002-05:00

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, 'Cursed in everyone who is hanged on a tree'-so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith." Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

In the first two chapters of Galatians, we have seen Paul lay out the problem he was addressing in his letter to them. That, he could not believe how quickly they were willing to succumb under the influence of those who said that in order for Gentiles to be fully Christian, they must first become a Jew-that is, they must abide their lives according to the entire Mosaic law-moral, ceremonial and dietary. In order to address this problem, he reminded them of his own history and dealings-showing that it never the works of the law that saves, but it has been faith alone that the Church has held onto from the very beginning.
We can understand why, then, he begins chapter three with this harsh rebuke to these congregations. For Paul sees their falling under the influence of those preaching a different gospel as being "bewitched"-as being under a spell that had led them into this error. For what other reason could it be that they would fall for such a lie-had they not received, from him, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ-that you are forgiven, saved and redeemed from sin, death and the devil, not with works of the law, but by the grace of the Father given by the Spirit in your faith that Christ died and rose for you?
And so, Paul sets forth today the heart of the matter-what exactly did it mean and happen that Christ Jesus died and rose for sinners? Just what does it mean that faith alone saves one from eternal damnation? For what Paul discovered, is that when it comes to what makes us right, we must see that there are two kinds of righteousness in this world-one that can achieved by our works and one that comes completely as a gift. Luther later called this the difference between an active and an alien righteousness.
And what this fact does is to create two "you's" in each of us, each ruled by a different word. That is why, Paul said in verse 19, the law was given to Moses-for knowing that we are sinners at heart, God uses the law to keep us in check because there is nothing more dangerous than a sinner on the loose, a sinner gone wild. So the law is to be used in this world to keep us in line; so that we might not run rampant in the streets and do whatever we desire, regardless of the consequences. We see this in the civil laws that control our daily lives-and in this way, our righteousness is built upon our keeping the law.
But, Paul says, God so uses the law to reveal us to be who we truly are-sinners in rebellion to their Creator. So the law is given to declare us to be guilty according to the righteousness of God-that our failings don’t merely make us criminals, but have separated us completely and eternally from God. That the law reveals our actions don't merely affect our neighbors, but exposes our hatred toward God and is that which connects us all to the original sin of Adam and Eve-a bondage of which we see realized in the grave we cannot escape.
Which is why Paul is so adamant that the Galatians do not fall prey to collapsing these two righteousness's upon each other-for while they are very close, their differences as like night and day. For while one is constantly under the law in this life, one's relation to it must be understood differently. That while one is able to obey the law in this world, when it comes to God, the law actually increases one's sin Paul says-because as one begins to hear what the law says, one begins to see just how little strength we have. For if, as Deuteronomy says, one is cursed if they don't keep the law, then no one is righteous because no one keeps the law.
And that is why, Paul reminds, Christ is the only way of righteousness to the Father. For, Christ reminds today in Luke, the only way to find one's life is to lose it-to give away everything that you might find within yourself, so to be completely consumed in the life Christ was raised in from the dead. For as He, though above the law, yet submitted Himself to it, so that He overcame the curse of death when He walked out of that tomb on the third day. And now, only those who are not ashamed of Him and His words, are saved from the curse and will live to see the Kingdom of God.
That is what Paul meant, as he said in chapter 2, to be dead to the world so to be alive in Christ. That one will no longer look to themselves for any righteousness according to the Father, but will understand that you are bound forever to resist Him. But it will also mean that one will start tuning their ears to the Word of the One who was given over to the Law in His crucifixion to overcome it in His resurrection, and start seeing that if you want to be righteous to God, then you will cover yourself, solely, with the righteousness of the Son.
So then, there is no distinction any longer for those baptized into Christ Jesus-for as there is nothing that will remain of yourselves in the end, so the only hope of salvation from the grave is to be found in the One who became the curse, so to destroy the curse, when He rose triumphant over the curse! So, while in ourselves there are certainly distinctions: there are Jews and Greeks, slave and free, male and female-but what it means to be saved by faith alone is just that-that you are saved; that you are forgiven; that you are redeemed, only by the work of Christ Jesus on the cross-and when you believe in Him, so His righteousness is given to you as an alien righteousness, as a righteousness that comes from outside of yourself and does itself onto you-creating you new; new in the image of your crucified Redeemer.
In that then, you must start to look upon yourself as someone completely different as who you are in yourself. For there is no longer a Peter or Paul or even Craig who lives to God-for in myself, I am a sinner, doomed to destruction. Whatever I might try to make of myself; whomever I might try to identify myself as-all of this counts for nothing, for this old man is under the curse. But if by faith I am called righteous as a gift, then I must see only Christ Jesus who now lives. That now nothing else matters in this world; in fact, whatever this old world tries to comfort, tempt and promise me with must no longer have any control over me-for I am not define by who I am, but solely on what Christ on the cross has done for me.
For the cross has placed on that new path David spoke of in the Psalm-the path where you are taken from yourself and given Another to live upon. For as Christ became the curse so to take it from you, so you have been given a righteousness that is not your own and have been raised to a new life in Christ-a life that opens up for you, a brand new beginning. And that is where we will pick up again next week. Amen.