Luke 13:31-35 - Jesus' Determination to Save Confronts and Conquers Religion, Politics and Hearts - March 13, 2022

The Word of God before us this morning involves two of the most powerful, most volatile and most polarizing things in the world – two of the things that are forbidden to be discussed at many family gatherings: politics and religion. King Herod and the Pharisees. Both Bible and human history suggest that it’s wise to watch out whenever religion and politics get together. In the book of Revelation, it’s the recipe for worldwide trouble and persecution of the Church. Take one part religion and one part politics and hand them over to the devil to stew and you have the perfect recipe for the Antichrist – that is, someone or something which would replace Christ as Lord in people’s hearts and minds (Revelation 13). Whether it’s the emperor cult of 1st century Rome, the Islamic caliphate, the medieval papacy, Hitler’s Third Reich, or any other unholy alliance of religious and political authority, whenever the two get together there is sure to be trouble, persecution and bloodshed. Today, Jesus goes head-to-head with this two-headed monster.

The Pharisees came to Jesus, pretending to be concerned for his well-being. “Get away from here – Herod has put a bounty on your head. You don’t want to get yourself killed, do you? get out while you still can.” Of course, the great irony is that the Pharisees were scheming to do that very thing. They’d been planning Jesus’ death for over a year (Mark 3:6). They just couldn’t agree on when or how. And Jesus…well Jesus seems utterly unconcerned by the whole thing. Instead, he’s defiant: go tell that fox, ‘Look, I am going to drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal. Jesus doesn’t back down an inch. He knew exactly what was in store for him in Jerusalem. He’d already predicted it: that he would suffer, die, and rise again – on the third day (Luke 9:21-22). Death threats from puppet kings didn’t worry him.

Why not? Because he’s the Lord. He lays down his life on his own terms (John 10:18). He had proven this several other times when his life was threatened. When his hometown crowd wanted to throw him off a cliff in Nazareth, he walked away without a scratch (Luke 4:30). When he claimed that he was equal to Yahweh – the I am of the Old Testament – and the crowd prepared to stone him to death, he slipped away untouched (John 8:59). When it comes to life and death, Jesus runs the show. Threats from human kings mean nothing to the King of kings. No amount of political pressure would keep Jesus from accomplishing his mission of salvation.

Next he confronts the Pharisees. He knows what they’re really thinking; that they’re plotting his death too…that all this talk of concern for his safety and security is fake and insincere. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day – and then the real zinger – because it cannot be that a prophet would be killed outside Jerusalem! Now there’s a shot: if a prophet sent from God is going to die, it has to be in Jerusalem; God’s city, the Pharisees’ hornets’ nest.

Now this prediction shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows their OT history. Jerusalem had earned quite the reputation when it came to the prophets God had sent. When Jeremiah declared that Jerusalem would become like Shiloh, desolate and deserted, the people called for his death, had him arrested and thrown into a cistern (Jeremiah 38). According to tradition, Isaiah was sawn in half and Zechariah was stoned to death in the courtyard of the temple in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 24:21). New Testament prophets didn’t fare much better. Stephen was stoned to death in Jerusalem by no less than the members of the Sanhedrin themselves (Acts 7:54-60). James was beheaded in Jerusalem (Acts 12:2). Jerusalem had a reputation for taking God’s prophets, chewing them up and spitting them out…dead. Jerusalem was dripping with innocent blood. Jerusalem’s entire history was bloody: the blood of sacrifices and Passover lambs and prophets and martyrs. All of this foreshadowed what God had determined before the creation of the world: that the blood of Jesus, his Son, the Lamb of God (John 1:29) would be shed in Jerusalem to pay for the sins of the world.

You would think that Jesus would be angry, knowing what he did. I would be, if it were me. I get angry when people reject the invitation of the Gospel – the Word and Sacrament – in favor of something else. I get frustrated when people want entertainment over forgiveness, social activities over the active work of the Holy Spirit, a temporary solution for their day-to-day issues rather than an eternal solution for their sins. We all get angry at those who seek to harm us, who want to hurt us, who insult us for our faith in Christ. We all know what it’s like when our love is ignored, when we are snubbed or rejected. We know how impossible it seems when Jesus tells us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us (Luke 6:27-36). It’s hard, impossible even, for us. Our sinful self-centeredness gets in the way.

But, thank God, Jesus is not like us. He loved his enemies. He loved the people in Jerusalem – people who rejected him; even the political and religious leaders; even Herod and the Pharisees – who wanted him dead. He weeps over them: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often have I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! People often wonder what is on God’s mind, what he wants, what his will, his plans are for us and for this world. This is it! God sent his one and only Son, Jesus, to earth to spread out his arms like a mother hen gathering up her wandering chicks. He wants them all – the religious and the unreligious, the political and the apolitical, the powerful and the powerless. He came to save them all; even those that don’t want it. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and if the world doesn’t want its sin taken away, well, he does it anyway.

Now, we might be tempted sit here from a distance of 2000 years and think “How sick and disgusting of those people, those Pharisees and Herod, for rejecting Jesus, wanting him dead when all he wanted to do was save them!” But the season of Lent is about seeing ourselves honestly so that we can see our Savior clearly – and the truth is that there is a little Pharisee and a little Herod in each one of us. We are easily tempted to trust in the power of princes, of laws, of policies of government to provide for us and to protect us and feed us rather than in the powerful, unbreakable promises of God. We are constantly tempted to trust in our own works, our own obedience, our own good intentions to save us rather than the completed, perfect work of Christ. There’s a little Herod and a little Pharisee alive and well inside each of us, too. It’s called the “old Adam,” the sinful flesh.

Like Jerusalem, by nature we are not willing. Left to our own devices, wisdom and intentions we would not be willing to be saved – we would instead insist in saving ourselves. We would not be children of God gathered as chicks under his wing. But Christ has gathered us, against our wills, kicking and screaming at times. Lifted up on the cross he draws all people to himself (John 12:32-33), even those who want him dead and gone. And still today, just as he grieved over Jerusalem 2000 years ago, he grieves when people reject and deny him.

You could say that the history of Jerusalem is a microcosm of God’s dealing with humanity; you could even say it’s a microcosm of how he has dealt with us individually. It’s a history filled with sin, rebellion, stubbornness, idolatry, rejection of the Word and those who preach it. It’s also the history of God’s grace, his undeserved kindness toward sinful humanity, the Word made flesh who was rejected so that God would accept us, who died so that we would live, whose blood covers our sins and whose righteousness becomes ours by faith (Romans 4:5).

Jerusalem has a future, but, thank God, it’s not up to religious or political leaders to work it out. In fact, what utter failures they both are was revealed in 70 AD when the Romans razed Jerusalem to the ground. The next time the city appears in the Bible, it’s in the book of Revelation and it’s coming down from heaven as a bride dressed for her wedding day (Revelation 21). This is the city God has built – Jerusalem redeemed, restored, raised from the dead. Her murders have been atoned for by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The blood shed in her streets has been washed away by Jesus’ blood (1 John 1:7). Her streets once littered with stones cast in hatred are now paved in pure gold (Revelation 21:21). The prophets and apostles who met their death inside her gates are now her firm foundation (Ephesians 2:20). And Christ the Lamb is her Light and Life (Revelation 21:23).

And that city, that free city, is where we hold our citizenship. Your Baptism is your proof of citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven as Paul reminded the Philippians (Philippians 3:20) – those retired soldiers who were so proud of their free city. And the marvel of it all is that we get a foretaste of that whenever the Word is preached, the Absolution pronounced and the Sacraments administered. Through Word and Sacrament Jesus comes and gathers us under his wings, purifies us from our sins, assures us that we are his chosen people. Here in the presence of our Lord and our fellow forgiven believers we are freed from the divisiveness of politics and the tyranny of man-made religions that tells us our salvation is up to us. And it all points ahead to a day that will bring all religion and politics as we know it to an end. A day when Jesus will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:21), and the heavenly city will be the only city there is – free of works-based religion, free of the polarization of politics, filled only with the glory of the Lamb and the people he has gathered under his care for time and eternity. That day is coming.

But until then, don’t make the mistake of Herod and the Pharisees, and the people of Jerusalem – don’t reject him when he comes to you, don’t seek excuses to avoid being served by him, don’t miss a chance to lay your sins on him and be forgiven. Come here often to take shelter under his wings – because the day is coming when not just Jerusalem, but this entire world will be blasted by God’s judgment and left desolate, and only those who have accepted Jesus’ invitation and taken shelter in his forgiveness will be able to say: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen.   

Matthew 26:6-16; 27:-10 - Judas Iscariot: Not My Messiah but the Son of God? - March 9, 2022

From the perspective of believers, those who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), unbelief is always a mystery. We have difficulty comprehending why anyone would reject the free gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation. But Judas Iscariot’s unbelief is a special kind of mystery. Jesus had personally called Judas to faith and to join his inner circle as an apostle (Luke 6:16). He had been with Jesus for three years, an eyewitness of his miracles and preaching. And after all of that…he betrayed Jesus to his enemies for thirty pieces of silver. Afterwards, he was so filled with remorse that he ended his own life. His betrayal was no worse than Peter’s denial (Luke 22:54-62) – not in the eyes of God (Romans 3:23), but Peter repented and lived while Judas despaired and died. It’s a mystery that almost defies explanation.

One issue we have in understanding Judas Iscariot is that we don’t know very much about him. Matthew, Mark and Luke all refer to him as the one who had betrayed [Jesus] in their gospels (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:19; Luke 6:16). John revealed that he was the apostolic treasurer who was also a thief (John 12:5-6). Beyond that, we don’t know much for sure. His surname, Iscariot, potentially offers a bit more information. Bible scholars are divided on what this name means. Some identify it as a reference to Judas’ hometown, that he was “Judas of Kerioth” – a town in southern Judea. Others argue that “Iscariot” is derived from the word sicarii – a reference to the kind of short, easily concealed sword that radical Jewish Zealots carried. These Zealots were revolutionaries who wanted to get rid of the Roman colonial rule by force. It’s likely that Barabbas, the man the crowd chose to have released over Jesus, was one of these Zealots (Luke 23:19). If this is true, we can venture an educated guess as to why Judas rejected Jesus as his Messiah.

Like most Jews, the Zealots were longing for the promised Messiah. However, they were waiting for the wrong kind of Messiah. The Zealots were fierce nationalists who believed God had promised to send a Messiah who would reestablish the physical kingdom of David. In their minds the Messiah would bring liberation from political oppression, economic prosperity and a restoration of pure worship to the Jews. They longed for the “glory days” of David and Solomon and were willing to fight to get them back.

At first, it may have appeared to some that Jesus was this kind of Messiah. He fulfilled all of the OT prophecies. His miracles proved that he was someone who could conquer Satan, sickness, and even death itself with only a word or touch. He was a powerful speaker who could gather a crowd. But three years into his campaign it was clear that he was not training or recruiting an army; no sabotage or assassinations were being planned. After three years, it may have dawned on Judas that Jesus was never going to start a revolution against Rome. People often try to divine Judas’ motive for selling Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver, the price set by God in the OT for a slave who has been killed (Exodus 21:32). Some think he was trying to force Jesus’ hand – compelling him to instigate an uprising in order to avoid imprisonment or death. Others think that Judas considered Jesus to be a phony, so he was going to cut his losses and get what he could out of it. But Scripture forbids us to judge motives (1 Corinthians 4:5) – and, in the end, what difference would it make, even if we did know? In other words, the point is not why Judas did what he did; the point is that Judas did what he did: he betrayed Jesus. For one reason or another, he was not the kind of Messiah Judas was waiting for.

That problem wasn’t unique to Judas. After feeding the 5000, when the people were ready to crown him their “bread” king (earthly king) Jesus literally ran for the hills (John 6:15). Jesus called Peter Satan because he didn’t accept that Jesus had to suffer and die (Matthew 16:21-23). The near-constant bickering among the apostles over who was greatest was rooted in a false understanding of the kind of kingdom Jesus had come to bring (Mark 9:33-37; Luke 22:24-30). Even after his resurrection, the disciples who were walking on the road to Emmaus were moping because had been hoping that Jesus had come to be their earthly Savior (Luke 24:21).

This expectation isn’t unique to the people of Jesus’ day either. I get calls and emails from community groups asking for our help in one way or another; to offer our space for their use, to help with a fundraiser, etc. When I tell them that Risen Savior exists to preach and teach the gospel, pronounce forgiveness, and administer the sacraments – they quickly lose interest; Jesus isn’t the kind of Messiah they’re looking for. It’s not just the outside world, though, is it? When we are suffering physically, financially, psychologically and emotionally – don’t we expect, demand even, Jesus to heal, to fix, to solve our earthly issues, now? And when he doesn’t, don’t we doubt his power and love. Whenever we demand Jesus to fit into a mold, a box, of our own making, we are acting no different than Judas. We are rejecting Jesus because he’s not the kind of Messiah we want. We are sinning. We need to repent.

It might be hard to believe, but we can learn something from Judas; two things actually. First, unlike Pilate, the chief priests and the crowds who shouted for Jesus’ death, he felt remorse when he realized what he had done. However, the Greek word used for Judas’ remorse (metameletheis) is not the word for true repentance (metanoeo, e.g., Matthew 3:2). Judas felt what Paul called worldly sorrow – but he lacked godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10). Luther explains true repentance in the Small Catechism, “Confession has two parts. The one is that we confess our sins; the other, that we receive absolution or forgiveness from the pastor as from God himself, not doubting but firmly believing that our sins are thus forgiven before God in heaven” (SC Confession: I). Judas certainly exhibited the first part of confession – he confessed his sin of betrayal to the chief priests and the elders, but – at least partly because those supposed spiritual leaders were merciless false teachers – he lacked the faith that his sin could be forgiven. And second, even though Judas lacked saving faith in Jesus, his words do reveal that he had changed his mind about him. He said: I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. Judas may not have trusted Jesus for forgiveness; but with his last words he added his voice to the chorus of witnesses which testify that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

Judas didn’t have to die in despair. He could have looked to Jesus and lived forever. Unbelievable as it may sound, Jesus died and paid for Judas’ sin of betrayal, too. But Judas cut himself off from Jesus, he despaired because of his sin and he died…eternally (Acts 1:25). The mystery of how this happened; how Judas could have known Jesus of Nazareth, walked with him, talked with him, witnessed his miracles and heard his teaching – but not trusted Jesus as his Messiah, his Savior – that mystery remains.

What cannot remain in our hearts or minds is any rejection of Jesus for not being the kind of Messiah we want or expect. The dark final days of Judas’ life and his eternal death are a warning to us: don’t ever, ever turn away from Jesus, not even when you think your sins have disqualified you from his love. We’ve all had those times, haven’t we? When our sins are so wicked, so haunting, so hurtful to others and offensive to God that we can’t imagine we could ever be forgiven. Satan loves to remind us of those sins to try to convince us that we are unworthy to be called children of God. He tries to drive us deep into the pit of despair.

So what can we do? Well, there are only two routes out of the pit of despair. We can take the route Judas took – to try to hide our sins, hide them from others, hide them from Jesus. We can try to get rid of Jesus; avoiding his Word and ignoring calls to repent. But that gets us nowhere. The Bible tells us that the same Jesus who knows how many hairs are on our heads (Luke 12:7) also knows what sins live in our hearts (Romans 8:27). Like Judas we can try to cover up our sin; we can try to pay for it – maybe not with 30 pieces of silver but with additional effort or striving; or we can try to drown our aching, guilty hearts in busyness or substances or even suicide – but Judas’ sad story proves that holding onto sin and guilt leads only to death – now and eternally.

So what’s the other route? What can we possibly do when the ache of sin is so deep that we can’t even look at ourselves in the mirror, much less look to God or call on him as our Father? That’s when we must look to Jesus. That’s when we need to remember that Jesus knew all along exactly what Judas was going to do and yet he called him to be his disciple and endured his betrayal anyway (Psalm 41:9), because he knew it was the only way he could fulfill his Father’s plan and pay for the sins of the world. Remember that Jesus never gave up on Judas even when he gave Jesus up to his enemies. That’s when we need to look through our tear-filled eyes to the cross to remember that Jesus really is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world (1 John 2:2). That’s when we need to remember the irrevocable promise God gave us when we were baptized, that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16). That’s when we need to hear from the lips of another Christian – whether it’s a pastor, a friend, a spouse or even a child – “for Jesus’ sake, your sins are forgiven.” That’s when we need to come, crawling if we have to, up to this altar to receive the body and blood of our Lord and to hear the assurance that no matter what we have done, no matter how far we have fallen, no matter how we have betrayed our Savior – no matter what, his body was given and his blood was shed FOR YOU for the forgiveness of all of your sins!

Judas Iscariot is a cautionary tale of despair and an example of the mystery of unbelief. With his own lips he testified that Jesus was who he claimed to be: the innocent, sinless Son of God. But drawn by the devil into a pit of self-pity and despair, he rejected Jesus as his Savior, his Messiah. May Judas’ example teach us the lesson that he robbed himself of the chance to relearn: Jesus really is the Son of God, and because he is, he is able to be the Savior of real sinners, even really bad sinners, sinners like you and me. Amen.

Luke 4:1-13 - It's Really Tempting - March 6, 2022

When was the last time you were really tempted? Tempted to do, say or think something that you know you shouldn’t; tempted to defy God’s Word and will? I’m guessing that most of us don’t have to think back too far. On the other hand, if you can’t think of the last time you were really tempted – then that’s an even bigger problem. It means that you’ve given up the struggle; you’ve given in to your sinful nature and the devil has you. But back to the original question: what was the nature of the temptation? Were you tempted to place something or someone before God in your life; to keep your faith quiet and hidden; to prioritize Netflix over devotion and prayer; to disrespect parents and others in authority; to harbor hatred or grudges in your heart; to lust after someone who is not your spouse – maybe just a pixelated image on a screen; to file a shady tax return; to slander or gossip about others on social media; to covet someone else’s house, car, family or life? Maybe you only have to think back to earlier this morning when you were tempted to stay in your nice warm bed or skip church for a nice, long brunch or maybe you’re being tempted right now to tune me out because it’s not pleasant to be forced to look into the mirror of the law. Temptations are all around us…and they often come from directions and at times we don’t expect. So many things in this fallen world are really tempting. And so is our text for this morning.

It's really tempting that Jesus wasn’t really tempted. I mean, he’s true God isn’t he? Isn’t that what God himself declared at Jesus’ baptism? You are my Son (Luke 3:22). And how Luke’s genealogical record of Jesus ends: the son of Adam, the son of God (Luke 3:38). (Both of which, probably not coincidentally, Luke places right before Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.) And doesn’t James 1:13 state categorically that God cannot be tempted by evil? How can this even be called a temptation? Where’s the struggle in the almighty God facing off with a fallen angel? But the Bible is also clear that Jesus is also true man, as we heard in Hebrews, that he is one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are (Hebrews 4:15). So which is it? Is Jesus the untemptable Son of God or a vulnerable flesh and blood human being? The Bible’s answer is: both. The Bible doesn’t tell us to understand or reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable truths; it tells us to believe and confess them. The point is that, if we’re tempted to pass over Jesus’ temptation as if it were just a simulation, just make-believe, we’re wrong.

These were real temptations. Jesus felt just like you feel when something, some sin is really tempting. His mouth watered; his heart fluttered; he ached like you ache when something you really, really want is dangling right in front of you – and you know you shouldn’t have it but you still really want it. Luke tells us that at the end of forty days without eating, Jesus was hungry – so it was obviously really tempting for him to make a loaf of bread for himself…even more tempting than it is for you or I to snag one of those warm cheese curds out of the bag on your way home from Culvers.

In the same way, it was really tempting for Jesus to bow down and worship the devil in order to gain all power and authority in the world – after all, hadn’t God promised Jesus rule over all the kingdoms of the world (Psalm 2)? Do you see how alluring, how appealing, how tempting this would have been for him? All the authority he had been promised – but no betrayal, no denial, no whips, no spit, no mocking, no condemnation, no shame, no nakedness, no cross, no hell, no death. The devil offered Jesus all the power and glory of Easter without the pain and shame of Good Friday. It was really tempting.

The third temptation, however, had to be the worst of all. The devil says if you are the Son of God…throw yourself down from here, because it is written: “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you.” And, “they will lift you up with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes for a moment. At your baptism God the Father and Holy Spirit both testified to the truth that you are God’s beloved Son. And then, almost immediately, that same Holy Spirit leads you out into a wilderness to be starved and tempted by the devil for forty days. Throughout all three temptations, the devil seems to be the one in control. He’s the one leading you from the wilderness to a high mountain to the pinnacle of the temple. Would you really feel like the beloved Son of God if your own Father allowed this to happen to you? Certainly Jesus must have ached for some external sign that he was still God’s beloved Son. Certainly it was really tempting to force his Father to put his money (that is, his promises) where his mouth was by stepping off of the temple.

Jesus is both true God and true man; the son of Adam and the son of God (Luke 3:38) – but these were real temptations, real battles between himself and the devil. What’s important to note is that Jesus didn’t defeat the devil as the Son of God but as a Son of Man. Jesus didn’t use any miracles, no divine power or privilege or prerogative to call upon legions of angels that he had as God. He entered the battle armed with nothing more than we have. He had his baptism which testified that he was indeed God’s beloved Son. He had God’s Word that sustains us where bread alone never will; no matter how much you have. He had the Old Testament which testified throughout that it was necessary for him to face suffering before entering glory; that the cross had to come before the crown. These were all that Jesus used to resist the very real temptations of the devil. Jesus didn’t overcome the devil by using his divine powers; no, he overcame the devil simply by quoting the book of Deuteronomy three times.

It’s really tempting to believe that because Jesus is God there was no real tempting going on or that it was easy for him to overcome the devil. It’s also really tempting to believe that Jesus is essentially providing us with a DIY example of how to defeat the devil ourselves. It’s really tempting to think of Jesus as our great example here and try to develop a step-by-step program for dealing with temptation. There’s no doubt about it, the devil tempts us in much the same way as he tempted Jesus. The devil tempts us to fill our bellies, that is, satisfy whatever fleshly desires we have, now; to sacrifice our morality and integrity – that is, to disobey God’s will and instead obey the devil’s – in order to attain wealth and power and glory, now; to test the limits of God’s promises in order to find proof that I really am his child, now. In other words, the devil’s temptations can be boiled down to this: sex, money, glory, power, popularity and health. Admittedly the temptations vary according to our age – but these are the temptations that are common to everyone – including you and me.

So it’s really tempting to believe that we’re supposed to use what Jesus does here to defeat the devil as an example. To think that we’re supposed to pick up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17), and use it to slay the devil just like Jesus did. If you’re tempted to believe that, first consider this: 1) If perfect, sinless Adam and Eve were not able to overcome the devil, what makes us think we can? 2) If Peter, who was with Jesus in the flesh, could go from being blessed by God on account of his good confession to being Satan and denying Christ, what makes you think that you will fare any better (Matthew 16:13-23)? Here's what Martin Luther had to say about doing battle with the devil: “Do not argue at all with the devil and his temptations or accusations and arguments, nor, by the example of Christ, refute them. Just keep silent altogether; turn away and hold him in contempt. For no one conquers the devil by arguing with him, since he is incomparably more clever than all of us” (LW 10:182).

Ok, so then what’s the point? What does Jesus’ temptation have to do with our daily battles with the devil? It doesn’t tell us that we are lined up behind David, just waiting our turn to go head-to-head with Goliath. It tells us that we are spectators watching as our David, Jesus, defeats our enemy for us. This story doesn’t tell us how to conquer the devil; it tells us that Jesus has conquered the devil for us! In other words, Jesus is reversing what happened in the Garden of Eden. Humanity’s biggest problem isn’t that Russia invaded Ukraine or that racial tensions are high or that men and women are constantly talking past each other. Humanity’s biggest problem is that sin entered the world through one man and death through sin (Romans 5:12). Adam was a perfect man, in a perfect world, with a perfect wife by his side, surrounded by a paradise of food, water and life – and he gave in to the devil’s temptations. Jesus, the perfect man, in a fallen world, with no one by his side, in a wilderness devoid of food, water or life – withstood the attacks of the devil. Paul explains the result: just as one trespass led to a verdict of condemnation for all people, so also one righteous verdict led to life-giving justification for all people. For just as through the disobedience of one man the many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will become righteous (Romans 5:18-19).

This is called Jesus’ active obedience. Jesus actively kept all of God’s laws, perfectly. Without this, we would still have the Law of God hanging over our heads shouting: “Do this perfectly if you want to be saved” – when we know perfectly well that we haven’t and can’t keep it perfectly. More important, without Jesus’ active obedience, his passive obedience – his suffering and death are meaningless. If Jesus didn’t lead a perfect life than he was only suffering and dying for his own sins, not ours.

These words assure us that because Jesus stood perfect against the devil, when the hammer of God’s wrath, judgment and damnation came down on him – it was our sins that were being paid for. What we see Jesus suffering and enduring in Lent, he does for us; for me, for you. Jesus is paying for every time I’ve given into my sinful, fleshly desires. Jesus is paying for my sin of seeking sinful shortcuts to money and pleasure and power. Jesus is paying for my sin of trusting medicine, science and exercise to preserve my life when it’s really the Word of God. And when we see Jesus forsaken by his Father on the cross it is proof that the Father will never forsake us.

It is really tempting to twist what Jesus did in that wilderness into what I must do to withstand temptation – but if I could do that, then I wouldn’t need Jesus. An example doesn’t do me any good. I need a Savior. When real temptations come – and they will: when your mouth waters, your heart pounds and the urge to reach out for that forbidden fruit is overpowering – you don’t have to try to be like Jesus and fight with the devil – because you will lose every time. Instead, run away from the devil and run to Jesus. When tempted, don’t think about the bread you don’t have but the Bread of Life you do in Communion; don’t think about the hard things like sickness and suffering that lie before you but the crown of glory Jesus has already won and given you in Baptism; don’t think about testing God’s love for you, hear the assurance of his love in the Absolution.

In short, resisting temptation isn’t about asking yourself what Jesus would do but about holding up what Jesus has done and delivered to you in Word and Sacrament as your shield. Even the devil himself can’t overcome that. Amen.

John 3:1-21; 19:39 - Nicodemus: From Cowardly Agnostic to Bold Confessor - March 2, 2022

You might be wondering why we just read most of John 3 in a midweek Lenten service. It’s not complicated. In the verse we read from chapter 19, John identifies Nicodemus as the man who earlier had come to Jesus at night. We read John 3 to learn Nicodemus’ backstory. Here’s what we know. He was a man of the Pharisees. In many ways, the Pharisees were the most (outwardly) moral people in all of Israel; they spent their entire lives trying to observe the law – both God’s and their own man-made ones – down to the letter. This is the main reason they hated Jesus: they were obsessed with the letter of the Law while Jesus was concerned with the spirit of it. The Pharisees figured that they could earn God’s favor with their pitiful obedience and sacrifices; Jesus insisted that the only way to achieve favor with God is through grace alone (Matthew 9:13). Nicodemus was also a member of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. Made up of seventy members plus the high priest, the Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the Jews. It had religious jurisdiction over every Jew everywhere, and one of its primary duties was to examine and deal with anyone who was suspected of being a false prophet. Finally, we know that Nicodemus must have been wealthy, because Nicodemus brought 72 pounds of myrrh and aloes with which to bury Jesus. (Earlier, Judas had estimated that just one pound of perfume could have been sold for 300 days’ wages (John 12:5).) But more important than what we can learn about Nicodemus is what we learn about Jesus through Nicodemus; that is, that Nicodemus’ path from cowardly, agnostic unbelief to bold faith proves that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

Nicodemus’ cowardly agnosticism – that is, his sitting on the fence; his remaining undecided about Jesus – is well-documented. We’ll start near the end of the story. Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin which arrested Jesus and placed him on trial in the middle of the night (Matthew 26:57-68). We can’t say with certainty what role Nicodemus played in the proceedings. Perhaps he hadn’t been informed of the meeting or maybe he spoke against even initiating the trial and was ignored. But more likely Nicodemus had either excused himself or he had remained silent throughout the whole thing. In any case, it appears that Nicodemus’ faith on that Thursday night was not what it would become by Friday afternoon. The tragedy is that, on this infamous night, uncertainty silenced the voice of a witness who could have given the public testimony that truly this man was the Son of God (Mark 15:39).

Nicodemus’ silence is understandable, or at least explainable. You and I are often silent when we’re uncertain about something. In fact, it’s usually wise to remain silent when you’re uncertain about something. “Is spring almost here?” “Will the Russians capture Kyiv?” “Will the lifting of the mask mandate be permanent?” It’s best to remain silent on such uncertain issues. Nicodemus was uncertain. He was uncertain in his faith because he was uncertain about Jesus. He was unconverted. He was like so many who would gladly accept the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation that God offers – but doubt that these blessings can possibly come from this man called Jesus of Nazareth. It’s the never-ending battle between faith and reason. It just doesn’t seem reasonable that these blessings could come from a flesh and blood man. You witness that battle between faith and reason in Nicodemus’ first meeting with Jesus. He said rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him. Jesus answered Amen, amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus probed this assertion: How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? That’s when Jesus explained the invisible reality about conversion; how a person is really brought to faith: Amen, amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Already at that first meeting, Jesus made it perfectly clear that saving faith – conversion – doesn’t come from human effort, reason or intuition but by the work of the Holy Spirit.

But that just raises another question: what does it mean to believe; what exactly is saving faith? The Bible tells us that saving faith consists of three parts: 1) Knowledge (John 17:3). Obviously a person must know about Jesus before they can believe in him. But bare knowledge isn’t enough. Nicodemus knew about Jesus and he still didn’t believe. 2) Assent (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Assent means saying “amen” to the truth about Jesus; agreeing that it is true. Nicodemus clearly had this; he agreed that Jesus had said and done divine things. And the final and most important part is 3) trust (2 Timothy 1:12). Saving faith trusts – more than anything in the world – that all that Jesus did, he did for me, he did to save me from hell and give me heaven. This is the heart of the Spirit’s work.

There’s a somewhat famous illustration of the difference between cowardly agnosticism and saving faith. For some reason, daredevils have always been drawn to Niagara Falls. Suppose one of them came up with a plan to stretch a tightrope across the falls and walk over it. Nicodemus – and other agnostics like him – would say, “Yeah, I think this guy is just crazy enough to make it across.” But imagine that this daredevil asks for volunteers to sit on his shoulders while he walks across the tightrope. The agnostic, passive spectator – the Nicodemus – says, “Jesus’ words and works seem to line up with his claim to be the Son of God and the Savior. But for now, let’s just wait and see how it all plays out.” The person with saving faith says, “Sign me up! I trust him to get him over safely.” That’s the difference. Faith is the willingness to trust in Jesus above and before all other things. Ultimately, saving faith trusts that Jesus can and will carry you across the tightrope of death into eternal life. It’s tragic that Nicodemus lacked that faith despite having seen the evidence with his own eyes. It’s just as tragic when or if we doubt that Jesus is the Son of God and our Savior – despite having witnessed the truth with our own eyes and ears. Doubt is not a virtue; it’s a sin we need to repent of (John 20:27).

But the most amazing part of Nicodemus’ story is not that he doubted Jesus’ identity despite having witnessed Jesus’ divine words and works during his life. The really amazing part is that Jesus’ death did what his life didn’t: it blew the wind of the Holy Spirit over his heart, converting him from passive spectator to bold, confessing believer. It took Jesus’ death for Nicodemus to put the pieces together; to see Jesus lifted up on a cross, just like he had said (John 3:14-15). No sooner had Jesus breathed his last than the Holy Spirit breathed on Nicodemus. He publicly confessed his fledgling faith – in full view of his fellow Pharisees who had conspired to have Jesus killed – by bringing 72 pounds of spices with which to bury Jesus’ body. In just an instant, his doubt, his cowardice, his silence evaporated.

But while it is amazing, it shouldn’t be surprising, because Jesus had promised that this very thing would happen: and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (John 12:32). Up until now doubt and uncertainty had kept Nicodemus silent and hidden. But now the Holy Spirit had brought the power of the cross to bear on Nicodemus’ heart. The cross had drawn him to Jesus. The power of the cross had turned this passive, objective spectator into an active participant. By bringing his offering of myrrh and aloes, Nicodemus was making an irreversible, public confession that Jesus was the Christ. Nicodemus’ path from agnosticism to faith are a powerful witness to the reality that: “Truly this is the Son of God.”

What about us? We might think that our faith would be firmer, our hope surer, our confession more confident if we had been there to witness Jesus’ life and death with Nicodemus, but we’d be wrong. Not wrong in the sense that witnessing Jesus’ life and death don’t form the basis of saving faith – but wrong in the sense that we haven’t witnessed them. We have, we are, we will be witnesses of Jesus’ life and death – that’s not only what our reading of the Passion History each week in Lent is about; that’s what the entire Christian church year is about: witnessing again and again Jesus’ words and works; his life and death! At the same time, what Jesus told Nicodemus is true of us too: unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! This Lent, don’t just listen to the Passion History as a passive spectator – as if you’re listening to something on the radio. Listen to it as an active participant – as if this story is about you – because it is! Jesus’ Passion is your passion. His life, death and resurrection are your life, death and resurrection through baptism (Romans 6:3). We are not merely passive or silent spectators of Jesus’ passion – we are right there with him, suffering and dying and rising through the power of the Spirit. As Christians, we confess that while, for us, Lent is about Jesus; for Jesus, Lent is about us. May this truth drive all doubt and cowardice out of our hearts and turn us into bold, confessing believers – just as it did for Nicodemus.

What will this bold confession look like? Well, obviously we can’t travel with Nicodemus to meet Jesus in the dark of night or to help prepare his body for the grave, but every time we remember our baptism, every time we drive to church early in the morning or late at night, every time we confess our sins and are absolved, every time we receive the Sacrament, pray out loud before a meal in a busy restaurant, prioritize worship over sports and recreation for ourselves and our children – by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit – we are standing shoulder to shoulder with Nicodemus, confessing boldly and publicly: “truly, this is the Son of God.” Amen.

Luke 9:28-36 - Jesus Is Transfigured - February 27, 2022

I’m pretty confident that everyone here – even our Sunday school children – would be able to explain the significance of important Christian days like Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. Jesus was born. Jesus died. Jesus rose again. But what about this day: Transfiguration. What is this day all about? Sadly, many Christian churches don’t celebrate or even recognize the Transfiguration of our Lord anymore for reasons we will touch on briefly. But that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus was transfigured. Why? That’s the question. For our benefit now and eternally Luke’s Gospel will provide the answer.

As we have noted throughout the Epiphany season, all of Jesus’ miracles serve one main purpose: to prove that he is the Son of God, one with and equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit. And that’s not merely Lutheran tradition or opinion but the clear declaration of Scripture. John writes: Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, did many other miraculous signs that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:30-31). All of the miracles Jesus did during his earthly ministry reveal him as the Son of God, and these miracles reach their climax in the Transfiguration, the one and only time Jesus fully revealed his glory on earth.

Unfortunately, it has become disturbingly common today to downplay, distort, dismiss and even deny these miracles. We are told that enlightened and educated 21st century people no longer believe in miracles, so if the Christian Church wants to maintain its influence and relevance it needs to stop insisting that Jesus actually turned water into wine (John 2:1-11), calmed a stormy sea with a word (Luke 8:22-25), fed over 5000 with a boy’s lunch (Luke 9:10-17), and instantly healed sick people with a touch or a word (Luke 6:17-19). We need to stop saying that these miracles actually happened because according to modern science, they couldn’t have. But if you buy in to that – and still insist on labelling yourself a Christian – then you’ve put yourself in something of a bind. If these miracles didn’t actually happen, then what do you do with them? You can’t pretend they’re not there – they’ve been attested to on the pages of Scripture for 2000 years. You can’t just cut them out – all you’d be left with is the sad story of a poor, illegitimate Jewish boy who spoke eloquently and seemed to have some potential but wound up ticking off the wrong people and getting himself killed. No good news there. Since false teachers can’t get rid of the miracles, what do they do with them? They do what the media today does – they pick an angle that matches their preferred narrative and repackage and repurpose the story to fit it. False teachers will often repackage Jesus’ miracles as parables which teach us how we can make this world a better place. Ironically, they end up doing exactly what Peter was trying to do when he tried to stake down three tents on that mountain: establish heaven on earth. This narrative is called the social gospel. Thus the feeding of the 5000 is repackaged as a call for the church to establish food pantries and feed the hungry. The healing of the sick is repurposed to validate faith-healings today. Jesus may not have actually calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee, but he is saying that we should watch our carbon emissions and do everything in our power to stop climate change. This narrative supposedly makes the church relevant and Jesus’ miracles meaningful (and acceptable) to 21st century Americans. Did you notice what is left out of this narrative? Sin and grace; there’s lots of law but no gospel; heaven and hell.

While it is true that most of Jesus’ miracles did relieve the real pain and suffering of real people in real ways – this social gospel theory hits a roadblock when it reaches the miracle before us today: Jesus’ transfiguration. There’s no doubt that the transfiguration was a miraculous event: Jesus’ face was transformed; and his clothing became dazzling white, Moses and Elijah were there – alive and talking, God spoke from heaven. The transfiguration was a miracle. But this miracle didn’t solve any physical, financial or environmental problems. This miracle apparently did nothing more than scare Peter, James and John to death. So what did it accomplish? It confirmed to their eyes the Word proclaimed by the voice from heaven: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” It’s hard to twist this miracle into some sort of social gospel narrative – which is why it’s become acceptable in large segments of Christianity to classify “problem” miracles like this one, the six-day creation, the virgin birth, the resurrection, as myths. Things that never really happened, but were instead invented by the early church to boost Jesus’ reputation so that people would listen to his social and moral message.

Such people think that twisting the Word of God like this is brilliant and innovative, but it’s pretty clear that this was happening already in the days of the apostles. Peter wrote: to be sure, we were not following cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the powerful majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father, when the voice came to him from within the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We heard this voice, which came out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain (2 Peter 1:16). Peter is unequivocal in stating that he, James and John saw these things with their own eyes and heard them with their own ears. Peter testifies that Jesus is the Son of God – and that his miracles – especially his transfiguration – prove it. And so, as we stand with those disciples and see Jesus’ transfiguration – we too should walk away with the firm conviction that this Jesus is indeed the Son of God. Because if we leave this mountain today with that conviction, then we will be well prepared for Lent.

Why is this so important? Because only when we believe who Jesus is, will we appreciate what he came to do. Luke introduced our text by saying about eight days after he said these words… What had Jesus said eight days earlier? The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law. He must be killed and be raise on the third day (Luke 9:22). And when Moses and Elijah appeared what they were talking with Jesus about? His departure (literally – his exodus), which he was going to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem. In any other circumstance, this conversation would be shocking and disturbing. If you or I were to casually mention that we were preparing for imminent death, it would sound like we were planning to commit suicide, it would be viewed as a cry for help. But in the company of Moses and Elijah it was only proper that Jesus would discuss his impending death. Everything God had inspired Moses and Elijah to preach and write pointed ahead to this man and this moment: the promised Messiah who would take away the sins of the world by paying for them with his death (John 5:39); which assures us that the ugly, unjust, brutal events of Jesus’ passion weren’t simply the result of tragic circumstances or the culmination of the plans of some evil men – but that God’s plan from eternity called for Jesus to willingly suffer and die for the sins of the world.

In that sense, this preparation was not so much for Jesus as much as it was for those three disciples and for us. Just like staring at a bright light burns an image onto your cornea, so Jesus wanted his glory to be etched on his disciples’ memories. He wanted this view of glory to strengthen their faith for the testing it would undergo when they would later see him fall on his face in the Garden of Gethsemane and agonize over the suffering that was to come (Luke 22:39-46); when they would deny and abandon him in his moment of greatest need (Luke 22:54-62); when they would see him arrested and hauled off like some violent criminal (Luke 22:47-53); when they would see him mocked and beaten (Luke 22:63-65), nailed to a cross and buried in a tomb (Luke 23:50-56). When Peter, James, and John finally put all the pieces together after the resurrection, he wanted them to recall this day on the mountain and understand that it had to be this way; that according to God’s plan Jesus had to be betrayed and convicted, whipped and beaten and crucified – because only his blood, the priceless blood of the Son of God, could atone for the sins of the world.

As we prepare to step out of the bright, revealing light of Epiphany onto the dark road of Jesus’ Passion in Lent; from witnessing the heights of Jesus’ glory to the depths of his humiliation, keeping this image of him in glory on the Mount of Transfiguration in our minds will also help us to understand and believe. To understand that this was God’s plan all along. Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, had to die – not because he was forced to by the treacherous actions of Judas or the murderous intentions of the civil and religious authorities – but because he wanted to die for us; and then, second, to firmly believe that because this man is the Son of God, his bleeding and dying is enough to wipe away all of our sins and give us the hope of eternal life.

But before we leave this mountain to follow Jesus through the literal shadow of death, we receive a preview of the glory of eternal life. This, in the end, is why we must never doubt, but firmly believe and confess that Jesus’ miracles – from the virgin birth to his resurrection and ascension – are true, historical events and not merely myths or parables that can be “repackaged” to fit a narrative that’s supposedly more acceptable in the 21st century. We must stand firm on this because there is no real hope to be found otherwise. People today have real needs, real weaknesses, real problems – and they really need help – that much the liberal, Bible-twisting, social gospel preaching churches have right. But their solutions are dead wrong. Real hope for the poor in this world can’t be found in churches who fill bellies but starve faith. Real hope for the sick in this world won’t be found in churches that seek to heal bodies but poison their souls. Real hope for the future doesn’t lie in curbing carbon emissions or controlling the climate. (Remember: Peter tried to stake down heaven on earth – and, according to all three Gospel accounts – Jesus didn’t even dignify his foolishness with a response.) The only real hope that anyone in this world can have is that this Jesus is God’s Son whose death on a cross satisfied God’s wrath and opened the door to eternal life.

That’s what Moses and Elijah do – they give us a preview of the glory to come. Do you realize how remarkable it was that Moses and Elijah were there? Moses had been dead for 1400 years (Deuteronomy 34:1-12), and the Lord had swept Elijah out of this world in a whirlwind around 700 years earlier (2 Kings 2) – and yet here they stand before the disciples’ eyes, talking with Jesus about his suffering and death. The lessons they teach can’t be overstated: 1) Heaven is real and all those who have died in faith are living with the Lord there in glory. 2) It teaches us to keep this life in its proper perspective: to remember that this life is preparation for the next; that our 70 or 80 years here – whether those years are filled with pain or pleasure – are only a drop in a bucket compared to the ocean of glory of the eternal life Jesus has in store for us. So on those hard days – those days of pain and sorrow, those days when you are walking through your own personal valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4) – remember this preview of glory on the Mount of Transfiguration; remember and believe that even though there will never be a heaven on earth – Jesus came to earth in order to bring us to heaven!

But you can only have that comfort, conviction and assurance – and that future – if you believe that the Transfiguration of Jesus was a real, historical event now. That’s why we can’t twist God’s Word to fit the social gospel narrative we’re told we need to be preaching in the 21st century – no matter how popular or relevant or acceptable it seems. Because the only real hope for every single person in this world is not the social gospel – it’s not in attempting to create heaven on earth. The only hope this world has is Jesus. Jesus, whose transfiguration on that mountain proves his deity, prepares us for his death, and gives us a preview of his (and our) future glory. May the Holy Spirit grant us the faith to believe that Jesus is our one and only hope now so that one day, when we are standing with him in his glory with Moses and Elijah; Peter, James and John we too will say: master, it is good for us to be here. Amen.  

Luke 6:27-38 - Get Even with Love - February 20, 2022

I don’t normally ask for congregational participation in the sermon, but today I am. Complete these sentences: Revenge (or, vengeance) is __________. Don’t get mad, get _____________. Is there anything sweeter than getting even with someone who’s wronged you? Oh, it feels so good to cut that social media bully down to size with your own slanderous screed; to lay on the horn, maybe flip the bird at that guy who cut you off on the beltline; to spill a couple shovels-full of snow on the sidewalk of the guy who dumped his slushy mess on yours. Or maybe it’s the kind of revenge that lives on after we’re gone: writing someone out of your will for the way they’ve treated you while you were alive – it doesn’t get any sweeter than that, does it? Vengeance is so common in our world that some seem to view it as a constitutional right. Someone disrespects or hurts you, you disrespect and hurt them back – that’s only fair. Just like last week, Jesus turns everything upside-down for us, he leads us to get even in a way no human mind ever would have conceived (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Jesus is still speaking to his disciples, which is important to note, because Jesus is not telling us how we must live in order to be saved but rather how those who have been saved will live. Jesus knew that they were living in a society where the principal God had instituted for civil, corporate punishment eye for eye, tooth for tooth (Leviticus 24:20) was an acceptable way to deal with personal conflict. But Jesus outlines a very different method for dealing with those who do you wrong: But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, offer the other too. If someone takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes away your things, do not demand them back. Treat others just as you would want them to treat you.  

It’s clear enough what Jesus is saying here: return love for hate, blessings for curses, prayers for mistreatment; and if someone takes your dignity or property, let them have it and more. But we tend to be skeptical, we tend to think that Jesus can’t be serious, that he seems to be advocating lawlessness and chaos. So it’s just as important to understand what Jesus is not saying as what he is. 1) He’s not saying that we cannot speak up in our own defense when we are wronged. Jesus himself did this when he stood trial before Annas. When one of the temple officials struck him, he didn’t hit him back, but he did say: if I said something wrong…testify about what was wrong. But if I was right, why did you hit me? (John 18:23) 2) Jesus is not saying that we cannot defend ourselves or our loved ones from harm. The 5th commandment demands that we do so. 3) Jesus is not advocating lawlessness (like many are today). He is not denying parents, teachers, police officers or judges the right to discipline and exact punishment as God’s representatives. 4) He is not requiring us to support free-loaders by our charity. Paul’s words still stand: if anyone does not want to work, he should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). So, then, what is Jesus telling us? He’s telling us that personal vengeance is off limits, out-of-bounds, wrong and sinful. He is telling us to love our enemies. Still sounds impossible, doesn’t it? It is. This kind of love is impossible for us…unless it’s been given to us first. Have we received that kind of love?

Paul seems to think so: for at the appointed time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. It is rare indeed that someone will die for a righteous person…But God shows his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8) If you think there is someone in your life who deserves your vengeance rather than your love, imagine how God must have felt about us – about you. He created us, body and soul, gave us talents and abilities, families and possessions – but we misuse and abuse those gifts, and we are quick to question, doubt, and blame him when he doesn’t give us what we want. He reveals himself to us in his Word and invites us to regularly receive his gifts of grace – but we regularly despise his Word – we either don’t read it or we place ourselves in judgment over it – and we invent all kinds of excuses to avoid receiving his gifts. In 10 simple Commandments God has laid out his will for our lives – but we do the opposite, we treat them like suggestions, we live as if we know better. In thought, word, and action we’ve treated God as our enemy: we despise his love, curse his name, rob him of his possessions and incessantly ask him for more. And how did God get even with us? He sent his Son to save us. He got even by allowing humanity to do its very worst to his Son – curse him, slap him, whip him, spit on him, parade him through the streets of Jerusalem, strip him naked, nail him to a tree, and sit back in smug satisfaction as he died in front of their eyes. And how did Jesus respond? Father, forgive them (Luke 23:34). If you ever wonder how God would have been perfectly justified in treating us – look to the cross. That’s what we deserved. If you ever wonder how God has treated us – look to the cross. See God’s Son hanging there in your place; suffering for your lovelessness; dying for the times you took vengeance into your own hands. That is how God got even with you.  

We know, believe and confess that, right? Then why is it so hard for us to love our enemies? Why are we so quick to suggest that Jesus can’t actually mean what he says? The biggest reason is that we’re looking the wrong direction: instead of looking at what our God has done for us, we’re looking at (and judging) whether an individual deserves our love or not. It’s real simple. They don’t – but you don’t either, and the fact that God has given us love we don’t deserve is the only reason we can return love for hate, blessings for curses, prayers for mistreatment, our cheeks to violence, and charity to thieves. When that question pops up in your mind – “why should I love my enemies?” It’s not because they deserve it, it’s because God loved you.

Next Jesus tackles the temptation to follow the world’s moral and ethical values: if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? To be sure, even the sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even the sinners do the same thing. If you lend to those from whom you expect to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even the sinners lend to sinners in order to be paid back in full. The way of the world is to do good to your friends and evil to your enemies. But Jesus says, “That’s not how it’s going to be with my disciples. If you want to get even with your enemy, you’re going to break all of society’s rules, you’re going to be radical, you’re going to love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. This marks you as a child of the Most High God who is kind and merciful even to the unthankful and the evil.

It doesn’t make rational sense, but here is where Jesus’ ethic of love proves to be truly divine. Put yourself on the other side of the situation for a moment. You’re the villain. You’re the one who’s wronged someone else. You’ve dragged someone’s name through the mud on social media, and they respond by complimenting your charming family, your beautiful home, or whatever. You’re the one who dumped snow on your neighbor’s sidewalk, and one day you wake up and he’s cleared your driveway for you. You cut someone off on the Beltline, then you blow a tire, and they stop to help. You’ve shown nothing but ingratitude and spite – all but ignored – a relative while they were still alive, and then they die and leave you a generous inheritance. How do you feel? Paul described it as having burning coals dumped on your head (Romans 12:20). That hot feeling of shame and embarrassment is what we call contrition – sorrow over sins. It would lead you to grieve over your sins; to confession and repentance – which, NOT coincidentally, is exactly what God intends his kindness to us to lead to (Romans 2:4). If you really want to get even with an enemy, really cut them to the heart, really break them – show them kindness when they don’t deserve it. Treat them the way God has treated you. And maybe, just maybe, your kindness will lead that person to repent of their sins and seek God’s forgiveness (Matthew 5:16) – and then you will be truly even: you will both be reconciled to each other and to God by the blood of Christ.

Jesus concludes: do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap. In fact, the measure with which you measure will be measured back to you. Imagine a trick or treater showing up at the house of an infamously grumpy old man, expecting, at best, one or two of those gross black and orange wrapped candies and, at worst, a stern warning to get off his porch and never come back. And instead, he brings out a huge bowl full of full-size candy bars and he doesn’t just give you one, he dumps the whole bowl into your bag and when your bag is full he says “shake it around a little to make more room” and pours even more in. When we look at all that God has given us already, both materially and spiritually, we can’t deny that God has been more than generous to us – if you ever doubt that, when you get home today, just stop for a second, look in your fridge, your pantry, your closet, your garage, look at your family; his spiritual blessings far outweigh our sinfulness and lovelessness, his material blessings go above and beyond our daily needs.

But the old Adam keeps kicking up concerns, doesn’t he? “If I love and bless and pray for my enemies; if I turn the other cheek and give away my property, who is going to watch out for me and my well-being? How do I know I will have enough to survive and provide for my family? How can I be sure that evildoers will be punished if I don’t see to it myself? How can I let myself be taken advantage of like that?” You’re not alone if those things concern you. Our sinful natures can invent thousands of reasonable, rational arguments for not loving our enemies; for taking vengeance into our own hands. The answer to those concerns is the same as any other concern we have in life: learn, believe, and trust God’s promises.

What if the love you show an enemy just makes them hate you more? So what? See the kind of love the Father has given us in that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! (1 John 3:1) If we give generously to those who can’t or won’t repay us, won’t we risk losing the roof over our heads and the clothing on our backs? Look at the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, they don’t labor or spin or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds and clothes them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Hasn’t he promised to give you everything you need for life? (Matthew 6:25-34) What about justice, fairness? If I don’t retaliate people are just going to walk all over me. Trust Paul’s inspired words: Do not take revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay,” says the Lord (Romans 12:19). If vengeance is called for, God vows to take care of it, if not now through his representatives, then on Judgment Day – and he holds the power to not only kill the body but cast the soul into hell (Luke 12:5). Whatever your specific concern might be, remember that you cannot lose anything that God didn’t give you in the first place (not even your life!) and, just as importantly, you cannot ever lose the reward Jesus has won and reserved for you in heaven. Let God worry about taking care of you now. God’s love for you is unconditional, and that frees you to love your enemies, turn the other cheek, be generous with what he has given you because you know that your true reward is safe in heaven – purchased and won for you by Jesus, your…and your enemies’ Savior.

The morally and ethically rotten world around us is destroying itself over its thirst for vengeance (just come to Bible class today to see some very real and present examples). Everywhere you turn, it seems, someone is trying to get even with someone else for something that was done or said – sometimes over things that happened decades if not centuries ago – all in the name of justice. That’s the mainstream today; that’s the way of the world. But that is not the way of Jesus’ disciples. We are to be radicals; we are to be different because, through faith in Jesus – as dearly loved children of the Most High God whose true reward is safe in heaven – we are different. We get even with our enemies the same way God has gotten even with us: with love. Amen.

Luke 6:17-26 - It's Not What You Think - February 13, 2022

The words before us serve as the introduction to what is commonly known as Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain.” Whether this is the same event as the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew’s gospel – we can’t say with certainty. What is certain is that in a series of four blessings followed by four woes, Jesus is stating categorically that in this life it’s better to have poverty than wealth; hunger than satisfaction; weeping than laughter; and persecution than poverty. And, let’s be honest, this sounds like absolute nonsense. It sounds like Jesus is describing an alternate, upside-down universe. Then again, you may have noticed that nearly everything we do here is considered by most of the unbelieving world as nonsense. We stand before living, breathing, newborn babies and declare that they are dead in sin (Psalm 51:5). We stand before the caskets and urns of dead people and declare that they are only sleeping (Matthew 9:24). We pour tap water into a bowl and call it the fountain of life (Titus 3:5-6), we eat and drink bread and wine and confess it to be the very body and blood of Christ (Matthew 26:26-27). You believe that your sins are forgiven before God in heaven when a pastor says so here on earth (Matthew 16:19). The point is that it’s not really about what you or I or anyone else thinks, sees or feels. It’s about what God says. God says that newborns are dead and dead believers are alive. God says that water and Word give life and bread and wine forgive sins. God says that guilty, repentant sinners are justified and self-righteous hypocrites are not (Luke 18:9-14). What God says: that’s the true reality – and not what you and I can think, reason, feel, or see. And who are we to argue? When God said let there be (Genesis 1) the universe and everything in it came into being! When God sent his Son to earth to make the lame walk, the dead come alive, and liberate those possessed by demons – that’s what happened. When God through his servant says that you are forgiven, justified, saved – right here and right now – you are.

“Fine,” you might say, “but that’s not what Jesus is talking about here. He’s talking about things that hit really close to home: our wealth, our health, our happiness and social status. These things are important to us – not just for one hour on Sunday mornings – but every minute of every day.” So just what is Jesus driving at? Consider the context. People had flocked from all over the region to see Jesus. Why? To hear him and to be healed of their diseases. But apparently not all in the crowds were believers because Luke remarks that Jesus lifted up his eyes to his disciples. The implication is that at least some were coming simply to benefit from his divine power, to have their earthly needs satisfied and be sent on their way healed and happy. Jesus recognized the danger: that his disciples might get the wrong idea about Christ’s mission and their own Christian lives from these miracles. So he presses pause on the healings and miracles to reveal the reality about the Christian life.

The Bible is perfectly clear that God didn’t send his only Son into the world to make you or me or anyone else rich, well-fed, happy, or popular. He didn’t come to establish a utopia – a paradise – on earth. Oh, it’s not that he couldn’t have; it’s not that he tried and failed. The One who created everything with just his Word, who cast out demons, healed the sick and raised the dead – certainly could have spoken and this earth would have become an instant paradise once again. Jesus could have established another Eden, planted the tree of life in it and put us there – and it wouldn’t have required him to die on a cross. We could have lived free of disease, crime, poverty, hunger and sadness and eaten from that tree of life and lived forever. “That sounds good – why didn’t he do that?” For the very same reason that God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden in the first place.

The only way to rightly understand life now is from the perspective of what happened in the beginning. God had given Adam one simple command: you may freely eat from every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die (Genesis 2:16-17). But Adam ate from that tree and the death he earned by his disobedience wasn’t just the inevitable separation of his body from his soul – it was separation from God. And his sin brought additional consequences: the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, so that he does not reach out his hand and also take from the Tree of Life and eat and live forever – the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the soil from which he had been taken (Genesis 3:22-23). God kicked Adam and Eve out of the perfect bliss of Eden so that they wouldn’t have to endure the curse of sin, of separation from him forever. The thorns and thistles of daily life, the pain of childbirth, the bitter enmity we see and experience between believers and unbelievers and the endless war between the sexes were to be a reminder to them that the world wasn’t the problem; they were. In other words, God kicked them out of paradise to lead them back to himself in repentance (Romans 2:4); he did it out of love.

Why doesn’t Jesus just give us everything we think could use for happiness in this life? Why doesn’t he just snap his fingers and turn this world into paradise once again? Because even if Jesus recreated the paradise on earth we desire – we would still be under God’s curse – not only because we inherited original sin from Adam but because we have not continue[d] to do everything written in the Law (Galatians 3:10). He could cause us to live here forever. But it would be an awful existence; because we wouldn’t be forgiven, we wouldn’t be justified, we wouldn’t be saved, we wouldn’t be right with God. Worse than the living dead, we would be the living damned. It would literally be hell on earth. It would be the very life God wanted to spare us from by driving Adam and Eve out of the Garden. That is why Jesus says that in this life poverty is better than wealth, hunger than satisfaction, weeping than laughter, and persecution than popularity: because that’s the reality of our standing before God. The broken world around us, the consequences of sin that touch our lives are concrete reminders that the real problem is not out there; it’s in here. Weeping, repenting, begging, hungering for God’s grace and mercy are the only proper response – because only then will we appreciate the real reason Jesus came to earth.

Jesus didn’t come to get rid of poverty and hunger and sadness – no lofty State of the Union addresses or Build Back Better bills for him – he came to get rid of sin, death, and God’s curse. Jesus came to gather up the pieces of the commandments we have broken and put together a perfect life of obedience. He came to take our sin and guilt upon himself to the extent that when God looked at earth on Good Friday, the only sinner he saw was his only-begotten Son (2 Corinthians 5:21). When he was nailed to a cross and God unleashed all of his wrath over sin, all of his curses meant for sinners on Jesus – then, and only then – was God’s justice satisfied, his wrath quenched, his curse removed. By his perfect life and hellish death, Jesus won true life for you; life in an eternal kingdom, a kingdom filled with riches beyond your wildest dreams, an endless, all you can eat feast hosted by Jesus himself, a place of unbroken joy where God himself is reunited with us as his beloved children.

But here’s the danger: in the meantime, the Devil either wants to fill you so full of wealth, food, happiness, and popularity now that you don’t see or feel the real misery of your sin or he wants you to see Jesus as nothing more than a cosmic genie who came to give you those things. The devil wants you to believe that you are rich in good works; to deny your spiritual poverty; to be satisfied in your own goodness; to not hunger for God’s righteousness; to laugh at your sin, not weep over it; to value what other people say about you more than what God says. But the awful reality is that if we believe that because we are rich, well-fed, happy and popular everything is right between us and God – then the devil has won and we are lost.

Because it’s all an illusion. Popularity and laughter and happiness and satisfaction are mirages that are gone as soon as you have them. We may eat at the best brunch buffet in Madison this morning – but we’ll have to eat again later today. Money can’t buy everything – especially the most important things, the things that last beyond death. Happiness happens in a moment and then it’s gone. Our current “cancel culture” has proven time and again that popularity and societal approval can be yours one second and lost the next. Most importantly – and this is Jesus’ main point here: our circumstances of life now are not an accurate measure of our standing with God. So what is? The cross. We deserved to hang there – because we are all poor, miserable sinners; but Jesus hung there in our place. That’s the ultimate truth, the one thing the devil doesn’t want you to see, believe or confess; the thing he wants to hide and obscure behind wealth and satisfaction and laughter and popularity.

And that’s why Jesus preaches this shocking sermon, awakening us to the truth and turning the world upside down for us. He lets us in on the secret that what made Eden paradise was not the climate, the food, the pleasure, or the fact that men and women got along. What made Eden paradise was the fact that Adam and Eve were perfect and had a perfect relationship with God. That’s what Jesus came to restore. And he has. He kept all of God’s commandments perfectly – and gives you the credit. He suffered the death your sins deserved – and your record is wiped clean. In Jesus, when God looks at you, he’s as pleased with you now as he was when he first created Adam and Eve and called them very good. (Genesis 1:31) Now, if you were all-powerful, if you could give your children anything, would you give them riches, food, happiness, and popularity in this broken world that is infested with sin and sickness and inevitably ends in death? Of course not (Matthew 7:9-11). If you could give someone you love anything at all – it would be a one-way ticket out of this world to a place where there is no sin, death, or the devil. And that’s exactly what God has given us in Jesus – a one-way ticket out of this life to true life with God. That is, finally, why he came.

In Luther’s day, when plagues and famine and disease and death were realities people just had to live and deal with – not hide in their basements from – some would say “In the midst of life we are surrounded by death.” That’s what the devil would like you to think. THIS is THE life. This is as good as it gets. Eat and drink and be as merry as you can now because tomorrow you die (1 Corinthians 15:32). Luther flipped that proverb on its head. “In the midst of death we are surrounded by life.” [1] This place, this existence – where sin, death and the devil stalk us, hurt us, kill us and our loved ones – this is not true life. True life is peace and harmony with God. That’s what Jesus came to bring us. And in his grace he gives us signs of the true life that is ours even as we live in the midst of this world of death. He gave you new life, rebirth, in the life-giving water of Baptism. He restores your life day after day with his absolution. He gives you the body and blood of his Son which preserves you to life everlasting. By his resurrection he has kicked open the door of death which kept us from experiencing true life with God. All of which is evidence that following Jesus, this Christian life of ours, is not what we think; it’s even better. Amen.

[1] LW 13:83

Luke 5:1-11 - A Strange Fishing Story - February 6, 2022

There’s something about the sport of fishing that lends itself to storytelling. Countless novels and films have been written and produced about fishing and fishermen. Many lake homes and cabins have a sign indicating that “Fishing Stories are Told Here.” Maybe it’s the long hours of waiting and watching, maybe it’s because many days fishermen are left empty handed, or maybe it’s men trying to justify spending hours on a lake instead of completing their honey-do list that leads to the concocting (or fabricating) of stories. I’d love to be able to tell you a spell-binding fishing story from my life, but my track record is probably better described as “worm-drowning” than it is fishing. So it’s a good thing that you’re not here to listen to my fishing story but to Jesus’ – and, as we will see, it’s a rather strange fishing story.

There are two literary details we should cover before we get to the story; details that help us frame the story in its proper context. Where the EHV translates one time, the literal translation is and it happened – the very same phrase used twice in Luke 2, when it happened that the time came for Mary to give birth to the Savior. With this phrase Luke is trying to catch our attention, to tell us that something big is about to happen. The second is that Luke makes it clear that this story isn’t about Jesus fishing for people in general. This is about him fishing for one particular person. Five times Simon (Peter’s Hebrew name) is used. James and John are called Simon’s partners and when Jesus issued the formal call into the apostolic ministry, he addressed Simon directly. This story is about Jesus fishing for Peter, the man who would become the leader and spokesman for the apostles – in good ways and in bad.

Here's the strange part: this wasn’t the first time Jesus had gone fishing for Peter. In fact, this story probably takes place about a year after Jesus had first called Peter (John 1:35-42). That time, on the banks of the Jordan River, Peter had left John the Baptist to follow Jesus because his brother Andrew had told him that Jesus was the Christ and John had pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:36). In the following weeks and months Peter had witnessed Jesus turn water into wine (John 2:1-11), cleanse the temple (John 2:13-25), and reveal himself as the Savior of the world, to the promiscuous Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-42). And yet, a year later, when Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret (aka, the Sea of Galilee) – where Peter lived and worked – preaching and teaching the word of God, where was Peter? He was among the fishermen who were washing their nets. Jesus is using the net of the Gospel to draw schools of lost souls into the safety of the kingdom of God – and Peter isn’t interested. The Savior was proclaiming the saving Gospel, but Peter didn’t have time to listen or learn. He had left Jesus and gone back to his day job.

So Jesus goes fishing for this fisherman. Like a parent may try to redirect a misbehaving child, saying, “Can you help me with something?” Jesus asked [Peter] to put out a little from the shore. He sat down and began teaching the crowds from the boat. We aren’t given the text of Jesus’ sermon, but we know that he wasn’t teaching them “how to earn God’s favor,” or “how to have a better marriage or better behaved children,” or “how to have your best life now.” No, Jesus was undoubtedly teaching what he always taught: that these people were sinners who were doomed for hell and that there wasn’t anything they could do about it; that they were sadly mistaken if they thought that obedience to the Law of Moses could save them; that only he could and would keep the Law perfectly and offer the perfect sacrifice for sin; that only by trusting in him they could find life after death (John 11:25).

These lost souls eagerly fed on Jesus’ life-giving teaching – but Peter wasn’t biting. So when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.” And the story gets stranger. Peter is a professional fisherman. There were at least three good reasons that he was on the shore washing his nets that morning, not out fishing. First, he knows that you don’t use nets to catch fish in deep water – the deeper the water the more likely they will break as you pull them in (as the story itself proves). Second, he knows that the best time to fish isn’t during the day – when the bright sunlight reveals the net to the fish – but at night, when they can’t see it and swim right into it. Third, Peter had worked hard all through the night and caught nothing – and now that he’s just finished washing his nets, all he wants to do is go home and rest up for another night of fishing.

Two things tell you that Peter is upset; he’s not happy about this situation; he doesn’t want to be caught in the net of the Gospel. First, he calls Jesus Master – a term used in secular language for a slave master. “Ok, Jesus, you’re the boss. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do.” Second, Peter feels like the only reason Jesus has given this command is to berate him, to judge him, to condemn him – in other words, to bring the full force of the Law down on him for abandoning his Savior. Where do we see this? Jesus had commanded them to let down your nets for a catch (plural) and Peter responded (like a bratty child) I (singular) will let down the nets. Peter probably felt like a student who has been called into the principal’s office or a like a church member today when they receive a call or email from the pastor or elder requesting a meeting to talk about their neglect of worship and the means of grace. Ashamed. Guilty. Afraid. He’s adrift in the deep water of his own unworthiness and sinfulness.

Out in the deep water is where you find fish that aren’t hungry. Experienced fishermen know that you need to use different tactics, perhaps a special kind of bait to catch fish that don’t want to eat. And so that’s just what Jesus did with Peter. Peter had seen Jesus heal many diseases. He’d seen Jesus free people from demons (Luke 4:40-41). He’d seen Jesus cure his own mother-in-law’s fever (Luke 4:39). But he had still quit following Jesus. Jesus had been trying to lure him in with his words and works for a year. He had hooked him time and again, but he couldn’t yet land him in the boat. Muskie fishermen, especially, know the feeling. You fight a monster for 45 minutes or an hour, you get him right next to the boat – and then at the last moment, he shakes the hook and gets away. But what the bait of miracles, healings and exorcisms couldn’t do to land Peter – a boatload of fish (actually two boatloads) caught by a simple word from Jesus – did.

It may seem like the great catch of fish would be a good place to end this fishing story – but that’s not the real miracle in this story, and, as we read on, it just gets stranger. When Simon Peter saw [the great catch of fish] he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, because I am a sinful man, Lord.” Peter acknowledges Jesus as his Lord and God, but he commands – commands – Jesus to go away from him because he’s a sinful man. Isn’t that a strange reaction? Peter simply couldn’t believe what was happening. He was expecting a scolding and received forgiveness; perhaps expecting Jesus to toss him out of the boat in the middle of the lake in judgment and was given a boatload of fish instead. This is the irrationality of unbelief. Peter believed that Jesus had to get away from him because he was such a stinking, miserable sinner. He believed he wasn’t worth catching. He believed that Jesus couldn’t want anything to do with him – after all, he’d already abandoned him once.

Do you ever feel that way? Do you ever feel like the best place for Jesus in your life is far, far away? Do you ever imagine that your relationship with Jesus is that of a slave to his master – that coming to worship is more like reporting for duty, like punching a time-clock – than a break, a chance to rest, a vacation from the mundane work of washing your nets (or whatever your occupation happens to be)? Do you ever feel like Jesus just wants to expose all the things you’ve done wrong, rub your face in them, and then scream and yell at you to do and be better? Do you ever think the Gospel is only for better Christians, not for you? Or, do you know someone who feels that way about Christianity? Who imagines that Christianity is all about shame and guilt and laws and pulpit pounding pastors screaming at you to “be better and try harder”? It’s no surprise that Peter was afraid of Jesus – or that many people today still are. We have every right to be. He is God in human flesh. He is the Lord; he is holy. And we are not (Romans 2:9-18). Like Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-8) and like Peter the only thing we deserve when we come here into the boat of the church, into the presence of Jesus, is to be berated, shamed, guilted and eventually condemned to hell. And yet, at the same time, that type of fear, that type of hopelessness has no place in a Christian’s heart. It’s despair – and despair is unbelief. It is a sin. A sin that shouldn’t result in commanding Jesus to get away from us but in repentance.

Repent of thinking that Jesus came to be a new Moses (John 1:17); a new Master with a sharper law and stricter demands. Repent of thinking that Jesus just wants to deprive you of rest on your day off and to double-down in your efforts to earn his love and grace. Repent of thinking that prayer, meditation on the Word, reception of the sacrament, Sunday school and Bible class are just additional tasks that Jesus gives so that you can earn your salvation. Repent of thinking that Jesus is angry with you. Because while Peter was right, that Jesus is the holy Lord of the heavens and earth – the reason he came to earth as a man to go fishing for lost sinners; he didn’t come into the world to condemn the world but to save it (John 1:17).

Have no fear, Jesus tells Peter. These are words of forgiveness, absolution and restoration. That’s the strangest part of this story of all, isn’t it? That while Peter had abandoned Jesus and only reluctantly obeyed Jesus’ command to cast his nets in deep water – that Jesus gave him far more than he ever would have asked or could have expected? Do you know what that strange behavior is called? It’s called grace. And it’s something that we don’t only read about in this strange fishing story – it’s something that we experience each and every day of our lives. We may try to run away from Jesus, but the simple fact that we are here is evidence that we haven’t been able to outrun the blessings of his grace. Just think of the boatload of blessings he has given you as proof of his love. Life and breath, food and drink, spouse and children, house and home. And those aren’t even the best ones. He gives you eyes to read his Word, ears to hear his absolution, skin to feel the cleansing water of Baptism, lips to receive the body and blood that he gave up and shed for your forgiveness. Even though each of us have repeatedly tried to flop out of Jesus’ boat, improperly viewing Jesus as a taskmaster who just wants more and more from us; Jesus hasn’t for one day stopped proving his love to us and casting out the net of his Word to catch us for eternal life.

It's a really strange fishing story, isn’t it? It’s not strange that Peter, that you, that I abandon Jesus, run away from him, tell him to get away from us – because we are miserable, rotten sinners who were born dead in sin, blind to grace and enemies of God, full of ourselves and not hungry for the Gospel. No, the strange part is that Jesus is so persistent in fishing for fish like us, fish that aren’t hungry; that don’t want to be caught – so that we may be brought into the safety of his church, into service in his kingdom, and finally, into the glory of heaven. It might be strange, but it’s the best fishing story that has ever been told – because it's not just Peter’s story, it’s yours and mine as well. Amen.  

Luke 4:14-30 - One Message that Always Gets Two Reactions - January 23, 2022

Here’s a riddle for you: what do the Word of God and Newton’s Third Law of Motion have in common? They both always generate two equal and opposite reactions. In other words, there is no middle ground, no neutral position in relationship to the Gospel. And that’s not just my opinion. Jesus himself says that whoever is not with me is against me (Matthew 12:30). The Gospel never lays there dead, like a cadaver on an exam table, it is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). You either hear the Word and rejoice in God’s mercy to sinners or you try to silence it; try to push it out of your life.

Now, you might be thinking: I’ve heard many sermons and opened up my Bible and read it many times – and quite often, I’ve had no real – much less passionate – reaction; I wasn’t really moved to either joy or anger. Now that’s a problem; a big problem. There are few things God hates more than apathy (Revelation 3:15-16). And who gets the blame for this problem? Well, given that the Gospel is necessarily communicated from one person to another, there are three places we could place the blame: on the message, the speaker or the listener. We can scratch the message from that list; God promises that it will accomplish whatever I please and it will succeed in the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:11). There’s nothing wrong with the Word. Apathy is a symptom of one of the biggest problems in the Church today: we’ve grown weary of the Word. Complacent. Bored even. As hearers, our ears have been dulled by the noise of the world. Movies and music and media are engineered to make us sit down, turn our brains off and be passively entertained and amused. But hearing the Word of God demands active listening. It’s not supposed to be background noise, it’s supposed to be like listening to the doctor tell you if the test results mean that you will live or die. Then there is “itching ear syndrome” (2 Timothy 4:3). We want the church to have amazing programs and powerful, moving music and messages that are relevant, that give meaning to our lives, that solve all our problems and answer all our questions – and the Word of God doesn’t scratch that itch. Finally, incessant breaking news and weather alerts and viral videos have changed our brains; shortened our attention spans, weakened our ability to focus and concentrate and meditate. And so, if something can’t be expressed in a 30 second video or 144 characters, we turn it off and tune it out. The sad result is that many Christians have a shamefully shallow faith based on theological sound-bites and Facebook memes than a firm and clear understanding of the deep mysteries of God’s grace.

But hearers don’t bear all the blame. You also have preachers who have themselves lost faith in the power of the Word; who instead trust their own wit and wisdom, their own personality and ingenuity to do what only the Word can do. They use the Word as a means to an end rather than the means of grace; as an instrument – or perhaps weapon – to manipulate and mobilize and organize and patronize. Want to start a community service program? There’s a Bible verse for that. Want to raise money? Beat people over the head with your big leather Bible. Want to trumpet your righteous cause and vilify the opposition? Scripture is cited on both sides of almost every social and political issue. And this misuse of the Word can even infect the hearts of we who claim to stand on the Reformation motto of Scripture alone. Preachers preach and hearers hear the Word expecting it to change the world and the people out there rather than do what God promises it will do: change us. It’s stupid really. It’s stupid to sit here for an hour and expect it to change the world out there – instead of changing us. It’s as stupid as taking a Tylenol and expecting someone else’s headache to go away.

Martin Luther warned his generation that the Word of God is like a passing downpour. It falls for a while in one place and the soil soaks it up. But then the soil becomes saturated and the water runs off and the clouds move on. [1] Luther predicted the day when the Gospel shower would move on from Europe to other nations and continents – which has in large part happened. And some might say that the Gospel downpour is leaving our country in our own generation. But for now, God has blessed us with the shower of his blessings in the Word – and let us never take that for granted or grow bored with it. Because the Word remains the living and active wisdom and power of God (Romans 1:16-17). And whenever it goes out from human lips into human ears and minds and hearts, it does things. It kills and makes alive. It knocks us off our thrones and picks us up off of our knees. It fills the starving and sends the rich away empty (Luke 2:53). There is no neutrality when it comes to the Word of God. There is either joy or anger; faith or unbelief.

That was true in already in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (c. 445 BC). In our first lesson we heard that all the people gathered together at the public square that is in front of the Water Gate (Nehemiah 8:1), demanding to hear the Word of God. They listened as Ezra read from the books of Moses and the Levites interpreted it [so that] the people understood what was read (Nehemiah 8:8). Men, women, and children stood – stood! – and listened for six straight hours, from early morning till noon, to hear words that hadn’t been heard in Jerusalem in over 70 years. No comfortably padded chairs. No heating or air conditioning. No roof over their heads. They wept when they heard the Word. It cut them right to the heart. They repented. They believed. They recognized how utterly sinful they were and how incredibly gracious God was. The Word was working just as God had promised. It was a holy day, made holy by the Word.

It was also a holy day in Nazareth, when Jesus, the carpenter’s son turned miracle-working rabbi, returned to his hometown synagogue on the Sabbath. The place was packed. They all wanted to hear from the hometown boy. The attendant handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah to Jesus and he found Isaiah 61. He read it out loud: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And then he stopped and sat down. The place went silent. You could have heard a pin drop. What was he going to say? People had wondered for centuries who Isaiah was talking about. Was he talking about himself? (Acts 8:34) Was it John? Was it someone else? Who was this Anointed One? Jesus tells them: Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. “This prophecy is about me.” And, at first, they all spoke well of him and were impressed by the words of grace that came from his mouth.

But then the devil elbowed his way into their minds and elevated their reason over the Word. They kept saying, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” They remembered that Jesus had played in their streets with their kids, traveled with them to Jerusalem for the required festivals – that for 30 years Jesus walked and talked and lived like anyone else. “Wait a minute…who does this guy think he is? He leaves home, runs around with that weird, renegade cousin named John, and now he comes back and thinks he’s the Messiah? Well, we’ll see about that. Prove it, Jesus! You’ve done miracles for other people, do one for us. Prove yourself here and we’ll believe you, but until you prove it we are going to reject your message.”

Jesus knew what they were thinking. Amen I tell you: No prophet is accepted in his hometown. He reminded them that there were lots of widows in Israel but God sent Elijah to the widow at Zarephath (Elijah 17:7-24) and there were lots of lepers in Israel but Elisha healed Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5) – both of whom were Gentiles. He was sending them both a fact and a warning: if you reject the Word, don’t expect miracles. Faith doesn’t come from seeing miracles but from hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). If you continue in your unbelief, God will take his Word away from you and give it to people who joyfully receive it. And with that, Jesus’ hometown congregation had heard enough. They were filled to the brim – not with faith, but with rage. “Let’s get rid of this guy! We don’t need to sit here and listen to him call us unbelievers and that we need him to save us from ourselves.” They drove him out of town and tried to throw him off a cliff. If you actually listen to what the Word says to you and about you, you can’t remain neutral. You either hear it with joy or you try to push Jesus out of your life. There is no middle ground.

Of course, Jesus slipped away because it wasn’t the time or place for him to die, but this was a bitter taste of the ultimate rejection to come. He was Anointed by God to save God’s people, but God’s people rejected him. Three years later they would finally succeed in pushing Jesus out of their lives for good – they would arrest and convict and beat and crucify him as a criminal. But only because he willingly allowed them to. Because only by dying could he pay for the world’s sin, death and unbelief (Hebrews 9:22). He had told them God had sent him to save them from their sins – and they wanted to kill him for it. Do you see how irrational unbelief is?

But today isn’t about the people of Nehemiah’s time or Jesus’ childhood neighbors. Today is about you…and me. Are we more like those people in Jerusalem or the people in Nazareth? We are both! We have split personalities when it comes to the Word of God; we are both glad hearers and angry despisers. Our old Adam rises up in rebellion against the Word, rejects its demand to rule our hearts and minds, resents the Law that exposes our sin and the Gospel that says God sent a Savior because we couldn’t save ourselves. It’s our old Adam that just wants to stay in bed on a frigid Sunday morning, that searches for excuses to avoid hearing the Word, that counts the seconds until the “Amen.” The old Adam hates church. He can’t wait to get as far away from the Word as possible because he knows that the Word means his death. He must be coerced, compelled, threatened, forced to hear it. He’s why you and I do not always gladly hear the Word of God and obey it (Romans 7:18).

But the New Man in you is different. The New Man is an eager listener. The New Man would gladly stand in a crowd outside the Water Gate in Jerusalem and listen to the Word of God for six hours – to say nothing of driving through a little snow and cold to sit in a padded chair in a climate-controlled sanctuary for one hour. That’s the real you. The you who was reborn in Baptism. The you that died and rose with Christ. The you who rejoices at every opportunity to hear and study and read God’s Word, who gets a shiver down your spine whenever you hear that God loved you so much that he sent his Son to die for your sins, so that he might call you his child and give you the inheritance of eternal life.

You know what that means, right? It means war. It means that each of our lives is a never-ending war between the old Adam and the new man. It is a weekly struggle to make the trek to church. A minute by minute struggle to pay attention. A daily battle to open up the Bible at home and read it and teach it to our children. An ongoing struggle against the devil’s temptations to become apathetic toward the amazing good news of God’s grace for sinners. It means that we need to repent for allowing the Old Adam to gain the upper hand, for treating God’s grace as old news or irrelevant news or fake news, for refusing to receive the gifts Jesus wants to give us, for treating the Word as something optional or secondary in our lives, even for wanting to shut Jesus up and get rid of him. We need to drag the old Adam here kicking and screaming and repent because that is how God puts him to death.

And then we rejoice. We rejoice not because we have overcome the old Adam. Let’s be honest, none of us have. No, we rejoice because Jesus has overcome where we have failed. We were the captive, blind and oppressed ones Isaiah was talking about – but Jesus is the Anointed one who came to live and die and rise again to set us free. Your sins – even your sins of apathy – are forgiven. You stand justified before God. You are his child through baptism. You have a place in his heavenly mansion. That’s the Gospel. It might make you mad or glad, sad or joyful, you may want to hear more or you might just want me to shut up – because the Word always gets both equal and opposite reactions. But there’s no denying this fact: that this day at Risen Savior is a holy day because this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Amen.

[1] LW 45:352

Titus 3:4-7 - Epiphany Reveals God's Kindness and Love - January 16, 2022

In every nation and culture that has ever existed, kindness and love have been seen as positive virtues, as qualities to be nurtured and encouraged and praised. But there’s a problem with kindness and love; two of them actually. First, these virtues are invisible; you can’t tell that someone is kind and loving just by looking at them. This is true of humans, obviously; but it’s also true of God. We can’t know what’s in God’s heart unless and until he reveals it to us. Second, as a result of sin, our world has perverted the virtues of love and kindness to justify truly evil behaviors. Euthanasia, abortion, same-sex marriage and, more recently, encouraging even children to identify as the opposite gender are all evils that are justified by perverted ideas of kindness and love. We’re not blameless either. How many times have we used kindness or love to justify not saying something to the friend or family member who is caught up in sin or unbelief? If we are honest with ourselves, don’t selfishness and a desire for recognition and glory taint even our kindest and most loving words and actions? Since sin has so ruined our concept of kindness and love, we need a refresher course from the One who is love and kindness (1 John 4:8). As we continue the season of Epiphany, Paul says that God has revealed his kindness and love to us and for us in three very real ways.

Epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphaino which means “to reveal or to appear.” It’s the word Paul uses in verse 4: when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared. This is profound: when Jesus appeared, both in Bethlehem as a baby, and in the Jordan River as the Savior of sinners, he revealed something about God that we could never have discovered by ourselves (Matthew 11:27): namely, that he is kind and loving. It was kindness because Jesus didn’t come for his own benefit, but for ours; not to gain anything for himself but to give up everything in order to gain salvation for us. And Jesus’ appearance reveals God’s love – a very specific kind of love. The word Paul uses here is philanthropia (our word philanthropy) – in that out of all the various parts and pieces of creation, God sent his Son not to save dogs or dolphins, but humans.

Now, it’s easy for us as Christians to take God’s love and kindness for granted – since we are reminded of them every time we open our Bibles, every time we hear the absolution, every time remember our Baptisms or receive Holy Communion. But God’s love and kindness stand in stark contrast Paul’s description of mankind in the verse preceding our text: at one time we ourselves were also foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by many kinds of evil desires and pleasures, living in malice and jealousy, being hated and hating one another. He’s not just describing what the world was like – that is, what unbelievers and pagans and idolaters were like – but that’s what we – Christians, believers – were like. Since it’s so tempting for us to exaggerate how kind and loving we are – God reveals the truth to us. We were not – and often are not – kind and loving. In fact, apart from him we were the complete opposite: foolish, disobedient and filled with hate. That’s what makes Christmas and Epiphany so astounding – not that they came from God, for he is love (1 John 4:8) – but that God loved us; poor, miserable, rotten creatures. Creatures who don’t deserve even an ounce of kindness or love.

That’s what Paul is emphasizing in his next statement: he saved us – not by righteous works that we did ourselves, but because of his mercy. It’s not just that God had to overlook those few times when we didn’t do the right thing, it’s not that we were good most of the time and only failed here or there – no, God didn’t save us because of any of the righteous things we had done…because there weren’t any. Isaiah says that all of our righteous acts look like filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6). Hebrews says that apart from faith, we can’t do anything good in God’s eyes (Hebrews 11:6). Therefore, the primary cause for God to send his Son into this world was not in us, but in him; not in our righteous works, but in his mercy. Mercy is pity or compassion in action for those in a hopeless condition. Our condition was hopeless: we were doomed to a short and miserable life here on earth and an eternity in hell. That’s why God stepped in and in his mercy sent his Son into this world. That’s why Christmas is not just a nice, heart-warming story and Jesus’ baptism is not just a interesting detail from his life. From Bethlehem to the Jordan to Calvary, Jesus’ time on this earth was not a leisurely vacation but the most dramatic rescue mission in human history.

Perhaps this gives us a better appreciation for the structure of the Christian church year. In Advent, we prepared to receive God’s Christmas gift. On Christmas we received God’s Christmas gift once again. But imagine if you received a gift and weren’t allowed to open it. That’s what the Epiphany season is about: unwrapping, unpacking, and understanding God’s Christmas gift to us. As we move from Epiphany into Lent, we will view firsthand Jesus’ path of suffering up to and on the cross – which was the price it cost to pay our debt of sin and earn our forgiveness. And then we leave Calvary to stand outside the empty tomb, where we see proof positive that the appearance of Jesus demonstrates God’s kindness and love which offers salvation to lost sinners (Romans 4:25).

Our faith and our certainty of salvation always start there – with the objective facts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection – but it doesn’t end there. Paul goes on to explain how those facts apply to us: he saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. What is Paul describing here? Washing…rebirth…poured out. He’s talking about baptism. In no uncertain terms, Paul is stating that sinners are saved from hell when they are baptized with water and the Word. Rebirth and renewal are the two results of this washing. The first time you were born, what did you inherit from your parents besides your eye color and lame sense of humor? Sin and death. From the moment you took your first breath you were destined to fight against God’s will for you each and every day until your death. But when you were baptized, you were reborn – not in the image of your parents, but in the image of Jesus (Romans 6:3-5). Baptism is where everything Jesus did – his perfect life and his innocent death – become your personal possession. And along with rebirth, God worked renewal by the Holy Spirit in your Baptism. What is renewal? Well, do you know how every once in a while, one of your devices becomes corrupted and you need to restore the default factory settings. That’s the idea of renewal: the Holy Spirit restores the default settings he had originally given to Adam and Eve, so that we once again want what God wants (Romans 6:4). Through the renewal that God gave us in Baptism, we are again able to be kind and loving; to live not just to serve ourselves, but to serve God and others.

Now, not everyone believes what the Bible says about baptism. Some people think that baptism is something we do for God. They think of baptism as an act of obedience or an outward symbol of an inward commitment they have made. But listen again to Paul’s description of baptism – who is the doer, the active one in baptism? He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the active ones in baptism. He reaches into the dead, godless, lifeless hearts of all ages and creates faith in them and enables them to live for him. If it were up to us, even just a little; we would ruin it. But Epiphany reveals God’s unearned, undeserved kindness and love through the washing of Holy Baptism.

Finally, what is the end goal of all of this – why did God put so much effort into sending his Son into the world and giving us new birth and renewal in baptism? Paul concludes: so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life. Contrary to what many believe and teach today, Jesus didn’t come to this earth so that we could all be rich and happy. He didn’t come to earth merely to give us advice on how we might have healthier marriages and families. He didn’t come to fulfill all of our dreams or so that we would have our best lives now. Everything that Jesus did he did for one reason: so that when we die, we wouldn’t be condemned to hell but instead inherit heaven. Usually, an heir receives an inheritance when someone else dies – but for us, as baptized believers – the inheritance of heaven is what we receive when we die.

This has a profound impact on our worldview, our entire outlook on life. Most people in our world today view life as something to be cherished and enjoyed to its fullest because, well, this is all there is (this pandemic has revealed this in a stark way: it has people behaving in all sorts of irrational and utterly panicked ways because they have no hope of eternal life). Many in our world live by the mantra You Only Live Once. Even Christians can get sucked into making a long and satisfying retirement in which they can check off all the things on their personal bucket lists as the ultimate goal of life. But as Christians, we know (or at least we should know) that this life is nothing more and nothing less than preparation for eternal life (Psalm 90:12). For Christians, the grave doesn’t mark the end of the story, but the beginning – for only when we have finally been freed from our slavery to sin, death and the devil will we truly begin to live life as God intended it to be.

Our hope as we walk out those doors to continue the daily war against Satan and every evil is that we are already victorious; that eternal life is ours. And this hope is not tenuous or uncertain – it’s not like the hope we have that the weather will warm up or that a particular football team will win this afternoon. No. Our hope of heaven is rock solid and certain. It is certainty that is grounded on the appearance of Jesus in this world to live, suffer and die as our perfect substitute. It is certainty that becomes ours when God applies his Son’s work to us personally in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. It is certainty that is sustained and strengthened by the countless promises our Father has given us in his Word, my favorite of which is this one from Isaiah: even if the mountains are removed, and the hills are overthrown, my mercy will not be removed from you, and my covenant of peace will not be overthrown, says the LORD (Isaiah 54:10). Amen.

1 Kings 10:1-9 - You Don't Know the Half of It - January 9, 2022

We’ve all heard some variation of the phrase, “You don’t know the half of it.” It’s usually used to describe something really good or really bad – we’ll use it to describe how terrible the weather was, how amazing our vacation was, or how Covid messed up all our plans – people use that phrase to emphasize that you really had to be there (or be in their shoes) to understand what it was really like. The season of Epiphany has a dual focus of revealing Jesus as true God and Savior of the world and Jesus revealing the one, true God to the world. Paul offers as good a definition of Epiphany as anyone what no eye has seen and no ear has heard and no human mind has conceived – that is what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9). Epiphany reminds us that no matter how many times we’ve heard the Gospel of Christ crucified for sinners, we still don’t even know the half of it.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding this Queen of Sheba who is introduced to us in this account from 1 Kings. Some suggest that she was the famous female Pharoah of Egypt called Hatshepsut. Others argue that Sheba was a region south of Egypt, near present-day Ethiopia. Still others believe that she came from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, from present-day Yemen. What all Bible believing people must agree on, however, is that this mysterious woman traveled a considerable distance just to see the famous King Solomon. If she was, as most scholars today conclude, from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula – in modern day Yemen – then she traveled no less than 1200 miles to see Solomon.  This was a bucket-list trip for this woman. A trip which would have taken her away from her throne for months, if not more than a year.

But our text makes it clear that it was worth the time and effort to make the trip. Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. The Queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he built, and the food on his table. When she saw the council meeting of his officials, the careful attention of his ministers, as well as their attire, his cupbearers, and the whole burnt offerings which he offered at the House of the Lord, it took her breath away. She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your accomplishments and your wisdom is true. I did not believe the report until I came and saw it with my own eyes. The truth is, not even half of it was told to me! Your wisdom and wealth surpass the report which I heard.

A few verses later we are told that she and her servants returned to her country (1 Kings 10:13). This is the last time we hear about the mysterious Queen of Sheba…that is, until roughly 1000 years later when we hear her name uttered by Jesus himself in his condemnation of the unbelieving Pharisees: the Queen of the South will be raised up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But one even greater than Solomon is here (Matthew 12:42). Jesus wasn’t just bragging. He wasn’t displaying arrogance or insecurity. He was dealing with the very real fact that the chosen people of Israel – the very people who should have been ready and waiting for his arrival – had rejected him in stubborn, hard-hearted unbelief. They had actually accused him of working for Satan (Matthew 12:24). And then they even had the gall to demand that he give them a sign to prove that he was who he claimed to be (Matthew 12:38). Jesus pointed back to this story about the Queen of Sheba because, while she spared no cost or effort to see and listen to Solomon’s wisdom, these Pharisees and experts in the law refused to listen to and believe Jesus’ wisdom even though he was standing right in front of them. They knew that God had promised to send a Savior who would reveal him to the world, they knew half of the story – but when Jesus appeared, they refused to receive him, the fulfillment of those promises.

You all had to travel to be here this morning – some of you a considerable distance. You had to get yourselves and your children out of your warm beds and showered and dressed and venture out into the frigid January air to drive here to church. And I commend you for your commitment and dedication. I thank God that he has led you to spend a portion of your weekend immersing yourself in God’s Word. At the same time, you didn’t have to travel for days or months to get here. None of us traveled 1200 miles. No, it’s relatively convenient for you to be here on Sunday morning. And it’s a fairly short time commitment (an hour, maybe two), considering that, in comparison, many of you probably spend 40 or 50 or 60 hours working each week and might spend 3 or 4 hours on your couch this afternoon watching football or Netflix.

But what happens when it’s not so convenient to come to listen to Jesus and his wisdom that he brings to us from heaven? What happens when it’s just a little too cold, when there’s just a little too much snow on the roads, when you stayed up a little too late on Saturday night? What happens when you have non-WELS family staying at your house, when your children have sports or other activities on Sunday morning, when you’re out of town on vacation? What happens when your employer offers you double time or overtime for working on Sunday? What happens when coming to listen to Jesus is inconvenient? Everyone who has been confirmed knows that God didn’t say, “Remember the Sabbath Day when it’s convenient for you, on your schedule.” But we’re pretty good at justifying our absence, aren’t we? “I’ve heard it all before.” “I can always catch the service video online later in the week.” “I need at least one day to sleep in and rest up.” “I have to provide for my family and weekend overtime pay really helps with that.” “God wants me to love my family and care for my children, doesn’t he?” The devil loves to tempt us to regard this time of worship and Sunday school and Bible study like an optional, leisure activity rather than an absolute necessity; as a choice we’re free to make rather than a command from God. And when he wins; we sin. Whenever we skip worship because it’s inconvenient, we knowingly disobey God’s 3rd commandment and spit in the face of the Savior he sent to die for us. For the times we have despised or neglected opportunities to hear God’s Word – and we all have – we too deserve to have the Queen of the South rise up to condemn us on Judgment Day.

But our disobedience to the 3rd Commandment isn’t the worst part of neglecting worship whenever it’s inconvenient. The worst part is that we are robbing ourselves of a precious opportunity to hear the other half of the story. You know your half. You know how your story is filled with sin: idols of all shapes and sizes, misuse and abuse of God’s name, disrespect for God’s representatives, hatred and lust, theft and slander and covetousness. We know how depressing and broken our half of the story is and that it leaves us deserving only death. That’s the real reason we need to be here: to hear Jesus’ half of the story. Jesus’ half is filled with perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice and the wisdom of God hidden in Word and Sacrament which gives forgiveness and peace, comfort and the hope of eternal life. Where else on earth can you receive those things?

While we can’t say with any degree of certainty that the Queen of Sheba returned to her home as a believer in the one, true God; we can say that she didn’t regret taking the time to travel to see and hear Solomon and his wisdom. Far from it; she gushed over her experience: blessed are your men, blessed are your servants, who stand before you continually hearing your wisdom! May the Lord your God be blessed, who was pleased to put you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loves Israel forever, he made you king to administer justice and righteousness. Is that how you describe your experience here in worship to others? Do you gush over the forgiveness, peace and joy you receive here every week? If not, why not? Let’s just compare what the Queen of Sheba experienced to what we are privileged to experience here on a weekly basis. Sure, the Lord had given Solomon wisdom and riches and fame that surpassed anyone else in human history (1 Kings 3:10-14), but Jesus, the one who meets us here, is the power of God and the wisdom of God in the flesh (1 Corinthians 1:24). Sure, Solomon spoke and wrote wise sayings about topics ranging from government to the economy, from nature to astronomy, from marriage to just finding a way to survive in this fallen world (read Proverbs and Ecclesiastes for a taste of this wisdom), but only Jesus can make us wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15). Sure, Solomon’s temple was an architectural wonder and his treasuries were overflowing with gold and silver (2 Chronicles 9:13-28), but Jesus offers us a home in the heavenly Jerusalem, where even the streets are paved with gold (Revelation 21:21) and he has prepared mansions for each of us (John 14:2). And that’s only a taste of the other half of the story that Jesus wants to give you each and every week here in his house. Why let anything inconvenience you from seeing and receiving these blessings and promises?

But that’s not even the most exciting, the most unexpected aspect of Jesus’ half of the story. During the season of Epiphany, we focus on the revealing, the unveiling, the “appearance” of Jesus as the Savior of the world. Here’s the thing: it was incredibly inconvenient for Jesus to become the Savior of the world. He was the eternal Son of God; he had been enjoying the glory of heaven at his Father’s right hand; he had everything and needed nothing. But he had been observing humanity spiraling down the drain of sin towards hell for thousands of years, and in his mercy and love, he planned to do something about it. And when the time was right, he made the trip down to earth (Galatians 4:4-5). He didn’t have an entourage; he didn’t pack anything; he left all the riches of heaven behind. And it was much more than a thousand mile round-trip and a year away from home. It was an expedition from the perfection of Paradise to the pit of depravity that lasted 33 years. And it wasn’t luxurious for him in any way. From his birth to his life to his death, it was all extremely humiliating, painful and inconvenient. He was born in a stable (Luke 2:7); had to flee Herod’s murderous hatred (Matthew 2:13-18); he was slandered as the illegitimate son of a carpenter (John 8:39-41). He was mocked and ridiculed and several attempts were made on his life (Luke 4:29-30). Finally, he was unjustly arrested, brutally tortured and nailed to a cross to die. None of it was convenient for him, but Jesus inconvenienced himself for a reason: to save us from the hell our sins deserved.

And now he wants to tell you about it. Every week he wants to give you a break from your half of the story – the half that’s filled with disappointment and pain and sin and sorrow – and tell you his half. He wants to explain to you exactly what he did and how what he did forgives your sins and gives you peace out there in your half of life and clarify what it all means for your past, present and future. And he doesn’t make it difficult at all. He makes himself available in the Bible – a resource you can access 24/7 anywhere on the planet (even on that smartphone you take everywhere with you). He’s worked to ensure that he is available to you in Word and Sacrament in weekly worship services, Bible studies and Sunday school here in your own hometown. You don’t have to travel thousands of miles or take months off of work to learn from Jesus, he is present right here, eager to tell you about the forgiveness, peace, and salvation that he won for you by his life, death and resurrection. That’s true wealth and wisdom. Seeing and receiving these blessings is well worth our time and effort.

Whenever I hear someone say, “You don’t know the half of it,” I generally assume that they’re exaggerating whatever it is they’re talking about. The Queen of Sheba discovered that there was no exaggeration to Solomon’s wisdom or wealth or fame – she admitted that she hadn’t even heard the half of it. But what Solomon had to offer pales in comparison to what Jesus offers to us here and now. You don’t know the half of what Jesus wants to give you: so in this new year don’t let any inconvenience get in the way of seeing and receiving your Lord’s blessings. Amen.

Luke 2:21 - Because a Baby Boy Bled - January 2, 2022

This weekend the world held the biggest party of the year. My question is: why? I guess because we turned a page of the calendar. Is that really any reason to celebrate? We’re all a year older than we were 365 days ago, with more aches and pains, more gray hair and wrinkles, we’re all one year closer to death. Sure, you always hear people saying that they hope the new year will be better than the last. But do we really have any reason to hold out that hope this year? Between runaway inflation, new variants of Covid, rising crime rates, political polarization, rampant immorality, and animosity between nations – do we have any reason or right to be optimistic about 2022? Well, actually, yes. That is, Christians – those who have received and believed in Christ this Christmas – have every reason and right to wish a fond farewell to 2021 and have confident optimism as we step into 2022. Why? Because a baby boy bled.

The obvious question is: why did Mary and Joseph circumcise Jesus? Bible scholars have twisted themselves into knots trying to explain this, but the answer is very simple: because God said so. 2000 years earlier, God had told Abraham: this is my covenant, which you shall keep, a covenant between me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised by cutting the foreskin off your flesh. It will be a sign of the covenant between me and you (Genesis 17:10-12). For Abraham and his descendants, circumcision was a sign of God’s unilateral (one-sided) promise to save them. God repeated this covenantal agreement with Moses and the Israelites years later (Leviticus 12:1-3). In this way circumcision proclaimed both law and gospel. It was law in that it was a painful, bloody reminder that infants – which most people, even many Christians, mistakenly consider to be innocent and blameless – are, in fact, tainted with the terminal infection of original sin (Psalm 51:5). Babies are born with black, rebellious, ungodly, unbelieving hearts. Babies are born to curse and hate and murder and steal and lie and covet. (And if you doubt that, just remember that you were once a baby, too.) And because of original sin, babies are born to die now and forever in hell. Thus, circumcision was a visible, physical reminder of where the total depravity of humanity comes from.

Martin Luther put it this way: Why did God not command to circumcise the finger, hand, foot, ear, eye or some other member of the body? Rather he selects that member which serves no other work and practice in human life and was created by God only for the procreation and increase of mankind. If the evil was to be lopped off, then the hand or the tongue should in fairness have been circumcised before all the other members, since all wickedness among men is performed by the tongue and the hand…Circumcision is to picture what we are always saying: that God does not condemn or save the person because of the works but the works because of the person. Therefore our fault does not lie in the works but in our nature. Our person, nature, and entire being are corrupted in us through Adam’s fall…If, then, he had commanded the hand or the tongue to be circumcised, this would have been an indication that the fault lay in the words and works, that he is favorably disposed toward the nature and the person and hates only the words and the works. But now, since he takes that member which performs no other work than the procreation of human nature and personal being, he makes it clear that the fault lies in the entire essence of human nature, that its birth and the entire origin is corrupt and sinful. [1] Circumcision shows us that our biggest problem – no matter what year the calendar says it is – is not that we sin; our biggest problem is that down to our very core, we are sinful.

But circumcision was also a visible declaration of the Gospel. It was a reminder to Israel that God had promised to send a Savior and that this Savior would come from the seed of Abraham (Genesis 22:18). Every time a baby boy bled on the eighth day of his life in Israel, God was reminding his people of his promise that when the time was just right, he would send his only-begotten Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law (Galatians 4:4).

But we still haven’t really answered the question, have we? Why was Jesus – who, by virtue of his conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:20) didn’t have a sinful nature – circumcised? Because of us. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day of his life because we haven’t lived up to God’s expectations even one day of our lives. Jesus bled to obey God in our place, on our behalf. And because Jesus bled we are assured that we don’t have to pay for our sins of 2021 – or 2022 for that matter – with an eternity in hell. Jesus’ circumcision is a reminder that he didn’t just die for us, he lived for us too. When we are talking about redemption and salvation, we often focus on Jesus’ passive obedience to the law: his suffering and death. Here we see an example of Jesus’ active obedience to the law. Jesus actively did something that he didn’t have to do as God’s perfect Son; but something he did to serve as our perfect substitute. Jesus obeyed his Father’s will even as an eight-day old infant. He did it, so that even though each of us were totally depraved, polluted with sin inherited from our parents that no soap will scrub off and no effort can sweat away – we might be saved. Through faith, you receive what Jesus did so that when God looks at you he only sees Jesus – perfect in every way. Through faith you will receive evidence and assurance of this good news through Jesus’ body and blood in His Supper. Today is a day for celebration; because baby Jesus bled, we have forgiveness in his name.

We don’t have to practice circumcision out of obedience to God’s Law anymore because Jesus has fulfilled (i.e. he kept it perfectly and therefore removed the need for it) that element of God’s ceremonial law (1 Corinthians 7:17-19). But God still confirms his promise to save us in a visible and physical way today through the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Law and Gospel are both still preached at the font; baptism continues to remind us that babies are born sinful and in need of a Savior. Baptism is also a continual reminder to us that salvation is unilateral – God saves us without any participation on our part – he puts the sinful nature to death by drowning it in Jesus’ blood and he creates a new life of faith through the power of the His Word. Because baby Jesus bled – both eight days after his birth and three decades later on Calvary’s cross – we can be confident that our children are saved through water and the Word even before they can walk, talk, or confess their faith.

And just like circumcision marked a baby boy for the rest of his life, God intends for baptism to have life-long effects. Picture it this way: when God found us we were like fish flopping around on the beach doomed to die, with no hope of saving ourselves. In Baptism, God picked us up, breathed life into us and placed us into his living water. As Christians, we continue to swim in the waters of Baptism by daily confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness. Our Baptism into Christ is the reason we can be hopeful and joyful as we stand on the brink of another new year – even though we don’t know where or how or if we will make it to 2023. Because Jesus bled not only has our slate of sins from 2021 been wiped clean but wherever we go and whatever we do in 2022 we do it all in Jesus’ name and with God’s blessing. And because we are so quick to forget that, God regularly reminds us right when we enter his house in the invocation and again when we leave his house by placing his name and his blessing on us. Our world likes to make resolutions this time of year to be better, healthier, kinder, more generous. Sadly, statistics say that only about 8% of New Year’s resolutions are kept [2] – which means that for the vast majority of the world 2022 will not really be any better than 2021. But because Jesus resolved to be born for us, to bleed for us, to live for us, to die and rise again for us – we can be sure that wherever life takes us in 2022, we will live it in Jesus’ name.

Finally, Luke reminds us that this news is too good for us to keep to ourselves, he encourages us to resolve to spend 2022 proclaiming Jesus’ name. Now you might ask: how does Luke do that? Where in this single verse is there anything about sharing and spreading the Gospel? Let’s read it again: after eight days passed, when the child was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Much like today, when parents will post pictures of their newborns on Facebook or send out cute postcards listing the height and weight of the next Packer’s linebacker – on the eighth day after he was born, Mary and Joseph made the bold, public announcement that the name of their baby would be Jesus – which means, the Lord saves (Matthew 1:21).

Understand what a remarkable act of faith this was for Mary and Joseph. They hadn’t been married when the angel showed up to tell them that they would be having a child (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38). They weren’t in the same bed when this child was conceived. They had been compelled by the Roman government to travel to Bethlehem at the very point when traveling was the last thing Mary should have been doing. There were no vacancies at the motels in Bethlehem and so they stayed in a stable. Strange shepherds were the only ones to come to congratulate them on the birth of their child. By all appearances, this was an illegitimate child born to poor, homeless, nameless Jews. By all appearances, there was nothing special about this child. By all appearances the world could care less about the birth of this child. But Mary and Joseph believed what the angel told them. They trusted that this child was more than he appeared, they believed he was their Savior and the Savior of the world. So they obeyed God by having him circumcised and by giving him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

What does this mean for us? Well, it means that we don’t need a voter’s meeting or polling data or the newest How to Make Your Church Grow book to determine our direction for the New Year. Proclaiming this name, Jesus – the Lord saves – has been the church’s mission since the beginning and will continue to be our mission in 2022. We will preach Jesus’ name to a world that has already moved on from the baby born in Bethlehem. We will baptize little depraved sinners in Jesus’ name and into his family. We will teach Jesus’ words and works to a new generation of young believers. We will feed and fortify the faith of all ages against the attacks of Satan and the world with Bible study and the Lord’s Supper. We may commit the bodies of fellow believers to the dust but we will commit their souls to the Father’s care in Jesus’ name. The name of Jesus is what we will tell our grandchildren and our coworkers and our neighbors – even if they don’t want to hear it. Proclaiming Jesus’ name is not an easy, and lately it seems an unpopular, resolution for the New Year. The world will not like it that we take the attention off of them and their accomplishments and point the spotlight at Jesus and what he has accomplished for us. But it is the only resolution that will save souls for all eternity. So here in our little corner of creation, because a baby boy bled for us, 2022 will find us proclaiming Jesus’ saving name.

The world around us had a huge party this weekend to celebrate little more than the turning of a page of the calendar. The church has much more to celebrate. We celebrate Sunday – not coincidentally, the 8th day of the week – as the day on which Jesus rose from the dead, we still stand in the glow of God’s Christmas gift to us, and today in particular we rejoice that because Jesus bled for us, we can look forward to 2022 with optimism, hope and joy because we are forgiven in his name, we live in his name, and we proclaim his name. Amen.

[1] Plass, Ewald M., What Luther Says, 321

[2] https://nypost.com/2018/12/21/new-years-resolutions-last-exactly-this-long/

Acts 6:8-7:2a, 51-60 - God Is with Us - December 26, 2021

If I were to ask you to summarize the true meaning of Christmas with just one word, what would it be? (And no, you can’t say “Jesus”). I know, because you are here again on the day after Christmas, that you wouldn’t say, “cheer,” or “gifts,” or “family.” But what would you say? How about Immanuel? Immanuel is the name the Lord gave to the baby born to Mary and Joseph through the prophet Isaiah; a name which means God with us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23). Isn’t that the real meaning of Christmas – that in that little baby named Jesus, God is with us? Even more, isn’t that the only way we can handle day-to-day life in this world, standing on Jesus’ promise: surely I am with you always until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). This is the truth of Christmas that comforts us all year long and the message that we proclaim to the world: God is with us.

So what does that have to do with today? Today is the day the church has chosen to remember the first person to die for confessing this truth after Jesus’ Ascension: Stephen. I know it may seem that the day after Christmas is a somewhat strange time to focus on something as gloomy as persecution and martyrdom – but Stephen’s story helps us better understand what that core truth of Christmas means, that God is with us.

Ever since God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden for their rebellion (Genesis 3:24), it’s been difficult – if not impossible – for the average believer to discern God’s presence in their daily lives. (Yes, God spoke once in a while to a patriarch or prophet – but that was a very rare occurrence.) A Romanian priest named Richard Wurmbrand tells of a Yugoslavian man who was arrested and tortured for his faith. In time, his hope and courage changed to doubt and despair. He eventually hanged himself and left the following note for his wife: “I have gone to remind God of a world he has forgotten.” [1] He’s not alone in thinking that God has abandoned this world, is he? If God is with us, why is there so much suffering and sadness in our lives and the lives of those we love? If God is in control, why did he allow tornados to take dozens of lives a few weeks ago? If God is good, why did he allow those Christian missionaries to be kidnapped in Haiti? [2] Where is God in a country where murdering your own child is legal but requiring someone to use the restroom that matches their biological gender is increasingly illegal?

The Christians in Stephen’s day must have wondered the same thing. Stephen was one of seven deacons who were chosen to assist the apostles with the daily distribution of food so that the apostles could focus on preaching and teaching (Acts 6:1-2). Scripture describes him as full of grace and power; a man who did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people (Acts 6:8). He was also a courageous man – a man who boldly confessed Christ crucified for sinners before hostile audiences and even the Sanhedrin itself (Acts 6:12).

And that’s what got him into trouble. Stephen’s opponents were unable to stand up against the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking (Acts 6:10). So they resorted to a smear campaign. They presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops making threats against this holy place and the law. In fact, we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs Moses handed down to us.” Stephen was placed on trial for blasphemy – a capital crime under God’s OT Law (Leviticus 24:13-16) – but even the threat of death could not stifle his bold confession of the truth. He used Israel’s infamous history of persecuting prophets as his defense and as evidence that the men who were accusing him of blasphemy were no different than their fathers: you stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit! You are doing just what your fathers did. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? This is when things reached the breaking point: when they heard these things, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him…they screamed at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and rushed at him with one purpose in mind. They threw him out of the city and stoned him. I don’t think anyone could blame the Christians at that time for wondering: “Is God really with us?”

Stephen’s death reminds us of two important truths. First, this is a fallen, broken, sinful world and it is ruled by the devil himself (John 12:31). It is a world which will never, ever love the truth of Christ crucified for sinners, but will always despise it, try to silence it, and persecute those who confess it (John 15:18). It will never be “safe” to be a Christian in this world. Second, Stephen’s death reminds us that the same may happen to us. Now I don’t think any of us have ever been kidnapped for our confession and clearly none of us have given our lives – but how many of us have died “little deaths” for the sake of the Christ? How many of us have had a vicious argument or a falling out with a family member who views the historic Christian faith as antiquated and bigoted today? How many of us have chafed as we hear celebrities and politicians mock and ridicule Christians as ignorant and stupid? On the other hand, maybe we’ve never felt pressured or persecuted for our confession. Then the question should be: why not? Is it because we have an unwritten agreement that we won’t discuss sensitive “religious” topics at holiday gatherings? Is it because we’ve given into the pressure of our godless society and simply kept our mouths shut? I’m sure we would all have to confess that there have been times when we haven’t been bold and courageous like Stephen, when we’ve been cowardly and quiet – and for that we need to repent.

Here’s the good news, whether you’ve gotten into trouble with the world because you’ve opened your mouth or offended your holy God because you kept it shut, Stephen’s story assures us that God is with us. Listen again as Stephen’s story reached it’s climax: Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed up into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. In that dark moment, even as Stephen’s enemies were pelting the life out of him, Stephen looked up and saw Jesus. Jesus, who had given up the riches of heaven to come to earth to be born in a manger. Jesus, who had lived a perfect life in Stephen’s place. Jesus, who had suffered and died to atone for Stephen’s sins. Jesus, who did not stay dead, but rose to life. This same Jesus was now standing at God’s right hand – and seeing Jesus with all power and glory assured Stephen that God was still with him.

“Good for him, but I’ve never seen Jesus in the dark and lonely moments of my life,” you may be thinking. Oh, yes you have! You may have noticed that some churches have placed the baptismal font right at the entrance to the sanctuary – that is to be a visible reminder that while you may not have seen Jesus when you were baptized, he saw you and claimed you as his possession. You see Jesus every time you open your Bible or hear a sermon. You know how looking at a photo album (or today, scrolling through pictures on your phone) tells a story about your life and the lives of the people you love? This book is God’s love letter to you – detailing all that he did to save you through Jesus. When you receive Holy Communion Jesus is coming to you in a physical, tangible form – telling you, “I haven’t forgotten you, here I am with you, for you, to save you.” And, for all those times that we have folded under the pressure and failed to confess Christ, Jesus comes in the Absolution to assure us that he has paid for even those sins.

And when we see Jesus in these means of grace as proof that God is still with us, then we can also see one of the most difficult things it is for any Christian to see. Christians love to create and purchase art containing Romans 8:28: we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). And that’s fine. But I think a lot of Christians don’t understand what that passage means. They think it means that everything in life will be good for believers. That’s not what it means. It means that God will use everything – both good and bad things – for the eternal good of his people. But doesn’t that just beg the question: how can God use evil for our good? How can God possibly use things like sickness, sadness, depression, and persecution for our good?

Let’s go back to Stephen’s story. After Stephen was martyred, the Jews began an intense persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem, forcing them to flee to Judea and Samaria – and, eventually, throughout the entire ancient world (Acts 8:1-3). I’m pretty sure that none of these Christians thought it was “good” that they were forced to leave their homes and friends and jobs. But remember this: Jesus had promised his disciples you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8) and as these Christians fled the Gospel spread with them like a virus throughout the entire ancient world. (Maybe that wasn’t the best choice of words.) Wherever these Christians went they boldly proclaimed the Gospel and established churches.

How many thousands of people were brought to faith as a result of Stephen’s death, the intense persecution and the dispersion of these Christians throughout the world? Only God knows. But think of the impact that Stephen’s courageous confession must have had on at least one man: a young man named Saul. How often do you think that the Pharisee Saul – forcibly converted by Jesus into a Christian missionary named Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-18) – thought about Stephen’s fearless confession as he faced danger and persecution and death himself in his ministry for Christ? How much do you think Stephen’s faithful confession of Christ influenced the letters Paul wrote to numerous congregations – letters which still speak to us today? Would there have ever been an Apostle Paul if it weren’t for the martyred Stephen? Would there have ever been a Martin Luther if it weren’t for Paul’s letter to the Romans – which played a huge role in opening Luther’s eyes to the foundational truths of grace alone, faith alone, and Scripture alone? Would we have ever heard the Gospel if the Lord hadn’t worked from Stephen to Paul to Martin Luther to a parent or grandparent or pastor or teacher in our own lives? Again, only God knows.

The point is that God can (and does) use our courageous confession in the face of hostility and suffering to make an incredible impact on others and to bring glory to his name. I don’t know when or where you will face pressure and hostility and suffering for confessing Christ. It might be with your family and friends this holiday season when you courageously call them out for their openly sinful lifestyles. It might be in the office when you refuse to abide by immoral, politically correct policies. It might be on social media when you refuse to condone homosexuality and transgenderism as acceptable lifestyles. But what I do know is that even if its hard and even if it hurts, God can and will use your bold confession for good – the greatest of which would be to lead others to repentance, faith and salvation.

It may seem strange to be considering the violent death of a Christian the day after Christmas – but I hope it helps you to see that that single word summary of the core truth of Christmas – Immanuel – is not just a cute name, but is the guarantee that in good times and bad, when faced with warmth or hostility, this fact remains true: God is with us. Amen.   

[1] Richard Wurmbrand, Reaching Toward the Heights, 1977

[2] https://people.com/human-interest/missionaries-who-were-held-captive-by-gang-in-haiti-detail-their-escape/

Luke 2:9-11 - An Angel Delivers the Real News of Christmas - December 25, 2021

Why do you think God chose an angel to deliver the news of the Savior’s birth in Bethlehem? Were there no prophets available? Were the priests and Levites all on vacation? Did the sheep and donkeys reject the task (Numbers 22:21-35)? Were all of the Bethlehem Bee reporters busy covering the aftermath of multi-camel pileup? No, I think God chose an angel to be his mouthpiece because he wanted those shepherds, the world and us to have a clear understanding of the real good news of Christmas.

Let’s imagine, for a moment, that we had to rely on today’s media to cover and communicate the real news of Christmas. The one thing that no one will argue about the priorities of the media is that “if it bleeds, it leads;” – meaning that the media tends to promote and even fabricate negative aspects of any given story. For example, if the media is reporting on a hurricane – even if no one is hurt and no property is damaged, the headline might be “Experts say that recent hurricane is sure sign of future catastrophic weather events.” A story on a booming sales season for Christmas retailers will close with, “But a slow January is expected to offset those gains,” or “A good 4th quarter can’t make up for a dismal 3rd quarter.” When it comes to Covid, media alarmism is probably more responsible for the fear and panic that remains out there more than the actual facts and science do.

Given the media’s tendency toward alarmism and negativity, just imagine how they would have reported the first Christmas: “Census Forces Thousands to Crowd Little Town of Bethlehem – Experts Warn of Super Spreader Event;” “Alleged “Virgin” Gives Birth – Sexual Assault being Investigated;” “Shepherds Claim to Have Witnessed a Multitude of Angels Singing God’s Praises – Drug Use Suspected;” “Newborn Infant Found in Feed Trough – Child Protective Services has Been Notified.”

If it was the media’s job to announce the birth of Jesus, they’d make his birth bad – or at least, tainted news. Do we ever do the same? We’ve spent weeks and maybe months planning our travel schedules, buying gifts, baking and cooking and celebrating with family and friends – and how many of us are, by today – which is actually the first day of the Christmas season, not the last – feeling a bit like Ebenezer Scrooge: just ready for it all to be over with. Is Christmas tainted because we are stressed out over the gift we forgot to buy or the cookies we forgot to bake or the card we forgot to send? When people ask us how our Christmas was, don’t we tend to highlight the negatives too: the sickness, the bad weather, the rate of inflation, the wrong-sized gift? The only possible reason a Christian would have for making the news of Christmas bad or tainted news is if we begin to believe that Christmas is about us.

If today’s media were reporting on the news from Bethlehem, not only would they make the news negative, they’d get the details wrong. If we’ve learned nothing else over the past several years, it’s that the media isn’t as interested in the facts as they are in forwarding a specific narrative. I could cite dozens of examples, but here’s just one: On November 22, CNN reported, “At Least 5 Killed After SUV Plows Into Wisconsin Holiday Parade” [1] No, an SUV didn’t just drive itself into a crowd of people. And that “holiday parade” was not celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanza, it was a “Christmas Parade.” [2] And that’s just one example of how our contemporary media cares less about factual accuracy than their politically correct narrative.

If today’s media were covering the first Christmas, I imagine that they’d get most of the details wrong. Instead of being born in Bethlehem, Jesus would have been born in Bethany. Instead of Jesus being placed in a manger they’d have placed him in the manager’s office of the inn. Instead of being wrapped in swaddling clothes they’d have wrapped him in a straight jacket – or something along those lines.

Well, we don’t do anything like that, do we? We would never skip over the factual details of Christmas in the interest of forwarding a false narrative, would we? Have we dropped some change into one of those red kettles outside the grocery store thinking we were doing something good when in truth we’re aiding and abetting a false-teaching church – John says the one who wishes him well shares in his wicked works (2 John 11)? How many of us have deceived our children with the work-righteous lie of “do good, get good” that lies at the heart of the fat man in the red suit and the elf on the shelf? How many of us deep down think that Christmas is really about family and being kinder to strangers? That’s getting the actually important details of Christmas wrong just as much as if you thought or taught that Jesus was born at the North Pole, wrapped in a stocking, and hung by the chimney.

If today’s media reported the news of Christmas, they would make it bad news, they’d screw up the details, and they’d ignore or censor the real good news. The real good news of Christmas is the miracle of the incarnation – and the media doesn’t report on miracles. Well, I shouldn’t say that. They will report on “reported” miracles – meaning that the media doesn’t actually believe that a miracle happened but that someone or some group believes that a miracle happened. Today’s media may report that “Today Christians Celebrate the Birth of Jesus Whom They Believe to Be Their Savior;” or “Today Christians Believe that a Virgin Conceived and Then Gave Birth to the Son of God.” In the eyes of the media, miracles never objectively happen. The media must locate miracles in the one who believes them.  

We Christians cannot and must not base Christmas on our faith or feelings. If we do, we lose the comfort of the objective Good News. If the Good News of Christmas depends on our believing, then all of the peripheral elements of Christmas must be perfect. Then it must be a white Christmas. Then the kids have to get along and absolutely love their presents. Then, if you happen to have family, work, health, or financial struggles – it’s impossible for Christmas to be genuinely good. If the good news of Christmas depends on whether you believe that it’s a good Christmas or not, then you’ll never find the real good news of Christmas.

Today’s news media would never report Christmas as being the greatest miracle God ever performed. According to them, virgins don’t give birth (although they will lobby for women to retain the right to murder their unborn babies) and angels don’t make public announcements (this angel probably would have had his Twitter account suspended today). “This can’t be anything more than the birth of another baby. Nothing special. God in human flesh? The Creator of everything a helpless baby in the arms of one of his creatures? The sinless Son of God going through the blood, sweat and tears of a sinner’s birth? Yeah, right, follow the science – miracles don’t happen. Some people may believe they do, but that doesn’t make them real.”

Here’s the thing: that last part is true. You and I confessing our faith in the virgin birth of the Son of God who came to suffer and die for the sins of the world doesn’t make it real. Neither did the shepherd’s quick-acting faith in and response to the angel’s announcement make the good news real. It would still have been true if they had just rolled over and went back to sleep in the fields with their flocks. Mary and Joseph’s obedience to the Lord’s command didn’t make Christmas real. It would have been just as real if Joseph had quietly divorced Mary and Mary didn’t ponder all these things in her heart. If the reality of the Christmas miracle depended on faith – ours or anyone else’s – then the angel would’ve said, “If you believe, then I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all people;” or “If you trust me enough to leave your flocks and go to Bethlehem, then a Savior has been born for you.”

Here's the truth: the Good News does not rely on the media’s chosen narrative or even on our feelings or our faith. The Good News is in the facts. The Good News is that Jesus was born in the town of David – just as God had promised centuries earlier (Micah 5:2). The Good News is the angel telling the world do not be afraid – because Christmas proves that God didn’t come to destroy us but to save us (1 Timothy 2:3-4). The Good News is that the great joy of Christmas is for all people no matter who they are or what they’ve done – and that means you, too! The Good News is that Jesus came to die on a cross and suffer God’s wrath to save us from our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Good News is that Jesus can be our Savior because he is Christ the Lord – he is the one God anointed and appointed to save the human race from sin, death and the devil, and he is nothing less than the eternal God clothed in human flesh and blood (1 Peter 1:18-20).

The real news, the best news is that the Good News of Christmas happens outside of us; outside of our hearts, our heads, our experience and our circumstances. The Good News that the baby born to the virgin Mary in a stable in Bethlehem is the Son of God in human flesh, who came to live a perfect life of obedience to God’s holy Law, to suffer and die for our sins, to endure death and hell in our place, to rise again for our salvation, to ascend to his Father’s right hand in heaven where he lives and rules over all things – that’s all true no matter what we believe or feel, and no matter what our medical or financial or family circumstances are today.

Do you see now why God chose an angel to deliver the real news of Christmas? Not only would the media have distorted and corrupted the message – but the devil and our own sinful flesh would have been able to distort and corrupt it. The Good News is that it doesn’t matter what the media says, what your friends and family say, what your own heart and conscience say – because the real news of Christmas is exactly what the angel said it is: today in the town of David, a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord. This is Christmas – and Christmas is all good news! Amen.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/wisconsin-waukesha-christmas-parade-car-plow-11-22-21/index.html

[2] https://lakecountryfamilyfun.com/event/waukesha-christmas-parade/

Jesus Is the Light of the World - December 24, 2021

I.                    The Prophecy Candle

“Let there be light,” God said on the first day of history and there was light; a glorious, heavenly light which filled a universe that didn’t yet have a sun, moon or stars (Genesis 1:3). But the world that God had filled with light did not remain that way for very long. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they brought a darkness into the world that all but extinguished the brilliant light of God. Adam and Eve had plunged God’s perfect creation into the darkness of sin, guilt, fear and death. But even in a world filled with the deep darkness of sin, God held out hope. His promise of a Savior who would crush Satan’s head was one small glimmer of light in a big, dark world (Genesis 3:15). And God kept this flame, this promise, burning brightly even though the armies of darkness tried their best to snuff it out. God soon narrowed down the promise – that the Savior would come from the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through prophets like Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah and Malachi, God revealed even more details about the Savior’s person, work, and birth. And on Christmas, God fulfilled each and every one of these promises and prophecies. And that is good news for us whose hearts and lives are still filled with darkness. We were born into darkness and belonged to darkness, but God has called us out of that darkness into his wonderful light. God kept his promise to send a Savior from sin, and he will keep every other promise he has made to you as well. Keep your eyes on God’s promises – they shine like this one flame in a big, dark room filling our hearts with joy and hope. Join me in reading several of these amazing promises.

II.                  The Bethlehem Candle

1 Corinthians 1 (Read 1st)

The second candle is called the Bethlehem candle. Many people know Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem, but not so many people realize the big sermon that little village preaches. When Jesus was born, Bethlehem was so insignificant that Micah needed to add the word Ephrathah to distinguish it from another, more famous Bethlehem in northern Israel (Micah 5:2; Joshua 19:15). While God could have chosen a big, important city like Jerusalem, Rome, or Egypt as the birthplace for his Son, he chose the tiny village of Bethlehem. Why? Paul tells us: God chose foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). God chose Bethlehem because his policy has always been to raise up the humble and humble the proud. He did that by choosing Mary, by choosing Bethlehem, by coming to earth as a baby – he did that by choosing unworthy sinners like us. He still does this through the lowly means of grace – making saints using nothing more than his Word, water, bread and wine. May the little town of Bethlehem be a warning to us against thinking that we are something great in God’s eyes. Let us never come before God proud of our own goodness, rather, let us come in humility recognizing with Mary that because of our sins, we are nothing and we deserve nothing. That’s why we come here to the manger in lowly Bethlehem, because we need the Savior God sent to this earth to live and die for lowly sinners like us. Let’s join with Mary in her humble hymn of praise…

III.                The Shepherd Candle

Romans 10

The third candle, the pink candle, has traditionally been called the Shepherd candle. It might seem strange that we would focus on such minor characters in the Christmas story, but the shepherds serve as fine examples of faith and action. First, by their confident, unwavering faith. When the angel hosts filled the skies and proclaimed the Savior’s birth, the shepherds were terrified. But when the angel invited them to go to Bethlehem to see the Christ child – they didn’t hesitate. They didn’t say, let’s go see if this thing has happened. They didn’t go back to sleep or back to their jobs thinking “who cares about a baby?” They said, “Let’s go see it, we know this is important for us and we know it has happened because God told us.” May we, too, celebrate Christmas with that kind of confident faith in the Word. May we look into the manger and see a Savior born for us, a baby who has an impact on every day of our lives. May we remember that through faith in this baby our sins are forgiven, we have peace with God, heaven is our eternal home. There’s no if about it. Confident faith is the first key to a joyful Christmas. And then, may we imitate the shepherds in what they did with this good news. When they had seen the Savior lying in a manger, they couldn’t keep it to themselves – they had to go and tell everyone they met what they had heard and seen. Do you know anyone who could use a little Christmas joy? Do you know someone who needs to hear that God’s gift of his Son is for them too? Do you have a friend or relative who needs a Savior, a Friend, the source of light in this dark world? The good news of a Christmas Savior is now your possession, what are you going to do with it? May the example of the shepherds give us confident faith and a willingness to tells others everything we have heard and seen in Bethlehem.

IV.                The Angel Candle

Hebrews 2

The fourth candle is called the angel candle. It reminds us of the angel who proclaimed the Savior’s birth and was then joined by an army of angels who sang the very first Christmas carol: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind (Luke 2:14). Think about how different that song of praise is from the world’s shallow, meaningless carols about a jolly fat man and reindeer; snow and snowmen. The reason is that this angelic hymn wasn’t intended to entertain, it was to praise God for showing grace and goodwill to mankind by sending a Savior for sinners. As a result of this glorious act, we have peace with God, we have consciences free from guilt, our record of sin has been wiped clean. But what’s really remarkable that this carol came from – of all creatures – angels. The Bible tells us very clearly that Jesus did not come to save angels – for holy angels don’t need a Savior, and the wicked angels are beyond saving. And yet the angels are the first to praise God for his goodness to us. If the holy angels praise God for a Savior, don’t we have even more reason to? Jesus came to this earth for you and for me. He suffered torture and crucifixion for you and me. He endured the wrath of God and the pain of hell for you and for me. He rose again three days later for you and for me. With humble hearts, let us show our thankfulness for God’s Christmas gift of light through Jesus with joyful songs and with our lives of obedience and service, today, tomorrow and forever with the angels in heaven.

Micah 5:2-5a - Christmas Paradoxes - December 19, 2021

These days leading up to Christmas are always kind of weird, aren’t they? They’re filled with conflicting actions and emotions and attitudes? We might even call these days paradoxical. In the Northern Hemisphere this is the darkest time of year – and so we try to chase away the darkness by hanging lights on our homes. This is supposedly the happiest time of the year and yet studies shows that more people are depressed now than any other time of year. Christmas is idealized in movies as being a calm and relaxing time with family – when the reality is that for many of us it’s the most frantic and busy time of year and sometimes all we really want is to be alone. And who do we call to preach about the most important event in human history? Little children. As paradoxical as our experience of Christmas may be, it pales in comparison to the first Christmas. Micah walks us through three of these paradoxes.

The first involves the location of that first Christmas: but you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, from you, will go out the one who will be the ruler for me in Israel. That means exactly what you think it means: Bethlehem was a small village – a “clan” in military terms was 1000 soldiers (1 Samuel 8:12) – so the population of Bethlehem was less than 1000 families. And God’s chosen ruler is supposed to come out of this small, insignificant, backwater town? People living at the time didn’t think it possible. The wise men didn’t travel to Bethlehem to find the new king that the star told them had been born – they went to the capital, to Jerusalem, because everyone knows that important people come from important places (Matthew 2:1-12). Mary and Joseph didn’t even voluntarily travel to Bethlehem – they were compelled to by Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1-5).

And yet it’s not the first time that God chose to raise up a ruler for Israel from the little town of Bethlehem. 1000 years earlier, God sent Samuel to Bethlehem, to the family of Jesse, to anoint not one of Jesse’s seven older sons, but his youngest, David, a little boy, a lowly shepherd (1 Samuel 16:1-13). And yet, by God’s grace and power, David became the greatest King Israel would ever know (1 Chronicles 18:14; Acts 13:22; 1 Chronicles 14:17). Therefore, God’s choice of this little town was no accident. That’s our first Christmas paradox: a big thing, a mighty ruler of Israel will come from the lowly town of Bethlehem.

The second paradox has to do with this ruler’s hidden identity: his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity. We have a beginning; it’s called our conception. So did this baby, and yet Micah says that his origins go back far beyond Bethlehem 2000 years ago, beyond his ancestor David 3000 years ago, even before the very creation of the world. Why does this matter? It matters because the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). It matters because Psalm 49 says no one can by any means redeem himself. He cannot give God a ransom for himself – (Yes, the ransom for their souls is costly. Any payment would fall short.) (Psalm 49:7-8). Did I really have to bring sin and death and judgment up on this happy day? In front of the children? Why can’t we just ignore our sins at this happiest time of the year and deal with them later? Because unless we realize our sins we will never really understand Christmas. You might be able to convince the fat man in the red suit to take you off his naughty list – but our holy God can’t and won’t simply ignore the fact that we have placed things and people before him, misused his name, despised his Word, disrespected his authorities, hurt and hated and lusted, stolen time and defrauded people, ruined reputations, and been discontent with what God has given us. And it doesn’t matter how good you or I try to be this Christmas – we can never make up for the evil things we’ve done every day of our lives.

That’s why the eternal One, the Son of God, stepped down from his throne in heaven and humbled himself to be born of a peasant woman in a dirty stable in the lowly town of Bethlehem. He was born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law (Galatians 4:4-5). Nothing we could ever do could appease God’s righteous wrath at our disobedience and sin. Nothing less than the precious blood of Christ…a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1:19) could atone for our sins. And that’s our second Christmas paradox: the eternal One, the Son of God himself, became a child for us, to save us.

The third paradox involves what the eternal One, the Son of God, came to this earth to do. Micah says he will stand and shepherd with the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. They will dwell securely, for at that time he will be great to the ends of the earth. This one will be their peace. Most of us have never raised sheep or goats – and therefore we tend to picture shepherds like that stained glass window over there: calm, clean and snuggling a cute little lamb. That’s not what the occupation of shepherd looked like then – or even now. A shepherd’s life was dirty and bloody, dangerous and often violent. More importantly, that is not what Jesus came here to be or do: the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). In a few moments the children will repeat the angel’s announcement to the shepherds: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind (Luke 2:14). Peace between God and mankind is the ultimate message of Christmas. But don’t ever forget what that peace – peace with God – cost. As you celebrate with your families, as you look at nativity scenes, as you sing your favorite Christmas carols – remember that the shepherd’s praises would soon become cries of crucify him (Luke 23:21); that the same Mary who cradled her newborn’s head would live to see a crown of thorns viciously pressed into his skull (John 19:2); that the tiny hands and feet that were once wrapped in swaddling clothes would be nailed to a tree; and that the one who came from heaven on Christmas would willingly suffer hell for us on Good Friday (Mark 15:34). Don’t ever forget that in the background of that peaceful manger in Bethlehem is the unimaginable violence of Calvary’s cross.

But also never forget that because Jesus endured the violence of men’s words and whips and nails and God’s wrath and hell’s fury – you now have peace. Perfect peace. Peace that nothing in the world can take away. The violence that Jesus endured means that you have peace with God. You are right with him. Heaven is open to you. Isn’t that the greatest Christmas paradox of all? That Jesus endured hell to give us heaven? That he suffered the violence of men and the judgment of God to give us peace? And this paradox is why no matter what is happening in our world, in your family, or with your health – this will be a Merry Christmas, because through the miracle of Jesus’ birth and the violence of his death, we have peace with God (Romans 5:1).

Christmas is often weird – there are so many contradictory and paradoxical things about it. The first Christmas was no different. God chooses small towns, little babies, and the hatred of evil, violent men to carry out his plan of salvation. He still does. He uses unimpressive means – an ordinary man, ordinary water, and ordinary bread and wine – to bring people to Christ, to forgive their sins and to give them everlasting life. This morning, he will use these ordinary children to proclaim the best and most important news the world has ever heard: today in the town of David, a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11). Don’t let the many paradoxes of Christmas trouble you; cherish them, for God always chooses to give his best gifts in the most paradoxical ways. Merry Christmas! Amen.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 - God Is Faithful; He Will Do It - So... - December 15, 2021

Do you think that most of our neighbors outside of those doors know that we are in the season of Advent? I don’t. And even if they do, I’d be willing to bet that they think of Advent as nothing more than a time to prepare for Christmas. And while that is probably true even in our everyday lives, in here, Advent isn’t primarily about Jesus’ coming at Christmas – his First Coming – this time is about preparing for his Second Coming in Judgment. That’s why our theme this year has been: Waiting for the Day of the Lord. Two weeks ago we defined the Day of the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:3-9). Last week we explored what it means to wait for the Day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:8-14). Tonight we will put both concepts together to see that how we live now relates to being ready for the Day of the Lord.

1 Thessalonians is a fairly short read, it’s only 5 chapters long, but Paul covers a lot of ground in these chapters. He gives thanks to God for bringing the Thessalonian Christians to faith (1 Thessalonians 1); he defends his ministry against unnamed opponents who had been slandering his reputation and undermining the Gospel and expresses his desire to once again visit Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2); he explains his rationale for sending Timothy to Thessalonica and thanks God for his good report of their faith and love (1 Thessalonians 3); through chapter 4 and into chapter 5 he gives clear and specific instructions regarding sexual propriety and brotherly love; specifically the need to mind your own business and work with your own hands, and he corrected some misunderstandings the Thessalonians had regarding Jesus’ Second Coming (1 Thessalonians 4-5:11). All of which leads to Paul’s closing words which we are considering tonight. A fair way to characterize these verses is to see them as summarizing the basic worldview, the default setting of a Christian – and it’s a somewhat paradoxical worldview: we live as God’s people here and now with our eyes, our focus, always set on the Day of the Lord to come.

Paul starts with the “living now” part. He concludes his list of brief commands with the prayer: may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. Could you answer the distinctively Lutheran question: what does this mean? What does it mean to be “sanctified?” To “sanctify” means to be set apart, to be made holy. In confirmation class I use this building as an illustration of sanctification. We don’t use this space to screen secular movies or Packer games or to host yoga classes or bake sales – it is set apart from the mundane things of this world; it is set apart for the worship of the one true God. In the same way, we, in both our private and public lives, are to be set apart from this sinful world; set apart for service to God alone.

But what does this mean, practically speaking? That’s what Paul was describing in the previous verses: rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not extinguish the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt. But test everything. Hold on to the good. Keep away from every kind of evil. Does that describe you? I often find it hard to be joyful and to find time to pray – especially in this busy and stressful time of year. I probably tend to gripe and complain as much as – and probably more than – I take time to give thanks. And even though I know that God wants me to be joyful, prayerful and thankful I often prefer my will over God’s. Extinguish the Spirit? I know that my sinful flesh would much rather sit on the couch and turn on Netflix or a football game than engage in serious Bible study – and in that way I’m snuffing out the Spirit’s fire and treating God’s Word and prophecies with contempt. I’m lazy in testing the things I see and hear and read in the media; I find that the good things of God easily slip out of my hands and that I’m magnetically drawn toward every kind of evil. I don’t think I could honestly describe myself as “sanctified,” “set apart,” and “holy,” – could you? Would you be bold enough to claim that you embody Paul’s description of what it means to live as a justified and sanctified Christian?

That’s why Paul prays…both for the Thessalonians and for us. He prays for God to do the sanctifying, the setting apart – because we are incapable of doing it ourselves. And this isn’t the first time Paul prayed this prayer. Back in chapter 3, he wrote: may the Lord increase your love and make it overflow for each other and for all people, just as ours does for you, so that he may establish your hearts as blameless in holiness before our God and Father, when our Lord Jesus comes with all his saints (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13). How does God do this sanctifying? Through the means of grace – and specifically through Holy Baptism. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians: Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, by cleansing her with the washing of water in connection with the Word. He did this so that he could present her to himself as a glorious church, having no stain or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she would be holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:25-27). One of the rituals that have traditionally been associated with baptism and confirmation have reflected this fact. When infants and confirmands are clothed in white gowns it is a visible illustration of the invisible truth that through Baptism Jesus’ blood has cleansed us from all sin, has washed away all of our impurities, has sanctified us and set us apart from this sinful world for God.

But God’s sanctifying work in our lives doesn’t end there. In Baptism God not only washes away our sinfulness but empowers us to live in holiness. Luther described it this way in his Small Catechism: “Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever” (SC Baptism: IV). This is the work of the Holy Spirit. From the moment you were baptized the Holy Spirit has been working in your heart, giving you a new will, new impulses, an inner desire to live for God and others – not only for yourself. Because you’ve been baptized – that is what you are. That is why I don’t have to yell and scream at you to be joyful and prayerful and thankful; to hold onto the good and avoid every kind of evil. No, even your presence here in God’s house on a dark December night is proof that the Holy Spirit is at work in your heart – setting you in thought, word, and action apart from the sinful world. You are living proof that Paul was right when he said the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

That’s the “living now” part. The other part, the “setting your sights on the Day to come,” is this: and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s trendy these days for people to describe themselves on social media with a simple string of nouns and adjectives. For example, Wisconsin governor Tony Evers describes himself this way on his Twitter account: “Husband to Kathy, lifelong educator, Euchre and bobblehead enthusiast, and 46th Governor of the State of Wisconsin.” [1] With all due respect to Governor Evers, he’s missing one important adjective, the one adjective that will matter most on the Day of the Lord – he doesn’t describe himself as “blameless.” (In the Greek, it’s actually an adverb: “blamelessly”). Would you? Do you consider yourself blameless – that on Judgment Day no one, not even God, would be able to blame you for any evil?

You should, because that how God considers you. He considers you utterly blameless. When he sits down on his judgment seat and opens up the file folder containing the charges against you – do you know what he finds? Nothing. Not a single lie, dirty thought, or loveless action – not even a parking ticket. Of course, you and I know better. We know that an Amazon warehouse full of filing cabinets couldn’t contain all of the valid charges against us. How can God possibly find us blameless on any day, much less on the Day of the Lord?

Make no mistake, God is perfectly holy and just. He couldn’t just sweep our sins under the rug. He couldn’t just shrug and say that the awful things we’ve thought, said and done are no big deal. So what did he do? He blamed his Son our sins. He charged Jesus with committing every sin that has ever been committed and then punished him with the hell those sins deserved. Because Jesus shouldered your blame – you can feel free to describe yourself as blameless on social media, if you so choose (how’s that for an “outreach” strategy?). And the same God who didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up to take away your sins is committed to keeping you blameless until his Son returns in glory. That’s part of the mission God has given his Church; that’s what these means of grace are all about – Jesus coming here week after week to you to cleanse your sins and wipe away your guilt so that you will be found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, when you set your sights on these means of grace, then you’re also setting your sights on the Day of the Lord to come. As we remember every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper: as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26).

So that’s it for our 2021 Midweek Advent series entitled “Waiting for the Day of the Lord.” If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this series it’s this: that Jesus’ First Coming – as a baby to a virgin mother in a manger in Bethlehem, who would go on to live a perfect life and die a perfectly atoning death on a cross on Calvary – is the reason that we can wait with confidence and hope for his Second Coming. Because of Jesus we know that we will be found blameless on that Day. And until then we know that he is actively enabling and empowering us to live blameless lives, set apart from this filthy world for service to God and others. I can say that with certainty because in the end it’s not really about us or our efforts, it’s about God. [He] is faithful, and he will do it! Amen.  

[1] https://twitter.com/GovEvers?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Luke 3:7-18 - The Forerunner Prepares Us for Christmas - December 12, 2021

Time is running out. Whether we like it or not, Christmas is only 13 days away. Delivery companies are warning that if you don’t have your gifts shipped by December 15, this coming Wednesday, they may not arrive by the 25th. Every year at this time, you hear people saying things like: “where has all the time gone?” “Christmas really snuck up on us this year.” “I have so much left to do and so little time to do it in.” We hear and maybe even say those things, but, really, the truth is that if we aren’t ready for Christmas, if we don’t get everything done – it’s not because this December was shorter than any other or that God took some time out of our days – if we’re not ready, the only one we can really blame is ourselves. The same is true of preparing to receive our Savior – both at Christmas and in his return in glory – if we’re not ready, we have no one but ourselves to blame. The good news this morning is that God has sent a forerunner, John the Baptist, to prepare us to receive our Savior.

Many aspects of John’s ministry strike us today as odd. He didn’t set up shop in Jerusalem, where the people were, but in the desert, where they were not. He didn’t wear the attire of a priest or a rabbi (he could have, given that he was from the priestly line of Aaron (Luke 1)), he dressed up in camel’s hair and survived on locusts and honey (Matthew 3:4). In spite of the fact that John’s appearance proclaimed desperation, not glory – the people came, hundreds and hundreds of them (Matthew 3:5). But perhaps that makes his greeting to them even odder: You offspring of vipers!

Is that any way to talk to people? I can’t imagine any evangelism book encouraging you to use this line when you’re trying to strike up a conversation about Jesus. Why did John speak with such venom? If he’s trying to bring people into God’s kingdom, why does he call them the children of Satan? It seems odd. It doesn’t make much sense. That is, until you understand John’s audience. He was preaching to people who were practically begging for God to rain down his judgment on them. For hundreds of years – it had been 400 years since Malachi’s last call to repentance – the people of Israel, and especially the Pharisees and Sadducees (Matthew 3:7) – had made all kinds of excuses to avoid true repentance. Now, their time was up. The Lord’s arrival was imminent. And John’s mission was to expose the excuses that prevented the people from being ready to receive their Savior.

Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruits in keeping with repentance. Who had told the Pharisees and and Sadducees and their followers that God’s judgment was coming? Well, God had, but they had ignored and rejected his repeated warnings. John was really asking: why are you out here for my baptism for the forgiveness of sins? He knew that they didn’t really believe that they needed forgiveness. They had accumulated all kinds of good works: circumcision, washings, fasting, tithing. But their outward actions only served to cover up rotten, selfish, greedy, idolatrous hearts. They were hypocrites (Matthew 23:13-39). They appeared godly, but it was just a façade. That’s why John greets them in such a harsh manner. And that’s why he tells them to abandon their works and instead examine their lives under God’s Word and live according to it. The excuse that they were outwardly “good” people wouldn’t hold up under the fire of judgment.

Next, John set his sights on the empty excuse of heritage: Do not even think of saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ Throughout its history, this was Israel’s trump card when God sent prophets to call them to repentance and faith. Like spoiled children they would cry out, “Abraham is our father! We are God’s chosen people! Salvation is ours!” Yet, even as these claims left their lips they continued to live as godless unbelievers. They used God’s grace as a license to sin. John put their false claims in perspective: I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones (these stones being non-Jewish Gentiles, like us (1 Peter 2:5)). God didn’t need them. God didn’t owe them anything. Grace alone was the reason God has picked them to be his chosen people. And if they continued to abuse his grace by their sinful behavior – they risked losing it!

And there was one final excuse that needed exposing. Essentially, the Israelites had spent the last 400 years saying, “Repentance and bearing good fruit…yeah, we’ll take care of that later.” There was always something more important to do than listen to God’s Word. But time had run out. Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire. The Messiah was coming and anyone who was not ready would only have themselves to blame. Hypocritical good works, bloodlines and heritage, laziness and procrastination – all excuses, all sins, all exposed by John.

Would John have any reason to call us the offspring of vipers this advent season? In other words: do we cling to any excuses to avoid true, heartfelt repentance and produce the fruits of repentance? Would John see us as hypocrites just like the Pharisees and Sadducees – imagining that our outwardly “good” works of tossing some change into a red kettle outside of the grocery store or being a little kinder to strangers can make up for all the evil we have done? That doing good things for friends and family can replace the necessity of heartfelt contrition and repentance? Or do we ever hide behind the excuse of heritage? I don’t believe any of us have Abraham’s blood flowing through our veins, but we are Lutheran. Do we ever imagine that just because we have the pure Gospel, that because our names are written on a very official looking Lutheran membership directory – that we deserve God’s grace, that God owes us? Jesus will not stop by the church office on judgment day to read our membership list because he can read hearts (John 21:17). Or maybe it’s sheer laziness and procrastination. I can get serious about repentance, about my devotional life, prayer, raising my children to know and fear the Lord, growing in my knowledge of God’s Word later – there’s more important stuff to do now. All of those things are empty excuses. The time is now to repent and produce fruits of repentance. The ax is ready to strike the root of the trees.

It’s not a comfortable place to be, is it? When the Law has pinned us down and stripped away our excuses, then we’re forced to ask with the crowd: what should we do then? John’s response is simple. Notice, however, that the audience is different now. Now he’s speaking to those who did repent and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. In fact, from the way the Pharisees and Sadducees responded to Jesus, it would seem that they never did submit to John’s baptism. That’s why John turned the attention away from the hypocritical, showy works of the Pharisees that only seemed good but benefited no one and encouraged the crowd put the repentance in their hearts into action in their everyday lives. “Share your blessings with those in need,” was his advice to the people in general. “Don’t be dishonest as you collect taxes,” he told the tax collectors. “Don’t use your power or authority to extort bribes,” he told the soldiers. In other words, John told the people who truly were penitent and wanted to produce fruits of repentance, be what you are: live and act like repentant children of God.

That’s his guidance to us as well; be what you are – because by virtue of your baptism, whatever else you are, you are a forgiven child of God. Confess your sinfulness and rejoice that Jesus came to save sinners like you. Give thanks that God comes to you through the means of grace to wash away your sins and strengthen your faith – make faithful use of them. And then, be who you are in the place in life he has given you. Are you a parent? Be a godly example to your children and raise them using the tools God has given you: law and gospel. Are you married? Sacrifice your own needs for your spouse’s and keep yourself free from lust. Are you an employee? Don’t steal from your employer through laziness but instead work as if the Lord was your boss – because he is (Colossians 3:23). Has God blessed you materially? Share what he has given you with your neighbors who are in need. It is that simple. If you want to produce fruit in keeping with repentance you don’t have to search for big showy works that so often wind up being empty and rotten. Compare your life to the 10 commandments. Confess those times you have failed to measure up. And then let those same commandments be your guide in how to live a life that produces fruit pleasing to God.

John’s simple yet profoundly powerful message led to some speculation among the people: the people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might be the Christ. John, again with his characteristic bluntness, corrected their thinking. I baptize you with water. But someone mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Having prepared the people’s hearts by exposing their excuses he turns to his second job: to exalt Christ. John was not the Christ. He was only the forerunner. He was sent to prepare the way. In case you’re curious about the different baptisms, John is comparing apples to oranges. He’s using the term baptism to refer to two different things. John’s baptism with water was effective as a means of grace to offer forgiveness to penitent sinners by Christ’s authority. In that sense, John’s baptism was no different than ours. But Jesus, the more powerful one, would, of his own authority, pour out the Holy Spirit on his people – a reference not to Christian baptism, but to the miracles of Pentecost.

This mightier one would demonstrate his power in what he came to do: His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. He will gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. In one sentence, John summarizes the sum total of Jesus’ work in this world. There are two questions that arise, though. Is this law or gospel? Well, it’s both, isn’t it? It’s good news that when Jesus comes he will gather the wheat, the believers, into the barn of heaven. It’s the ultimate warning of the law to know that he will simultaneously burn up the chaff, the unbelievers, in the fire of hell. Second, when is this taking place? I don’t seem to recall Jesus burning anyone up during his earthly ministry. And that’s true. What John appears to be doing is combining Jesus’ first and second coming into one. Which means that this reaping and separating is taking place right now. Right now, Jesus is working through the Law and Gospel to separate the wheat from the chaff. Right now, those who are penitent are being comforted with the message of forgiveness. Right now, the impenitent are determining their own destiny in hell. This world is the threshing floor and Jesus’ judgment is ongoing.

And that’s where our hope and joy are found this Advent: the time is short, but Jesus has already come once as a baby and is coming now to us through the means of grace – and he is the only excuse that God will accept; he is the only excuse we need. His perfect life excuses our sins of spiritual indifference, laziness and hypocritical good works. His innocent death excuses us from ever having to suffer the hell our sins deserve. His glorious resurrection gives us no excuse to doubt that when he returns to clear his threshing floor we will be among the wheat that he gathers into the barn of heaven. That’s why for Christians in Advent, humility and joy go hand in hand.

There’s no question, time is running out. Christmas is 13 days away. But more importantly, our Lord is coming soon. Where do we begin? The forerunner prepares us. We start in the only place we can: with ourselves. We listen to the Law that exposes our excuses for laziness and indifference. We stop hiding behind them. We repent from our hearts. We listen to the Gospel that exalts Christ. We trust him for pardon and for peace. And then…well then, we live as the blood-bought children of God in humility and joy. Amen.

Luke 3:1-6 - Nothing Can Stop Christmas - December 5, 2021

Have you ever noticed that pretty much every Christmas movie ever made has the exact same storyline? Whether it’s Scrooge or the Grinch or some silly contrived crisis in a Hallmark movie – it always seems like Christmas is in danger of not happening. Of course, in the end, Christmas always comes – because who would ever write or watch a movie where Christmas doesn’t come? In entertainment, nothing can stop Christmas. Here’s the good news: what’s true of the artificial, worldly, Hollywood version of Christmas is true of the real Christmas, too! The real Christmas is about the Son of God being born to be our Prophet, Priest and King. And nothing can stop him!

Not that people didn’t try to stop him. In the first two verses of our text Luke lists seven men who were in power when Jesus began his mission of becoming our Prophet, Priest and King. He does this for two reasons. First, to anchor these events in history. This was not some “once upon a time” fairy tale. Secondly, to reveal the evil that Jesus was up against. These were reprehensible men. Some of what they did I can’t even describe for you from this pulpit – it would get us censored on YouTube. Tiberius was an evil, vindictive, antisemitic, murderous pervert. Herod had John the Baptist beheaded because of a foolish oath (Mark 6:14-29). The high priests, the supposed spiritual leaders of Israel, Annas and Caiaphas, arranged for perjury against Jesus (Mark 14:55-59), beat him, ridiculed him, and demanded that he be put to death for being what he came to be: the Son of God and our Savior (Mark 14:62). Pontius Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent of any sin – he admitted as much publicly (Luke 23:4) – and yet he not only had Jesus illegally whipped, beaten, and ridiculed, he condemned him to be nailed hand and foot to a cross. But even with their positions and power, they couldn’t stop Christmas.

What sort of evil stands between you and Christmas this year? Does the evil of yet another variant or some other medical issue threaten your health and happiness? Does physical or emotional distance keep you from happily gathering with your loved ones? Does the evil of inflation threaten your ability to place a pile of gifts under your tree? Do you see the very real spiritual threats that materialism and false belief in a fat man in a red suit pose to faith in the one, true God and the one, true Savior?

Well, don’t worry about those evils. They can’t stop Christmas because Christmas is proof that God uses even evil for his good purposes – just as he promises (Romans 8:28). Consider the evil that stood against Jesus the first time around. Herod the Great tried to kill him while he was still a baby (Matthew 2:16-18). Annas and Caiaphas formed a lynch mob to force Pilate to execute Jesus (Matthew 27:15-26). And how did God use the evil hearts and actions of these evil men? You know. The pain that Annas and Caiaphas caused Jesus paid for your sins. The innocent blood that Pilate shed covered your sins. Even though these evil men did everything they could to prevent Jesus from serving as your Savior, they couldn’t stop him from preaching God’s grace, offering himself as the atoning sacrifice for your sins and reigning forever over all things (Matthew 28:18).

In light of what God worked through the evil surrounding Jesus’ first Coming – do you really think that he will allow the evil around you today to stop Christmas from coming to you? There’s no denying that evil may put a damper on your Christmas – but the evil you see in politics, in your personal finances, or in the spiritual evil prowling around you can’t really stop Christmas. No matter what happens, it will be a fact that Jesus was born to teach you what you need to know for eternal life, to offer himself as the sacrifice for your sins and to reign over this world – even over the evil. Nothing – not even the evil we see around us – can stop Christmas.

But what about when God seems far away; totally unconcerned with what’s going on around us. Faithful believers who lived during the days of John the Baptist must have felt that way; that God was distant and disinterested. Again, Luke lists seven powerful rulers. Everyone knew who they were. Everyone felt their authority and power in the laws they wrote and enforced and the policies they enacted. There was no question who was in control – it was printed on their money (Mark 12:16-17) and right in their face. But where was God in all of this? I think we sometimes imagine that God was constantly speaking to his OT people. The truth is that God only rarely spoke to his OT people – and for the previous 400 years he hadn’t spoken to them at all. All they had was the Old Testament Scriptures to hold onto. And then, out of the blue, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.

We know what that feels like, don’t we? Doesn’t it feel like God is far away this Christmas season? We drive through our neighborhoods and see far more snowmen and reindeer than nativity scenes. Where is God when whether or not a woman has the right to kill her own unborn baby is even up for debate? Where is God when a convicted felon is set free to mow down people at a parade? Where is God in a nation that is so deeply divided politically, morally and ethically? There doesn’t seem to be much peace or good will here on earth. Where is God in this mess?

But even God’s apparent distance and disinterest cannot stop Christmas. Hebrews tells us: in the past, God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). God has always chosen to bridge the gap between heaven and earth by means of his Word. Even in the Garden of Eden God communicated to mankind with his Word (Genesis 1-2). And then, on Christmas, an incredible thing happened: the Word became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). You understand why that’s so incredible, don’t you? No one, not even John the Baptist, could bridge the gap between God and sinners – our sins have separated us from God (Isaiah 59:2). We can call out to God, but we can’t make God speak to us. But when God decides to speak, nothing in heaven, on earth or even in hell can stop him. And Christmas, real Christmas – not the artificial lights and gifts and cheer – is God speaking his final Word to mankind through his one and only Son. And when God speaks, things happen.

And – unlike many of the things that we are told to believe today – the evidence of this truth is overwhelming. God spoke and the world came into existence (Genesis 1). God spoke and the world was destroyed in a flood (Genesis 7-8). God spoke and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down (Joshua 6). God spoke to a virgin’s womb and she conceived the Word of God (Luke 1:26-38). God spoke and you became his child in the waters of Baptism (Galatians 4:4-7). God speaks through his called servants and your sins are sent away forever (John 20:23). God speaks and his body and blood are united with regular bread and wine – and, as a result, you have everything that Mary had – your Savior, physically present with you and for you. And if that’s not a real Christmas gift, then what is? Yes, God may appear to be distant and disinterested out there, but in here, he’s as close as his Word, water, bread and wine.

Nothing can stop Christmas – not the evil around us, not God’s apparent distance from us, and, not even our own failed preparations. If I were to ask you, “Are you ready for Christmas?” what would you say? I’m guessing that 100% of us would say, “No, I’m not ready.” Why would you say that? Because you’re not thinking about the real Christmas – you’re thinking about the gift-giving, food-eating, family-gathering imitation of Christmas. You can be ready for that Christmas – you just need more time. But here’s the thing: you can never prepare yourself for the Real Christmas.

Consider what Isaiah said would be necessary for the first Christmas: prepare the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight. Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways made smooth. Even with all of our technologically advanced construction techniques, we can’t fill every valley or lower every mountain – just think of how impossible this had to have sounded to John’s first listeners. The only conclusion you can come to is that if we have to fill in valleys and lower mountains in order for Jesus to come, then he’s never coming.

Here’s the reality: you can never be fully prepared to receive Jesus on Christmas. By nature your ears are deaf to the good news that Jesus came as a Prophet to proclaim, the valleys of doubt and unbelief in your heart are too deep. You can never be ready to receive a Priest who will serve as both your sacrifice and your mediator (1 Timothy 2:5), the mountain of pride in you is too high for that. You will never be ready to kneel before Jesus as King – not as long as you continue to imagine that you’re the king of your life. That’s just a taste of the Law that John came to the region around the Jordan preaching. It wasn’t a “try harder, be better”; it was a “you’re a damned sinner beyond all hope.” He didn’t come to tell people how to get themselves ready to receive Jesus; he told them to repent. And that’s exactly what I’m here to tell you today. You cannot and will never be ready to receive Jesus on your own – the valleys and mountains in your heart are too deep and too high. That’s God’s Word.

Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight are imperatives, they are commands. Whenever God commands you to do something – that’s the Law. The primary purpose of the Law is not to show you how you can satisfy God’s demands but to show you that you can’t, to convict you of your sins and to show you that you can never save yourself (Romans 3:20). But did you notice that the rest of Isaiah’s prophecy doesn’t consist of commands but indicatives? It doesn’t tell us what we must do but what God WILL do for us! Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth. And everyone will see the salvation of God. Do you know what this means? It means that God is promising to do for us what he demands from us. It means that not even our own sinfully corrupted hearts can prevent Jesus from coming to us to save us. Again, that’s not my opinion, that’s God’s promise; he says that just as the rain and snow come down and water the earth, so in the same way my word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty. Rather, it will accomplish whatever I please, and it will succeed in the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11).

Catch this Christmas Spirit, the real Spirit of real Christmas. Rather than trying to gin up artificial joy this year, let the Holy Spirit create true joy in your heart through meditation on God’s Word and prayer. Rather than trying to find a way to God, remember that God chose, called and justified you in your Baptism. Rather than trying to do a little more good this month to make up for all the bad you’ve done, confess your sins and cherish your absolution (John 20:22-23). Rather than stress out over how much food you need to prepare and how many gifts you have to buy, savor the free gift of the body and blood of Jesus you will receive in the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of your sins. That’s how God prepares you, raising your valleys of depression and doubt and cutting down your mountains of pride and self-righteousness, to receive his Son.

In the movies, it’s the artificial Christmas that nothing can stop. But what if it was stopped? What if Scrooge never got the Christmas spirit; the Grinch never gave Christmas back; the Hallmark movie didn’t end with everyone laughing and hugging around a crackling fire? What if this year your tree caught fire and your house and all the presents in it burned down and your family was left homeless on December 25? That would be tragic, but even that wouldn’t stop Christmas – because that’s not really Christmas. Christmas is about God coming to us in Jesus to save us from our sins – and nothing in heaven or on earth can stop the real Christmas. Amen.  

What Is Lutheran Worship? - November 28, 2021

Service Introduction: Have you ever wondered, “Why do we worship the way we do? Why is our worship service so different from anything else we do in life? Why is it even so different from the way other churches worship? What are we doing and why are we doing it?” Some may think that we worship the way we do because it’s what we’ve always done, and that Lutherans just don’t like to change. But doing something just because it’s what we’ve always done is not a good reason to do anything. That’s why on this first Sunday of the church year, our service is going to be a little different. Instead of assuming that we all know why we worship the way we do, we’re going to pause at each point in the service and understand what it is and where it came from. My prayer is that, as we better understand Lutheran worship, we can better appreciate Lutheran worship and worship our Savior and Lord in spirit and in truth, (John 4:23) as our Savior desires.

The Liturgy: The basic framework, or order of service, is called the liturgy. The word liturgy comes from two Greek words “people” and “work”. In the Bible this word is used for the formal, organized worship of both Christians and non-Christians (Philippians 2:17) – but also for the everyday lives of believers – lives that they live to the glory of God no matter what they are doing (2 Corinthians 9:12). We use the liturgy for three main reasons. First and most importantly, the liturgy keeps us focused on Jesus. (Both the cover of our bulletin and the cover of our hymnal contain two Greek letters – chi and rho – the first two letters in the name of Christ). Second, the liturgy allows everyone to participate with joy and confidence instead of merely being passive spectators – like we are at a football game or movie. (Part of being confident to participate in worship means that we use repetition – so that everyone, from the two-year-old to the 92-year-old – can join in.) Third, the liturgy honors the experience of the believers who have gone before us. Some parts of the liturgy have been used by believers for over 3000 years to worship the LORD. We use these ancient words and songs, not just because they are old, but because they have been time tested by generations of believers to be faithful to the truth of God’s Word and educates and edifies all people. While we use a different version of the liturgy almost every week for variety, the Divine Service most closely reflects the style of worship used by the earliest Christians. One more thing. Each worship service has a unifying theme. Our theme today, the first Sunday in Advent, is: Our Lord Comes to Save Us.

Invocation: This opening response is taken directly from Matthew 28:19, the passage in which Jesus gave his church its mission and instituted the sacrament of Baptism. We begin our worship by calling on the name of the Triune God, not only to clarify who we are worshipping but to remind ourselves that we are his baptized children. The word, “amen,” which you see at many parts of the service comes from a Hebrew word which means, “truth.” Whenever you say or sing this word, you mean, “that’s the truth. I agree with it.”

Confession of Sins: 1 John chapter 1 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate before the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world (1 John 1:8-9; 2:1-2). Before we can come before God to offer him our worship and praise, God must do something for us. He washes us clean of our sins and assures us that we are forgiven for Jesus’ sake. You should note that the pastor always leads the confession of sins, for he too is a sinner in need of Jesus’ forgiveness. The words of our confession come from Romans 8, James 2 and Luke 18. The words of the absolution – or release from sin and guilt – are from 1 John 2 and Matthew 28. The song, Lord, Have Mercy, “Kyrie” in Latin, is one of the oldest songs of the Christian church. It is taken from the prayer of the tax collector in Luke 18. He came to the temple of the Lord, but when he prayed, he did not look up to heaven but beat his chest and said, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).  

Glory Be to God: This song of praise is taken from Luke 2, the words the angels sang to the shepherds announcing the birth of the Savior. Each and every Sunday we remember Christmas, that monumental moment in history when God became one of us to save us from our sins.

Prayer of the Day: It doesn’t take too long to notice that liturgical Lutheran pastors turn around quite a bit – sometimes facing the altar, sometimes facing the congregation. There’s a reason for this. When the pastor is speaking for the people or as one of the people: confessing sins, praying, praising – he faces the altar. When the pastor is speaking as God’s spokesman to the people: the absolution, the reading or preaching of God’s Word, he faces the people. The prayer of the day is formulated according to the theme of the service and presents God with a specific request in line with that theme.

Scripture Lessons: Almost every Sunday, we read three Scripture lessons: one from the Old Testament, one from the Gospels, and one from the New Testament Epistles. These lessons are carefully chosen both to emphasize one common theme and to cover all the main teachings of the Bible. When we sing a Psalm, we are using the oldest hymnal in the world – the hymnal God gave to his OT people. Some of these songs are over 3000 years old and connect us with believers who lived by faith in God’s promises hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The sermon text is usually taken from one of these three lessons.

The Creed: A creed is a statement of what a person or group of people teach and believe. The creeds we use most regularly, the Apostles’ and Nicene, have been and continue to be used by Christians of all denominations all over the world. The Nicene Creed dates back to 325 AD and was formulated as a defense of the Biblical teaching of the Trinity, emphasizing that Jesus is truly God. We begin by saying “we believe” to stress that we gather as people who have a common confession, which is especially significant when we come forward together to receive our Savior’ body and blood. The Apostles’ Creed is a simple statement of personal faith in the Triune God. In the early Christian church, adults would confess this faith before they were baptized in the name of the triune God. When children and adults are confirmed today, this creed serves as their public confession of their personal faith.

Hymn of the Day: The hymn of the day is specially chosen to reflect the theme of the sermon. Even though it isn’t always the most familiar or easiest to sing, the text usually corresponds well to the sermon text. Most of our hymns have words and phrases taken directly from Scripture. Many of them have also been sung by Christians for centuries. Their age doesn’t make them stale or irrelevant, instead, their age means that they have been tested and proven to clearly proclaim the truths of God’s Word. When new hymns are written that proclaim the Gospel clearly, we incorporate them as well. The Lutheran Church has been called the singing church because it encourages everyone to participate in songs, hymns, and spiritual songs – as Paul encourages in Colossians 3. You may never walk out of church reciting a line of the sermon, but you just might leave humming a line from a hymn. That is why hymns are such a great tool for preaching and teaching the Gospel.

Gospel: We stand for the reading of the Gospel to show our honor and respect for the words and works of Jesus. The word Gospel means “good news.” The hearing of the good news that Jesus has come to reveal God to us and to live and die as our substitute is one of the high points of our worship.

The sermon: In most other areas of life, if someone is “preaching” at you, it’s not a good thing. But here in God’s house, the sermon is a special opportunity to proclaim Christ crucified and to build up the faith of people for whom Christ has died. We won’t have a full sermon this morning, but rather an explanation of what makes Christians of all ages treasure preaching. Every sermon has a different emphasis, but in general the sermon has three main parts: it should contain specific law (which shows us our sins and our need for a Savior), it should contain specific gospel (which tells us what Jesus has done to save us from our sins), and it contains a specific application of how we can put the law and gospel into practice in our own lives.

How does Luke’s account of Palm Sunday provide the basis for this kind of sermon? Well, why were these crowds of people there in Jerusalem in the first place? They were there to celebrate the Passover – the annual reminder that God had freed his people from their slavery in Egypt hundreds of years before. We are also slaves – whether we care to admit it or not: slaves to sin, death and the devil. The evidence litters our lives in the sins we commit with our thoughts, words and actions. That’s specific law. But that’s why Jesus came both to Bethlehem and to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday – to free us from our enslavement. But doing so required him to die on a cross, to suffer hell, and to be buried in a tomb. That’s the specific Gospel. How does this apply to our daily lives? Well, it may seem odd to read about Palm Sunday on the first Sunday in Advent (as we’re preparing for Christmas) – but I think the Church did this intentionally. It did us to knock the Christmas spirit out of us, to disrupt our focus on worldly things this time of year. This lesson reminds us that Christmas isn’t really about lights or gifts or cookies or even family and friends. Christmas is about Christ. And Christ didn’t come to give us an excuse to exchange gifts or gather with family – but to die on a cross for our sins. And when you remember that, then not only will the stress of these weeks be lifted from your shoulders (because Christmas is not really about anything you do or buy) but you will truly be filled with joy and peace when December 25 arrives because you will know that Jesus came for you, to die for you, to save you.

Create In Me: This response is taken from Psalm 51. We ask God to purify our hearts so that we may empowered and energized to believe what he has promised and do what he has commanded in his Word.

Offering: We gather the offering at this point in the service, not merely to pay the bills (we could just send out invoices if that were the only reason), but to show our gratitude to God, to exercise our faith in his power to provide, to support the preaching of the Gospel here and around the world and to have a few quiet moments to reflect on the truths of the sermon. The offering is also a good time to turn to page 156 in the front of the hymnal to examine yourself in preparation for the reception of Holy Communion.

The Prayer of the Church: The church is not a building, not a synod, not even a printed list of people. The church is everyone, everywhere who believes in Jesus as their Savior from sin, so in the prayer of the Church we join to pray for people in various circumstances of life. We conclude with the Lord’s Prayer, which Jesus himself taught the church almost 2000 years ago. The Lord’s prayer can be found in Matthew 6 and Luke 11.

Holy, Holy, Holy: The Santcus is taken from Isaiah 6. Isaiah saw a vision of angels and a glimpse of the glory of the LORD. He was terrified and felt ruined because of his sin. But an angel took a coal from the altar, touched his lips, and said look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven (Isaiah 6:7). Isaiah’s song is the perfect song for us to sing as we are preparing to meet our Savior face to face. We approach God as sinners, deserving only death and damnation because of our sins. But receiving Jesus’ body and blood with our lips with penitent hearts, we are cleansed so that as we depart this table the pastor assures us: “Go in peace, your sins are forgiven.”

The Words of Institution: You have probably noticed that this is the only time the pastor stands on the other side of the altar. This is intentional. As a called servant of Christ, the pastor humbly stands in the place of Christ at this holy meal and is able to speak the very words of Christ face to face with God’s people.

O Christ, Lamb of God: Agnus Dei is Latin for “Lamb of God.” This song comes from John 1:29, where John the Baptist identified Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In the OT, lambs and other animals were sacrificed for the sins of the people. Christ is our perfect lamb, sacrificed one time for the sins of the world, including yours and mine, and is now given to us, in, with, and under the bread and the wine.

Prayer and Blessing: We close with prayer to thank God for his plan and his work for our salvation. Everything that Jesus has done for us has been delivered to us personally through Word and Sacrament. We came here as broken sinners. We leave as healed, holy, and blameless saints. And as we leave, we go with God’s blessing. These words are taken from Numbers 6. They are over 3500 years old. God himself told Moses tell Aaron and his sons, ‘this is how you are to bless the [people]…so they will put my name on the [people], and I will bless them. (Numbers 6:22, 27) We sing three amens because of the three-part blessing and to remember the Triune God in whose name we began our worship.

Post Worship: This service may have felt like trying to take a drink from a fire hose with all the information that has been thrown at you. But I pray that this service helps you to see that Jesus is at the center of every part of our worship service, that you feel like an active participant when you come to worship, and that this new church year, another year of God’s grace, might be another year of blessing as you journey through this world on your way to heaven. As we begin another church year, let us remember to thank God for the blessing of Bible-based, Christ-centered, Lutheran Worship.