Lent 3 Sermon

Lent 3 – March 14^th and 15^th, 2020 – Luke 11:14-28

In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

So there Jesus is, and He is doing what He is normally doing – healing. This time casting out a demon that was mute. Here you have this man who is attacked by one of Satan’s minions, made to be silent. Can’t speak. Can’t talk. Cut off from his family and friends. Given by the powers of Satan over to loneliness and despair. And Jesus steps in, heals the man – and suddenly the man can speak. The man can open his mouth and speak words of love and joy. Oh Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Your praise. But I guess some people would have just rather not have heard any of it. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.” What an excuse. Um – maybe this Jesus is demonic – um, that way we don’t have to listen to Him. They would rather have this man remain mute, they would rather hear a preacher preaching something more appealing to their ears than Satan being fought. And as for others – well – while others, to test Him, kept seeking from Him a sign from heaven. Oh, sure Jesus, we’ll believe, but you’ve got to do better than that! We want something more miraculous, something more wondrous! How about something with thunder and lightning – something that lights up the sky, that would be good! So just what in the world is going on here?

We've talked about Satan, we've talked about the world fighting Christ, but here it hits home. The sinful flesh kicks in. This is what the problem is – people are making excuses not to believe, not to trust in Christ Jesus. You see, there’s this pesky little problem – if you believe in Jesus, you really sort of need to believe everything He says. You don’t get to pick and choose – Jesus isn’t a buffet, He isn’t some fast food restaurant where you get to tell Him to hold the pickles – what He says goes. And our Lord teaches bluntly – He speaks to our sin, to our need for a Savior – He points out that we of ourselves are not righteous and that we need to receive mercy from God – we need the forgiveness which He wins. Jesus teaches that we are in need – and in our pride and arrogance we can dislike that and make excuses.

So then Jesus engages in what is called “Apologetics”. Apologetics is what happens when you break down the excuses people give against the Word. But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand.” Point one – is Satan dumb? If Satan divided his forces, he’d be weak. Is he weak – ask that man who was struck deaf if Satan is powerless and weak. “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.” Point two – other people had been casting out demons in the Name of Jesus. If you accuse Jesus, you accuse them too. Do you really want to do that? The thought that Jesus is in league with Satan is looking worse all the time. And then the kicker, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” Point three – as for you who want a sign from heaven – well here it is. You are seeing God’s own power at work against the forces of darkness. Quit playing like you need something more. This is what God does, God fights Satan, God destroys him. Your excuses are foolish. You need to quit making them and instead repent, for you too need a Savior.

Do you see how Christ just sort of systematically poked holes in all their excuses that they had thrown up, that they had given for why they couldn’t listen? This is the same thing that He does towards us. The simple fact is that we are sinners, and sinners make excuses. We make excuses not to do the things we should, and excuses to do things that are wrong. So – what are your excuses? Now, I’m not Jesus, I don’t get to know your thoughts – but what excuses about the Christian life are you making? What excuses about love? What excuses about stewardship? What excuses about time, about worship, about petty grudges, about your pet sin that you enjoy – what excuses are you making? When you consider what Christ Jesus has taught about sin, about His love and the power of His Word – do any of these excuses really hold water? Really? Are the excuses you put forward any better than those we heard in the text? I know mine haven’t been. And yet, even we Christians who know better will sit around dreaming up excuse after excuse – we think we can feed Jesus a line of B.S. about why we aren’t showing love, why we aren’t studying His Word, why we blow off Church, why we ignore this person, why we play favorites with this one, why we hold on to bad habits. Sometimes I wonder just how stupid we can be. God’s Word not only fights the power of Satan – it breaks our excuses.

So why? Why is Jesus so interested in breaking down the excuses we make, even the excuses for the so-called little things – why does He want to break them down? Because the Christian life is to be one of repentance – to be one where we are constantly brought to the repentance of our sin and constantly focus upon Christ. And should we abandon repentance, should we move from being those who confess their sin to those who instead make excuse after excuse – it goes poorly for us. ‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came,’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.” Little sins never stay little. They always grow, they always get bigger, they always get worse. You can’t appease sin, you can’t let it have just a bit of your life, you can’t lay out the welcome mat for it and say, “Oh sure, come on in, just stay in that bedroom over there.” That simply opens the floodgates, and more and more temptation and sin will flood into your life, until you are worse than you were before. This is a warning against falling away, and if you make excuses – you are playing with fire – and not just a little fire but eternal, unquenchable hell fire. And so our Lord warns us against this – quit your excuses and cling to the Word of life! And our Lord brings this about in you. At your baptism, you were given over by God to a life of repentance – a life that is to be lived out by daily contrition, daily struggle against sin, continual confession of that sin. We are to fight against Satan, not accommodate him with foolhardy excuses to ignore the Word. To be in the waters of Baptism is to be one who fights temptation – and in that water, in that Christian life, there is safety for Christ Himself is with you. We are safer fighting Satan than we are bowing before him. This is the life to which you have been called.

This is also why our Lord admonishes us to listen to His Word. But He said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!” As Christians, we are those who hear the Word of God, we are those who are to strive to keep it. God’s Word isn’t designed to just go in one ear and out the other. It isn’t something to be brush aside, to have lip service paid to. We are to pay attention. And why? Because it is by the Word of God that we are blessed – and we remain in those blessings of God as long as we remain in the Word.

Consider the example of the Stronger Man that the Lord gives us today. “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when One stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, He takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.” This is what Christ Jesus does for you. You were Satan’s possession, fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay, as Luther would have us sing. You were part of Satan’s kingdom, in bondage to sin – but into this fallen world burst Christ Jesus, the Stronger Man, who defeats Satan and claims you as His own. Christ our Lord defeated Satan by His holy life, by His precious death, by His glorious resurrection – these things all defeat, destroy Satan, and break His power over you. And these things that Jesus did, that He accomplished nearly 2000 years ago are made real in your life today by the power of His Word. The Word of God takes what Christ accomplished then and brings it to you here and now. Christ defeated the old foe, and by His Word, He claims you as His own prize.

When you continually hear the Word, when you live out your baptismal life of repentance and forgiveness, of confession and absolution, when you receive our Lord’s Body and Blood in His Supper, you are being forgiven and strengthened and kept safe from Satan, kept in God’s Kingdom. God keeps you in His Word and thereby keeps you safe from the power of the Devil. And the thing is, Satan is going to do everything he can to make you ignore the Word, spurn God’s Law and despise the Gospel of Christ Jesus – because then, you abandon God, you leave the Mighty Fortress behind and are defenseless. So Christ continually preaches His Word – He doesn’t abandon you to your foolish excuses, He doesn’t leave you trapped in the sins with which Satan binds you, but over and over again, His Word of life comes to you, He preaches life and forgiveness, the Finger of God touches you, so that you might open your lips and declare His praises as well. Christ desires you to reap the benefits of His fight against Satan, and He will make these real in your life through His Word, through His Baptism, through His Supper. God grant us faith that we might cling to His Word and keep it ever more sacred all our days. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

Lent 2 Sermon

Lent 2 – March 7^th and 8^th, 2020 – Matthew 15:21-28

In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

One old saying of the Church is that we Christians must be on guard against our three old foes – Satan, the World, and our Sinful Flesh. Last week, with the temptation in the wilderness, we saw Jesus handle Satan handily – demonstrate that He is far more powerful than Satan. And I would submit that today, in our Gospel lesson we see Jesus deal handily with the world and it's temptations. So, let us begin.

This text is odd. It really is – Jesus behaves strangely in it. Consider: And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have Mercy on me, O LORD, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But He did not answer her a word. Do you see how odd this is? When does Jesus give people in need the silent treatment? I mean, Jesus is typically more than agreeable to go and help people. Hi there, Centurion – I'll come to your house. Zacchaeus, come down out of that tree, I'm coming over to your house today. Jesus is always up and at 'em, ready to go. And He preaches, and teaches – the silent treatment isn't normally His thing. Do you get how odd this is? What in the world is going on?

I skipped a verse – And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus went away from... where? So in Chapter 14, Jesus had fed the 5000, He's walked on water, He is teaching and healing in Gennesret, just south of Capernaum, His home territory in Galilee, surrounded by lots of good little Jewish boys and girls. And then, the nagging starts. Chapter 15 begins with the Scribes and Pharisees coming up to Jesus – who has just performed miracles – and they complain. “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” Yes handwashing is sanitary and all that – but that's not what they are talking about. There had arisen a custom, a tradition, a cultural way of doing things that the good folks in Jewish society just did – including a specific hand washing ritual before eating. And what happens? Nagging. You're not doing this the way we like it. Consider the contrast – healing, feeding the 5000. Well, it's not that you fed the 5000 in the wilderness, but did you remember to make them wash their hands first, hmmm? And keep in mind, these Scribes and Pharisees are really looking down upon Jesus, they are chastising Him – Jesus in their books is no longer acting like a good, Jewish Man! And what follows is a nice discussion on the difference between human, worldly traditions and what God has commanded. What follows is a look at where wickedness really dwells – in the heart of man. More on that next week. But for the moment, Jesus is pestered so much about how a “good Jew should do this and this” that He gets up and leaves Jewish territory all together and goes on up near Tyre and Sidon.

Now, before we go on. I don't want to harp on the Pharisees too much here – I mean, it is a silly complaint. But what's the old saying – you point a finger at someone and the rest point back at you. This should be an example of how the world works. The world and society and culture love to create new rules that you just have to follow or else you are a lousy, terrible person. And I'm not talking about speed limits or things like that – but just how groups and cliques work. In this fallen world, we love to divide ourselves, separate out into little groups, and we have ways we dress, act, and talk, and woe be unto anyone who doesn't toe the line. The old, classic ones are school aged ones – are you a jock or a nerd? Back in the day did you wear a black leather jacket or a letter jacket? Ah ha ha, how silly – but fights and hurt and disdain all over that. And it caries on to today, it permeates all of society today. Need I talk about social pressure in an election year? I feel bad for my Democrat friends – this primary season is brutal for them – you say the wrong thing about one of the candidates and people jump all over you. Or what about the various hot button issues all across the board – the mob will keep you in line or you will be canceled! And even closer to home, we all have our own little groups that we try to fit in, family or friends, and there are lines to be toed because those are the lines, and you don't question them or you are out.

But let's question them – don't worry, I'm not going to call out anything about any one here in particular – rather, let's learn how to question them. Is that better? We are instructed by God to love our neighbor. We know what the fruits of the Spirit are – gentleness, kindness. We heard about holiness and honor in the Epistle. We know the ten commandments and their meanings – and if we can't recite the meanings we know enough to review them. There's your guide from the Word on how we are to love our neighbors. And sometimes we need to consider whether or not our actions, our customs, our traditions are actually doing that. But the danger is this – we can be driven by the world, we can be so concerned about impressing our peers, our social group, that instead of doing what is right, we just go with the flow. Or we even assume that going with the flow must in and of itself be good. Pop Quiz time – what is the First Commandment? (You shall have no other gods) – and what does this mean? (We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.) This is what happens. Instead of fearing God, instead of wanting to make sure we do what God wants and don't get on His bad side, we can become more worried about not getting on the world's bad side. Or our family's bad side. Or our friends' bad side. And then we slide away from God and what is good.

And I would say that this is precisely where the disciples are in this text. They have just been complained about. The Pharisees attacked Jesus through them – why don't your disciples follow the traditions, Jesus? And so, when this Canaanite woman comes up to Jesus, crying for mercy, Jesus does something. He goes silent. Now, let's talk about good old fashioned Jewish culture. If you were a good, proper, dignified fellow, you didn't talk to women. (Hmmmph) And you didn't talk to foreigners. (Hmmph) And you certainly wouldn't talk to some crying, hysterical foreign trollop. (Hmmph) You would just ignore them, pretend they weren't there. So, disciples – is this how Jesus should act, just giving people the silent treatment?

The disciples finally say, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” We miss this in English – that word for “send” could mean simply kick her out, but it's also a word for forgive – when you forgive someone you send their sins away. So are they asking Jesus to heal her or asking Jesus to just get rid of her.... Meh. It's debatable either way. They punt. Just do something Jesus.

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Surely you've had a parent pull this one. And I'm not saying I enjoy getting to pull it, but when you did something foolish, and you were starting to see how foolish it was, and you go to mom or dad, and they back away, hands off, oh no, no, no – mister big shot wanted to do it his way. Same thing here. Me? Do something? Oh no, I'm not suppose to deal with the likes of her. This is teaching the disciples a lesson – and they are flummoxed.

But she came and knelt before Him, saying, “LORD, help me.” And He answered, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” So, ever insulted someone to fit in with other people? Ever tried to be one of the boys, one the gals and been mean or cruel to show you fit in? Jesus hams that up here. And all of this – right in the disciples face – is this what you disciples want Me to be? Because it's horrific – just as horrific as what the world tries to drive us to be.

You may have noted that I haven't spent much time dealing with the Canaanite woman. Let's consider her for a moment. She's identified as a Canaanite woman – she's one of the ancient enemies of Israel – Israel did wars of conquest to defeat her people. By the standards of the world she should hate Jesus with a passion. And she doesn't. She comes to Him. And in fact, she calls Him LORD, and Son of David – she understands that Jesus is the promised Messiah better than Jesus' own people do! And even though Jesus is the King of people who are her enemy, she still comes before Him and prays for healing. And even when Jesus gives her the cold shoulder, even when He insults her, she knows who Jesus truly is. She said, “Yes, LORD.” Yes, LORD, I am not worthy of anything from you. Yes Lord, I am but a little dog. But... “Yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” But I know who You are, Jesus. You are the Master who will see that even the little dogs get their crumbs. And then you have that wondrous turn – Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire!” You got it! You understand who Jesus is, lady! He's the God who does not care for all the stupid games the sinful world plays, who does not take bribes or worry about social pressure – He is the God who cares for His creatures. That's her faith, that's what she believes in – and she is right. Jesus is for her.

This week, my friends, you will be thrown into a wide variety of social circumstances and interactions. You will be pulled in a multitude of directions, sometimes for good (because sometimes we do need our friends and neighbors to give our sinful backside a kick), and sometimes for bad. And the temptation, the trouble is that we can be so overwhelmed by what the world wants and expects that we forget who Jesus is. Jesus is the God who loves you and cares for you, regardless of what the world says or thinks about you. Jesus is the God who will remind you with His law to actually love and serve your neighbor, but not by the world's rules, or not only the ones the world approves of, rather to love all the people He has placed in your life according to His instruction. But more than just that, Jesus is the God who is determined to win you forgiveness and life with His death and resurrection. Jesus is the God who feeds you not with mere crumbs on the side, but who calls you to His feast of eternal life and gives you Himself to eat and drink for the remission of all of your sins. In Christ you are forgiven. The world is weak and silly compared to Jesus, and Jesus always acts for your good. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

Lent 1 Sermon

Lent 1 – February 29^th and March 1^st, 2020 – Matthew 4:1-11

In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

If you want to have a good story, a good action adventure, you've got to have a strong villain. I mean, what would Star Wars be without Darth Vader, or what would would a Western be with out the desperado in his black hat. That's what makes the story a story – where there's a strong, powerful villain, and somehow, someway, the hero just barely manages to save the day by the skin of his teeth. That's how we like our adventure stories. Or even think about David and Goliath – there's a contest with a mighty villain. That's part of the reason why that story is still told and known even by people who couldn't care two licks about the Church. We love battles against mighty villains. And as such, our Gospel Lesson, the temptation of Jesus, is an utterly boring and disappointing story. If you want action and drama and tension, our Gospel lesson is an utter snooze fest. I mean, don't get me wrong – you can indeed look at this text like it is a battle, but it's never a battle in doubt. It's not a fair fight between equals. There stands Jesus, God Almighty, the Word of God by whom all things were made – and against Him stands merely Satan. Sure, Satan is strong by our standards, but all of his might, all his fierce scowling is as absolutely nothing compared to Jesus. Listen.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. First things first – did you note that this confrontation is something that God seeks out? The Son of God goes forth to war. He goes to seek out Satan. But Satan knows he cannot stand against God Himself, so Jesus lures the devil out. Normally, one would expect an army going to battle to be well prepared – supply lines are vital, and as a former Army cook loved to tell me, an Army fights on its stomach. Jesus tosses that out the window. He goes out into the wilderness, to the dried out ruins of what should have been garden except for sin, and Jesus goes as a Man. He hungers. He suffers. He is physically weak – as weak as a kitten. It is as though Jesus is saying, “Here Devil, Devil, Devil, come out and play.” A tempting target for the Tempter.

Satan takes the bait. While the Devil may be stronger than any of us in this room, while he may be cunning and crafty, his rebellion against God is utterly doomed. He should have left Jesus alone, but instead, Satan makes his first attack. “And the Tempter came and said to Him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.'” Now, Satan's attack here is a cunning one, and one that we can mishear. We hear “If you are the Son of God” as a call to prove it – like a put up or shut up sort of challenge. Let's see some power, let's see you flex your muscles. No – that's not the point here. We might hear this better this way – Since you are the Son of God. Jesus, you're standing there hungry and suffering. That's just silly – since you are the Son of God, go make some bread. You can, so go do it. And there, my friends, is a temptation that is so familiar to us. Now, none of us are the Word of God incarnate – but how often does temptation come at you this way? You don't deserve this – don't these people know who you are? Don't you know the power that you have, the opportunities that you could take advantage of? Why should you put up with all this stuff – why should you just let this stuff happen? Do you hear the temptation now? If you can, you ought! Jesus – you have power, use it. Use it to do whatever you think is best and make yourself happy. Not do what is right, or good – but just make yourself happy.

Jesus casually bats Satan's temptation aside. But He answered, “It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.'” Around 1500 years earlier, Jesus had spoken these very words through Moses in this very same wilderness to the children of Israel just before they were to enter the land of Canaan. The temptation to serve yourself is not where there is life, Satan. Oh, sure, you tell sinful man that there's all sorts of things that they need to really have life – but there's only one thing that actually gives life. Me. The Word. And that's what I'm doing Satan, I'm here to rescue these people out of sin and death and give them life. And you still don't realize the world of hurt that you're in.

Satan tries again. Then the Devil took Him to the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command His angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands their will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.'” Oh, there's another good one from Satan. Twisting scripture to make it serve yourself – why that's a common one that He lays upon us all the time. You know, where we cherry-pick the Scriptures and try to use God's Word against Him? Where we think we can go before God and act as though He owes us something, trying to catch God in some verbal trap? Oh, we do this one all the time – this is the one that Satan uses all the time to trip up the pious, church going folks.

Again, Jesus casually bats it aside. Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, 'You shall not put the LORD your God to the test.'” Yeah, no – that's not how the Bible works, Satan. That's not how God works. You don't presume upon God, you don't try to force God's hand. You don't need to, for God will give what is good. Okay – pause for a moment. Do you see what is going on? Satan is giving a good temptation here – I mean, this is a strong move... and Jesus just blows it off. Like it's nothing. Do you see how lopsided this is? Jesus isn't hard in thought, trying to find a way out of Satan's traps – Jesus is basically facepalming at how wrong Satan is. And this is a starved, worn out, and tied Jesus. This isn't a fair fight.

One last toss for Satan. Satan knows that he has met his match, more than his match. So what do you do when you are facing an enemy who is more powerful that you? You try to cut a deal. Again the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.” So there's the deal. There's the offer. And understand, my friends, it is a serious offer. There's a reason we just called Satan “This world's prince” in the hymn we just sang. The true reality of sin is this – that we are born in bondage to sin and Satan and death. That's just how it is. That's how every life since Adam had gone – all those genealogies in the Old Testament that you don't like to read – well, part of the point to all of them is that they all died. My wife does stuff on Ancestry.com – and not a one of my Great-great-grandparents is running around alive. That's the power of sin and death and the Devil. And so Satan decides to cut a deal – let's not fight over mankind Jesus, because that will be uncomfortable. You can take them, just let me be in charge. Understand that it is a perfectly valid offer.

So there's Jesus – and there's the offer. He could have you without going to the cross, without suffering and dying, without Good Friday. Such an offer might give us something to ponder – but not Christ Jesus, God of Power and Might! Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God and Him only shall you serve.'” We know how this plays out, Satan. I've already said so. Oh, you'll bruise My heel, but I will crush your head underneath My heal – and I will give My people life everlasting and they shall worship Me alone for all eternity in the new heavens and the new earth that I shall make. You don't get to keep a thing, Satan.

And Satan has no choice but to flee. It's not even close. Jesus at His weakest still has power leaps and bounds beyond Satan, This isn't some epic contest of good versus evil – this is a heavyweight champ boxing an unruly toddler, this is shooting fish in a barrel. This is no contest. And not because Satan is weak, but because Jesus is God Almighty come to win your salvation, and nothing is going to stop Him.

You and I, we feel Satan's temptations all too often. You can I, we give in. You and I, we feel that bondage to sin still, we know that fear of death still, and it drives us. And when we see that, and know that, and it can cause us to despair. With might of ours could naught be done, soon were our loss effected. But for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected. Jesus does with ease what you cannot – and He does so for your good. Nothing is going to stop Jesus from being your Savior. Not even Satan – look, even with one arm and a forty day fast tied behind His back, Jesus doesn't even break a sweat against Satan. And this is what we will see Jesus do this Lent – we will see Him just tear apart the power of sin and death and Satan – it may be hard on Jesus, but it is never in doubt. And Jesus will go to the Cross, and He will die, He will dive on into Satan's kingdom and rip it apart from the inside, and He Himself will care for you, and forgive you and He will give you Bread with His Word to forgive you your sins and Him Himself will raise you up even after you're six feet under the ground. Because He said so. Because it is written. Because He has promised. And we don't need to haggle with Him, we don't need to try to find loopholes to make sure we make it. Christ Jesus has claimed you in the waters of Holy Baptism, and He has given you all that is His, His life and Salvation. And there's not a stinking thing Satan can do about it. The temptation shows you just how weak Satan is compared to Jesus, and Jesus always acts for your good. In the Name of Christ the Crucified +

Quiquagesima Sermon

(A few days late...)

Quiquagesima Sunday – February 22^nd and 23^rd, 2020 – Matthew 18 and 1 Cor 13

In the Name of Christ Jesus the Light of the World +

“But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” Three times. Three times Jesus had told the disciples that He was going to go to Jerusalem and be crucified and die and rise. Three times. Even we today should get the importance of telling someone something three times – it means it's serious. I've told you once, I've told you twice, don't make me tell you again. Well, Jesus did, and the disciples still did not see. It was hidden from them, they couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that Jesus, True God, the Messiah... would die. They couldn't, they wouldn't see the Cross.

Alright, slight confession time. The other week I had a throw away line about that being a big cross up there and not a big lightning bolt – I was hoping it would get a good laugh and it fell flat. Yes, I'll mope even in mid sermon if people don't like my jokes. But I do like having that big old cross up there – and I try to make sure that I point to it at least once a sermon. A dear old elder I knew told me this when I was young – Bill said, “I like the fact that you point to the cross when you preach. It means you pointed to Jesus.” And not just a Jesus of power and might, but a Jesus who goes to the cross. That's part of why I love the Crucifix on the altar. I get to stand and have Christ the Crucified right in front of my face whenever I'm there doing stuff. I love the crosses all over the place in this building – on our hymnals, our pews, our lights. All over. Because we're called to see the cross. Because every sermon preached from this pulpit should proclaim Christ and Him Crucified. Because the danger for the Church in every generation is that we get to a point where we just don't care about seeing Christ and Him Crucified anymore.

The disciples showed that danger, how it played out. They were well meaning, they were devoted – they were disciples. And yet – they understood none of these things. They didn't want the cross, they didn't want a Jesus dying for them. They wanted some other Jesus. They wanted a Jesus calling down fire and brimstone on their enemies. General Patton is supposed to have said, “It's not the job of the soldier to die for his country, it's the job of the soldier to make some other sap die for his country.” That was the sort of Jesus wanted. And they wanted a magic trick, go on, give us another one sort of Jesus. Miracles and awesome stuff. And they wanted coat-tail Jesus, where they'd ride right on up the popularity ladder with Him. You can get pretty high up there when Jesus is your co-pilot, or something like that. And we too can want all those same sorts of things – and to be honest, they aren't necessarily bad to want. I mean, it's not bad to want success, or even to see wickedness punished. These can all be quite good, quite important. But they aren't the center, they aren't the need.

So Jesus tells the disciples that He is going to Jerusalem and that there He will be crucified, and the disciples don't get it. Don't want it. But Jesus starts walking – and He gets to the town of Jericho – on the way to Jerusalem. Remember the story of the Good Samaritan – he's on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. Well, Jesus gets to Jericho, and word gets around, and a blind man hears that Jesus is coming, and He starts calling out to Jesus. Making a racket, a fuss. And people want him to shush, to be silent, but he keeps calling out. And so Jesus stops, and He has the blind man brought to Him, and Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, 'Lord, let me recover my sight.” I don't like that translation – it sounds too formal. Kurie, hina anablepso – Lord, that I would see again. That's what I would like, I would see again. My eyes, they used to work, and then they stopped. They went kaput. They died. Let them see again, let them live again.

It's by no means a bad thing to want healing, to want a miracle. And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” See again – your faith has saved you. Those eyes that had died live again, they see again, because I am here to save, to raise to the dead, to restore and fix and make things new again. That's what I'm going to Jerusalem to do. That's what it all points to, that's been the point and purpose of every healing, of every teaching, of every demonstration of power. Death shall be undone and give way to resurrection. And not just for a day on a road passing through Jericho – Jesus will go to Jerusalem and die and rise so that the words of Job will be true – I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold. You'll see today, blind beggar – and you'll see Jesus again even after you have died, because this Jesus who goes to the Cross and died for you and rises for you is going to raise to you new life where you will die no more, and your eyes will die no more, and things will not fall apart because sin will have been destroyed and death will have been undone and your Savior will have made all things new.

That's where we're going. That's what God is doing. He is setting up and preparing the New Heavens and the New Earth, the life of the world to come – but it's doesn't happen without the Cross. It can't happen without the Cross. Death must be destroyed. Sin must be atoned for and dealt with. The Law must be fulfilled – and the Law says that the sinner must die, that the wages of sin is death – and so He who knew no sin, the spotless Lamb of God, must become sin for us. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Worker must take up the wage that we could not bear apart from Him. The Seed must fall into the earth and die, so that it will not remain alone but yield a hundredfold. It all hinges, it all starts, it all hangs there – Christ and Him Crucified.

That, Christ Crucified is love. To give, to serve another. That is love. And if we lose the Cross, if we lose Jesus loving us and giving us forgiveness and life and salvation – we are nothing. It doesn't matter how well we talk or how witty we are, it doesn't matter how much we know, or how powerful we are – it doesn't matter how generous we are or the sacrifices we make. If we are any of these things, all of these things, “but have not love, I gain nothing. Without the Cross, without Jesus dying and rising, without Jesus forgiving us and promising to raise us, we gain nothing.

The Cross, Christ Crucified for you is how the Scriptures define love. For God so loved the world – this is how God loved the world – that He gave His only Son – gave, upon the Cross, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Cross is love. I actually like Romans 5:8 a bit better than John 3:16 – But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's love. Christ Crucified is patient and kind, Christ crucified does not envy or boast, Christ Crucified is not arrogant or rude – even to the mockers, even to the soldiers crucifying Him. Christ Crucified does not insist on His own way – not My will but Thine be done. Christ Crucified is nor irritable or resentful, nor does He rejoice at wronging, but rejoices with the truth – for He is the way, the truth, and the life – and this Cross is the way that you have life. Christ Crucified bears all things for you, He believes all things for you, hopes all things for you, endures even the shame of the Cross for you.

And you will be tempted, my friends, to not want this love. To want power or wealth or fame or whatever more than this Jesus dying and rising sort of love. You'll be tempted to redefine love into all sorts of things – pleasures, wish fulfillment, approval – all the sorts of thing that a world without Jesus flails about after. There will be times when you are more worried about what other people are getting rather than the love that Christ Jesus shows you. And there will be times where you see, where you know your need for Christ intensely and powerfully – normally moments of tragedy and pain and loss. Like the blind man being wanting to see again. Then you see love, the love that is Christ better. But there's something even more than that. There will come the time when you are breathing your last, when you close your eyes and are pretty sure they might not open again. And the temptation, the lie of Satan will be to say that this is it, this is all she wrote. No – for Christ the Crucified is love – and He Himself gave up His Spirit and Jesus breathed His last, precisely for that day, that moment for you. And He rose so that you would rise, see again, breath again, live again – eternally with Him.

That's the point. That's the faith we confess – the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. That's the point of Baptism. May God our Father who has begotten you of water and the word keep you in your baptismal grace unto life everlasting. That's why we have the Supper. Now may the true Body and Blood of Christ Jesus – the very Body that died and rose, the blood shed for you upon the cross – strengthen and keep you in the one true faith until the life of the world to come. Jesus loves you, and He gives Himself to you – even when you do not see, even when you do not fully understand. Jesus comes to you, and He makes you to see again, to live again – and He shall do so forever. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known. This is Christ's love for you. This is what He makes your darkened and blinded eyes to see. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

Septuagesima 2020

Septuagesima Sunday – Matthew 20:1-16 – February 8^th and 9^th, 2020

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

I am an unabashed fan of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special – and not just for the fact that it's about the one time a year Scripture actually gets read on TV. No, I actually like how dark and cutting some of the humor is. And my favorite part is where Sally has Charlie write out her Christmas Letter and asks Santa to send her tens and twenties – fifties and hundreds today. And when Charlie Brown gives his “good grief” Sally says, “All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.” That is fantastic social commentary, and it should remind us today that the more things change, the more they stay the same – all I want is what is coming to me, all I want is my “fair” share.

One could easily imagine the workers in the vineyard, the ones who had come early in the morning and had worked all day saying the same thing. There they were, and they saw the Vineyard owner toss out money to these Johnny come latelies – these lazy bums who had only worked half a day, or barely an hour. Surely, surely when we who have worked the hardest get paid, we will get a just reward! And on receiving [a denarius] they grumbled at the master of the house saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” Where's the money? Pony up the cash? Deniarii in at least 2 and 3s! All we want is what we have coming to us! All we want is our fair share. The story of the workers in the Vineyard is such an interesting story because on the face of it, it does seem quite unfair. We like people to get what they work for. We don't like people to be simply given something when we have to work for it – whether the narrative is how you hate the lazy rich who are just given everything by their parents and never have to work or whether the narrative is grousing at the lazy poor who just get government handouts – even to this day someone getting something for free when we have worked for it always irritates us.

So listen careful when I say this. If you start to think in any what that your salvation is by works, if you think your relationship with God is based upon all that you have done for Him, you will be eternally angry and irate, bitter and mad. Simple as that.

Consider again the story. At first glance we can understand why the laborers who worked all day might be angry and annoyed – why they are so upset at the end of the day. But that happens only when they and we don't understand, don't remember where they were at the beginning of the day. For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. We hear that and we can just skim on by it, but this is important. Where are the laborers when we start? What's the situation of the laborers before we come across them? They are unemployed. In a day and age when there are no social agencies, when there is no unemployment insurance, when the Law is “If a man does not work, then he shall not eat.” And these laborers, whom the master finds, are people who have no job. Ponder that – they are there, standing, and they literally do not know where their next meal will come from. That's their situation. They wake up and don't know if they will be able to buy bread for their family. And frankly, there's every reason to think that they might not be able to – but then the master comes. Here, come to my vineyard, and I'll give you a good salary – a Denarius – a living wage! He doesn't undercut their pay, he doesn't lowball them – he doesn't minimum wage them, or give them a bit of cash all off the books like migrant workers. This is solid, like a union job falling into their laps. And they were happy – as they ought to have been – this is Kingdom of Heaven stuff, this is how things ought to be.

At that point they knew how generous the master was – because he dealt with them generously in hiring them. No shenanigans, no funny business – just dealing with them generously straight from go. And unsurprisingly, the master continues to be generous. He hires more and more workers throughout the day – finds more and more people who are becoming ever increasingly desperate and despondent, who see more and more doom and gloom and hunger and poverty enveloping them, and over and over the master calls them – here, come, I'll give you what is right. And he does – he takes care of all of them. Everyone gets treated well – a Denarius – a full wage, enough for life and the joys and comforts there of.

But by the end of the day, some of the workers aren't seeing the masters' generosity towards them anymore. Instead, they only see how others took short cuts, got off easy. I had to sweat it out – how come they get the same as me? Greed and envy cloud everything, and their joy and peace is turned to anger and discontent. But what had changed? The master hadn't changed – he was still his same old generous self. Their situation hadn't changed – they got exactly as they were promised – the good that they were promised. No, the only thing that had changed was their idea of what was “fair” - of what they should have coming to them. They forgot that when they woke up that morning it would have been fair for them to go hungry, that poverty and death was what they had coming to them, all except for the fact that this master went out and found them and called them to the vineyard. They forgot, and so they were miserable.

The Kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of grace – that is, it is a kingdom of God's free forgiveness and favor, given not because of what we do or will do but simply because it is God's good and gracious will to redeem sinful man. And that's what we are – sinful men and women – and we must remember that by rights, our “fair share” is death and hell. But to see that we do not get death and hell as our only share, Christ Jesus comes, God Himself becomes man, and He Himself goes to the Cross – He bears the true burden of the day, the true scorching heat in our place so that we do not have to – and He rises, and in His grace and mercy, by the Gospel He gives us life eternal and salvation. He gives it to us – to some of us who have been faithful since childhood, to some of us who have often wandered off but have been called back, to some of us who lived idle lives not knowing Christ until lately – but to all of us the same, incredible gift of life and salvation.

This is wondrous and profound and beautiful. Here we have a congregation – people from various walks of life with different stories, all of whom God has called into His kingdom, and here we receive the same forgiveness and life in Christ. I speak the same absolution to you all, the same Scriptures are read to you, the same sermon is proclaimed to you – the same Holy Supper for you – the same blessing upon you. And we are brought to stand before God forgiven and righteous in Christ and prepared for life everlasting. But know that you will be tempted to despise this. That Satan wants you to hate this. That your sinful flesh wants to fight against this. Oh, it's nice that I get forgiveness – but how can so-and-so just get forgiveness. Why, I'm surprised that lightning doesn't strike them. There's a reason there's a big giant Cross on that wall and not a big giant lightning bolt. We all live under the Cross, all equally forgiven.

But in somethings we are not equal. Not all have the same life, the same story of how God called us here. We don't all have the same talents or gifts or opportunities. We don't all have the same burdens and temptations. We don't all have the same failures, and frankly we don't all have the same opportunity to fail. And so how do we see those differences? Do we see them in light of God's generosity – see how gracious God is in how He has richly blessed my neighbor – see how generous God is in how He has kept me from that harm, that danger – see how generous God is in that He has rescued that person from that trial. Or do we see these differences sinfully with a wicked and jealous eye – why don't I have what they have, why are they here when they've failed so and I haven't, why can't everything just be my way? One way of looking and seeing is by faith, and there is joy and wonder, and always more of it. The other way is of sin and death, and then there is no end to your discontent and sourness. If you start to think in any what that your salvation is by works, if you think your relationship with God is based upon all that you have done for Him, you will be eternally angry and irate, bitter and mad. Simple as that.

Yet once again, this day, the Master calls us unworthy sinners into His Kingdom, and He gives us precisely what He has promised us. He Himself will come and be our God, be with us. He will treat us as His children and the heirs that He has declared us to be in Holy Baptism, and He will give us His rich feast – now, this day as well as eternally in the life of the world to come. And this is for you. This is His generous goodness for you. God grant us His Spirit to strengthen our faith so that we receive it as such. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

Presentation of Our Lord

Presentation of our Lord – February 1^st and 2^nd, 2020 – Luke 2:22-33

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

And I bet you didn't know that Groundhog's Day was a Church holiday. It is – the Presentation of our LORD – 40 days after Christmas, when Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple to offer the sacrifice for a first born son – two turtledoves. The Groundhog stuff isn't in the bible – that's just crazy German folklore, but this date remembers the first time Jesus, our true High Priest, entered the temple to be our Savior.

But when He gets to the temple, before the sacrifice, something happens – a beautiful, wonderful event – so wonderful and beautiful that we will sing it again today in just a few moments. There was an old man named Simeon, an old fellow who lived in Jerusalem. And somehow the Holy Spirit had revealed to this pious old man that he would not die, he would not see death until he saw the promised Messiah – the Messiah who would be the consolation of Israel. Can you think what it would be like? Oh, there is old, faithful Simeon, just waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the Messiah. Would that we believed the Word as he did and show such diligence as he did! But at any rate, as Jesus and Mary and Joseph are at the temple, Simeon comes up, and he sees Jesus, he sees this Child – and he takes Him up in his old aged arms, takes Him out of Mary’s hands into his own and starts giving thanks to God, blesses God, extols God and sings His praises – uses words which are familiar to us all – Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your Word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation that You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Your people Israel. We know these words – they are the Nunc Dimittis – Latin for “Now Let Depart” the first phrase of this in Latin. We sing them, even to this day after communion.

Let’s ponder them today, for they teach us much, and we learn much from them. Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your Word. Such an interesting reaction. I can die now. That’s what he’s saying – when he uses the phrase “depart in peace” he’s not hoping for short lines at the airport for his trip to Florida – Simeon is saying, “Alright Lord, I can die now – You can take me.” Is that not a marvelous faith, a wonder to think on and behold? To be that confident, to be that sure – I can die now. That is a wonderful gift – Simeon has no more fear. Now, the world likes to keep us full of doubt, full of fear – oh no, what will the future hold. The world thrives on fear, fear sells. Fear keeps you on the edge of your seat. Fear keeps you in bondage. Sadly, politics this election year will probably just end up being competing ways of spinning fear. Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your Word. For Simeon, there is no fear – and why? According to Your Word. Simeon has heard the Word, and Simeon believes. Because Simeon believes the Word, trusts that God will be true and will provide Salvation, indeed, Simeon now holds salvation in his hands – what is there for Simeon to fear? Eh, I can die now, the grave holds no more fear for me – I hold the One who will call me forth from the grave. This is the peace that Christ gives, this is the peace and release from fear that is ours – that we know we have and receive every time we receive our Lord’s Supper. Think on this – you have communed – Christ Jesus has given you His own Body and Blood for your forgiveness – what else is there to fear? What tops that, what is bigger or more powerful than Christ Himself given for you? Like Simeon, you too see and hold and indeed even taste your salvation, and are bold like him. You are right to sing his words, make them your own as well – because you have what he had – you likewise trust in the Word. This is the peace of the Lord that is with you always, because in Him you have an eternal peace, and peace that nothing in this world can take away.

Simeon’s song continues – For my eyes have seen Your salvation, that You have prepared in the presence of all peoples. We know the old adage – seeing is believing. We can hear things, even from good, reliable sources – and we can even know that something is true – but until we see it for ourselves it doesn’t quite hit home. Our eyes are a useful tool – a wonderful gift given to us by God, even if now a days our eyes can all too often be wandering eyes, looking where they ought not, casting covetous glances all around. Old Simeon knew that the Lord’s Word was true – that when the Lord spoke it was as good as done, you can take it to the bank. And Simeon believed – and yet, when this old man sees the Christ Child, he breaks forth into joyous song. He has seen it – He has held the Christ Child in his own hands – he knows it to be true.

Simeon’s response doesn’t surprise God – because God knows how Simeon, how we, how our minds work. We like having tangible things to hold on to – and God deals with us in this way. Think on the Old Testament. God would give the children of Abraham, the children of Israel signs of His covenant. There was the sign of Circumcision – think on how tangible a sign that was – proof that you were part of God’s salvation. You had Passover – you had the glory of the Lord in the pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire. God gave the people of the Old Testament things to hold onto, things to grasp.

And now, even today, He prepares salvation in the face of all people in a way that we can grasp. Consider your baptism. We know what it is – it is not plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word – the old comforting words of the Catechism. Have you ever though how kind and loving God is just in how Baptism works? God takes His Word and attaches it, combines it with something that we can see and touch – water. And since those waters of Holy Baptism have been applied to us, we know that God’s Word has been forever well and truly applied to us. Let doubt be done away with, and as for Satan with his accusations that God wouldn’t love one as you, he can take a long walk off of a short pier, for you are baptized, and you have the physical proof that God loves you. It is a historical fact, you are baptized. Period.

Same wonder with the Supper. It is the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and the wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and drink. Just as Simeon held in his hands the Body of his Savior, the Body of his God made flesh – so shall you in the gift of Holy Communion. What David prophesied in the 34^th Psalm you will receive today – Taste and see that the Lord is Good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. Christ Jesus Himself will give you salvation, the highest refuge, in His Supper. Again, something tangible, something that we can wrap not just our minds but our hands around – something that we can taste, can smell, can see – God overwhelms us with His love and forgiveness through all our senses – so that we see and taste and smell and believe.

Simeon’s song concludes A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Your people Israel. And with Christ, the old testament came to a close. Israel’s job was done, they had produced the Messiah. No longer would they need to be separated off from the other peoples of the world – God tells Peter he can eat pig now, Paul shows that the ceremonies of the law aren’t required. The whole reason for all these things – the dietary laws, the sacrifices, was so that the people of Israel would be separate and distinct from the rest of the world – they would be God’s reminder to all people that He would send a Messiah, a Savior. The people of Nineveh knew this – they repented of their sin and looked to God. The wise men from the East knew that God was sending a king – but they didn’t quite know how or who. God fearing Gentiles from all over knew that God was going to act in and through the people of Israel – and now that is fully revealed. Behold Christ, the Savior of the Nations. Behold Jesus, the Lord is Salvation for all. And Israel is glorified in Him. Luther in the 1520s writes a book entitled “That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew” – and in this he points out that God did not choose to be born of 'pigheaded, crude, drunken Germans' – but He deigned to be born of a Jewish mother – indeed, a glory for that line and heritage and race that no other can claim. Behold, this little Jewish Boy is the God and Creator of all things – the God and Creator who restores His Creation and brings the gifts of heaven to earth.

This is the Child the Simeon holds in his arms, this is the child who grows and goes to the Cross and suffers and dies and rises again to win us salvation. This is the very Body that our Lord gives to us this day for forgiveness. With this in mind, seeing this, we rejoice with Simeon, and with all the saints of every age who are with the Lord now, this day. This is the salvation Christ Jesus has won, and He brings it here to you. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World. Amen.

Epiphany 3 Sermon

Epiphany 3 – January 25^th adn 26^th, 2020 – Matthew 8:1-13

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

So, here we are, in the midst of the season of Epiphany, and we have seen that Jesus is the promised King of the Jews, True God come to earth. This True God is also True Man, who takes His place with sinful man in baptism, who joins in with us in our lives and blesses us and restores us. We have seen that this Jesus is True God, that He is the Messiah who is come to bring restoration and salvation... but to whom? Who does this Christ Jesus come to save? This is a big question. You realize that even with the wise men, we see Jesus there with His family. Last week, at the wedding of Cana - that was probably the wedding of a sibling or a cousin. Has He only come just for His blood kin, His close family, and the rest of the world gets held at arms length, at best only second class servants bringing Him gifts? Not quite, as we see in our Gospel today.

So today we have two healings. First, we see a leper who kneels before Him saying, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean ." And Jesus touches him and says, "I will; be clean." The second healing happens when a Centurion comes forward and says, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly." And when Jesus offers to come, this Centurion says, "Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed." And, of course, the servant is healed. So here we see two people who make requests of Christ - a leper and a Centurion. Dear friends, you could not find two more different, more hated people living in Judea. Consider the first - a leper, the lowest of the low. To be a leper was to be an outcast, to be outside of society, where even the criminals and the robbers would have scorned and despised you. And then you have the Centurion - a gentile, a foreigner, a stranger. And not only that - one with power. A Centurion was an officer over 100 men, probably the highest ranking Roman official there - a man of wealth who has servants. Opposite ends of the spectrum, aren't they? The local but outcast, the foreign and powerful but despised. And yet, when they ask, they receive – indeed, Christ Jesus gladly intervenes personally in their lives.

If you were a good Jewish person of the day, you wouldn't have expected the Messiah to consort with either of these men. If a leper came up to a Pharisee in those days, the Pharisee would have recoiled in horror. Instead, Jesus reaches out and touches the man, healing him. You would never touch a leper - it defiled you - yet Jesus does. If a Centurion came up to a Pharisee, the Pharisee would be curt but polite at best, do whatever business had to be done and then move on. And yet, Christ offers to enter this Centurion's home. You didn't enter their house, who knows what defilements that house would hold, there might be pig's blood or something even worse. And yet Christ hears the pleas of this Centurion, and He even offers to enter the man's house! So, what does this mean, what does this teach us, what does this reveal to us about Christ? Christ Jesus has come to save the world, to save all sorts and kinds of people, and not just the people that we might expect.

We say the words often - we say, "For God so loved the world", we'll talk about Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the Sin of the World (we say that one several times in the service). We know Galatians, for their is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female - all are one in Christ. Yet, let us be honest. How often do we fall back into the worldly practice of judging, of categorizing, of thinking where someone "belongs"? There are people who if they walked into this Church seeking Christ's forgiveness and mercy, well, our first reaction would be to draw back with a raised eyebrow. One of the things that we know, but is so hard to put into practice, is the truth that God desires all people, that He came for everyone. We know this - but too often we listen to our flesh. There are individuals that we just don't like, or there are stereotypes or attributes that we fear, and this can tempt us to cut these people off, to cease showing them love. We must fight against this, my friends, we must fight against focusing our eyes upon our differences or upon the things we don't like - instead, we must focus our eyes upon Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the entire world.

Why? Why should we look to Christ? Why should our eyes be focused upon Him instead of having our eyes focused on and by the world, by those divisive all around tribal ways of thinking? Why should we repent of our judgmental thinking or thoughts that are shaped by earthly power? Because the sinful thoughts and dreams of man never really pan out, never satisfy. Because the world is broken, is fallen, and as such it tries to drag us down along with it, to twist our thoughts and bring us ruin and despair. Consider the text. A man had leprosy, and according to the world there was nothing to be done but to banish him and let him die. Another man was paralyzed, and to the thinking of the world - that's it, that's all she wrote. The world often thinks this way, fatalistically with doom and gloom, but you have been given ears to hear, you have been given the gift of faith in Christ Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit you know that Christ Jesus, your Lord has come into this fallen world to defeat sin and death with His death upon the Cross. And so eager is Christ to restore this Creation that as He goes to the Cross, He fixes things along the way. The leper cries out, and Christ heals. The Centurion prays, and Christ answers. Christ comes and gives small, temporary restorations to His creation, even as we all await the true restoration of the last day, when we will rise as He has risen, live never more to die, never more to even worry about death. The world says, "You have to do precisely as I say otherwise we are all going to live horrible lives and lose everything!” (enjoy the election campaigns, people) - whereas faith says, "Behold Christ, and know that because of Him that even though you die, yet you shall live."

And my dear friends, do not fall prey to the false teachers who want to take this promise of Christ and then just twist it back to vain, worldly goods. Don't give heed to the faith healers or the prosperity preachers, for all they do is peddle the same rotten wares of the world, just with a veneer of artificial Jesus flavoring slathered upon them. Place your trust in Christ, pray "Thy will be done" - and if He gives you in this life better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness or health, so be it... you know what His will for you for all eternity is. He has paid the penalty for your sin and that because of Him you are forgiven. Because of Him you will receive the full restoration in the life of the world to come. It matters not what you face in this life, it matters not what people think of you, or how even how they categorize you and judge you, for Christ Jesus has suffered and died and risen again for you. This is where our focus is, and remembering Christ, hearing His promises, we are given strength to endure whatever we face in this life.

I would have us note one more thing. With both these healings, Christ accomplishes restoration by His Word. Consider the leper. Christ looks at him and says, "I will, be clean." When He heals the servant of the Centurion, He does so saying, "Go; let it be done for you as you have believed." The Word does it - and it really should stand out by how Christ speaks - "be clean, let it be done." Does that sound familiar? "Let there be light"? The Word of God is creative, it is restorative, it makes things come into being and restores them to the way they should have been and would have been had it not been for the fall. The Word of God, Christ Jesus Himself, fixes things by proclaiming the Word. And we see this same thing happen in the Church in our Sacraments. Christ Jesus takes water and the Word and washes us in Holy Baptism and says, "Be clean, all your sins are forgiven." Christ Jesus calls us to His altar, where we believe that He comes to us to give us not a mere symbol but His own true Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sins, and He says to us, "let it be done for you as you have believed." Christ Jesus comes, He brings His own creative Word to us, and because He has spoken to us, because the Holy Spirit has called us through the Gospel and enlightened and sanctified us, we know that we have forgiveness and life in Him. And the wonderful thing is that this Word cannot be taken from you, it can not be stolen from you – Christ Jesus has given Himself to you, made you His temple, and thus His salvation is yours. His victory for you is complete.

So, what do we see and learn today? That Christ has come for all people - that not just His blood relatives are to be saved, but that "I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven". Moreover, we know that He means us, for like so many from around the world we have been brought into His true family, for He is our brother and we have received the adpotion as sons in Holy Baptism. We kneel at table with Him, we share in His Supper. And as He lives, so shall we live too. God is with us, with us to forgive and restore us, to lighten the darkness of the this fallen world with His love. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

Epiphany 2 Sermon

Epiphany 2 – John 2 (and Genesis 2) – January 18^th and 19^th, 2020

In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +

The Wedding at Cana, and Jesus's sign performed there, reminds us of a simple yet rather profound truth – if you want to understand who God is, you need to understand weddings. I mean, really – the Scriptures are replete with wedding imagery – think of the parables where the Kingdom of God is compared to a wedding – the Bible ends with eternal life being compared to a wedding – the Church in both Old and New Testaments is depicted as God's bride. I'll even argue that creation in Genesis is really the story of a wedding, the first wedding. Genesis 1 tells the story of God setting up the wedding, Genesis 2 tells the story of the wedding from Adam's perspective, waiting for his wife. Weddings all over the place.

And today we do not understand weddings. We don't. I hesitate to do this, but I need to address some of the myriad ways that society doesn't understand weddings today. And I'm not going to talk mainly about same sex marriages – we know that God created marriage to be one man, one woman. But our society's misunderstanding of weddings started long before just a decade ago. Consider – if I were to ask folks why two people should get married, what answers might I get? “Because they love each other.” Blech. Marriage isn't supposed to be about an emotion, no matter how wondrous or lovely that emotion is. I hope all of you who are married enjoy and are attracted to your spouse – but that's not what marriage is. Simple emotions, especially ones based upon physical attraction don't last. And frankly, in a marriage, there are going to be plenty of other emotions involved. When I leave dirty dishes out and my wife finds them, I don't expect “love” to be the emotion to best describe her feelings at that point. And yet, we speak of marriage being primarily about love in society – and that leads to so many marriages falling apart. Other emotions steal love's thunder, or eyes wander a bit. We can lament “the thrill is gone” - but if you think marriage is supposed to be based upon the thrill of young love, well, what did you expect?

And of course, there are times we are tempted to think of weddings primarily as a big fancy shindig, full of dress-up and expensive costumes. Don't get me wrong, I love a good party – and as it should be clear from our Gospel lesson, Jesus loves a good party too, and when it's a Jesus party, the party don't stop. And we'll talk about the honeymoon trips, which again are a fantastic thing – I can talk your head off about Ireland as Celia and I honeymooned there – but the party and the dresses and the trips – those aren't what make a marriage – they aren't the typical reality. Our wedding parties and trips today tend to be utterly unrealistic – they tend to be fairy tales – expensive fairy tales, sort of disconnected from real life. This wedding at Cana – it was at one of family member's house – and the family ran the food – that's why Jesus and His mom are running around in back by the kitchen – they're running the kitchen for a cousin's wedding. It was realistic – not the pretend extravaganzas that society says that we should have today. Because the point of a wedding isn't to pretend she's a princess and he's prince charming and spend like it either.

So what's the point of a wedding? Genesis 2:18 is one of the most important verses of the bible, if you want to understand how things work. Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” In all of God's wondrous creation, even before the fall, God sees Adam by himself and says, “This isn't good. Adam needs someone else he needs a helper.” And note there, that word “Helper” isn't dismissive – it is from the word that means strength, protection, support. It's a great creation that God has made, but it's too much for one alone, I will make for Adam a support, a companion, one fit for him and then these two will have all of creation to enjoy and work in together. And so God throws a wedding. Adam sleeps, God pulls out a rib, fashions Eve – Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh - “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Congratulations – man and wife – what God has joined together let not man put asunder.

And it's good, and God decides to take a walk away from the reception for a bit, and when He comes back, everything is messed up. Imagine you were at a wedding reception today, and everything is going wonderfully, and you step out for a moment, visit the rest room, and when you come back there's screaming and shouting and crying and the two families have gotten into fist fights. That's Genesis 3. That's Jesus before He is born of Mary walking back on in and seeing all hell breaking loose in His creation. Adam, Eve – what's going on – you were fine just a bit ago. And Jesus knows – sin has broken out. And these two people that He had created and put together are at each other's throat.

And let's face it – since that first wedding in the garden – that's a good description of how marriages go. People who are supposed to support each other often annoying the tar out of each other, or working against each other, hurting each other. A pastor friend of mine likes to describe marriage as “mutual hostility towards each other interrupted by moments of tenderness.” Thus the reality of sin in the world. And thus also part of why the younger folk aren't getting married as much any more. They see the fighting, the hostility of the generations before them – the divorce, the bitterness – and they say that's not for them. Or this – they think, “I can't get married yet, because I don't have this set up, or I haven't done that yet. Let me buy a house first, get more established in my job...” Or in other words, let me make sure I can do just fine completely on my own before I partner up – that way I know I'll be fine if I have to kick some lousy partner to the curb. And it's sad and depressing and utterly unromantic – but it is honest about the terrible impact of sin in people's lives. And frankly, too often we in the Church haven't been honest about sin, about our own sin and how it affects us, and we hide it, we pretend it isn't there, and stress and anger and resentment grow and grow while we pretend everything is pious and holy and keep up the smiling face, all while things break apart. Because that's what sin does – it drives people apart.

And this is what God sees. Sin driving people apart – even the couples He specifically put together, to be a family, to build, to be His instruments of creation. And I don't have to tell you, there's not a family here that isn't touched by divorce and things breaking, and it's horrible and wretched and tragic. And that is why Jesus becomes man. There's only going to be one way to fix things, to stop this, to put things right – and that is by forgiveness. That is by Christ Jesus being the Lamb of God and taking up the sin of the world and taking it to the cross and destroying sin and death there. And one day, after He had come in the flesh, Jesus was there at a wedding – cousin of His most likely – and there Jesus is, true God and true Man – and think of what a fully mixed bag Jesus would see as He looks at that wedding. The joy, the blessing that it is, but also the faults, the failures, the hardships so unnecessary these two would unleash upon each other. And while He's looking His mother walks up to Him and says, “They have no wine.” Sin brought about lack and hardship – never would have run out of anything in the Garden, but after Genesis 3 there is often lack and hardship.

And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” Mary saw a lack of wine, a party cut sadly short. Jesus saw something bigger – He saw sin messing with His creation, with His people – and no Mom, it's not time yet for Me to destroy sin upon the Cross – that hour has not yet come. But Mary knows her boy – you don't have to fix all sin yet – servants just do what He says.

And then, the water becomes wine. Without any show, without any fuss. Jesus decides to let the party go on. Even in the midst of sorrow and sin and our own guilt and shame, Jesus determines to increase our rejoicing and celebration and pour out every blessing. Give us our daily bread, our daily wine. And the wine is strong – uncut – so strong that the master of the feast is surprised. And there, Jesus' disciples, watching this – they get a glimpse, they get a sign of who Jesus is. The Party goes on – and the two shall be together and they will enjoy being together – especially this afternoon.

Jesus' goal is to put people together – not just as spouses, but think of all the other various relationships He gives us – parents, children, neighbors, coworkers, friends, a congregation. And He created all of this to be nothing but blessing for you. But sin pulls these relationships apart. Sin and the fear of consequences and death pull us away from the very God who would give us these blessings. And so, to fix this, to see that you get your joy and celebration and relationships that will not end – Christ Jesus goes to the Cross, He dies, He rises to fix things. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. In Baptism, He restores you to the family of God – you are once again a child of God and things are good. He feeds you His Supper so that you are strengthened, so that being forgiven you forgive those who trespass against you. Because that's how sin is fought here and now, in our relationships – we live in Christ's forgiveness, and with that forgiveness we are reconciled to each other, even after we have sinned against each other. And Jesus gives you His love, His forgiveness over and over so that you will endure even until the Last Day when you are raised – and then you'll see it. Revelation 21 - And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Forgiveness and Reconciliation and Joy. Because of Christ Jesus, who has called you to be His own – this is what you will see. Understand who God truly is – understand His gift, His true wedding for you. In the Name of Christ Jesus, the Light of the World +