All Saints' Sermon (to be Observed)

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    So what is Jesus doing with the Beatitudes here in our Gospel this evening/morning? I mean, Jesus is starting the famous Sermon on the Mount – why start here? Why start with the Beatitudes? What is Jesus doing here? And why do we bring this up on All Saints' Day – the day of the Church Year where we remember those Christians who have died in the faith before us, whose number we one day will eventually join? What's the point? Well, there's a common theme running through all the beatitudes – “Blessed are”. 9 times, in 9 places and ways, Jesus points out people who are blessed, that you are blessed. And Jesus has to do that for a simple reason – you don't realize how blessed you are.

    What do you think of first and foremost if I say, “blessed”? What pops into your mind? Probably one of the varied good things in your life that you enjoy, that you are thankful for – that you expect me to bring up in a few weeks come Thanksgiving. We equate “blessing” with “good right now.” I had one dear old lady back in Oklahoma, who if you asked how she was doing would all ways, “I'm blessed.” Never, “I'm good” - always “Blessed.” And yet, the situations in the Beatitudes don't seem to mesh with our normal depiction of being blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Um, did any of you think, “Man, I'm so fortunate that I'm down trodden and poor in Spirit. Man, I'm so blessed that I'm in mourning right now.” That's not what any of us think of when we think of what it is to be blessed.

    And hence, Jesus makes several wild assertions in these 9 beatitudes. Over and over, in the face of all sorts of lousy situations Jesus says, “No, even if you are poor in spirit, even if you mourn – you are in fact, in truth, blessed.” Because the issue at hand is we don't see everything. We don't see, not the big picture, but rather we don't see the full picture. We don't see and understand the Spiritual and Eternal realities all around us. Consider – Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So, let's say you are poor in spirit, that life has got you down for whatever reason – whatever very real reason. There's lots of things that are heavy, that weigh upon us. And we can see them easily. Jesus says to you that nonetheless the kingdom of heaven is yours. And that's what we can forget in the moment, what we fail to see. We can see easily the things that crush us; we can overlook the kingdom of heaven. Right now, this moment, the Kingdom of Heaven is yours. You are a baptized child of God, forgiven, redeemed, bound for everlasting life. Right here, around you is all the host of heaven (including the names I'll be reading off in a few minutes). We claim this all the time – therefore WITH angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven WE laud and magnify You. OUR Father. But we forget it, we don't see it, we overlook it. So Jesus tells us again – it's good, you're good. The kingdom of heaven is yours.

    But I'm mourning, Jesus. Well, of course you are – you're in the sinful world surrounded by death. Even Jesus weeps when Lazarus dies. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. You know how Jesus was comforted when Lazarus died? Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. You know what is Jesus' plan is to be comforted over all the deaths of His people who have died? To raise them from the dead. All these names – Jesus is going to raise them. You yourself, Jesus is going to raise you from the dead. It's good, you're good, because of Jesus.

    But there's so many fights swirling around me, Jesus – and I know I shouldn't dive in, and I feel pathetic when I don't, but if I jump in and try to put someone in their place I just get dumped on, and people are nasty, and I can't fight back with their same nastiness, and it's lousy. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Jesus gets it. How often does Jesus get dumped on, how often does Jesus just take it? And while we can't always fight back well or have to worry about repercussions – Jesus can call on legions of angels. He wouldn't have to worry about any blacklash. Yet – Jesus was meek – that is, inclined to simply put up with stuff instead of making the fight worse. That's what it is to be meek. And you can be meek. You don't have to fight, you don't have to win everything for yourself. Why? Because you're already going to inherit everything. Jesus won you salvation by His meekness, by going to the Cross and dying meekly – and He rose victorious, and you know what? When He raises you from the dead, He's going to just up and give you a new heavens and a new earth. Jesus will fix it – you don't have to. You might think you do, that might be what you see, but Jesus reminds you here that because of Him you're already blessed. It's good, you're good – Jesus has it in the bag for you.

    Do you see the pattern? We get caught up in the problems, we see sin breaking out in the world, in ourselves. We see the consequences, dire and terrible, falling out all around us. And they are serious, and they are big, and they are nasty. But Jesus says to you that they aren't the whole picture. There's more going on that you might be missing, that you might not be seeing. Don't forget that Jesus is at work, doing things, fixing things, forgiving, saving you – and in Jesus it's all in the bag. Why? Well – Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Oh, Jesus wants righteousness, and He wants it a plenty – and He came to be righteous for you. Jesus not only takes away your sin, not only forgives you, but He gives you His righteousness, He makes you to hunger for it and He fills you with His righteousness – He fills you with righteousness by His Word and Spirit and then works in you and through you and for you... and He forgives you again and fills you again, and will do so until you are eternally satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Jesus gathers you here to His house of mercy, over and against all the sin and junk in the world, because you are His people of mercy and forgiveness – and indeed here the Lord has mercy upon you. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Oh, are your hearts not pure – well, that's why Jesus forgives you, that's why He speaks His Word you, that's why He proclaims these beatitudes – because He actually wants you to see Him, to be with Him for all eternity. And while we struggle now, there's a whole host who see Jesus face to face right now because Jesus has forgiven and purified them.

    Do you see, O Baptized child of God? Do you remember again? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. There, at the font, at your baptism, God made peace with you. The rebellion of sin and death – the Triune God said it was over. This isn't just a sinful rebel, this is My baptized child – and the Peace of the Lord be with you always. And as you are a child of God now, you are set upon a path of making peace – of being a forgiver, of being one who takes the peace that Jesus has won and given to you and taking it and giving it to other people. I forgive you in the name of Christ the Crucified. He has died and risen for you. That's not only the message you hear, that's the message you proclaim and thus make peace.

    Hold up, hold up, hold up. Are you sure about that Pastor? Because if I go tell people they are forgiven because Jesus died for their sin, some might like it... but a whole heap of people are going to get really ticked off. Yeah, so what, Peacemaker child of God? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Sinners in a sinful world are going to be mad at you for something. Haters are gonna hate. Might as well have them hate you for righteousness' sake, might as well let them be mad because you proclaim that Jesus has died and risen and all the sins of the world are forgiven. Their rage can't do a cotton picking thing to you, because heaven is yours right now. So yes, Jesus is in fact right when He says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” The world can rage and complain and be all bitter and nasty. And I mean that seriously – wretched, horrible things get unleashed. Doesn't change the fact that Jesus died and rose for you. Doesn't change the fact that God Himself is present here today for you – doesn't change the fact that Jesus brings with Him all of heaven and we join in with all the Saints as we worship today. And your reward, the stuff that Jesus gives you in heaven in great. You get it now, in fact. Forgiveness. Christ's Body and Blood, given and shed for you. Singing with the saints. Life now in the face of sin as preparation for the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come. It's all good because of Jesus. Jesus has it all in the bag for you.

    So yes, you are blessed. And not merely with the typical things we all normally think of as blessings – and note, I'm not downplaying those things – we'll talk about all those great earthly and temporal blessings from God in just a few weeks. Rather this – remember the blessings that you don't always see in this life, that Satan and sin would hide from you and distract you from. You are a baptized child of God, forgiven and bound for eternal life. God has declared you to be His holy child – to be His saint – and nothing can trump that or wrest you out of God's hand. And those we love whom we mourn and are with the Lord – they see it all face to face without distraction, which is wondrous for them. For you, well, you get to be here now, in Jesus' house, with Jesus and with all the saints, hearing Jesus, being reminded of the things you don't see, even until you see them clearly when you see Jesus face to face. And you will. Amen.

Reformation Day Observed

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    What tries to enslave you? In your life, what are the things, the silly, the stupid, the outright wicked things, that try to trap you, that get their claws into you and you just can't get out of them? I'm not expecting an answer right now, and certainly not out loud – but just have this in the back of your mind as we start to enter on into this sermon today – what things control you, or drive you, or push you around? What enslaves you, because there's going to be something that does.

    But more on that later. As we come across Jesus in our Gospel reading for this Reformation Day, He is having a conversation. Jesus had just proclaimed that He was the Light of the World, that He would be lifted up – and people are listening. They are getting interested. Sounds like a lot of neat stuff with this Jesus fellow, maybe this will be a cool crowd to run with. And so Jesus looks at these inquirers, and He says to them something interesting: If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Now, this is a packed, dense sentence – and it sets off a firestorm that seems odd to us on first glance. I mean, Jesus really ticks off people by saying this – so let's take our time pondering it and applying it, and then going through the text.

    So, to start – If you abide in My Word. This is the premise, the set up for the point that Jesus makes – and we can miss the point. We hear that word if, and we think we're getting ready to hear something that is optional, something that is a maybe – if you want you, maybe we could, I don't know, spend some time in the Word or something. It's just a possiblity. It's “iffy” - not really. That's not at all what Jesus is doing here. Jesus uses what I call the Greek Logical If. “If” in Greek was used not to express a possibility but to establish conditions in logical chains – it's the if then statements. If you walk out in the rain without an umbrella, then you will get wet. When I say that, I'm not discussing whether or not you will go outside in the rain or whether or not should – I'm simply discussing the reality of the situation, what logically will happen. If you touch a hot stove, you will burn your hand. You set the situation, and then you describe what will happen in that situation.

    So – here's the set up – If you abide in My Word. You guys have started listening to Me, you're hearing My preaching. Don't think that is just a casual, flippant thing with no impact. No – let's say that you abide in My Word – that you don't just dabble in it, that you don't just let it go in one ear and out the other, but you abide – if you stay in My Word with My Word continually going into your ears – there's going to be an impact you. Jesus' Word is living and active, and if you are in the Word, that Word is going to have an impact upon you – it simply will. And what is that impact?

    … you are truly My disciples. Jesus' Word will turn you into a disciple. Being a disciple of Jesus happens only because of the Power of His Word, only because that Word hits you, and the Holy Spirit comes along, and you are made a disciple. Now, what does that mean, what's the implication of being called a “disciple”? Well, it means that you're a student – that you are going to be made to learn, made to grow, made to understand. And some of those lessons will be hard – and you'll end up learning things about yourself that you might not like to learn. And when one is a disciple, one is also under discipline – disciple and discipline are related words. God's Word will shape your life, establish boundaries, keep you in those boundaries, make you drop and give God 20 when you transgress them. And the Word will whip you into shape, make you a lean, mean love your neighbor machine – you're in the Lord's Army now and called to serve you neighbor. And the Word of Jesus is just going to do that to you whenever you happen to hang around that Word of God.

    And that Word, that disciple-ing and disciplining, will do another thing at the same time – and you will know the Truth. Jesus isn't just talking about truth in an abstract way, like metaphysical truths or some fancy, high faluting gobbledegook. No, Jesus says later in John, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” By Jesus' Word, you will be brought into relationship with Jesus. You will experience Christ Jesus, you will come into the presence of God, or perhaps more accurately by His Word Jesus will come crashing into your life – and all the cards will be on the table. Jesus will be with you by His Word, and you won't be able to side step Him, or control Him, or pull the wool over His eyes, because Jesus is the Truth, and He knows you and you will be made to know Him by the Word.

    And you know what Jesus comes to you to do, what Jesus is seeking to accomplish by sending you His Word and making you His disciple and barging into your life and establishing this relationship of Truth with you? And the Truth will set you free. Jesus comes to set you free, to rescue you and release you from the power of sin, from bondage to Satan and Evil, from the fear of death.

    And yet, what's the reaction? They answered Him, we are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, “You will become free?” Do you hear how they recoil from this assertion that Jesus makes, this plan and pattern He sets forth? How dare You, Jesus – how dare You even insinuate that we need to be set free from anything. Why, we're good children of Abraham and have never been enslaved! Oh really? Well, our Sunday School classes have been going over the Exodus, which is all about how, oh, how does that go – oh, yeah, when God rescued the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. And the 10 commandments are prefaced with, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and out of the house of Bondage.” And the Passover is celebrated to commemorate when God rescued you from slavery? How do you people get off saying that you've never been enslaved to anyone? How do you say that when you've got Romans ruling over you instead of your own king?

    Do you see what has happened here? The people grousing against Jesus – they aren't seeing reality. They are denying reality. And why? Well, Jesus spells it out for them. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. You can't see reality, you fight against the Truth, you recoil from Jesus because of sin. You do sin, you do sinful stuff – and you're stuck in it. You're so stuck in it that you can't see reality in front of your face. Sin warps and twists your perception of reality, of the world, of yourself so that you can't actually see what is real and right and true. And sin keeps you trapped, enslaved, bound in those delusions. Sin binds you to vice like an addict, sin distracts you and never lets you what is good, sin tells you that you can have it all if you just do a bit more bow down and worship sin and all the while sin spreads you thin and grinds you down to nothing. And there are other analogies we could use but Jesus wraps them all up neatly - everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

    You too, O people of Trinity. All of us here in this room – this applies to all of us. What tries to enslave you? In your life, what are the things, the silly, the stupid, the outright wicked things that try to trap you, that get their claws into you and you just can't get out of them? Because that's the reality of sin – that's what it means to be sinful. That there are things that enslave you; there are vices that call you to, there's wicked emotions that dominate you and how you see things, there are frailties and weights that simply hang on you and wear you down. There are things that enslave you. And on the one hand, they're different for all of us. Each of us have different sinful chains wrapped upon us, and what tempts you might not really tempt me; and something that blinds me you might see right through. There's wide variety. But on the other hand – it's all just the same damn (literally) thing. Satan messing with you, messing with me, and trying to wreck us.

    The slave does not remain in the house forever; the Son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. We don't last, and the things we get tempted towards, they don't last. Sin brings with it death and decay, and the false promises that we are enslaved to, especially the ones we actually enjoy... they all fall apart. Sometimes we'll hit bottom and see it; sometimes we'll stay happily in sinful delusions. “With might of ours can naught be done, soon were our loss effected.” That's what we just sang a few minutes ago describing this reality. But Jesus, Jesus is free from Sin. Jesus has conquered over sin and death. Jesus strides to the Cross and He dies, and then He rises – all those tricks, all those lures, all those chains of Satan that wreck us don't do a thing to Jesus. He remains forever. His Word remains forever. And Jesus does something wondrous, something amazing. Jesus comes to you with His Word, and Jesus Himself sets you free. Jesus sets you from from sin with His forgiveness; He sets you free from temptation by giving you life; He sets you free from death by giving you His resurrection so that you too will rise from the dead.

    And all of this happens whenever Jesus comes to you with His Word and makes you live, abide, remain in His Word. It happens when He baptizes you with water and His Word and the Holy Spirit makes you His temple, a temple of Christ's Truth over and against the power of sin. It happens when the Word abides with you when He places His very Body upon your tongue, His Blood upon your lips. And this is a wondrous thing, a powerful thing – something that wrecks our sinful delusions, even the ones we like. Something that is so far beyond our control, because it is God Himself at work for you and in you, and we don't get to control God.

    This is our text for Reformation Day, because the story of the world, of the church, ever since the fall is people running away from Jesus and choosing slavery to sin. It's people trying to squash and ignore the Word of God and grasp vainly for control. A little over 500 years ago the Scriptures were literally chained up and in a language most people couldn't understand. “But for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected. Ask ye, who is this? Jesus Christ it is, of Sabaoth Lord, and there's none other God. He holds the field forever.” None of that stops Jesus. He comes in with His Word, because Christ and His Word cannot be contained, and over and over He breaks into the world with His liberating truth – and He even breaks into your life, even when there are times you run away from Him – and He puts you squarely in His Word, and He makes you His disciple, and He makes you know His love, His true love for you, and He frees you now from sin even until you are fully and finally freed from sin eternally in the life of the world to come. Because Jesus finds you, lost, batter, enslaved to sin, and He reforms you, makes you into His new creation, His baptized brother, His baptized sister – and He prepares and pulls you unto life everlasting. Jesus wins – and He frees you. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Trinity 20 Sermon

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    The end is approaching. We are approaching the Reformation Day and then the End of the Church year, which means our readings will pick up the intensity and begin to shift our focus to the end times, to the Second Coming of Christ – and then on to Advent where we ponder Christ's first coming at Christmas. But the readings for the next few weeks will be... intense. Or even, intensified. Earlier this year we heard a parable about people invited to a feast, and they reject, go get the blind and the lame that my house may be filled. It was strict and blunt – but now, at the end of the Gospel, when Jesus tells a parable with similar themes, but the stakes are all raised. Listen.

    The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. So far, a common, familiar story. You're invited to the feast, please come – oh, you don't want to come. The number of pastors who lament in sermons people not coming to the feast is uncountable – we get the gist. But do you hear the intensification here? It's not just a rich man who throws the feast; it's the king. It's one thing to be rich; it's another to be the ruler who has the power and authority to execute and destroy the ruffians and scoundrels. And all the polite excuses – they are gone. It's just they won't come. But the King is persistent. Again he sent other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, 'See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.'” Guys, I'm the king, and I'm doing something good for you. This is a good thing for you – now get here all ready. I told you once, and I've told you twice, get your kiesters moving. But, alas, those who were invited intensify their rejection as well. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. Think of the insult here. First of all, to not pay attention. The King speaks to you – meh, who cares. The King has sent His Messengers to declare great things for you – yeah, I've got some drawers at work to clean out, I'll just be over here. To treat the word of the King as unimportant – that's vile enough. But it gets worse. While some pay no attention at all, others decide to be openly and outright wicked and batter and bruise and kill the servants. To parade their bodies around in shame; to dance around and jeer at the corpses. You understand the vileness here, right?

    Of course, what Jesus is really doing in this parable is He's giving the history of the Old Testament. Again. Over and over Jesus has pointed out how in her history Israel had repeatedly fallen away from the Word of God, ignored the promises, stayed home instead of coming to the religious feasts, and even stoned and killed the prophets. Over and over disdain arose in the land, and over and over the result was the same. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. This is the story of the Old Testament. The people ignore and reject God, and then the foreign troops come and enact God's vengeance, clearing out the idolaters and disdainers of God's Word. Go leaf through the book of Judges – it happens there again and again. This is why God let the Philistines rage against the Israelites. It's why God sent Assyria against the Northern Kingdom. When the people of Jerusalem brought pagan worship and idolatry into the temple itself, it's no surprise that God sends in the Babylonians. God warned them – but Jeremiah and Daniel and Ezekiel were all treated shamefully and ignored – and then the destruction came.

    This is the pattern. Ignore the Word of God, ignore the invitation of the King at your own peril. Well, they ignored Jesus, and around 40 years after Jesus speaks these Words the Romans destroy Jerusalem again. And, to be uncomfortably to the point, it applies to the history of the New Testament as well. Christian Rome becomes power hungry instead of hungering for the feast of God, and it gets wrecked and ruined. The Middle East and North Africa used to the be heart of Christianity until they grew cold and were laid waste by the Muslims. The letters of Paul were written to churches in towns that all were wrecked centuries later by foreign invaders. Indeed, it's the history of Europe in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries – the collapse of Christian Faith in Europe leading to wars unimaginable – that's all part of why many of our ancestors fled the Old world and came to the New – they were fleeing the wrath that was to come. Ignore God's Word at your own peril.

    Boy Pastor, who put a bee in your bonnet? Well, it's just Scripture and History playing out – and it's what Jesus has told us that we should expect to play out even until He comes again. Hearts growing cold, wars and rumors of war, depravity and injustice, people not recognizing the gifts of God and seeking other wicked things. It's what we see today. Because the temptation that Satan has always leveled in the past and will level against you stays the same – to get you to ignore the Word of God and the invitation of the King. To reject God's blessings.

    Then He said to his servants, “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you can find.” And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. But the king is still determined to have his feast. And being brought to the feast isn't going to be based upon how good you are, how wise you are, how grateful or pious you are. Both bad and good are gathered – and note that the bad gets mentioned first. And this is where it's refreshing to be a Lutheran today, to start off the service with confession and absolution. None of us here need to try to prove that we're good enough to be here – I know you all sinned a ton this past week; I just heard you say it. And you heard me say it about myself, too. We're not here because of how great we are – we are only here, all of us, because Christ our King is so amazingly persistent at sending out His invitation to His feast. Over and over again, across the generations, after He's been rejected and abandoned and disdained, still Christ's invitation to the Feast – the Feast today here in this House as well at the Eternal, everlasting Feast in the life of the world to come – that invitation still goes forth. And it's come to you! And you're here! Fantastic! Rejoice! But don't slough it off, and don't presume upon it, and don't disdain it – because that's the stuff that leads to destruction.

    And don't forget how and why you're here. But when the king came into to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speecheless. And the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” You see, back in the day, at wedding party everyone would be given an outfit to wear – and we'd all dress the same. Everyone would be equal; the party wouldn't turn into some petty fashion contest – we're all just going to be here together and all equally valued. If you rejected that garment, it would be an insult. A vile one. It would almost be like a groomsman today refusing to wear the same outfit as the other groomsmen – it's just utterly jerkish and idiotic.

    So how are you here? Why are you here? Well, Christ's feast is the feast of forgiveness – and we're all here in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – that's how we started right? We're here as the baptized, as those clothed in the robes, the wedding garments, of Christ's righteousness. We're here as the forgiven, where we are welcomed not only at Christ's invitation but on account of Christ and as those baptized into Christ. We're forgiven people. That's how we're here. And that's why we're here; the Church isn't a way for you to toot your own self-righteous horn or show how great you are or just to keep grandma happy so she leaves you in the will – it's a forgiveness place for the forgiven. And to put it as bluntly as Jesus – if you don't want forgiveness, well, you won't get it. You can have the outer darkness and the wailing and gnashing of teeth if you insist – but that would be quite stupid and dumb.

    For many are called but few are chosen. Alright – how many of you hear that, especially after the sermon so far, and get a little shiver down your spine? You shouldn't. That word for “chosen” in Greek is a word you know – it's eclectoi” - from which we get the word ecletic in English, but more importantly the word “elected”, To be “elected” means you have been “chosen”. And while there is warning in this parable, this word, this wonderful word “chosen” - “elected” - this is to be a great comfort to you. You have been chosen by God, you have been elected, you have been selected. You have been not only called out of darkness, but you have been chosen, elected, placed into His marvelous light. God has claimed you for salvation, He's brought you into His family, He has washed you in Holy Baptism – He's given you the robe of Christ's Righteousness – you've got everything you need for salvation because Christ has done it all for you already. And so yes, the call goes out, yes the Word goes forth – and there will be disdain and ignoring – but you, you've been chosen by God, elected, selected, placed right here. And it's all good – Jesus has it in the bag for you. He's died, and your sin is atoned for. He's risen, so your life is secure. He's got His feast of life and salvation ready to go – the feast of the Victory of our God is here – and you're clothed in Christ's righteousness and ready to go. God grant that more come – but you, you're here, and Christ Jesus is present here for you with His forgiveness, and you receive it. Thanks be to God. That's everything.

    So do you see? You have been given everything by Jesus and in Jesus. You are people of forgiveness and mercy and grace – that's who you are and how you live. You're Christ's feast people. Satan will try to wrest you away from that, sin will try to pull you away from that. And these are serious attacks, and if left on our own, none of us would stand before them. But Christ Jesus has claimed you, and baptized you, and clothed you in His own righteousness and brought to you His feast. And the world outside might bray and howl louder and more devilishly – but that has nothing to do with you, for you are in Christ Jesus. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Christian Virtue

 The chief Christian Virtue is believing the 6th Petition of the Lord's Prayer.

The Christian life IS forgiveness.  Forgiveness received and forgiveness in Christ's name proclaimed.

Only where Christ's forgiveness is central can there be any Christian virtue, for where there is forgiveness, there is also life and salvation.

Any discussion of "virtue" detached from receiving and proclaiming forgiveness is nothing but the virtue of a well whitewashed tomb.

Trinity 19 Sermon

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    Growing up, I remember always being struck at how it seemed odd that Jesus would deal with forgiving the paralyzed guy before He healed Him. That was the thing that struck me as strange in the text – surely the guy needs healing. Of course, behind that reaction, behind that assumption that the healing was the big thing, the miracle, was a faulty assumption on my part. See, I grew up in the Church, and so I was simply used to forgiveness being everywhere. Every service, there would be confession and absolution. Every service, calls for mercy. Every service, Christ and Him Crucified preached. Every hymn, revolving around forgiveness. Yes, forgiveness is everywhere in the Church. In fact, it is my job to make sure that forgiveness permeates this place – as a Pastor I am, if you will, a professional forgiver. But my friends, that's the reality of life in the Church. Christ's Church is a forgiveness place – as Luther says in the Catechism, “In this Christian Church [the Holy Spirit] daily and richly forgives my sins and the sins of all believers.” In the church.

    But what of outside the church? What about beyond these walls? Out there forgiveness becomes, well, I wanted to say a bit less common, but frankly, it becomes down right scarce or absent. More and more so every day. I grew up in a Christian family, I went to a Lutheran school, so there was plenty of forgiveness there. Many of you who are my age or older grew up in a time when the Church was more prevalent, more impactful on society. You'd expect to find some forgiveness, some grace, some mercy out there. It's just what was typical. But those days are going and almost gone. Forgiveness is rarer and rarer to find out there, in part because the Church, because we as a group, as a body aren't as big a part of out there as we used to be. And the world becomes much more crass, and now forgiveness is viewed as not just an odd Christian thing, but an insult, a wretched thing worth of indignation.

    And when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven.” And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” Do you hear it? The indignation? The umbrage? How dare He? How dare Jesus just waltz on in here and forgive someone. We get distracted by the fact that the guy is paralyzed, so we don't pay attention to the scribes, to the smart people and their evil thoughts. But those evil thoughts are there, and they are brazen. Forgiveness being simply given, simply scattered out, something simply received by faith rather than being something that you work and labor and grovel and beg for – these scribes hated that idea. And frankly, my friends, we today hear more and more people speak the same way as the scribes think. Think of the rage, the indignation that permeates the world. It's always been there, really. It's just more open, and bold, and we run into it more and more as we see more and more clearly that we in the church are but strangers here.

    And I suppose we could consider why this anti-forgiveness rage is so popular today. Whether it's just being judgmental, whether it's cancel culture, whether it's oppression power dynamics, they all let me feel better because of someone else' sin. They all let me do whatever I want because of another person's sin. They all “let” me not love my nieghbor because of their sin. They did that, and I am so much better than them because I never would. They need to be fired, removed, canceled – because they don't meet my standards (see how good I am). They are just a villain and an oppressor, so I don't have to love them as a neighbor – I can rebel and topple and throw them down and be a hero no matter how vile my own actions are. And all these sorts of reactions are addictive. The endorphin hit our sinful flesh gets in smugness, in playing the victim card, in spinning up tales of self-justification is a drug as bad and as deadly (spiritually deadly, especially) as anything out there. And that anti-forgiveness world view is always there, calling, calling, calling to you to ignore and forget this Church stuff and just jump on in wholeheartedly into the hatred games of the world. And if and when you do, you'll probably feel really good about it... at least until that judgment gets centered on you, until you get canceled, until someone casts you as the villain in their own petty drama.

    Take heart, My son; your sins are forgiven. Jesus looks around that room, and He sees the problem. There's a paralyzed guy there. Yeah, being paralyzed is a problem, but it's a secondary problem, like all the problems we see and out and about in the world. It's all a side effect of sin. Sin wrecks the world. Sometimes we see this in the consequences of our actions. We see sin destroying relationships – whether it's anger, greed, lust, disdain – sin blows relationships out of the water. We see anger, greed, lust, hatred leading to violence and war. But it's more than that. The wages of sin is death – sin means our bodies are all doomed to fall apart – that we all are going to return to the dust of the ground from whence we came. And out in the world there's no real understanding of sin and its wages. There's just heroes and villains, and of course I'm the hero you see, and you're the villain, There's excuses for why what I did wasn't really that bad, at least not as bad as what they did. But that's not understanding sin. That's side stepping it. You know what sin really is? I have sinned. I am corrupted. And this sin manifests in my thoughts, words, and deeds, all of which are infested. Even my righteous deeds are as filthy rags, as the prophet Jeremiah says. And I will be wrestling with sin, and sin will be calling out to me until sin drags me into death and the grave. Sin is always there driving you and I to death. That's what sin is.

    And when He saw their faith... and when Jesus sees this paralyzed man and his friends who brought him to Jesus, Jesus realizes that they aren't just seeing things shallowly – they see sin and its impact. This paralyzed man has faith; and that means he sees his own sin. You cannot see or understand your own sin apart from faith. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals your sin to you by the Word of God – the Spirit convicts the world of sin, that's what Jesus says in John. Because apart from the Spirit making you understand sin, there's just power dynamics and blame games and you'll just have to accept me the way I am, and in fact you better praise me for whatever stupid, evil thing I do otherwise you're an oppressive jerk. By faith, this man knew sin, his own sin. And Jesus – Jesus came to take care of sin. Jesus came to take that man's sin away and to carry it to the cross. Jesus came to die, because that's what sin does – it kills. And if sin is going to kill anything in His own creation, it's going to kill Jesus because Jesus won't abandon His creation. And Jesus came to rise – to stand up again having defeated sin, and to make you all rise again even after death, freed from sin. For which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise and walk?” Oh my friends, Jesus shows us that the two are utterly tied together. To be forgiven means that you will live, that you will rise from the dead, for where there is forgiveness there is also life and salvation! Forgiveness always moves, always flows into life, real life – because sin is death and forgiveness gets rid of sin and death.

    But, I get ahead of myself. Jesus is just setting the stage here, setting the stage for Good Friday and Easter, setting the stage for the day of your death and last day where you will rise like Jesus because Jesus is always focused on forgiveness. “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins – He then said to the paralytic - “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” Oh you blind scribes, whether you like it or not God forgives. God Almighty isn't about being your secret weapon in your sinful power games; God shows His might and strength in His forgiveness, by which He restores His creation – in part now but in full in the life of the world to come. And the Messiah will come and He will with His death and resurrection establish forgiveness for all time, and with His Word and Spirit He will have His forgiveness proclaimed in all times and in all places, even to this day and to this place, even though we are surrounded by people who hate Jesus and who hate forgiveness and are finally becoming bold enough to say so openly. Doesn't matter – Jesus forgives, because He loves you. Period

    And the kicker? When the crowds saw it, they were afraid – they were afraid because they saw something powerful. Something literally earth shaking – earth shaking when Christ died, earth shaking come the last day and all the graves on earth are opened. Because the power wasn't just the guy walking, oh no. And they glorified God, Who had given such authority to men. The authority, the power at play here is simply this – I forgive you in Jesus' name. Forgiveness has been unleashed upon this sinful world. It has been unleashed upon you. Jesus has seen you drenched in forgiveness – forgiveness that drowns your sinful nature and pulls you clean to new life now and eternally. Jesus has forgiveness proclaimed to you, over and over again; over and against your own sin, over and against the calls for you to join in the frays of the world. In the stead and by the command of Christ Jesus I forgive you all your sin. And the wildest part. These friends brought the man trapped on his bed to Jesus; but you, oh child of God, you get to top that. You are an heir of eternal life, and Christ your brother has given you the authority of His forgiveness and life – you are authorized to forgive – to make wherever you go be a place of Christ's forgiveness, because this world is His, and He died for all. You get to forgive people. Forgive us our trespasses as... we forgive. Do you understand the authority God has invested you with at your baptism? The life changing power of forgiveness is yours to proclaim; the Cross of Christ Jesus doesn't just have to stay up there on that wall but it goes with you wherever you go, wherever the Holy Spirit puts you, whenever He opens your lips and the Words of Eternal life flow out. What has been given to you is yours to give to others, for you will never run out of Christ's forgiveness. That lavish washing away of sin will never run dry.

Oh my friends, you live awash in Christ's forgiveness. And sometimes, that forgiveness is easy to forget, to ignore, to simply assume that everyone knows it. Sometimes it something that Satan tries to make you forget, where you forget who you are. Remember – you are a forgiven and forgiving child of God, because Christ Jesus has died and risen for you, and the day is going to come when He will look at your corpse, and laughing at Satan's feeble attempts to wreck His creation, Jesus will say to you, “Rise and walk” - and you will. Nothing can stop that; and you get to hear that good news and proclaim that good news over and over in the meantime in the face of Sin, death, and hell. Christ Jesus has won, and you are forgiven. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Trinity 17 Sermon

 

    So here is the question for today. Where does your righteousness come from? Where does your salvation, the fact that you are a Christian come from? Is it because you are a good person, or is it from God? Are you righteous because of what you do or because of what God does? Are you a Christian because you are good little person, or are you a Christian because of what Christ has done for you? I say that this is the question for today because this is actually the matter in doubt in our text. The Pharisees are there, watching Jesus. They think they know what makes a person righteous – and they assume it is obedience to the law – if I do good then I really am a good little boy. Jesus disabuses them of this notion, and corrects them and us today as well, if those thoughts had been creeping into our head. Let us look at our text and ponder again the love the Jesus shows us.

    One Sabbath, when He went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully. And behold, there was a man before Him who had dropsy. So here’s the situation. It’s a Sabbath – the day of rest, the day where no work was to be done. And Jesus is over at a Pharisee’s house – and it just so happens that there is a man there who has dropsy. And this man doesn’t belong there – he’s not a Pharisee, he doesn’t live in the house. In fact, Jesus is going to send him away after He’s done healing him. It’s all just a test. The Pharisees are watching Jesus closely, waiting to see what He will do.

    We know that you aren’t supposed to test God. We see what the Pharisees have done, how they have set up Jesus, and we think, “That’s kind of rotten.” Yet, do we often put God to the test? Do we often make demands of God, even just in our minds, in our thoughts. When we pray, do we pray “Thy Will Be Done” or do we grouse about what we haven’t gotten and think, “Lord, why don’t You do this? Why do I deserve these things in my life?” That’s putting the Lord to the test. That’s telling God how He should be God. It can creep into our lives on occasion, so do be wary of this attitude. Anyway, let us continue in the text.

    And Jesus responded to the Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then He took him and healed him and sent him away. Is it lawful? Is it okay? If I do this healing, if I show love to this man right now that you have set before me, will you think I am evil? This is the question that Jesus asks of the Pharisees. What makes you a “good” person? Is it the fact that you follow the law? Is that why you think you are good people, oh Pharisees? But they say nothing. Nothing in response. And Jesus does what Jesus always does – He gives healing. This shouldn’t surprise us, and it shouldn’t have surprised the Pharisees either. Jesus is not focused on proving Himself to be good, but rather on showing love. And this He does to this man. Jesus speaks and he is healed, relieved of His suffering, relieved of His affliction.

    Dear friends – never fall into the trap of thinking that what you do makes you a good person. Those ideas are simply the whispers of Satan hanging around you. The Law will never make you righteous. Why? First, it is too late for that. You’ve already sinned. You can’t fulfill the law. You were even born in iniquity. In sin my mother bore me, as the old hymns goes. No good that any of us does will remove our sin. The law doesn’t make us righteous. Second – the law is simply what we are supposed to do anyway. Why would doing it make us “good”? If I simply do the things that I am supposed to do, why would that be praise worthy? When I was young, one of my chores was the fill the ice cube trays. If I filled the ice cube trays – which I often actually failed to do – did that make me good? No. I simply did what was asked of me. In fact, quite a few of you who grew up on the farm probably thought – “Filling the ice cube trays was a chore? What kind of chore was that? Where’s the milking or feeding the animals – those are chores.” All of our works, all the things that we do are actually quite small before God and simply what we are supposed to do anyway. They don’t earn us any brownie points with God.

    And the thing is, we don’t need to earn Brownie points with God. And He said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. There’s the description of you. You are a little kid that has wandered off and fallen into a well – you are a dumb old ox that has gotten where it shouldn’t be. That’s a pretty good description of our sinful life, isn’t it? Us getting into trouble over and over again. But this is our comfort. That Christ Jesus is not content to leave us in peril or distress, but rescues us from all sin and from all evil. And how? You know the answer – I’m going to be pointing to the Cross. Jesus’ death rescues us from sin. But how does it do so? Here is how. We, you and I, are sinners. Plain and simple. This means we lack righteousness – we are not righteous of ourselves. If you aren’t righteous, you can’t be with God. God is Just. God must punish sin. Plain and simple, that’s the way that it is. If you are unrighteous, punishment must be made. This is what happened on the Cross. Jesus took the punishment for your sin. God is Just and sin is punished. Your sin has already been punished, the penalty has been paid for what you have done. In fact, every sin has been paid for, every sin of every person in all times, paid for by Christ.

    That’s a great thing, a truly good thing. That’s why we call it Good Friday. But that’s not the end. It’s not just a matter of the fact that some 2000 years ago God did something. Through His Word and Sacraments, Christ comes to you. He not only takes the penalty for your sin – but He gives you His own righteousness – He unites you to Himself in Him so that you can stand in the presence of God for all eternity. It’s not that Jesus simply wipes the slate clean on the Cross – no God does more than that. Jesus takes from you your sin and in return He gives to you His righteousness. Are you holy and righteous right now? Yes. Perfectly and completely – and why? Not because of what you do, but because of what Christ has done and what He gives you. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus. Hear what Paul says in Ephesians. There is One Body and One Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all through all and in all. You were brought into Christ’s life – you were united to Him by your Baptism. He has called you unto Himself, and He gives you all that He is. That is your righteousness. We have a taste of this now – we see it dimly – for we are still in the world full of sin, we are still bound to our sinful flesh. We can only look forward to the day of the resurrection of the dead when our bodies will be perfected and glorified like His – but we know and we see that this is coming. This is our hope, this is the faith which we believe – that Christ has not only died for our sins but lives to make us His Holy, Righteous children.

    Jesus further explains this idea to those Pharisees and us by means of a parable. When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the place of honor; lest someone more deserving than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘friend, move up higher.’ This is what God does for you. Your place, your standing with God isn’t something you have to claim by your works, by what you do. Your spot at the feast in heaven doesn’t come on account of what you have done. Rather this – God raises the lowly and places them in the heights of heaven. Christ Jesus has seen you, and He has declared you to be His friend. More than that – in Baptism Jesus declared you to be family – His brother, His sister, His co-heir of His kingdom. Why are you downcast, O forgiven child of God – the kingdom of God and eternal life are yours! Why? Not because of what you do, not because of your own “honor” - because we all know that can fail. You are here not because of your own honor, but because Christ has honored you. You are here not because of your own works, but because Christ has worked for you and declared that His works are in fact your works. Over and over, Christ Jesus forgives you; His death and resurrection are applied to you. You are called to His own table even this day, because His feast of Victory is a feast for you and a Victory won for you. What is there for you to do to earn any of this when Christ has done it all already?

    Dear friends in Christ – trust not in your own works. Look not to your own works. There is no life there. We cannot make God respect us more or value us more by what we do. Rather this – look to Christ, for He has called you in Baptism, and has given you life and righteousness in Himself. Christ Jesus has seen you, lowly as you are, and He has called you His own friend, and more than just a friend, He took on flesh, became your brother, and went to the Cross so that having shed His blood for you He might call you to sit at His side for eternity at the heavenly feast. This is our hope, this is our joy, this is the truth we cling to all of our days. Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Trinity 16

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit +

    As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd was with her. Death confronts Christ. As Jesus approaches this town, He sees death. We know death isn’t a pretty thing. We hear of this woman who has lost both her husband in the past and her only child this day, and even if we haven’t experienced that ourselves, we’ve seen enough loss in our life to know that what she is going through is horrid and rough. And so, in our Gospel lesson, death confronts Christ – and Christ will not let death stand. Our Lord will act, our Lord will show that He is indeed God and that He has vanquish death. The young man will be raised – we know this. But let us see what we learn from Christ Jesus our Lord in how He acts.

    And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Jesus sees, and then He acts. Jesus beholds a problem, and then He does what He needs to do. How wonderful, how comforting is that? All that will happen, it isn’t in the woman’s hands – it is in God’s hands. Which is good for her. She was probably distracted. Her son’s body was being carried to the cemetery – do you think she was looking around the crowd – do you think she would have noticed Jesus approaching? Probably not. And yet, of His own Will and of His own accord Christ Jesus comes to her, unasked, unrequested. God doesn’t have to wait for you to ask. God isn’t sitting up in heaven just waiting and waiting for you to pray and ask Him something – He works for your good without your even asking. What do we learn in the catechism. “The kingdom of God certainly comes without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” “The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.” God acts. God is God, and He is God for you. When God sees a need, He jumps into action. God’s action is service to you.

    This is how you are to act, O Christian. When you see a need, you are to follow your Lord’s example and offer service without needing to being asked. We all know that this makes life better. You've all had times where you had a need and someone just stepped up – it's wonderful. And you've seen the gratitude that people show you when you step up and handle something simply and well without them having to ask. It's fantastic, and we all know it. And yet, the reality is we don't always act that way. There are times enough in our own lives where we fail to serve like we ought. Where we fail to show love like we ought. Or even hesitation, even simple griping about our help – that shows that we fall short. The text doesn’t say, “When Jesus saw the procession, he shook his head and said, ‘Boy, I guess I better do something since no one else is.’” Often times the service we give is sketchy and spotty. How many times do we have to remember to put on the happy face before we do something to cover our own grumbling? Just pause for a moment, think back on this past week – how often have you hesitated, have you grumbled about the opportunities to serve that God gives you?

    Thankfully, this is not God’s attitude towards you. He doesn’t grumble when He must give you help – He never hesitates to give you aid. God serves you today even when you fail to ask. Our prayers and worship life here aren’t what they ought to be – and He is still gracious to us. God serves us here at Trinity even when we don’t ask. You know what is the great example for this – Baptism. How many of you were brought as children, as infants to this very font. What happened here? We learn in the catechism “[Baptism] works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.” That’s a fantastic gift which most of you never asked for. Come to the faith as an adult and you will request it – but most of us here – we were brought to the font – and God simply gave. Yes my child, the words and promises of salvation as found in Scripture are for you. God gives without your asking – God prepares to give even before you exist – for these promises are of old.

    We see the simple fact that Christ serves – and this teaches us. But let us now look at how Jesus serves. Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.” This is what Jesus does. Jesus restores the young man to life. And in doing so, Jesus isn’t simply giving a gift to the young man who is raised. In fact, the focus of this miracle isn’t primarily on the dead guy – it’s on the mother. Jesus has compassion on her – Jesus restores the man to life and gives him to her. This man, o woman, was to provide for you and care for you – it was his duty as your son. Death took him away; I shall restore him to you. Jesus does this by giving life. Every thing that man does for his mother is clearly and firmly a gift from God to her for the rest of her days. Jesus doesn’t just give life to the dead man – but he gives life and joy to the mother as well – Jesus sees that she will be taken care of.

    This is what God does here today. Jesus works in you and through you, and He uses you to give life to others. Did you note what our Epistle says? “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” The power at work within us is Christ; it is none other than Christ Jesus who lives in us and works through us – and why? So that we give life to our neighbors. Again, more Catechism! “We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.” “We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” Note what we do. We help our neighbor improve and protect his income. God works through us to give our neighbor life – to provide for him. We defend our neighbor’s reputation. God works through us to give our neighbor life – to keep his life from being a hassle where others constantly berate him. And all of this is Christ’s doing. It is not I who live but Christ who lives in me. There is nothing more profound in Scripture than this – that God takes us sinners – forgives us and makes us to be His servants, and He works through us.

    Now, this is not to say that we no longer sin. This isn’t to say that we sometimes don’t fight God tooth and nail over what He wants us to do. We can be stubborn folk – and not just stubborn, but downright evil folk – for that’s what our sin is. Sin is nothing other than telling God you won’t do His Will, sin is nothing other than telling Christ to take a hike – saying to God, “No, You will not work through me, for I want what I want.” And this is why God speaks His Word of law – to crush and beat down and batter and destroy the sin within us. The Law is proclaimed so that we would be turned away from our sin and flee to Him for mercy and refuge, and receive from Him the forgiveness of our sins which was won upon the Cross by Christ Jesus.

    You see, Christ does give you life. Sin, sin is death. Your sin is your death – when you sin that’s just death taking a little nibble off of you. Where there is sin, there is death – which is why Christ defeats death in His resurrection. This is why God has ordered that His Word of forgiveness be spoken to you over and over again. Because forgiveness is life. Where there is forgiveness, there is life – and not only life – but Christ’s life. And our Lord emphasizes this in His Sacraments. Consider Baptism. Paul says in Romans “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” Baptism gives life. It gives life here on earth for it unites you to Christ and it gives life eternal for it unites you to Christ. Jesus gave you life at Baptism. Consider the Lord’s Supper. It brings life – it brings Christ’s life. What does our Lord say? This is My Body, this is my Blood. Literally Christ gives us His own life. In the Supper, you receive our Lord’s own life giving Body, His own life giving Blood. The very Body that was nailed to the tree to defeat death – Christ gives you. The very Blood that was shed to wash away your sins – Christ gives you. His supper is indeed a foretaste of the feast to come – when we celebrate the Supper here indeed Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven rejoice and sing our Lord’s praises for He brings us Himself, He brings us the Kingdom, He brings us heaven right now and here – for Jesus brings us Himself – and we are given life in a wonder and mystery no less astounding than what they saw at that funeral that Jesus interrupted. Our Lord says to us, “Take and Eat,” “Take and Drink” – and we are given life.

    Dear friends in Christ Jesus our Lord – see what our Lord does. He never hesitates to serve – for He shows us love even before we ask. He gives us life – in fact, He is our life – we live through Him and in Him and by Him. He beats down and forgives our sins, and gives us His own strength, indeed His own life in His Word, in His Baptism, in His Supper. This is what we receive from Him without fail. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Trinity 15 Sermon

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    I think people often misunderstand the idea of growing in the faith. There seems to be this idea that to grow in the faith, to better understand God and His love for you means that somehow you understand the bizarre and the hidden. Like growing in the faith comes with a secret decoder ring or maybe a few, extra books no one else knows about – oooOOOooo. No, not so, my dear friends. While there are great and wondrous mysteries in the Christian faith, they are not strange; they are not bizarre. Our Lord commends unto us a faith as of a little child – simply trusting what He has taught us. That, actually, tends to be the hard part – to simply trust what our Lord says – yet that is what we are called to do. And so today, as we look at our Gospel lesson, we are again going to review that which is simple, that which is basic – something we so often forget. God cares for you. Simple as that – and if we slowed down and remembered this, our understanding of God and His love for us would be so much greater.

    Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Our Lord asks us a question – is not life more than food, the body more than clothing? Is not your life more than your stuff, your job, your busyness – your mammon? We know we're supposed to say our life is more than just this... but practically speaking we tend not to act that way. How many of you this week have been quite busy contemplating all the trappings of life – how to pay for the things you want, how to handle the schedule, what my friends think about me – so on and so forth. We get caught, we get fixated on the things of this life. We identify ourselves by our jobs, by where we live, by who we are friends with, by what we do. We treat our life, our existence as simply the sum of the things that we have, the things that we do. But that is not who you were created to be. Man was created in the image of God, created to be in relationship with God. That’s a wonder of the Christian faith. In the garden, Adam walks with God. In the garden, Adam simply tends the creation, not wresting crops from amidst the weeds by the sweat of his brow. But sin makes us forget who we were created to be. Sin looks at and desires the trappings of this life – power, money, wealth, worldly respect. None of that matters, none of that lasts. Everything in this sinful world grows old and decays – it does not last. No, as Christians, our focus is to be on things that endure, things that last – our life with Christ, our life in union with all of God's saints from all times and in all places. As Christians we are to be content to be simple stewards of the gifts God provides for us so that we can show love to all those whom God places in our lives.

    This is hard. Seriously – horridly hard. Every day we struggle with sin, every day Satan tosses more and more temptations and lures in front of us – things to crave, things to desire, things we think are so important, are so vital to our life. This is why our Lord teaches us not to be anxious. Listen to the Words of Jesus. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Again, it's one of those things that sounds so simple that we assume that it is too good to be true. God will provide. When it boils down to it – it's true. God indeed provides for us. But what happens so often is we see our work, the things we do, the actions we take – and we think, we feel that our possessions are about what we do. “I've worked hard for everything I have.” That may be the case – well done, hard worker. But who provided you with that talent that you could use? Who provided you with the opportunities you have? We rely upon God and His goodness to us – and the sad thing is we can take His simple and routine blessings for granted and forget that everything we have comes from His goodness.

    But, of course, the problem with it all being gift from God and His goodness, means that God's in control, and we're not. And man, if we don't just hate not being in control. And Jesus knows this; He knows that we are control junkies. And He knows that when we don't get all the control that we want, we start getting anxious – especially if the things we are worried about are well and throughly out of our control. And let's be frank – we are bombarded by the media with all sorts of troubles and problems and disasters that are completely beyond our control. And that tends to make us anxious. Nervous. Worried. And so often about things that we have no absolutely control over. And you know what all that is? Pointless and unproductive. Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Yeah, stress and anxiety don't fix anything; they just make things worse. And yet, we run down those well trodden paths of fear and anxiety, don't we? I know I ran down them many-a-time myself this past week. Nervous, fretty, stomach flipping – what can I do, what should I have done, maybe I'll do this. I, I, I. Me, me, me – all that burden, all that pressure, for what? Stuff that isn't mine to control, not given to me.

    And here's where you don't need a deep, dark, hidden mystery. You need simple, clear, to the point. Jesus Loves Me. Think that's a kids' hymn? Well, do you have that “they are weak but He is strong” truth mastered yet, cause I don't. We worry, we get ourselves worked up, trying to control every little thing that happens – and all we do is make ourselves frazzled, frustrated, and miserable. When we forget that God is in charge and rather make it all about me and my strength and what I can do – well, we set ourselves up for disappointment and failure.

    And the thing is, we don't need to focus, we don't need to worry about the things of this life – that's not a burden we need. We don’t need to be the ones in control – for we know that God is in control, and we know that God provides for us. In fact, we should all be praying this several times a day. Right before our Gospel text in Matthew, Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer. Fantastic prayer, of course – and what is there smack dab in the middle but this phrase – give us this day our daily bread. Everyday we pray that God provide us what we need for the day – and that's it. As simple as that. Jesus doesn't instruct us to pray something long or complex – we don't have to tell God whether we want wheat bread or white – we simply put everything into God's hands. Give us our daily bread – give, freely, out of Your own goodness, give because You are God and You are good – give us our daily bread. Give us all that we need for this day, whatever that is. Do you see how simple that prayer is? All the complexities of life, all the drama, all the times we get all worked up and riled up with worries and cares – not needed. We know that God provides for us, just as He has in the past.

    Indeed, we know that God provides us with all that we need not only for this life, but also for life eternal. This is what we see and trust by faith. The mystery, the wonder of the Christian faith isn't simply that God provides for our earthly needs, but that in addition God has had mercy upon us – that even as we so often fret and flitter and abuse His gifts to us – God restores us to Paradise. This same Jesus who tells you not to be anxious about your life will lay down His own life – He will stride boldly to the Cross in order to be able to provide for You not just your daily bread, but His life giving Holy Supper. He suffers and dies not just to see that you have shelter against the storms of this fallen world, but that you have a home with Him for all eternity. This is the wonder which we see each week here in His house – that God has mercy upon us and gives us life in His name. That's why Jesus can tell us not to be anxious, why not to worry about what we eat or wear. Is not life more than food, the body more than clothing? Indeed it is! For you have been claimed by Christ – in the waters of Holy Baptism God declared you to be His own child – your life is more than just that life of a mortal man, doomed to die. You have been given the gift of immortality, that even though you die, yet you shall live in and with Christ for all eternity!

    All the junk, all the burdens we worry about, all the things we fret and worry about – that agitation's not needed. Not needed at all. God is the one in control, God provides for you, God holds you tenderly in His almighty hands, showing His love for you not just in the things of this brief sojourn we have in this sinful, fallen world, but God will be your God for all eternity, providing for you completely with all that you need for salvation and eternal life. And this you know. For the Bible tells you so. And Jesus will keep telling you this over and over, because it's true, and all the stress and fear and worry in the world can't change the fact that He has died and risen for you, O baptized child of God. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Paulson and the Dangers of Reactionary Theology

    So Stephen Paulson wrote an essay in the Lutheran Quarterly that has some major flaws.  I'm sure that there will be plenty of people who will point out those flaws in detail, especially in our LCMS circles. However, I think that many from within the LCMS will miss part of the nuance of those flaws, how they manifest - and how it forms a similar danger for us with in the LCMS.

   The first thing we in the LCMS forget when dealing with Paulson is that Paulson is not LCMS.  "Duh, it's clear that he's not LCMS and should never be!!!!"  Yes, that is true - he's not LCMS.  Remember what that means.  It means he is only tangentially involved in LCMS discussions or approaches - Paulson's main focus, context, background, and shaping is dealing with the ELCA.

    So what does this mean? In his attacks upon "the Law" and any sort of didactic, culture shaping application of the Law by the Church, Paulson is directly responding to the "woke" progressive elements of the ELCA.  He is attacking the doubly "Progressive" sanctification of the ELCA.  Paulson is not a "liberal" in the political sense; he (and Forde before him) is attempting to counter and react to all the crazy liberal social theories that are now much more manifest in society today.  In the late 80's and early 90's, the ELCA was already institutionally captured by what we might call "CRT" or "Intersectionality" today.  Paulson is reacting against all of that.

    And rightly so.  If you want to understand what Paulson is doing, you have to remember that for him the "Church" teaching morals means the utter destruction of any semblance of morality in the name of acceptance and welcome.  It is the "Church" pushing and promoting sexual deviancy.  It is the "Church" pushing people away from simply being the creatures they were created to be and pushing them into self-defining and refining everything.  

    In the LCMS, we are fighting against the infiltration of these ideas; Paulson is and has been fighting a church that actively teaches these ideas - where these ideas being pushed functionally "is" the ELCA's idea of what the third use of the law looks like.

    It was utterly right to have been repulsed by what the ELCA had been pushing in late 80s and following, just as it is utterly right to oppose these foolish ideas today.

    But then how did Paulson get it so wrong?

    Because instead of defending the truth and teaching the truth, he fell into reactionism.  The opposite of any error is just another error.  As the church was teaching incorrect social teaching, the reaction was that the Church should have no social teaching. 

    If you are in the LCMS, don't denigrate this reaction.  It is politically, worldly speaking, a solid tactical move.  If there's a debate, and you are utterly outnumbered and cannot win the debate because you'll be shouted down, there's a wordly wisdom to undercutting the idea of debate at all. It's practically the same idea as time wasting at a convention - if a resolution you don't want to pass will pass if it comes to the floor, you keep it from coming to the floor.  Or perhaps this: Instead of trying to fix public schools and how they teach, maybe it's best just to withdraw from public schools, or try to shut down the entire endevour.  It's not a "fix", but it is a way to attempt to curtail the worst excesses for at least some people.

    While the reaction was functional, it ignored the fullness of the truth.  It ignored the fulness of the Scriptural witness.  Here, Paulson's reactionism ran right along the theological weaknesses present in the ELCA. The ELCA and it's predecessors had already weakened the idea of the Scriptures as the Word of God.  Instead of being the Word of God, the Scriptures merely contained the Word of God.  The practice was already established to simply deny that something is the Word of God.  Hence, when it comes time to react and reject a practice that some claim to be "Godly", Paulson rejects it as being the actual Word of God.  However, he doesn't stop there. To curtail the wicked and falsified moral teaching from going forward, he ends up wanting to circumvent all moral teaching in Scripture.  The (well meaning) attempt to fight one error puts incredible strain on another deep flaw, and that's where things break apart.  Moses as moral teacher is not put in his proper place to serve the neighbor and drive to repentance, but instead is utterly rejected as not being God's Word at all in an effort to prevent a wretched abuse of the twisted-moral teaching.  And stuck in his reactionism and his Scriptural presuppositions, Paulson can't see it.

    This is an example of the dangers of reactionism.  Instead of being driven into the Scriptures, Paulson (and Forde) reacted in a reasonable, understandable way.  But the goal of opposing something bad (in this case, very bad) overshadowed the Word - it became higher than the Word.  And then, given time, this plays out in extraordinarily typical "contains, not is" tomfoolery.

    "Okay, Brown - say this is all an accurate assessment.  Why is your post entitled 'Paulson and the Dangers of Reactionary Theology'?  We're LCMS, we're not going to fall into that contains BS."  True, but we in the LCMS do have our own traditional flaws and weaknesses, ditches we will drop into.  We have a history of pietism.  We have a history of isolationism.  We have a history of proof-texting, which can end up denying other parts of Scripture just as much as "containism" can.  There's a reason Dr. Scaer used to say, "Gentlemen, we must destroy Lutheranism before Lutheranism destroys us" - referring to these sorts of weaknesses and habits that can overshadow and push us away from the central point of the Scriptures - that Jesus is the Christ, that we are to know nothing but Christ and Him Crucified, that the Church stands and falls on Article 4.  If your use of Scripture does not reach its ultimate goal, its end in Christ, in the "so that you may believe" - you've misused and bastardized the Scriptures just as much as whatever that Deuteronomy 30 rant in Paulson's paper was.

    So, watch yourself when you are reacting to the social tomfoolery of the day.  It is worth reacting against.  However, don't fall into mere reactionism, where opposing a false social teaching becomes the HIGHEST goal and purpose.  First and foremost must be Justification by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.  Otherwise, other things will come in and break.  Whether that becomes false, extra scriptural standards of purity, or false expectations for outward demonstrations of piety, or Pharisaical disdain, it doesn't overly matter; Justification gets jettisoned in any case. Correcting errors is and can only ever be a preaching of the Law, which cannot and must not ever predominate over the Gospel.

    Because the danger of all this social tomfoolery isn't merely civil disorder.  Natural law and reality (sometimes cold, hard, and deadly reality) tend to fix civil issues in the long run... maybe with the decline and fall of an empire, but so be it.  The real danger of all this social stuff is that it is an attack on Justification by Grace through Faith in Christ.  Where there is no sin, there is no need for a Savior.  Where the fight is over making this world just so, looking forward to the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come (the result of Christ's death and resurrection) is cast aside.

    Be frustrated with with all the stupid social stuff.  You ought to be.  But don't let it push you into reactionism, otherwise you'll end up treading the same path Paulson has but just falling into, just with LCMS crazy sprinkles instead of ELCA crazy sprinkles.