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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 14,c]                        August 11, 2019

 

Hebrews 11:1-16

¹ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² For by it the people of old received their commendation. ³ By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. ⁴ By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. ⁵ By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. ⁷ By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. ⁸ By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. ¹¹ By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. ¹² Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of Heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. ¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the Earth. ¹⁴ For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

Cain and Abel. We know the story; we know how it ends. From Cain and Abel, we learn of how we stand before God.

 

It’s a story of sacrifice. A story of how a man stands before God according to that sacrifice. Good or bad, accepted or not accepted, respected or disrespected, how does a person stand before God?

 

Cain and Abel, both children of Adam and Eve. Both born into sin. Both belonging to death by that sin. Both standing before God in sinful flesh.

 

That’s how one stands before God—in our sinful flesh. To say anything else would be to pretend to be not sinful.

 

So the first thing to learn from Cain and Abel: stand before God as who you are, as a sinner.

 

 

How, then, will the sinner stand justified at God’s face?—that’s the big question. In the account of Cain and Abel, that question is answered.

 

The Lord gives both Cain and Abel the gift of sacrifice. Sacrifice was instituted by the Lord. That’s the first part of the answer we need. Cain and Abel didn’t dream it up; it was instituted for the sinner by the Lord.

 

It was a kind gift of mercy.

 

By sacrifice, Cain and Abel were to know their standing before God. They were to know that God justified them, forgiving their sins, accounting them righteous.

 

So what is the difference between Abel’s sacrifice and Cain’s? Genesis 4:2:

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the course of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

 

What’s the difference? One kept sheep, the other tilled the ground. So one was a rancher, the other a farmer. Fair enough. The rancher, that’s Abel, brings an animal for sacrifice. The farmer, that’s Cain, brings crops.

 

No great difference there. But the text says the Lord respected Abel and his offering. But the Lord did not respect Cain and his. Why?

 

One can imagine that if we were somehow able to go back in time and click on a YouTube video of Cain and Abel, both sacrifices would look fine.

 

How hard is it to build a little fire and burn an offering? Yet, Abel stood before the Lord in honor, while Cain stood in shame. What’s the difference? To our eyeballs, everything looks good, the sacrifices both look the same.

 

But they’re not. And here is where our Lord gives us to see how we stand before him. The letter of Hebrews sorts it out for us. Hebrews 11:4:

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

 

Now we see the difference between the two sacrifices. Cain and Abel both sacrificed. But Cain offered his sacrifice according to the flesh, Abel offered his according to faith.

 

Cain offered his sacrifice as a work he by which he thought to justify himself; Abel offered his sacrifice as the way God gave him to receive the forgiveness of his sins, that is, as the way God instituted for him to be justified.

 

 

Are we Cain or are we Abel? Is that a bit of a trick question?

 

The question sounds as if I can choose to be like Cain or to be like Abel. That would make it depend on my choosing, on my works. That’s my flesh.

 

The life of flesh is not the life of faith. The flesh is sinful. Faith is the gift from God by which we look not to our flesh and our worthiness, but to forgiveness, to justification from God. Faith looks only to Jesus.

 

How do we stand before God? As Cain or as Abel?

 

We are in sinful flesh. Cain. Cain’s chief sin? His intent to justify himself by his own work of sacrifice. That sacrifice, God will not respect.

 

We may everyday repent of being Cain. Of seeking to justify ourselves.

 

By grace, we live the life of faith. Abel. Abel’s justification was not that he brought a better sacrifice than Cain—that somehow Abel brought just the right sized lamb or that he somehow stacked the wood in the just the right manner; Abel’s justification was that he came to the Lord’s gift of sacrifice to be justified by the Lord.

 

Forgiven of all sin, cleansed of all guilt, covered in honor—that’s Abel as he clings in faith to the Lord’s gift of sacrifice.

 

 

You and I, are we Cain or are we Abel? Cain, according to our life of sin. Abel, according to our life of faith. And our Lord is creating and strengthening his gift of faith in us every time he comes to us in his Word of Gospel.

 

Sacrifice? We have no more sacrifice. That was given to Cain and Abel, to Abraham and Moses, to Israel as the Lord gathered them to the Temple. But it is not given to us for us to do.

 

For the sacrifice has been accomplished. The Sacrifice which gave life to all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the final, full, complete sacrifice, it has been given, and is now brought to us as gift.

 

The Body and Blood sacrificed on the cross for the justification of every sinner, we don’t get it at the cross.

 

We’re not there, after all.

 

We can no more travel back to the cross than Abel could’ve travelled forward to it.

 

But the justification of the sinner accomplished at the cross by Jesus was delivered back to Abel in the gift of sacrifice. Though Abel didn’t know the cross, he did hear it’s Word of justification, and he had faith in that Word and by that faith he was justified.

 

The justification of the sinner at the cross is brought to us. Our Lord beckons us to the Body and the Blood of the cross; he brings it to us in his Sacrament.

 

Do we belong at the Table? We need only ask, are we sinful? If we are not sinful, then we have no need of the Sacrament. But if we are, then it is for us.

 

Do we belong at the Table? We need only hear our Lord’s invitation. He does not invite for no reason, but for the purpose of giving his Body and his Blood to the sinner for the forgiveness of sins.

 

How do we receive this Body and Blood?

 

Not as something we are doing, like Cain bringing a sacrifice by which he intended to justify himself. Not as a work of our own.

 

We receive it as the Lord gives it—the actual Body and Blood of Christ Jesus given to us to eat and drink for the forgiveness of our sins. Our faith clings to those words, our faith clings to the Lord who speaks them.

 

By this faith, you are justified.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 13, c]                     August 4, 2019

 

ECCLESIASTES 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26

² Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

¹² I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹⁴ I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

¹⁸ I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, ¹⁹ and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. ²⁰ So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, ²¹ because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. ²² What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? ²³ For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. ²⁴ There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? ²⁶ For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

 

IN THE NAME OF JESUS.

 

Love your neighbor as yourself—that’s the holy Law.

 

Two Commandments, says Jesus.

 

Commandment One: Love the Lord your God with your all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

 

Commandment Two: Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

The whole Ten Commandments down to just two—Do these two, says Jesus, and you will live. [Luke 10:27]

 

That’s eternal life. Not just another day, another week on the calendar, another candle on the birthday cake. But you live. You stand before God in eternity—a resurrected body which is yours, for you are baptized into the resurrection of Christ Jesus.

 

Love God, Love your neighbor as yourself—life. So, God gives us the way to love neighbor. Real ways. Wake up in the morning and go about the business of loving neighbor ways. Not a sappy cliché of how what the world needs now is love, love, love, but actual love rooted in facts and deeds and actions.

 

God gives you that.

 

How to love neighbor? Jesus shows how.

 

He gives respect to the Roman officer as one whose vocation is to serve neighbor for safety and peace.

 

Jesus honors even the tax-collector: Collect taxes, just don’t do it corruptly or oppressively.

 

Even the chief priest and even the Roman governor, Pilate, Jesus shows them honor. They are in offices to serve neighbor, whether they do it or not.

 

How to love neighbor? Serve in our vocations, in these callings God gives us in our lives.

 

The husband loves in giving the gifts of husband—concrete, daily actions to serve wife and family. The waking up to go to the job, the fixing the broken door in the house, the helping with the child’s homework, all these everyday deeds—our Lord gives the husband the ways to love neighbor.

 

The wife loves by giving the gifts of wife—real-world daily actions to serve husband and family.

 

The employer loves neighbor by daily things of the workplace. The securing of new business, the hiring of a janitor, the paying of salaries and reimbursements to company expenses—these are boring sounding things, perhaps, but this is our Lord giving ways to serve neighbor.

 

Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

The student, can he or she do the boring Algebra homework? But this homework is in service to neighbor. Isn’t that learning of Algebra, after all, done toward what might later be a job building houses, or a college degree to be a police officer, or a nurse?

 

God gives us the ways to serve neighbor. It’s our vocations. We all have vocations. Not one, but several.

 

We are sons or daughters, that’s vocation. Some men are husbands, some women, wives—vocations. Those not given to be a husband or wife, the single, honored vocations for them, too. Vocations as friends and helpers, as confidants and counselors, maybe, to someone who is hurting. Always—we all have—a vocation to pray for family and neighbor.

 

God gives us the ways of loving our neighbor.

 

These daily duties, these everyday tasks, they are honored, they are received in thankfulness and joy from God, for what is better than to be given by God the concrete, real-world ways of serving our families and neighbors?

 

 

But it goes wrong. The honor is cheated, the joy stolen.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

¹³ And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹⁴ I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

 

What went wrong? Honorable service to neighbor? Joyful acts of love?

 

Will the man hired to put on a roof pound each nail with a joy of knowing that by installing these shingles he is doing the work God honors him with, so that by his hands and his hammer he is serving neighbor, a neighbor who God loves and whose family God wants protected? Or does each nail go in with a complaint about the unfairness of the wages, and the vanity of a life spent building houses, but at the end of the day, we all die anyway, so what better word for description than vanity?

 

What went wrong?

 

We know what goes wrong. It’s our sin.

 

We do this work not from pure hearts, but from sinful flesh.

 

So we do this work not to serve neighbor but to build up ourselves, to build up our wealth, the build up our own names, and, when we then survey the work we’ve done, all we can say is, vanity. Emptiness. Nothing more than mist in the morning burned away by the hot sun of the day.

 

 

What goes wrong?

 

It’s our sinful flesh seeing our jobs, our duties, our vocations, not as callings of God giving us ways to be his servants to our neighbor, but as nothing more than the way we have to go through life, day after day, problem after problem, task after task.

 

Even marriage is emptied of its joy—the husband and wife seeing it as one big ongoing task to be dealt with.

 

Even son or daughter obey parents not as gifts from the Lord to take care of them and teach them, but as an ongoing oppressive task which must be obeyed.

 

Vanity of vanities.

 

 

That’s what Jesus took upon himself.

 

His calling from his Father, his vocation? To be the new Adam. To stand on this Earth as the Man who takes upon himself our sin, our neglect of our neighbor, our cheapening of our vocations

 

The Old Adam, the Adam of the sin the Garden, he heard the sentence for his sin—only by the sweat of his brow would he eat.

 

The new Adam, the Son of Man, Jesus, he took that. To bear the sin, the atone for the guilt, to justify the sinner, that’s his vocation, his calling from his Father.

 

By his blood, these lives of ours, they are redeemed.

 

Now the man putting on the shingles? It’s hard work, but he’s doing it with a life redeemed by Christ Jesus. Every nail his hands hammer in, that is God using him to serve neighbor.

 

In El Paso, in the midst of death, of evil, the police officers running in to rescue, to arrest the one doing evil, we honor the police officers, their hands are being used by God. That’s vocation. The EMTs, we honor them too, for God honors them by calling them to serve their neighbor in bringing rescue and care.

 

Jesus has redeemed these lives of ours. He has raised us up to life with him.

 

That’s Baptism.

 

Our hands, our time, our conversation, all of it redeemed by Jesus.

 

His blood did that. His blood brings that now, as he gives it for us to drink for the forgiveness of our sins.

 

Are our hands not still sinful? Do our days not still get worked out in our lives of sin?

 

Yes. Until we are with our Lord in the resurrection, all that we do, we still do it in our sinful flesh.

 

But these bodies of sin, these lives of vanity, it’s all taken up by our Lord who has redeemed it all with his own blood.

 

We now do our work from bodies, from lives justified by Jesus and living in his gift of repentance.

 

Lives redeemed by the blood of Jesus, consciences cleansed by the word of forgiveness, this is no vanity.

 

This is now joy. It is honor. We belong to him. He forgives us and makes us his own. Ecclesiastes 9:7:

Go, eat your bread with joy, And drink your wine with a merry heart; For God has already accepted your works.

 

IN THE NAME OF JESUS.

 

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost [Prober 12, c]                  July 28, 2019

 

Luke 11:1-13

¹ Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ² And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. ³ Give us each day our daily bread, ⁴ and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” ⁵ And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, ⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷ and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? ⁸ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend,

yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. ⁹ And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹ What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; ¹² or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

We will know to pray as our Lord teaches us to pray. We will have the words to pray as they are a gift from him.

 

Luke 11:1:

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

 

“Teach us to pray” makes sense only if prayer is something we don’t naturally know.

 

The sinner doesn’t know prayer. The words of our own lips are the words of our own desires, our own will, our own decisions.

 

The desires, the will, the choosings, the decisions of the sinner will be sinful. That’s the way it works when you are of sinful flesh. So the prayer to Jesus is, Lord teach us to pray.

 

 

Prayer is the voice of faith. Speaking to him with the confidence that he has given us as we are given to speak his words back to him.

 

Prayer is the voice of the sinner interceding to God to request his help, to give thanks for his gifts, to praise his Name.

 

Prayer is calling upon the Name of the Lord in every trouble.

 

That’s the way we learn it from the Second Commandment, You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God.

 

What does this mean, to not misuse his Name? As we are given it in the Catechism,

We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by his Name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.

 

Prayer is simply that—the confidence that by grace you belong to the Lord’s Name; by the Lord’s Name given you in Baptism, you are daily forgiven and sanctified; and that in his Name, the Lord comes to you to make you his own.

 

 

Teach us to pray, say the disciples to the Lord. We say it along with them: O Lord, teach us to pray.

 

The problem with not knowing how to pray is not a failure of knowing the mechanics of how to pull it off.

 

It’s not as if we’re going to a seminar on how to make beer so we know all the right ingredients and steps.

 

It’s not a problem of knowing how long to pray, how many times in the day to pray, or the right bodily position for prayer.

 

The problem is always a question of faith.

 

Anyone can teach a mechanics of prayer. The Muslims will teach you how to kneel on a mat. The Mormons teach how to pray in a circle wearing white clothes and shoes, Hindus teach yoga positions and prayer beads, and Jews in Jerusalem put pieces of paper into the cracks between rocks in a wall.

 

Anyone can be a prayer mechanic. You don’t have to be a Christian to teach some system of procedures for prayer.

 

 

But Jesus gives something else. He gives us words of faith. That is, words from his mouth bestowing faith upon us, so we then are given to pray those words back to him.

 

Words given by the Lord. Holy words. Words rescuing from sin, death, and the devil, and bestowing life from God.

 

Lord, teach us to pray,

the disciples say.

 

When you pray,

says Jesus,

say, Father in Heaven, hollowed be Thy Name.

[Luke 11:2]

 

Father: everything flows from that.

 

Given the Father, you have someone to whom to pray. Not any father. But the Father of Jesus. The whole world can pray to a father. And even thinks that all these religions praying to a father are praying to the same God.

 

But Jesus gives us his Father. No one comes to the Father but by the Son, and Jesus, the Son, gives us his Father.

 

Pray to him, says Jesus. For you belong to him. He gives you his Name. His name is holy to you, and by that Name, you are holy.

 

 

Given the Father of Jesus as your Father, you are now his child.

 

This is Baptism. Who does our Lord want left out of this gift of Baptism? No one. No adult, no child, no infant—he makes all his children through Baptism.

You were called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

[Ephesians 4:5]

 

One Baptism. Not repeated as if God failed the first time and the second or third. And not refashioned as if Baptism is given by anything other than Jesus instituting it. And not one Baptism for one class of sinners or one age group, and another Baptism for another. But one Baptism—the promise, said Peter, is to you and to your children, [to your infants, that is,] to all who are far off, to everyone whom the Lord God calls to himself. [Acts 4:39]

 

 

Prayer freely flows from this promise of Baptism. All whom God makes his children in Baptism, from the feeble grandpa to the squirming toddler, all whom the Lord God calls to himself, all given to pray to the Father.

 

In Baptism, the Name has been bestowed.

 

Make disciples,

said Jesus,

by baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

[Matthew 28:19]

 

The Name has been bestowed. You belong to that Name. Even Satan and the demons are to know that by the holy Name placed upon your head, you belong not to the world, not to the demons, not even to the despair of your own sinful flesh, but you belong to the One who gave you his  Name—the  Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

So when you pray, says Jesus, say, Father, hallowed be your Name.

 

That is, holy is your Name. Your Name, O Father, is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us.

 

Let your Name be kept holy by having your Word taught in its truth and purity.

 

Let your Name be kept holy as we, your children, lead holy lives according to it. So that, as we daily sin much, we are turned to your Name in the gift of repentance and we find in your Name that we are forgiven and made holy.

 

Let you Name be kept holy, Father, as you bring your kingdom to us here on Earth, by giving us your Holy Spirit, so that by his grace, we believe his holy Word.

 

For his Word is the Word given us in Baptism, the Word forgiving our sins and making us holy by the blood of your Son, our Lord Jesus.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost [Propper 11, c]                     July 21, 2019

 

Luke 10:38-42

³⁸ Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” ⁴¹ But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, ⁴² but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

 

In the Name of Jesus.

 

You can’t say enough good about Martha. She had a sense of what was important. She knew how to show honor to those to whom honor was due. She knew how to serve. She knew how to be a host.

 

So when in his travels Jesus came to Martha’s village, she would not fail.

 

The word about Jesus had been going around. A few towns over, Jesus had healed a boy with an unclean spirit. Before that, he had fed five-thousand—that was at Bethsaida. He had calmed the storm on the sea. He had raised a widow’s son from the dead. This kind of news travels—people talk.

 

But there was also the news of a Samaritan village rejecting Jesus, rudely sending him on his way. Jesus answered that rebuke by identifying himself with the Samaritans in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

 

Now Jesus enters Martha’s town, and she is not going to allow to be done to Jesus in her town what had been done to him in that Samaritan town. Martha will allow no rudeness. Luke 10:38:

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

 

Here there will be a proper welcome. Jesus will find hospitality. He is the Anointed One for Israel, the Savior for every sinner, the healer of diseases and comforter of the afflicted, and Martha will make sure he is treated as such. The Samaritans had not been good hosts; the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees, they kept all the rules, but they were not gracious hosts to the Christ; but to Martha, he will be an honored guest—she knows how to serve, she knows how to be a host.

 

 

If you’re having an honored guest over, you bring out the good stuff. If the mayor or governor is coming to your house, who would sit them down at the table and then say, “I forgot to bring home meat for tonight, I forgot to wash the dishes, I forgot to get good wine, but, hey, here’s some peanut-butter and bread, and let me grab some water to go with that.”?

 

Martha had a big job to do. Set the table with the good dishes. Prepare the dinner. Bring out the good wine—everyone knew how much Jesus liked good wine ever since they heard the account of him supplying the best wine at that big wedding in Cana. If you’re Martha, and Jesus is now a guest in your home, are you going to bring out cheap table wine after hearing of how he supplied the best wine for that wedding in Cana?

 

This is no small job for Martha. The nerves kick in. So much could go wrong—but Jesus is a guest in her house, and she will treat him as he deserves.

 

You can’t say enough good about Martha. She had a sense of what was important—and if anyone is worthy of good care, it’s the Teacher of Israel, Jesus, now seated in her home. Martha knew how to serve; she knew how to be a host.

 

 

And Jesus loved her. And here’s what he shows her.

 

He shows up as guest in order to become the host. He shows up to be served, in order to make himself the servant.

 

He had come to that wedding in Cana as guest, but then, he made himself host, he supplied the good wine.

 

Now he comes to the home of Mary and Martha—he’s the guest. Martha is serving, but then she finds Jesus is there not to be served, but to serve, and to himself give the gifts.

 

The gift he is serving? His Word. His word of forgiveness and mercy, of grace and life, his Word of the ransom he is to pay for all sinners at the cross. It is his Word justifying the sinner, bestowing the Holy Spirit, cleansing the conscience—his Word is the gift he is serving out. Mary is hearing his Word. Jesus loves Mary. He loves also Martha. He will not leave her out of the gifts. Luke 10:41:

The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

 

It will not be taken from Martha, either. Later, when her brother Lazarus dies, Martha will see more gifts from Jesus. She will hear him remind her of his Word of life, then she will see him even call Lazarus out of the grave, giving him life. Martha will see more gifts. The death on the cross, the resurrection, then, life eternal—it’s all there for Martha. No gift left out. Martha—the worthy host, treated by Jesus as the most honored guest of all, a woman to be served gifts by the Son of God.

 

 

Jesus came to her as a guest. He entered the town, after all. Martha didn’t have that wrong.

 

This is the gift of Jesus coming in the flesh. He became man, he came with a body. Coming as a human, he came among us as one to be served. St. Augustine put it like this:

The Lord had a body. And just as he deigned to assume a physical body for our sake, so also did he deign to be hungry and thirsty. As a result of the fact that he deigned to be hungry and thirsty, he condescended to be fed by those he himself enriched. He condescended to be received as a guest, not from need but from favor.

 

So it is for us. As our Lord came with bodily needs, bodily hunger and thirst to Martha, but he did it in order to bring to her his gifts of grace and life, so even now, our Lord comes to us in his Church.

 

The Church has worldly needs. Buildings are kept up, supplies are purchased, bills are paid, salaries taken care of, this is our Lord condescending to come to us in the way of earthly needs, but it is in order to enrich us.

 

He comes giving gifts. We think we are here to serve him, but then we find out, he came not to be served, but to serve. And the ones he serves are the least deserving of being served.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician,”

said Jesus,

“but those who are sick. I came to call not the righteous, but the sinners.”

[Mark 2:17]

 

If you are not unrighteous, if you are not a sinner, if you are better than other sinners, then you have no gift from Jesus.

 

But if you are unrighteous, if you are a sinner, if you are no better than the worst, then you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before his Father. [Colossians 1:21]

 

He is your host. You his guest. He feeds his guests with the bread of life, with the wine of forgiveness. For this he comes to you, to give you every good gift.

 

In the Name of Jesus.

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 10, c] July 14, 2019

Luke 10:25-37
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put [Jesus] to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

In the Name of Jesus.

What should a Savior look like?

Our world does have an understanding of saviors. To the man fighting with his wife, a savior may look like Dr. Phil, looming over the man and telling him “If you won’t acknowledge what you’ve done, then how can you change?” To the young lady in depression, or the young man in anxiety, the savior may look like a school counselor. To the one in trouble in the career, a savior may look like a speaker at the motivational seminar.

Our world has an understanding of saviors; she has expectations of what they should look like.

We have expectations of how should look. If a general is to walk into the war-room on D-Day, does anyone expect that general will look like Jimmy Buffett wearing a Hawaiian shirt?

We have an idea what people should look like. They should fill the bill.

So, what should a Savior look like? A victorious warrior? A million-dollar athlete? A Hollywood personality? A Savior should exude strength. A Savior should be able to influence people. To change lives. To help people improve. Even to save cities and make nations strong.

When Jesus, though, gives us a picture of a Savior, he gives us the Samaritan.

Samaritans weren’t even Israelites. Maybe part Israelite, maybe some Israelite blood mixed in there somewhere. But what Samaritans were was unclean. They were the dirty ones you’re supposed to separate yourself from. They lived out away from Jerusalem, in the area where they did not worship the God of Israel. They did not keep the religious laws. They raised pigs and ate pork, which no one listening to the Law given through Moses would ever do. They were known as cheats and liars. Don’t date them, don’t eat with them, don’t make friends with them. Samaritans are unclean.

But when Jesus, who is, indeed, an Israelite, even born of the lineage of David, when he gives a picture of a Savior, he gives us the Samaritan.

First, Jesus doesn’t describe the Savior, though. First, he describes the sinner, so that we will know who it is who is to be saved.

The sinner is the one who works to make himself right by the Law. The sinner is the one clinging to the Law like the Priest and the Levite. But when the sinner, who is like a priest or Levite, hears the Law that you must love your neighbor as yourself, the sinner is then thrown by the Law into the ditch.

Now the sinner is the man in the ditch who cannot help himself, heal himself, or even try to pretend that he can improve himself by the Law. The sinner under the accusation of the Law is just that—a man left to die in the ditch.

In this parable, Jesus starts us out as the priest or the Levite, as those trying to justify ourselves by the Law. But, then, when that Law accuses us, we find ourselves thrown by Jesus into the ditch.

Who will save this sinner in the ditch?

The Law won’t help. So, we see the priest and the Levite walk on by. The Law provides no Savior.

But then, coming down the road, it’s the Samaritan, the unclean one—no one would look for salvation from this one. You might as well expect Jimmy Buffet to be a five-star general on D-Day. But that’s who Jesus leaves us with. Not the priest. Not the Levite. Not salvation by the Law. But the most unexpected Savior of all—a man looked down on, even despised, a Samaritan showing mercy.

The Law shows no compassion.

Jesus is our Samaritan.

Unexpected. Who would expect salvation from sin, death, and the devil to come the child of a humble virgin giving birth in little Bethlehem?

Unexpected. Who would look for salvation from a man who eats with tax-collectors and sinners, who drinks wine with thieves and drunkards, who talks with the unclean woman at the well as if she were more deserving of God’s time than the Queen of England?

Even despised. Who can be more despised than a man standing in front of Caiaphas the priest and being named as one not fit to even enter the Temple? Or more despised than one standing in front of the Roman Governor, and being publicly humiliated as a man betraying his own country. Or, more despised than a convicted man being publicly shamed as he hangs on a cross between two thieves?

Jesus is our Samaritan. Unexpected. We would’ve never designed it this way. We would’ve designed a Savior who was our Savior because he could teach us to save ourselves by following the Law. But that would’ve just been a new Moses; it would’ve been our own version of the priest or the Levite.

Jesus is our Samaritan. Unexpected. Even despised. For no one honors a man hanging on a cross. Yet, he is the Savior for every sinner.

He is our Samaritan, and we are the ones in the Law’s ditch. But there is no better place to be than in the ditch when Jesus, the Good Samaritan, walks by. He speaks mercy. He binds up the body broken by guilt. He bandages wounds of shame. He brings into the Inn, which is his Church.

He comes to us now. Unexpectedly, even unimpressively to eyes of our world, but he comes to us now. Lowly and humbly in the gentle Word of Gospel. Lowly and humbly in the Sacraments, which look so commonplace to the eyes of flesh, but which are the true power of God to save the sinner.

He is our Samaritan, our Savior, sent by the Father to deliver us out of the domain of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of light. He is God the Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of all our sin. [Col. 1:14]

In the Name of Jesus.

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 9, c] July 7, 2019

Luke 10:1-20
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. 13 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to Heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. 16 The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” 17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in Heaven.”

In the Name of Jesus.

“I saw Satan fall like lightening from Heaven,” says our Lord.

Satan, our old evil foe. He who was created good and holy, created to bear light from Heaven to Adam and Eve, who brought himself, though, into evil so that, instead of bringing to Adam and Eve the good gift of the Lord’s Word, brought that Word twisted and perverted, knotted in deceit, bringing Adam and Eve into his kingdom of the lie and death—Satan, see him fall!

The devil, created to be the bearer of light, stationed at the Throne in Heaven to bring the conversation of Heaven to men and women on Earth, who, in his fall took many other angels with him, so that they, too, became unclean spirits, he who testifies in our consciences, using the Word of God not to cleanse our consciences with God’s gifts, but twisting God’s Word to sting our consciences and pollute them with guilt and shame—Satan, see him fall!

Satan, our old evil foe. He testifies against us in Heaven. He testifies in our consciences to condemn us, to lock us under the Law.

His fall—it’s when Jesus, bearing our sin, standing in our place, goes into the wilderness to withstand Satan’s every temptation on our behalf. His fall is Jesus sending out the disciples to proclaim the Gospel, to forgive sins, and to cast out the unclean angels, giving the sinner a cleansed conscience.

Satan’s fall: it is ultimately and fully when Jesus bears our sins to the cross, when he willingly gives himself over to ransom us from sin, death, and the devil, when he prays to his Father on our behalf, “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they do”—Satan’s fall is when Jesus releases us from the condemnation and frees us from the devil.

Satan’s fall: we will see it on the Last Day, when Jesus returns again to judge the living and the dead. There, at that courtroom of the Last Day, we will see Jesus in the flesh, we will be brought into eternal life in our own resurrected bodies, and even our voices will turn to Satan and all his demons to judge them, to condemn them to the eternal prison.

We will see with our own eyes the fall of Satan and his demons in its fullness, in its final completion, on the Last Day. But we now see it by faith.

By faith, we see the cross, even though we were not there, knowing that his cross is our Lord ransoming us and making us his own.

By faith, we cling to the promise bestowed in Baptism, knowing that in that pledge from God, we are his children, he our Father.

By faith, we take the wine and the bread Jesus has made holy by his Word, knowing that in, with, and under this bread and wine, Jesus is giving himself to us in his wholeness, the fullness of his Body and Blood given us for the forgiveness of our sin.

By faith, we know that the condemnation of the Law is over. While the Law still accuses, and as long as we are in our sinful flesh, it must accuse, at the same time, in our life of faith, the condemnation of the Law is over.

By faith, we know that the voice of the accuser, of Satan, is overtaken by the voice of Jesus, who in Heaven intercedes for us and justifies us before his Father.

By faith, as we look upon our fellow Christians, our brothers and sisters who belong to Christ, we hear the words of the Apostle:
Brothers, as anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
[Galatians 6:2]

The Apostle gives us to “to restore a fellow Christian in a spirit of gentleness.” The word Paul uses for “restore” is the same word used for mending nets. Mark 1:19:
When he had gone a little farther, [Jesus] saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets.

We are given to look upon our fellow Christians, those afflicted by the devil, those being tempted into sin, those locked in guilt under the Law, we are given to look upon them as those to mend and care for, as a fisherman mending a torn net.

“Mend them,” says Paul, “in a spirit of gentleness.” This word “gentleness”—it is a favorite word of Paul’s. It is to act toward someone not from a position of power or compulsion, it is not a word of coercion, but it is to act toward them from lowliness and humility. Not to exert control, but to bestow gifts.

Paul’s word of gentleness, it is the same Greek word used of Jesus when he rides into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. Matthew 21:5:
“Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Our fellow Christians afflicted by the devil, tempted, loaded down under the heavy burden of the Law? We are given to come to them gentle and lowly, as our Lord humbly riding into Jerusalem on a donkey’s back.

“Bear one another’s burdens,” says Paul. [Galatians 6:2]

We are given to look at one another, then, as those loaded down with burdens. The burden of temptation, the burden of falling to sin, the burden of the fear of death, the burden of the accusation of the Law, these are burdens of our sinful flesh, from which we cannot free ourselves.

We bear one another’s burdens as we see each other as sinners, but as sinners ransomed by the blood of Christ. As we see ourselves as those whose boasting is in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to us, and we to the world. [Galatians 6:14]

We bear one another’s burdens as we build one another up in the Gospel of all sins forgiven in Christ Jesus, as we comfort one another with our Lord’s Word of the justification of the sinner, and we encourage one another with the knowledge that though we are now afflicted and tempted by the devil, our Lord Jesus has seen him fall like lightening from Heaven, and though we do not see this now with our eyes of flesh, we do see it with our eyes of faith.

And on the Last Day, when the eyes of our resurrected bodies are looking upon our Lord Jesus, we, too, with our own voices, will judge Satan, and we, along with our Lord Jesus, will see the fall of Satan from Heaven.

In the Name of Jesus.

Seventh Sunday of Easter [c] June 2, 2019
John 17:20-26
20 “[Jesus said,] “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
In the Name of Jesus.
Jesus is ascended to Heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. That’s where we are in the Church year.
We’ve had Holy Week where our Lord institutes the Lord Supper for his Church and then goes to the cross; on the third day after the crucifixion we’ve had Jesus being raised up from the dead; and three days ago, the Church celebrated the Ascension of our Lord to Heaven.
In Heaven, he is in conversation with his Father and the Holy Spirit.
A conversation between the Three Persons of the Trinity—it has been this way from the beginning. Even the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve didn’t happen arbitrarily. Rather, God created out of the conversation between the three persons of the Godhead. Genesis 1:26 and 27:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” … 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
The “us” in the “let us make man … male and female he created them,” is the three voices, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
They are three unique persons, yet they are a unity—one God. No division, no break between the three—oneness, unity. From their conversation with one another, they create.
Then, when creation falls into sin, when the Man and the Woman bring themselves into death, the conversation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit becomes one of redemption, of grace and salvation.
In this conversation, the Son intercedes to his Father with his own blood. The Father declares the sinner forgiven and innocent by virtue of his Son’s blood.
As a result of this conversation between the Father and the Son, the sinner on Earth is justified. The Father and the Son send forth the Holy Spirit, so that in Word and Sacrament, the Holy Spirit delivers the conversation of justification from the Throne room in Heaven to sinners, to us, here on Earth.
From their conversation, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, justify you and me. We are cleansed. We belong to life.
On Earth, the Holy Spirit works through the means of Word and Sacrament to call and gather sinners—that’s you and me—to the holy Name. There, at the holy Name and there, at the location of the preaching of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit is forgiving our sin, cleansing our consciences, and binding us together in oneness with our Lord, Christ Jesus. Binding us in oneness with Jesus, he is also binding us together in oneness with each other.
So before he ascends to Heaven, Jesus prays to his Father for us.
By this prayer he speaks on Earth, we are given to know what is his continuing to pray to his Father as he is enthroned in Heaven where he continues conversing with his Father and the Holy Spirit. In this conversation, he faithfully continues to intercede for us, until he comes again to judge the living and the dead. John 17:20:
[Jesus said, “Father,] I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one.
What is this “oneness,” this “unity” Jesus wants for us?

Our world talks a lot about unity. Or at least about how it’s bad to have division and conflict. How many times do we hear that the problem in our country is that there is too much division? The political parties are working against each other. Everyone is on a different page, working for opposite goals. Nothing’s moving forward.
But when our world wants unity, we find her often trying to have it by coercion. She tries to have unity by enforcing conformity.
But unity and conformity are not the same thing. Conformity has to do with the form of things. It has to do with the outward shape of things, with how they look.
So you get conformity by coercing things into the accepted forms.
This can be done by having everyone dress in acceptable ways, or having everyone listen to the accepted music, or speak and hear only the approved words and phrases. If someone steps out of the approved forms, they are out of conformity, they will be ruled as not being acceptable, as being outside the unity.
We can think of examples of how we see people trying to achieve unity here on Earth. Even a criminal gang has an accepted dress code and gang signs, accepted language and phrases. Step outside of this, and you won’t be in the gang.
Even the hippie movement (back when some of us were youths), everyone who wanted to be considered part of the movement was expected to be in conformity. You had to have long hair, wear dirty Levi jeans, say words like “cool” and “groovy,” and if you’re caught listening to Andy Williams or Doris Day instead of James Taylor or Joan Baez, you’re not part of the movement.
Is this what Jesus prays to his Father for when he prays for the unity of the Church? Is this unity an outward conformity? Can it be established or maintained by coercion, like requiring everyone on the team to wear the right jersey? Or by intimidation, like a hippie looking over his shoulder wondering if he will be excluded for listening to Doris Day?
What does Jesus pray to his Father for when he prays for the unity of the Church?
He is not praying for conformity. He is, obviously, not praying that the Church all dresses the same or has the same haircuts or listens to the same music on Spotify. The Church is the body of Christ. Into his Church,
he gathers tax-collectors and thieves and drunks. He gathers carpenters and fishermen, military officers and farmers and sellers of purple. Into his Church he calls Jews and Greeks, those who speak Latin, those who speak Greek, those who speak Hebrew, or any language in between.
Into his Church he calls sinners. And sinners do not all look alike. It’s not about outward sameness.
But the sinners in his Church are one. They are in unity, even as he is in unity with his Father.
Unity does not mean conformity. It does not even mean sameness. A man and a woman are not the same. You’re either a man or a woman, it’s a matter of creation.
The man and the woman do not have sameness. Yet they can have oneness. As our Lord says, the two become one flesh. This oneness, this unity of the two is, of course, marriage. Neither the man nor the woman loses what they are or who they are, the man doesn’t become less man nor the woman less woman, yet the two are in unity with each other.
So with oneness there is no loss of who you are, no diminishment of your specific gifts and particularities. Jesus places us in oneness with him and with each other, even as he is in oneness with the Father, yet remains fully who he is as the Son.
What is this oneness, then, if not an outward sameness, not a coerced conformity?
He binds us in oneness in his Word. It’s a unity of Word and doctrine. He is in oneness with his Father as he converses with his Father. In that conversation his Father is giving him gifts and they are both bringing forth creation.
As Jesus is in oneness with his Father, he speaks those words with us. It is the speaking of the Gospel. In that conversation of his Gospel, he is forgiving our sins, cleansing our consciences, joining us in oneness with him and his Father.
When he joins us in oneness with him and his Father, he is joining us in oneness with each other. In our oneness with each other, then, he gives us his words to speak, to encourage and comfort one another, in oneness.
In the Name of Jesus.

Third Sunday after Pentecost [c] June 30, 2019

1 Kings 19:9b-21
9 … And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 15 And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” 19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” 21 And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

In the Name of Jesus.

How should a Christian find God’s will for his or her life? So many decisions, so many different paths to follow, so many problems and dangers from which one would hope to have God’s protection, so many different opportunities, how to know which is God’s will, which isn’t?

If it is God’s will that you do one thing, but you don’t, but you instead do the other, then, by definition, in doing the opposite of God’s will, you must be doing the will of Satan.

If a man has an offer to work for Smith Electrical company and an offer to work for Jones Plumbing company, shouldn’t he want to know if it’s God’s will to work for Smith Electrical, so that he won’t sin by going against God’s will and working for Jones Plumbing?

For anything in life that a Christian is deciding on, how to find God’s will?

Elijah is out in the desert looking for God’s will. He’s a prophet, and he’s just had the most glorious day of victory in his life. Elijah was atop of Mt. Carmel standing opposite 450 prophets of the false god Baal. Baal was the god of power, of thunder and lightning, of fire out of the sky. Elijah took a sturdy stand against these 450 false prophets and made fun of their god Baal.

“Build an altar here on top of Mt. Carmel,” Elijah told them. “Build an altar to Baal, and I will build an altar to the true God, the God of Israel, Yahweh.”
“Then, put a bull on your altar, and call down fire from Heaven to come onto your altar and your sacrifice.”

Fire from Heaven shouldn’t be too hard for the prophets of Baal, since Baal was supposed to be the god of lightening and fire.

We know the story. No fire from Heaven for the altar of Baal when the 450 false prophets cried out and danced and even cut themselves, but then Elijah, the prophet standing alone, called on the true God, and God consumed his sacrifice in fire. The God of Israel, rains down fire. It seems we can know God’s will for Elijah: it is to be a man of power and strength, of glory and victory, a man proving with his own life who is the real God.

So why is Elijah out in the desert alone and hiding? 1 Kings 19:10:
[Elijah said,] “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

The power and strength, the glory and the victorious life, where is it? And how will Elijah know God’s will for his life now?

The word of the Lord came to Elijah and said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” As Elijah stood, waiting to find God’s will for his life, a great and strong wind tore apart the rocks of the mountain, but the Lord was not in the wind.

Then an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

How will Elijah know God’s will for his life? Not by signs in this world, not by God sending coded signals through wind or fire or anything other things of creation. 1 Kings 19:12:
And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The Lord makes his will known in a voice, a spoken Word. Not in secretive signals in our world that we must decode, but in a gently spoken Word.

Elijah was a prophet. The Lord came to him directly, in conversation and argument. We are not prophets. The Lord does not come to us directly. The last and final prophet is Jesus. Elijah testifies to this when Jesus has him standing beside him on the Mt. of Transfiguration along with Moses, and the voice from Heaven says of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, hear him.” Hear not Elijah, nor Moses, they have done their job. Now the prophet—the last, full, final prophet is Jesus, hear him.

We are not prophets. Jesus is our prophet. We will know God’s will for our lives by hearing the voice of Jesus.

Where does Jesus speak for us? In his Word. In his Gospel. In his Church, where he gathers sinners to speak forgiveness to them, where he stands us before his Father justified. In his Sacraments he speaks, as he binds his word to the element of water, and to the elements of bread and wine, and comes to us in his Word to declare us holy and make us his own.

What is God’s will for your life? We don’t look for it in some secret signal sent through the wind or the storm, or some billboard we pass on the road, or some song we hear on the radio, or some secret sign we think is plopped down before us.

God’s promise is not to come to us or to make his will known to us in that kind of nonsense. God’s will for your life? Galatians 5:13:
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery …13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

God’s will is that we love our neighbor. That we do it in freedom. It is not that we search out some secret, coded plan God has for our life, like Indiana Jones searching for the Holy Grail. God never promised anything like a hidden map for our lives that we are supposed to figure out.

His will? “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is enough for us. The man wondering if to work for Smith Electrical or for Jones Plumbing? He needs not look for a coded message from God. He only needs to ask, How can I best serve my family? Best serve my neighbor?

Then, whichever he does, whether work for Smith Electrical or for Jones Plumbing, he does it in freedom, standing firm in that freedom, not submitting to some yoke of slavery as if he has to figure out a will of God’s which God never promised to give.

God’s will for our lives? God’s will for Elijah was no deep, hidden thing. It was just to do the job a prophet is given to do—go, anoint Hazael king over Syria, Jehu king over Israel, and Elisha as prophet in your place. Elijah, simply do what you are given to do.

God’s will for our lives? We’re not prophets. That’s Jesus. Simply do what you are given to do. This is love of neighbor, to do what we are given to do, and not to make up some big task the Lord has secretly squirreled away for us to figure out.

God gives us to be neighbor.

Some he gives to be father, some mother, some son or daughter.

Some he gives to be single. Some to serve neighbor by providing housing and things of the home, others to provide food, others health care, others safety from violent enemies, others he gives to be homebound, but this is a great gift, for as Paul tells the widows, they are given a vocation of spending their time at home praying for the Church and interceding for their brothers and sisters in the faith.

God gives us callings, vocations, by which we serve our neighbor. This is his good and gracious will for our lives.

And his good and gracious will is that we hear the voice of his Son. We hear the Gospel of Jesus, for by this Gospel the Holy Spirit is calling and gathering us into the Church. To be gathered into the Church, this is God’s good and gracious will for our lives.

To see Jesus clothe a little child in his own righteousness by the Water and Word of Baptism, this is God’s good and gracious will for our lives. To hear Jesus gather us his Name and speak his Word, Take and eat, Take and drink, your sin is forgiven, this is God’s good and gracious will for our lives.

To hear the voice of Jesus forgiving sinners, cleansing consciences, reconciling with the Father in Heaven, this is the path of life God makes known, this is God’s good and gracious will for us, and this is to be released from the Law’s yoke of slavery in order to live in the freedom of the Gospel.

In the Name of Jesus.

2nd Sunday after Pentecost [c] June 23, 2019

Psalm 3
1 O LORD, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
2 many are saying of my soul,
there is no salvation for him in God.
3 But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
4 I cried aloud to the LORD,
and he answered me from his holy hill.
5 I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Salvation belongs to the LORD;
your blessing be on your people!

In the name of Jesus.

David writes, “O Lord, how many are my foes! Many rise up against me.” [Psalm 3] Then David appeals to the Lord to be delivered from his foes.

When did David write this Psalm, when was he surrounded by so many foes that he even asked the Lord to break their teeth?

David wrote this Psalm when Absalom, his own son, was chasing him down to kill him.

We remember the account. We learned it in Sunday School. We remember the gruesome end. David is king over Israel. Absalom is one of his sons. Absalom wants the throne. So Absalom conspires, turns the people against his father, David, constructs his own army, and chases his own father across the countryside in order to kill him make the throne his own.

How does the story end? We can probably all remember the grisly scene on the front of those Sunday School lessons, that painting of young Absalom with his long hair caught in the branches of a tree, with his mule continuing on without him, leaving Absalom helplessly dangling from the tree limbs, until one of David’s soldiers speared him through his heart.

But before Absalom got his hair tangled in the tree and died, while David was still running scared from Absalom and his army, David wrote Psalm 3.
7 Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!
[Psalm 3:6]

David wrote the Psalm in the context of him being surrounded by Absalom’s forces. But the Psalm is much more. For this is not some private writing of David’s, hidden under his bed in a diary. This is Holy Scripture. It is the words given by the Holy Spirit because Holy Spirit wants them spoken by the whole congregation when he gathers his people to his service. Which is why you and I these words today—the Lord had these words included in Holy Scripture so that we can hear and speak them, as we did today in the Introit.

So when the Lord gives you and me and our families to pray:
6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
what deliverance is he actually giving us to pray for? It’s not for deliverance from Absalom. That problem belonged to David, not us.

But we may think a moment about Absalom, this son chasing down his own father to overthrow him. What was David’s actual enemy? It’s more than Absalom. David’s enemy was also David. For Absalom was a deadly enemy because of what David had done. David had committed adultery and had had sons with more than one wife, so that these sons were now set against each other to see who could sit on the throne. Because of that adultery, David had killed Uriah, one of his best generals, an officer who could’ve now helped protect him from Absalom.

So David’s first enemy is not his son Absalom, it is his own sinful flesh. And that is our first enemy, too. When the Lord gives us to say, Arise, save me from my enemies, break their teeth, we are praying to the Lord that he put to death our sinful flesh in daily repentance.

And David’s enemies included not just his own flesh, but also the devil and his demons. They tempted him with arrogance, with lust, with greed for power, with being concerned about himself, not his neighbor. And they, these demons are our enemies, too. When the Lord gives us to say, Arise, save me from my enemies, break their teeth, we are praying to the Lord that he delivers us from the temptations and accusations of the evil ones.

And we may remember that about the demons. They not only tempt us. They certainly do that. But they tempt us in order to make us guilty under the holy Law. They tempt us in order to bring us into shame. They tempt us so that when we see ourselves in the mirror of God’s holy Law, we will tremble in fear. They tempt us so that as we stand before God, we will try to justify ourselves by our own righteousness, claiming that we are improving.

They tempt us, in other words, in order to rob us of the sureness and certainty of faith in the righteousness in which the Lord has clothed us in our Baptism.

When the demons have struck our consciences with the accusation of God’s Law, when they have driven us to despair, when they have us rushing around trying to act like we are cleaning up our lives and progressing every day, they have won their victory.

For the ultimate victory of the demons is to rob us of faith in the forgiveness of sins given by Jesus, and, instead, to enslave us under the Law. So the Lord gives us to sing and to pray:
Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
[Psalm 3:7]

It is a song and prayer for the daily defeat of our sinful flesh, of the devil and his unclean angels, and of the sin and death of our world.

The Large Catechism speaks of the evil of the devil:
Since the devil is not only a liar,
says the Large Catechism,
but also a murderer, he constantly seeks our life. He wreaks his vengeance whenever he can afflict our bodies with misfortune and harm. There, it happens that he often breaks men’s necks or drives them to insanity, drowns some, and moves many to commit suicide and to many other terrible disasters. So there is nothing for us to do upon Earth but to pray against this archenemy without stopping. For unless God preserved us, we would not be safe from this enemy even for an hour.

When Jesus was casting the demons out of the man in the country of the Gerasenes, he was not just showing some great miracle of power. He cast the demons out as the Savior who loved the man and wanted him freed from all fear. He cast the demons out as the Redeemer on his way to the cross to strike Satan’s head.

The cross is the defeat of the devil and the demons because on the cross Jesus bore our sin in order to put it all to death in his own flesh, in order to forgive you and me and justify us before the heavenly throne.

When Jesus forgives our sins, the devil has no more accusation of the Law to speak against us at the heavenly throne or to hold against us in our conscience. If the accusation of the Law is removed from our consciences, then you and I have nothing to fear, as we stand before God clean and pure.

And when we stand before God clean and pure according to the Word of Jesus, when we stand justified at the heavenly throne, then the words of the Psalm have come into their fulness:
Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 Salvation belongs to the LORD;
your blessing be on your people!
[Psalm 3:8]

We are no longer under the lie and the terror of the devil. The devil wants us to hear only the accusation of the Law in our consciences, wants us enslaved to the Law. Jesus has redeemed us from all that. He speaks a different Word for us to hear in our consciences, an opposite Word, the Gospel.

The devil will always be there to whisper in our consciences, Just a little more Law would be good for you. Use it to improve yourself, to justify yourself.

But Jesus frees us from slavery to the Law. He gives us a different Word, an opposite Word, a word not showing us how to improve from our sin, but actually forgiving our sin. A word to cleanse the conscience. A Word making us children of the Father living in freedom and life. Galatians 4:7:
God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

In the Name of Jesus.